text:
Me in the Superhuman World:
Startup Escalation 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 Cauldron Cauldron II .
Cauldron II: Part 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 .
Superhuman World 2010 is a work of fiction. The characters herein and the commentary about them should not be considered "real".
SUPERHUMAN WORLD 2010
Cauldron Book II Part 1
Talk Back! December
Cauldron Book II, Part 1. Commentator: Summer Morgan for the United States Insight Battalion.
What Has Gone Before. By Katerina Katzmann.
Summer Morgan and her friends Holly, Liz, and Margaret Jean are superhuman agents for the United States. Last month, Summer and Holly dealt with rioters and militias in Nashville, Tennessee. Since then, they've all been on station there to provide reports on urban unrest.
United States Insight Battalion
Operations Report
President Obama dialed in to our briefing today. The President stated, he still believes in his policy to let all Americans come to consensus without the intervention of national forces. So we had a national summary to cover the outcome of that policy among the United States Intelligence Battalion since we started our mission.
In Massachusetts last month, religious militias were assembling. Jenn and Cherell saw that. But local gun club members told them, "No, you don't mess where we live." Anywhere 30 miles from Boston, there are gun clubs. The President's policy there does not need intervention at present.
In Florida last month, Russian gangsters were a concern. They've agreed to work with authority - or at least under their radar. But now, there is new unrest. The state depended on a U.S. governmental program to give extra sunlight to the citrus crop. The program failed. (Citation) Florida's economy is about to collapse. Our agents Norma and Tanya are now watching Miami. The President's policy may need intervention soon.
I gave the report on Nashville. The rioting ended last month. A group named the Nehemiah Covenant has helped quiet things down. Among other things, they've publicized a guide to urban survivalist cuisine. People eat stewed nettles here now. There's even nettle sauce in our hotel box lunches now. (Back home in Seattle, I hear people are eating slugs. God, we're eating weeds and worms like North Korea does.)
Nashville is still an assembly point for militiamen. We've been watching them and looking for their sponsors. I'm not ready to call for intervention yet, but we may need it soon.
Outside our watch areas, Yon reported that Tucson, Arizona might be the place to watch next, due to contention over border security. U.S. citizens are trying to go south from there to help harvest Mexican crops! Mexico did not accept the U.S. crop forecasts which led to U.S. crop failure. That does not mean Mexico has crops near Tucson, but people still come through there. Mexico says they might impose cross-border security like the U.S. imposed on Canada in 2007. (Citation) So Liz and Margaret Jean were going to be transferred to Tucson.
Then the President gave us status. Ellipsis had returned! I'd heard he was in prison in Hell, or wherever Satanic Mayor Anvernacht puts his enemies when he captures them. But Ellipsis reappeared in west Australia two days ago. Other heroes were with him. The President considered this hopeful. But I think Ellipsis is setting up his own survivalist compound.
There'd also been a new incursion of the Fine Green Paste (Citation), but it was gray now. At least something other than Ellipsis was adjusting to life on our famine Earth.
Obama closed by being inspirational, just like he does to the general public. "I know your job is hard. But you are the defenders of a free society. You defend it by not cracking down on dissent. The nations which do crack down, have had or are having civil wars, as you can see in Libya, Saudi Arabia, and China.
"The economic crash is temporary. The food shortages are temporary. But the world is sound. We will survive. And the free people of the world will show the way. We will face the rogue nations that threaten the world with prohibited weapons while their own societies collapse. And we will prevail.
"Agents of USIB, the prayers of a grateful nation are with you."
After the President signed off, Yon gave us our orders for the day. Liz and Margaret Jean would prepare to be shipped to Tucson. Holly and I would continue surveillance around town, concentrating on the cement plant which doubled as the major militia facility.
Outside the meeting, Holly and I decided: We had just one day left to get something before Liz and Margaret Jean left. It was time to do stuff, not just watch.
Our best lead was the car Holly saw last month, going to the meeting at the sports pub. (Citation) USIB traced its license plate... to the Tennessee state motor pool. The car matched several in the pool, as far as we could tell without vehicle ID, but the state's records didn't have that license number. So we had proof of someone using a fake plate, but we didn't know who. We'd gotten permission to stick tracers on all the cars. One tracer had just been disabled. That meant, when we saw the car, we'd have legal cause to run the plates and detain the driver! That doesn't sound like much, but it's better than nothing. Real detective work is boring.
But there are things that help make our work more exciting. In USIB, we can call in live satellite imagery! It doesn't always work; the satellites aren't always in the right place. But today we got 90% reliable images for Nashville! Good enough.
Animal husbandry specialists were having a conference at Opryland, about three miles east of downtown. Nashville didn't actually have the Opryland amusement park any more, but it still had a conference center near the new Grand Old Opry building. The conference center was convenient for the specialists to talk about how not to let the livestock herds go extinct. And it was pretty secure, almost surrounded by a bend of the river. So they hadn't called off the conference after the riots last month.
We stayed at base and tracked our car to the conference. When it stopped, USIB HQ people kept tracking while we went to look in person.
By the time we got there, the car had moved half a mile east. It was at an unoccupied old brick mansion. There was a van there too, but it was already driving out a back entrance, back toward the conference. Here at the mansion, people were unloading a body out of the trunk of the car!
Since last month, our teams had been equipped with bomb sniffers. Holly said, "Bomb in the van!" She had the sniffer and our EMP gun which took out the last bomb.
I said, "Winter. Take the car and go get them. Wait till it parks, then get the good shot."
"Summer! What about you?"
"I'll be good here. I sent the distress message, so they know we're here and there's trouble. Now go!"
Holly went. I stayed and watched the people dig a grave for the body in the garden. With only myself to worry about, I finally remembered: USIB doesn't try to save people, just watch and warn. What had I gotten Holly into?
Then my suit told me, an EMP device had gone off in the area. I was pretty sure it was Holly's. If it had been anyone else's, it would have blasted the whole area and my suit wouldn't even be working. So Holly got her target.
But then the body next to the grave blurred - and ran at me! Aw, crap, I'd only assumed it was a dead body! Instead it was an ambush!
... To Be Continued.
I declared the story complete at the previous installment. And it is a complete story, though admittedly only of novelette length and depth. But I'll admit that story has a lot of open ends. So it's time to tie some up. If I do it up right, the whole thing could be a novel.
Occasionally I get a visit from a story idea which kicks down the door and demands entry. This time, it was a dream about Holly - Story Holly, not Real Holly. Obviously the time to continue Holly and Summer's story had come.
After discussion with the very few people who actually read my stories, I've decided to ignore their recommendations on what to call this story. This story is therefore not Cauldron Part 5, an appendage to a previously complete story. This is Cauldron II Part 1, the start of a new story.
I write stories almost entirely by plot challenge. I have admitted as a challenge my old but increasingly prophetic Earth 2011 story. In that story, the game of "Earth 2011" starts with a world much like Real World 2010. So, I'm declaring that Earth 2010 has mostly held together. Then it all falls apart.
The Superhuman World has other subversive concepts, like rebellion within China and the autonomy of parts of Saudi Arabia. I've included these concepts as grounds for Superhuman World 2011.
Given the story concepts of Earth 2011 and the inspiration of Real World 2011, it's pretty damned scary to write this story. Shit.
The map of the Superhuman World is based on one from Henry Bottomley's map software which is well worth a visit.
(signed) Scott Eiler, February 2011.


text:
Q: A right triangle with sides Imagine a right triangle with sides:
Long side C is $4n$, sides $b$ and $a$ are $2n$ and $n$, where $n$ is an integer.
How many right triangles are of this form?
My attempt:
$$16n^2 = 4n^2 + n^2$$ $$11n^2 = 0$$
$n$ is not an integer. No right triangles can be made this way.
Had this on an entrance exam for medicine...It seemed too obvious to be true...?

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Tron's vision to 'decentralize the internet' and also its efforts to attain the same projects. In a current interview with Forbes, Tron owner Justin Sun shared extra concerning the objective of the firm, recent collaborations, listings and procurement. While going over concerning everything, Justin Sunlight went down the hint that even more exciting information that would certainly be coming out by the fourth quarter.
Tron has constantly maintained the area excited with some occasion or the other. Last month, Sun thought of the 'Trick Job' making the whole community excitedly await almost a month to understand the details. This moment once more, he simply hinted on some exciting information without revealing anything much concerning it. However, it will possibly be something pertaining to BitTorrent since Sun disclosed regarding it while taking about obtained decentralized services.
Among Tron's current listing was on BITBOX. While mentioning it, Sun stated that their aim is to decentralize the whole Web as well as these brand-new listings are tipping stones to achieve the target. "If you take a look at our portfolio, you will certainly discover exchanges from all around the world: United States, Korea, Japan, India as well as the list proceeds. It is essential for us that our symbols are readily available to the most individuals since our business mission is to the decentralize the entire Net," Sun claimed.


Like you can heat water enough to make steam, you can cool a gas enough to make it into a solid. Although it's pretty hard to do it for most gases, some gases like argon can be solidified fairly easily (using liquid nitrogen). Here's how an Argon ice looks like and how it melts, or more appropriately how it sublimes because the liquid state is to small to be perceptible. At some angles you do see some liquid argon dropping and immediately turning into it's native gaseous state.


text:
**eun-mailbox** is a simple email client that uses [IMAP](node-imap).

Receiving new mail is as easy as `mailbox.on('mail', doSomething)`

## Usage

```js
const Mailbox = require('eun-mailbox');

const credentials = {
  host: 'imap.gmail.com',
  user: 'omarchehab98@gmail.com',
  password: 'password'
};

const mailbox = new Mailbox(credentials);

mailbox.on('mail', mail => {
  console.log('mailbox has emitted "mail"\n', mail);
});
```

### Events

* connect
* disconnect
* mail
* error

#### connect

Emitted when connected to the IMAP server.

#### disconnect

Emitted when disconnected from the IMAP server.

#### mail

Emitted when there is unseen mail.

```js
{
  "from": "Omar Chehab <omarchehab98@gmail.com>",
  "subject": "Fwd: Large Transaction Warning",
  "date": "2017-02-19T20:45:32.000Z",
  "body": {
    "text": "Dear Omar,\nThank you for your response.\nRegards,\neun",
    "html": "<p>Dear Omar,</p><p>Thank you for your response.</p><p>Regards,</p><p><a href='https://github.com/omarchehab98/eun'>eun</a></p>"
  },
  "attachments": []
}
```

<!-- Definitions -->

[node-imap]: https://github.com/mscdex/node-imap

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
SS Gairsoppa
The SS Gairsoppa was a British steam merchant ship built in Jarrow and launched in 1919. After a long civilian career, she saw service during the Second World War. She was named in honour of the town of Gerusoppa on the banks of river Sharavati in Karnataka, India, which due to its easy access to water transportation and as a distribution centre for crops including pepper, was the commercial capital for centuries.
She sailed with several convoys, before joining Convoy SL 64 in February 1941. Gairsoppa left the convoy when she exhausted the majority of her fuel and was making her way to Galway, Ireland, when a German U-boat fired a torpedo that sank her and sent 85 people to their deaths.
The wreck of the Gairsoppa was discovered in 2011, and it was announced that an operation to recover its cargo of silver bullion, with an estimated value of £150 million, would begin in 2012. On 18 July 2013 Odyssey Marine Exploration, of Tampa, Florida, reported that it had recovered 48 tons of silver, making this probably "the deepest, largest precious metal recovery in history" (as the Gairsoppa rests in 4,700 metres (15,400 ft) of water).
This page contains text from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia -	https://wn.com/SS_Gairsoppa
ssadventures.com
frederikssundharbour.com
hackersss.com
Latest News for: ss gairsoppa
Grandmother, 99, receives love note her long-lost wartime fiancé penned 77 years ago after it was salvaged from merchant shipwreck that was sunk by Nazi U-boat in 1941
This is Money 28 Dec 2018
The message of love from the smitten young soldier has now, incredibly, been recovered with around 700 other letters from the wreck of the SS Gairsoppa, a steam-powered cargo ship ... This picture from marine archaeologists shows the SS Gairsoppa on the seabed, nearly three miles down....
Grandmother, 99, receives love note wartime fiancé penned 77 years ago after it was saved from 15,400ft-deep merchant shipwreck that was downed by Nazi U-boat in 1941
But the message of love from the smitten young soldier has, incredibly, been recovered with around 700 other letters from the wreck of the SS Gairsoppa, a steam-powered cargo ship torpedoed and sunk by German submarines in 1941 ... This picture from marine archaeologists shows the SS Gairsoppa on the seabed, nearly three miles down....
Letters to the frontline of the First World War: The poignant deliveries and hidden heroism ...
Sunday Post 03 Nov 2018
Register for our free newsletter ... Their effort prompted one Divisional General to tell them ... "All my kit was shot away ... As one historian observed ... Sunken, forgotten, then saved from the ocean, the exhibition showcases 700 letters trapped at the bottom of the Atlantic for 70 years, preserved in an airlock that formed as the SS Gairsoppa sank in 1941 ... ....
Treasures of famous shipwrecks on display in exhibit
The Bryan Eagle 01 Jul 2018
Most of the pieces come from the SS Republic, a Civil War-era steamship ... One of Odyssey's biggest discoveries occurred in 2013 when it found the SS Gairsoppa, a British cargo ship that was sunk by a German U-boat in 1941 ... The Gairsoppa is a steel-hulled ship, and the research team ......
There's hidden treasure from the bottom of the Atlantic at the Postal Museum
Time Out 06 Apr 2018
Remember those scenes in Titanic? Not the ones soundtracked by Celine Dion where Rose and Jack are having a moment at the front of the boat, or he's tragically drowning in front of her ... SS Gairsoppa (c) Bibliothek für Zeitgeschichte Stuttgart. The SS Gairsoppa was travelling from Calcutta to Britain in 1941 ... Courtesy of the Postal Museum ... ....
London's Postal Museum takes letter-opener to watery WWII mailbag
The Register 29 Mar 2018
Torpedoed ship's missives opened 77 years later The London Postal Museum has opened a wartime mailbag to the public in "Voices from the Deep", an exhibition of letters discovered 4.8km (3 miles) underwater in the wreckage of the SS Gairsoppa ... ....
How a crack team of marine experts spent 20 years breaking secret wartime codes and scouring archives to finally trace the £4.5BILLION of British gold sunk by the Nazis
SS Empire Heritage was ... Five years ago, the Department of Transport received a mere 20 per cent of £48 million of silver bullion recovered from the merchant ship SS Gairsoppa which sunk off Ireland in 1942 — but that arrangement has since been described as a 'procedural error'....
Found WWII Silver Planned for Mint
War History Online 21 Feb 2017
Nearly 3000 bars of silver were believed lost in WWII after a horrific attack by the Germans brought down their transport ship, the SS Gairsoppa ... The silver was not the only supply the British needed transported in the midst of WWII, and as such as the Gairsoppa also contained mass amounts of iron ... ....
World War Two ship wrecks prove increasingly profitable
The goods aboard some of the ships include gold, silver and coinage, which are retrievable and could fetch hundreds of thousands of dollars when sold. The SS Gairsoppa is one such ship ... ....

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


As one of the most abundant life forms on Earth, bacteria live virtually everywhere — including on and in humans. Some of these bacteria, such as those that live in your large intestine, actually help keep you healthy.
However, others don't play nicely with your body and can cause infections and infectious diseases. Staph bacteria rank among the leading culprits for human infections, some of which (but not all) require antibiotic treatment.
Some members of the Staphylococcus family of bacteria live on your skin and sometimes in your nose. The presence of these surface bacteria usually doesn't constitute an infection, as they cause no harm.
A staph infection occurs only when these bacteria invade the body and cause signs or symptoms. The types of staph infections differ in severity, depending on the site and spread of the bacteria.
The staph species called Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) accounts for many of the most serious staph infections. Increasing numbers of S. aureus bacteria are now resistant to the penicillin-like antibiotic called methicillin. These bacteria are known as methicillin-resistant S. aureus, or MRSA.
Because staph bacteria normally live on the skin, they commonly invade through breaks in the skin, such as a minor cut or scrape. In most cases, these infections remain superficial and require no antibiotic treatment because your immune system kills the bacteria before they can invade further.
If you've ever sustained a small cut that looks a little pink around the edges the next day, you likely had a minor staph infection.
But sometimes superficial staph skin infections spread deeper into the soft tissues beneath the skin or invade body organs or tissues, such as the lungs, bones, bladder or bloodstream, among others. These invasive staph infections require antibiotic therapy to clear the bacteria from the body.
Signs of a superficial staph infection can include skin redness, warmth and pus drainage. Keep in mind, however, that none of these are specific to staph, as other bacterial skin infections can cause identical symptoms. Laboratory testing is the only way to definitively establish the presence of a staph infection versus an infection caused by other bacteria.
But, again, if you suspect you have a staph infection, it's best to see your doctor for proper diagnosis and treatment.
Your health care provider takes into account several factors in deciding whether your infection requires antimicrobial treatment and, if so, the best types of antibiotics to prescribe.
Based on these factors, you can expect one of the following courses of treatment.
For superficial abscesses (a walled-off pocket of pus and bacteria) or boils, doctors typically drain the infection. This procedure usually cures the infection without antibiotic treatment.
For more serious/invasive MRSA infections, the penicillin-like drugs, cephalosporins and carbapenams are ineffective. However, tetracyclines, clindamycin and trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole are still potential types of antibiotics for treating a MRSA infection.
See your doctor right away if you suspect you might have a staph or another type of infection. If your doctor prescribes an antibiotic, take the medicine for the full course your doctor advises.


text:
About TXSN
Houston Chronicle Sports »
Sports // TSN - Astros
A slow curveball, clean shave and a tribute to Tyler Skaggs
Arianna Vedia July 6, 2019
LA Angles starter Andrew Heaney was clean-shaven and through a big curveball on his first pitch in honor of Tyler Skaggs, who passed away on Monday.
Photo: David J. Phillip/Associated Press
Just ahead of game time, Angels pitcher Andrew Heaney squatted behind the mound and wrote 'RIP 45' in the dirt to honor his late teammate Tyler Skaggs.
Heaney opened up the game with Skaggs' signature pitch – a slow curveball, or "a curveball from the rafters" as Skaggs would say.
"I'm a pretty boring guy, I'm not like a huge emotional person, usually," Heaney said. "I just didn't want to do anything that wasn't genuine."
It was only a couple of days ago that Heaney thought of the idea to honor his best friend with that pitch, but he hadn't really worked on it Saturday.
"It was kind of like, 'Oh no, now I'm sort of nervous, I don't want to spike it or throw it to the backstop or whatever,'" Heaney said. "I told (catcher Dustin) Garneau and threw a couple in the bullpen and they were both strikes and I was like, 'All right, that's it. I'm doing it.'"
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Astros outfielder George Springer was at the plate when Heaney delivered the pitch. Springer sat back in his stance and watched it go by.
"He's such a great player, I'm really glad (Springer) didn't take a hack at that," Heaney said. "He probably would have hit it to the moon."
Springer said Garneau let him know ahead of time that Heaney's first pitch would be a tribute to Skaggs.
"I absolutely respect (Heaney). It's an honor to be a part of it, and I hope he got something out of it," Springer said. "It was just a good moment for our sport."
The pitch was called a ball, although Angels manager Brad Ausmus thinks it was a strike.
For the first time in a long time, Heaney was seen clean-shaven. He said it was always part of Skaggs' ritual to be clean-shaven, but he didn't necessarily shave in honor of him. Heaney added that pondering on the fact that Skaggs is gone isn't something he wants to do every day, but he doesn't want him to be forgotten.
"You want to honor him. You want people to know that he's not forgotten," he said. "You want people to understand and see how much he meant to all the guys in here."
Arianna Vedia
Follow Arianna on:
nanavedia
Arianna Vedia is a sports intern with the Houston Chronicle for the summer of 2019. The Fort Worth native is a junior at UT-Arlington and a member of the Sports Journalism Institute's class of 2019.
Arianna is the managing editor for The Shorthorn, UT-Arlington's daily student newspaper, previously serving as sports editor and sports reporter.
Incarnate Word looks to build on last season's success
Dynamo head to Atlanta, Toronto looking to end road woes
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Smith: Where do Rockets fit in NBA's new world order?
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Beauty, Class, Atmosphere and Style Make for an Exceptional Wedding.
Southwest Michigan continues to attract more and more brides as its reputation grows as a popular wedding destination . This area of the country is filled with charm and beauty and abounding amenities such such as world-class beaches, scenic golf courses, wineries, breweries and so much more. It's here that you'll find everything from barns for weddings to large commercial venues. However, it's here is Benton Harbor, nestled quietly in southwest Michigan that you will find a truly unique and very special domain, Stonegate Manor. Stonegate is that hidden gem where wooded privacy and country charm come together to make for a perfect wedding venue.
Prudy Nelson, who is now the proprietor for this romantic place started her professional life as a pediatrician. For 30+ years her passion for helping others (especially children) evolved into disaster response/international medicine. Having obtained degrees in Public Health, Infectious disease and Tropical medicine, Prudy has taught and treated people in Africa, Asia and South America. Her focus has typically been in areas of conflict including Pakistan, Darfur, South Sudan and Rwanda.
A few years back, Prudy decided she needed to do something a bit more joyful, something that might even help uplift others. As a collector of vintage china (she had amassed quite a collection) Prudy made the decision to open 'My Mother's Attic', a vintage china and tableware rental company in Southwest Michigan. Continuing her passion to help others, all proceeds from the rentals went to support education and orphans in SW Uganda.
A couple of years ago, an acquaintance of Prudy's shared her vision of creating a classically elegant wedding venue on an estate that was for sale in the area. Her contagious enthusiasm prompted Prudy and her husband Tom to jump on board. It began as a relationship where Tom would provide financial backing for someone else's project but eventually evolved into full ownership of this beautiful venue which was certainly an unexpected twist in retirement (Tom had retired as a Berrien County Family Court Judge after years).
After many months of hard work Stonegate Manor, Southwest Michigan's premier estate wedding venue was born! It was tough…Prudy was in graduate school the whole time studying Infectious Disease and Tropical medicine as they toiled to create a charming and graceful facility that was like no other in the area. The end result was nothing short of thrilling for the dedicated and hard working couple.
Originally developed in 1847, this beautiful historic estate had now been transformed into one of the area's most spectacular event venues! According to many, this rare find is unlike virtually any other palce in this part of the country. Our own publisher says of Stonegate Manor, "this is a hidden gem which offers couples an abundance of today's exceptional amenities, all enriched and enhanced by the charm of an era gone by."
Once you've entered the Victorian Manor house you'll be taken by characteristics such as original stained glass windows, marble fireplace, antique furnishings and decor, grand stairway, French doors, covered verandas and a myriad of other custom appointments and features. It culminates beautifully with an atmosphere that delivers couples elegance, timelessness and grace which offers couples a unique way to begin their journey.
Located in a building near the Victorian Manor house is the Riverside Room, which seats up to 160 guests. It features crystal chandeliers as well as many antique and eclectic touches. Another feature of the Riverside Room is the covered porch which serves as a bridge to a magnificent lawn, unique to the area. Plenty of room for cocktails on the lawn, yard games or a combination… whatever will make your wedding fun and special. Rarely will you find this unique combination of outdoorsy atmosphere and the Victorian appeal. These are the complementing elements that come together and make for a rare wedding reception experience.
The Carriage House, built in the late 1800's, has been converted into one of the most beautiful and finest Bridal Cottages you might imagine. It is the consummate sanctuary for the bride and her bridesmaids to leisurely prepare for the perfect wedding. The classic furnishings and vintage appointments are yet one more exceptional backdrop for wonderful pre-wedding photos. Surrounded by the cottage's luxurious Victorian charm, it's easy to imagine how a bride would feel like a Queen.
All of this surrounded by 27 acres of manicured lawns, vibrant flower gardens, lush forest, handcrafted pergola, trellis, and a custom-built Well-Wishing pond complete with a quaint footbridge. In addition, couple can choose from two distinctly different ceremony sites; the classic Pergola on the lawn or the wooded Fairy Garden with its vintage arch, dappled sunlight and woodland plantings. When it comes to style Stonegate gracefully delivers.
For bride and groom to be, Stonegate Manor delivers an unforgettable experience. If they are in search of a unique, charming, stylish venue surrounded by meaningful amenities and enhanced with significant details this is the place. Looking at it from the vantage point of someone who has experience with many weddings and facilities... this may very well be the perfect wedding venue.
Let us help you find the perfect venue for your wedding.
The ZZZippy Concierge Service is always FREE!


Will this be a case of 'lucky 7' for Casio?
The rise of the camera phone has made shooting from the hip, over your mate's shoulder, or in the back of the cab on the way home from the pub, as easy as sliding open the lens cover.
The latest generation of digital compacts are following suit. In recent months, we've seen flat-fronted, pocket models in Sony's T100 and HP's R837 that are activated by sliding open the lens cover, and Casio's look-a-like 7-megapixel EX-V7 is almost identical.
Like its competitors, Casio has managed to cram a vertically stacked zoom lens within a slender body not much larger than a credit card, but here it betters both HP and Sony with a 7x focal range and a casing that's just 20.8mm at its narrowest point.
In fact, it's currently the world's slimmest camera to feature such a zoom specification, and at no point does the lens stand proud of the body.
With the chewing gum pack-sized rechargeable lithium-ion battery inserted at the base of the camera (a compartment shared with a SD slot), the Exilim feels reassuringly weighty in the palm.
Build quality - a mix of mainly metal and plastic - is higher than most in this price bracket. While styling isn't as minimal as Sony's T100, it comes close.
The rear is dominated by a 2.5-inch LCD screen that displays some ghosting when used in low light, but which is otherwise perfectly functional with enough resolution for checking manual focus fairly accurately.
Sliding open the lens cover reveals a lens with a flash alarmingly located directly above, plus stereo microphone and AF illuminator window directly below.
The EX-V7 powers up for the first shot in around a second. The large lozenge-shaped shutter release button that sits alone atop the camera is a bit too springy to the touch - it's too easy to fire off a shot when you just meant to give it an exploratory prod.
Happily, the EX-V7 is quick to determine focus and exposure and image capture is nigh on instantaneous, with a wait of only a second or so for a full-resolution, fine-quality shot to be committed to memory.
With your finger hovering over the shutter release button, the vertically arranged slider for the zoom falls ergonomically under the thumb, with a raised centre section providing just enough purchase.
The zoom's response is swift, mercifully silent (no horrible mechanical jitter noises here) and smooth, with a three-second range between maximum wide-angle and full telephoto.
Shooting at the maximum reach of the zoom raises the possibility of the effects of camera shake. To combat this, Casio has included not only mechanical image stabilisation in the form of CCD shift, but has also backed it up with a digital anti-shake mechanism, which boosts ISO sensitivity and increases shutter speed.
Choose an ISO setting of ISO 400 or above and image noise is visible in shadow areas, but the effects aren't as pronounced as previous Casio models. And results are better than switching the flash on and risking red eye in portraits.
While images that are taken at the maximum telephoto can benefit from some sharpening, and despite producing the odd completely blurred shot, the EX-V7's delivery rate is high. Similarly, there is a little softness towards the edges of images taken at maximum wide angle, it's only noticeable under close scrutiny.
For the most part the images delivered by the EX-V7 are vivid and flattering, with skin tones imbued with a healthy glow. It's fast to get going, capture an image and commit it to memory, while the ability to make use of a 7x optical zoom and still have a camera that will slip into shirt or trouser pocket is a real boon.


text:
Q: Progress bar on file size increase in linux I have a log file of a build which has about 11MB in size if the build is successful. I want to create a visual progress bar (just about in any language, preferably in python or JS) which progresses when the log file is written a line to, or when it grows in size. The build takes around two hours, I'm open to suggestions to create the progress bar based on time and stop the bar when I get an error I capture with sed or awk. Any ideas? Thanks in advance.
I have a couple of known errors I can check to stop the progress of the bar when they're encountered, I'm thinking of using sed or awk.

A: Consider using 'pv' to monitor progress of the file. You can specify the estimated size with --size
tail -n +1 -f /path/to/log | pv --size 11000000  > /dev/null


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\section{Introduction}

Shor's factoring algorithm \cite{shor} is a well known example of a quantum algorithm outperforming the best known classical algorithm. Experimental implementation of the algorithm with physical qubits however remains a challenge because of the errors introduced by the large number of qubits and gates required to execute the algorithm. In this article we provide a proof-of-principle demonstration of a compiled version of Shor's factoring algorithm to factor the numbers $N=15$, $21$ and $35$ using five, six and seven superconducting qubits, respectively. Similar experiments have been done on setups like NMR \cite{vandersypen}, trapped ions \cite{monz}, photons \cite{lu, lanyon, lopez}, photonic chips \cite{politi} and superconducting qubits \cite{lucero, coles}. However, with the exception of Refs. \cite{monz, lopez}, all these realizations involve an oversimplified version of the algorithm which is equivalent to coin flipping \cite{smolin} and no quantum hardware is needed to obtain the same results.

In our implementation, classical processing is used alongside quantum computation to overcome the lack of key-functions of the device used. Furthermore, the number of physical qubits and the circuit depth are reduced to the minimum in order to minimize the effects of noise. The data is presented as estimates of the probability distribution of the values returned by the period register.  While obtaining the probability distributions of the period register requires running the algorithm many times, as opposed to just once with the original continued fraction expansion, this allows the performance of quantum computers running this algorithm to be more directly evaluated. To measure the success of the experiments in different ways, the results are analyzed in both a qualitative way, with probability plots \cite{kleiner}, and a quantitative way, with the square of statistical overlap (SSO) \cite{chiaverini}. Probability plots are a useful tool to visualize differences between probability distributions, while the SSO provides a quantitative measure of their similarity. Using the the overlap coefficient (see below), we can also use the SSO to assign a period to the experimental data, avoiding the continued fraction algorithm which does not work for such low number of qubits. Also, the overlap coefficient (OVL) gives an estimate of the probability that the experiment succeeded.  The results of the experiments are in good agreement with the theory for $N=15$ and $21$. However, the experiment succeeded for $N=35$ only about 14\% of the time, where the cumulative errors coming from the high number of two-qubit gates became too large.

The article is organized in the following way. A brief overview of Shor's factoring algorithm is given in Sec. \ref{shor}. Sec. \ref{hardware} describes the hardware used for the experiment. In Sec. \ref{exp} the implementation of the factoring experiment for $N=15$, $21$ and $35$, respectively, is described. The results obtained from running the algorithm on the \textit{ibmqx5} quantum processor are analyzed and discussed in Sec. \ref{data}. Conclusions follow in Sec. \ref{conclusions}.

\section{Overview of Shor's factoring algorithm}
\label{shor}
The factoring algorithm invented by P. Shor \cite{shor} relies on the relation between the problem of factoring and the problem of order finding, for which a quantum speed-up exists. In fact, finding the prime factors of a number $N$ is equivalent to finding the exponent $x$ for which the function $a^x \text{mod} N =1$, where $a$ is an integer smaller than $N$ picked at random. Such exponent is called the order, or period, of $a$. Let us briefly review the quantum part of the algorithm before diving into the details of the experiment.
Two quantum registers are needed for the computation. One register is used to store the value of the period, called period register, and the other to store the results of the computation, called computational register. The size of both registers depends on the number $N$ to be factored. In particular, the period register should have a number of qubits $n_p$ in the interval $\text{log}_2(N^2) \lesssim n_p \lesssim \text{log}_2(2N^2)$ and the computational register should be large enough to be able to represent the number $N-1$, resulting from the modular exponentiation function (MEF) $a^x  \text{mod} N$, thus requiring $n_q = \text{log}_2 N$ qubits.

At the beginning of the quantum algorithm, the two registers are initialized to the state $\lvert 00...0 \rangle_p \lvert 00...1 \rangle_q $, where the subscripts $p$ and $q$ denote the period register and the computational register, respectively. The period register stores all the possible values of the exponent $x$, which will give an estimate of the period, by creating a uniform superposition of all possible bit-strings through Hadamard gates on all qubits $\frac{1}{\sqrt{Q}} \sum_{x=0}^{Q-1} \lvert x \rangle_p$, where $Q = 2^{n_p}$. While the computational register stores the results of the MEF, $a^x  \text{mod} N$. After the first step, the two registers are in the state $\frac{1}{\sqrt{Q-1}} \sum_{x=0}^{Q-1} \lvert x \rangle_p \lvert a^x \text{mod} N \rangle_q$. Then, the quantum Fourier transform (QFT) is applied to the period register so that $\lvert x \rangle_p \rightarrow \frac{1}{\sqrt{Q}} \sum_{s=0}^{Q-1} e^{\frac{2\pi i s x}{Q}}\lvert s \rangle_p$. As a result of the QFT, interference between all the possible states occurs. If the period register is then measured, a value of the phase $s$ is measured with probability $\text{P}(s) = \frac{1}{Q} \sum_{s=0}^{Q-1} \lvert e^{\frac{2\pi i s x}{Q}} \rvert^2$. Rewriting $x$ in terms of the period $r$ as $x = x_0 + d r $, where $x_0$ and $d$ are integers, the probability of an outcome $s$ can be written as $\text{P}(s) = \frac{1}{Q} \lvert e^{\frac{2\pi i x_0}{Q}} \rvert^2 \sum_{s=0}^{Q-1}  \lvert e^{\frac{2\pi i s d r}{Q}} \rvert^2$. Clearly, a value of $s$ such that $\frac{s}{Q}=\frac{c}{r}$, where $c$ is an integer, will be observed with high probability.

The final part of the algorithm involves classical processing of the measurement obtained in the quantum part. The value of the period $r$ can be found from the fraction $\frac{s}{Q}$ by using the continued fraction algorithm. Or as done in this paper, by running the algorithm many times to get a direct estimate of the probability distribution of the values for the period register.  A comparison between the measured probability distribution and the theoretically predicted distribution for the period $r$ can be made using the SSO and the best fit gives the most likely period.  If the period $r$ calculated in this way is odd or $r=0$, the algorithm fails and one restarts by picking a different base $a$. If $r$ is even, $(a^r - 1) \text{mod} N$ can be factored into $\left( a^{\frac{r}{2}} - 1\right)\left( a^{\frac{r}{2}} + 1\right) \, \text{mod} N$. The final step is to check if $(a^{\frac{r}{2}} + 1)  \text{mod} N$ has a common divisor with $N$ by checking that gcd$\left(a^{\frac{r}{2}} + 1,N \right) \neq 1$. If that's true, then the two factors of $N$ are gcd$\left(a^{\frac{r}{2}} + 1,N \right)$ and gcd$\left(a^{\frac{r}{2}} - 1,N \right)$.

As mentioned earlier, the execution of this version of the algorithm requires $n_q=\text{log}_2 \left( N \right)$ qubits in the computational register to perform the modular exponentiation and at least another $n_p = 2\text{log}_2 \left( N \right)$ qubits in the period register to perform the QFT. Thus the complete algorithm requires a total number of $3\text{log}_2 \left( N \right)$ qubits. Even the factoring of a number as small as $N=15$ needs $12$ qubits in the input register to execute this algorithm, which is still a challenge for today's physical realizations of quantum computers. However, Kitaev \cite{kitaev} observed that for the purpose of algorithms like Shor's, where one doesn't need the information on the relative phase of the output states but only their measured probability amplitudes, one can replace the fully coherent quantum Fourier transform with the semi-classical quantum Fourier transform (sc-QFT). In the sc-QFT, one of the qubits of the period register is measured each time. The result of the measurement of the qubit is then used to determine the type of measurement on the next one. This enables the replacement of the $2\text{log}_2 \left( N \right)$ qubits of the period register with a single qubit measured multiple times. For the case of factoring $N=15$, Kitaev's approach reduces the total number of qubits required to $n=5$ and for the case of $N=21$ and $N=35$ to $n=6$ and $n=7$, respectively, which are small enough numbers for the presently available hardware to handle. This decrease in the system size, however, comes with the drawback of requiring in-sequence single-qubit readout and state re-initialization together with feed-forward of gate settings based on previous measurement results. The implementation of the sc-QFT has been described in \cite{griffiths, chiaverini} and realized in \cite{monz}. At present the IBM quantum computer doesn't perform in-sequence single qubit read out and qubit re-initialization. Below, we provide a procedure for going around this hurdle to implement the sc-QFT on the IBM Q device.

\section{Hardware}
\label{hardware}
We use the IBM {\it ibmqx5} chip with sixteen superconducting qubits to implement our experiments for factoring the numbers $N=15$, $21$ and $35$.
The qubits are distributed on the plane, as two adjacent arrays of eight qubits each with couplings shown in Fig. \ref{fig:ibmqx5_coupling}.

\begin{figure}[]
	\includegraphics[width = 3.5in, height = 0.8 in]{ibmqx5-connections.pdf} \\
	\caption{Coupling map between the 16 qubits of the \textit{ibmqx5} device. The arrows indicate the possible CNOT gates between pairs of qubits. In particular, the arrow starts from the control qubit and points to the target qubit.}
\label{fig:ibmqx5_coupling}
\end{figure}

The qubits' relaxation time $T_1$ ranges from $25 \sim 60$ $\mu$s and their dephasing time $T_2$ from $20 \sim 100$ $\mu$s. The single-qubit gates have a high fidelity, measured at $\sim 99.8 \% $ at the time of the experiment. The multi-qubit gate fidelity was measured around $95\% - 98 \%$ depending on the pairs of qubits considered. All gate errors are measured using simultaneous randomized benchmarking. Another source of error comes from the read-out of the states of the qubits, which amounts to roughly an error of $5 \%$. Using these parameters, the effects of noise can be incorporated in the simulation, obtaining a more accurate prediction for the output of the device.

\section{Experiment}
\label{exp}

\begin{figure}[h]
\includegraphics[width = 3.4in, height = 0.7 in]{shor_circuit_diagram.pdf}
	\caption{Circuit for factoring $N=15$, $21$ and $35$ implemented using the scheme shown in Ref. \cite{monz}. The first register (top), the period register, stores the estimation of the period, this can be done by using only one qubit through the sc-QFT. The second register (bottom), the computational register, stores the outcomes of the modular exponentiation function $a^x \text{mod} N$ computed through the controlled-$U_{a^x}$ gate. The specific circuits for $U_{a^x}$ used in factoring $N=15,21$ and $35$ for a specific base $a$ are shown in Appendix \ref{app_A}. }
\label{fig:full_circuit}
\end{figure}

Following the example given in \cite{monz}, we implement the quantum part of Shor's factoring algorithm using the circuit depicted in Fig. \ref{fig:full_circuit}. As can be seen in the circuit diagram in Fig. \ref{fig:full_circuit}, rotations of the control qubit depend on the outcome of each of its measurement in the previous steps. Since the \textit{ibmqx5} chip does not allow for qubit reset and conditional operation based on measurements, which are required to implement the sc-QFT suggested by Kitaev, we implement the algorithm as three separate quantum circuits as shown in Fig. \ref{fig:full_circuit_broken}.

In the first circuit, the system is initialized in the state $\lvert 0 \rangle_p \lvert 0...01 \rangle_q$ and the first bit, $b_0$, encoding the value of the period is measured at the end. In the second circuit, the initial state $\lvert 0 \rangle_p \lvert \psi_{b_0} \rangle_q$ is prepared. Different states $\lvert \psi_{b_0}$ are prepared depending on the value of $b_0$ measured in the previous circuit. Rotation gates on the period register are also inserted conditional on the value of $b_0$ before measuring the second bit encoding the value of the period, $b_1$. In the third circuit, depending on the values of $b_0$ and $b_1$, the qubit registers are initialized to $\lvert 0 \rangle_p \lvert \psi_{b_0 b_1} \rangle_q$ and rotation gates are inserted before the measurement of $b_2$. The possible quantum states of the computational register can be computed classically for the full algorithm, conditional on the measurement results of the period register. This is just the result of successive modular exponentiation. At the beginning of each circuit, except the first one, there are two possible states of the computational register that have to be prepared depending on the value of the period register measured in the previous stage. If the measurement of the period register gives $0$, then the computational register is prepared to the state $\lvert \psi_{0} \rangle_q = \lvert \psi \rangle_q + Z U_{a^x}  \lvert \psi \rangle_q $. If the period register gives $1$, the computational register is initialized to $\lvert \psi_{1} \rangle_q = \lvert \psi \rangle_q - Z U_{a^x}  \lvert \psi \rangle_q $. This means that for an implementation with $m$ stages, a superposition of $2^m$ product states have to be prepared. However, the state at the $m$-th stage is, at worst, the result of $m-1$ modular exponentiations. Thus, breaking the circuit in this way, only adds an extra number of gates which is polynomial in the number of stages $m$: $1+2+3+...+ m = \frac{m(m+1)}{2}$, due to the gates needed for the state initialization at each stage. This retains the scalability of the implementation given in Ref. \cite{monz}.

In the following experiments, we limit ourselves to the choice of one, or two, bases $a$ to avoid redundancy. We specifically choose a non-trivial base (in the sense of \cite{smolin}) for which a working quantum processor is needed to find the results. One could adopt the same approach to treat any such non-trivial bases. To understand what happens in the case of a trivial base, consider factoring $N=15$. The possible periods $r$ for any of the bases $a$ are all powers of two. This means that any even value of the phase $s$ measured from the period register will give a fraction $\frac{s}{Q}$ proportional to $\frac{1}{r}$ which always allows one to find the period. In facts, by analyzing the state of the quantum registers along the circuit, it is possible to see that no quantum interference happens between the states in the computational register. Therefore, in this case the correct results can be obtained regardless of the quality of the entangling gates of the device, as long as one can entangle the period register with the computational register. To show that the quantum processor \textit{ibmqx5} is giving us the correct answer by exploiting quantum interference it is sufficient to run the experiment for one of the possible bases. This is in turn is related to the quality of the entangling gates and the noise of the device. Thus, the ability to factor higher and higher $N$ using a non-trivial base (one which has a period that is not a power of 2) gives a benchmark of the performance of the device.

In the experiment for the $N=15$ case, five input qubits are required. One qubit initialized to $\lvert 0 \rangle_p$ for the period register, acting as a control qubit, and all other qubits initialized to the state $\lvert \psi \rangle =  \lvert 0 0 0 1 \rangle_q$ belonging to the computational register. Alongside the quantum registers, we also need a three-bit classical register to store the results of the measurement of the control qubit, which encodes the value of the period.

\begin{figure}[]
\includegraphics[width = 3.06in, height = 2.7 in]{shor_circuit_diagram_broken_3.pdf}
	\caption{Circuits used in the experimental implementation of Shor's algorithm on \textit{ibmqx5}. The circuit of Fig. \ref{fig:full_circuit} is divided in three separate parts. Each circuit containing a stage of modular exponentiation and a measurement of the period register. The different circuits are joined using a classical algorithm which computes the quantum state of the computational register at the end of the previous circuit and feeds it as input to the next circuit. The classical algorithm also adds the right rotation gates on the period qubit in each successive circuit, based on the results of previous measurements. }
\label{fig:full_circuit_broken}
\end{figure}

The case $N=15$ is the simplest possible case and it does not provide an example where quantum interference between the states of the computational register brings an advantage to the computation. For this reason, we attempt to factor the second smallest number which is a product of two primes, $N=21$. In this case, there are bases $a$ for which the period is not a power of two, thus constructive quantum interference between states in the computational register is needed to increase the likelihood of finding the correct result. An example of such case was first demonstrated in Ref. \cite{lopez}.

We implement an algorithm for factoring $N=21$ with base $a=2$ using three bits of precision for the estimation of the phase which encodes the period. In this case the quantum register is composed of five qubits in the computational register and one qubit in the period register. We adopt the same methodology used previously, breaking each stage of the modular exponentiation and manually feeding the output of each section as input to the next. This means that the circuit will have three stages of modular exponentiation, where a single bit of the phase which encodes the period is estimated at each stage (details in Appendix \ref{app_A}). Therefore, the circuit looks like the one in Fig. \ref{fig:full_circuit_broken}. The modular exponentiation circuit are specifically designed to calculate $a^{x} \, \text{mod} \, 21$, where we choose the base $a=2$. This base has periods $r=6$, thus $1/r$ cannot easily be represented in binary. Therefore, the accuracy of the estimation of the period depends on the number of bits used for the phase estimation.

The same method is applied to factor $N=35$ with base $a=4$. In this case we need six qubit in the computational register and one qubit in the period register. As in the case of $N=21$, the period of $4^{x} \, \text{mod} \, 35$ is $r=6$, therefore $1/r$ cannot be easily represented in binary. As a result of running the quantum algorithm we obtain a probability distribution for the estimated phase $s$ which is peaked around the multiples of $1/r$. We use a three-bit register for the estimation of the phase which encodes the period. Again, the circuit for running the algorithm is realized as shown in Fig. \ref{fig:full_circuit}, each stage, estimating one bit of the phase, is implemented separately and then joined through a classical algorithm. The individual circuits which compute the MEF at the different stages can be found in Appendix \ref{app_A}.

\section{Results and Data Analysis}
\label{data}

Figs. \ref{fig:hist_2mod15}, \ref{fig:hist_11mod15}, \ref{fig:hist_2mod21_2} and \ref{hist_4mod35} show the results obtained running the quantum part of the factoring algorithm on the \textit{ibmqx5} superconducting device. Depicted are the experimental relative probabilities found (in blue) side by side with the expectation values which can be computed theoretically (in green) for each value of the estimated phase $s$ for the bases $a$ used. The algorithm was run 1000 times for each base.

\begin{figure}[]
	\subfloat[]{\label{fig:hist_2mod15}\includegraphics[width = 3.2in, height = 2.0 in]{a2_histo-eps-converted-to.pdf}} \\
	\subfloat[]{\label{fig:pp_plot_2_15}\includegraphics[width = 3.6in, height = 2.0 in]{a2_15_pp-eps-converted-to.pdf}}\\
	\subfloat[]{\label{fig:sso_2_15}\includegraphics[width = 3.2in, height = 2.0 in]{a2_sso-eps-converted-to.pdf}}
	\caption{(a) Probability of finding a given phase for $N=15$ with base $a=2$, and (b) probability plot of the theoretical distribution and the experimental distribution for $r=4$. The experimental distribution is depicted through the collection of data and a fit of the data. (c) SSO of the experimental data with the theoretical probability distribution corresponding to all possible values of the period $r$. }
\label{histo_2_15}
\end{figure}

\begin{figure}[]
	\subfloat[]{\label{fig:hist_11mod15}\includegraphics[width = 3.2in, height = 2.0 in]{a11_histo-eps-converted-to.pdf}} \\
	\subfloat[]{\label{fig:pp_plot_11_15}\includegraphics[width = 3.6in, height = 2.0 in]{a11_15_pp-eps-converted-to.pdf}} \\
	\subfloat[]{\label{fig:sso_11_15}\includegraphics[width = 3.2in, height = 2.0 in]{a11_sso-eps-converted-to.pdf}}
	\caption{(a) Probability of finding a given phase for $N=15$ with base $a=11$, and (b) probability plot of the theoretical distribution and the experimental distribution. (c) SSO of the experimental data with the theoretical probability distributions corresponding to all possible periods.}
\label{histo_11_15}
\end{figure}

\begin{figure}[]
	\subfloat[]{\label{fig:hist_2mod21_2}\includegraphics[width = 3.2in, height = 2.0 in]{a2_histo_21_fixed-eps-converted-to.pdf}} \\
	\subfloat[]{\label{fig:pp_plot_2_21}\includegraphics[width = 3.6in, height = 2 in]{a2_21_pp-eps-converted-to.pdf}}\\
	\subfloat[]{\label{fig:sso_2_21}\includegraphics[width = 3.2in, height = 2.0 in]{a2_21_sso-eps-converted-to.pdf}}
	\caption{(a) Probability of finding a given phase for $N=21$ with base $a=2$, and (b) probability plot of the theoretical distribution and the experimental distribution. (c) SSO of the experimental data with the theoretical probability distributions corresponding to different periods.}
\label{fig:hist_2mod21}
\end{figure}

\begin{figure}[]
	\subfloat[]{\label{hist_4mod35}\includegraphics[width = 3.2in, height = 2.0 in]{a4_histo_35-eps-converted-to.pdf}} \\
	\subfloat[]{\label{fig:pp_plot_4_35}\includegraphics[width = 3.2in, height = 2.0 in]{a4_35_pp-eps-converted-to.pdf}}\\
	\subfloat[]{\label{fig:sso_4_35}\includegraphics[width = 3.2in, height = 2.0 in]{a4_35_sso-eps-converted-to.pdf}}
	\caption{(a) Probability of finding a given phase for $N=35$ with base $a=4$, and (b) probability plot of the theoretical distribution and the experimental distribution. (c) Plot of the SSO between the experimental data and the all the possible theoretical distribution for the different values of $r$.}
\label{fig:hist_4mod35}
\end{figure}

The success of the experiment is evaluated in two different ways. We use probability plots to give a qualitative estimation of the correctness of the results, while the square of the statistical overlap (SSO) is used as a quantitative measure.
Probability plots \cite{kleiner} are a useful tool to visually compare two distributions. In a probability plot, one distribution is plotted against the other. If the two distributions are identical, the plot will show a straight line ($y=x$). The amount of deviation from the straight $y=x$ line is an indication of the difference between the two probability distributions plotted. For the case at hand, this means plotting on the $(x,y)$ plane a point for each value of the phase, where the value of the $x$ coordinate is given by the theoretical value of the probability distribution for that phase and the value of the $y$ coordinate is given by the corresponding experimental value found. The data are then fitted with a straight line for comparison with the ideal $y=x$ case. Error-bars on the fit are given as a range of y-values compatible with the error on the fit coming from both slope and offset of the fitted line at a fixed x-value. Thus, all straight lines contained within these error-bars are compatible with the experimental data within the estimated error for the fit. The probability plots between the experimental distribution and the expected theoretical one for each case are shown in Figs. \ref{fig:pp_plot_2_15}, \ref{fig:pp_plot_11_15}, \ref{fig:pp_plot_2_21} and \ref{fig:pp_plot_4_35}. In the case of $N=15$, the data in Figs. \ref{fig:pp_plot_2_15} and \ref{fig:pp_plot_11_15} are on a straight line very close to the $y=x$ line (tagged as "Ideal" on the plots). For the $N=21$ case, the data lie on a straight line parallel to the $y=x$ ideal line as can be seen from Fig. \ref{fig:pp_plot_2_21}. This means that there is an offset in the relative frequency of each phase in our experimental distribution. However, the overall shape coincides with the theoretical one, indicating that the difference in relative frequencies between phases is preserved. Finally, for $N=35$, the data in Fig. \ref{fig:pp_plot_4_35} lie on a straight line which is very far from the $y=x$ line, indicating an important deviation of the experimental results from the theoretically expected ones. In facts, looking at the histogram in Fig. \ref{hist_4mod35} shows that the experimental results were affected by noise, which tends to make all phases equally probable.
In summary, for $N=15$ and $N=21$ the fit is close to the ideal line (within the error bars) but for $N=35$ it is not. Therefore, we believe that the probability plots provide a good qualitative measure of the similarity between probability distributions, as they correctly describe the similarity which is apparent by the comparison of the histograms of the distributions.

Next we give a quantitative measure of the correctness of the results. In particular, we want to answer the question: given the experimental data obtained, what is the likelihood that this data comes from a given probability distribution?
The answer to this question will reveal two aspects of our experiment. First, it will allow us to assign a period to the results without the need for the continued fraction algorithm. Second, it will give us a measure of the error we make in the assignment. Our method of assigning the period to the experimental data relies on the following observation: the probability of obtaining a certain phase $s$ is

\begin{equation}
\text{P}(s) = \frac{1}{Q} \lvert e^{\frac{2\pi i x_0}{Q}} \rvert^2 \sum_{s=0}^{Q-1}  \lvert e^{\frac{2\pi i s d r}{Q}} \rvert^2,
\end{equation}

\noindent
independently of the base $a$ chosen. As a function of the estimated phase $s$, the probability distribution $\text{P}(s)$ is completely characterized by the values of the parameters $r$ and $Q$, the period and the number of bits $\text{log}_2 Q$ used to encode the value of the period, respectively. Therefore, independently of the base chosen, there correspond a fixed probability distribution to each value of $r$ and $Q$. To determine the period to assign to the experimental data, we compare the probability distribution $\text{P}_{\text{exp}}(s)$ obtained experimentally, with all the possible probability distributions $\text{P}^{r}_{\text{th}}(s)$ given by values of $r$ from $2$ to $Q-1$, for fixed number of bits $\text{log}_2 Q$ encoding the period. The period of the theoretical distribution which is most similar to the experimental data is then assigned to the experiment.

Following \cite{monz}, we use the square of the statistical overlap (SSO) introduced in \cite{chiaverini} as a measure of similarity between probability distributions. The SSO is defined as

\begin{equation}
\text{SSO} = \left(\displaystyle{\sum_{j=0}^7} m_j^{1/2} e_j^{1/2}\right)^2,
\end{equation}

\noindent
where $m_j$ and $e_j$ are the measured and expected output-state probabilities of state $\lvert j \rangle$, respectively.

One can calculate the error on the SSO from the Poissonian counting error of the data, assuming Gaussian propagation of errors

\begin{equation}
\Delta\text{SSO} = \sqrt{\displaystyle{\sum_{j=0}^7} \frac{\partial}{\partial m_j}(m_j^{1/2} e_j^{1/2})^2\Delta m_j^2}.
\end{equation}

\noindent
For each base used in the experiments, we calculate the SSO of $\text{P}_{\text{exp}}(s)$ with all possible $\text{P}^r_{\text{th}}(s)$. To better visualize which $\text{P}^{r}_{\text{th}}(s)$ most resembles the data, we plot unit area normalized Gaussian distributions with the SSO as the mean and $\Delta \text{SSO}$ as the standard deviation. The Gaussian whose value of the mean is closest to 1 comes from the $\text{P}^{r}_{\text{th}}(s)$ most similar to $\text{P}_{\text{exp}}(s)$. Therefore, we assign period $r$ to our data. While the spread of each Gaussian gives an indication of the error in the calculation of the SSO. To quantitatively determine the error in the assignment of the period, we calculate the area of overlap between the Gaussian distribution with the highest SSO and the second closest one. This is done through the overlap coefficient \cite{inman} between the normal distributions. The OVL is defined as

\begin{equation}
\text{OVL}\left[ f(x_1), f(x_2) \right]= \sum_{x} min{\left(f(x_1), f(x_2)\right)},
\end{equation}

\noindent
where $f(x_1)$ is the normal distribution with the highest SSO and $f(x_2)$ is the normal distribution with second highest SSO. The OVL tells us what is the probability that the assignment is done incorrectly i.e. the highest SSO for our experimental data comes from a different theoretical probability distribution than the assigned one. Thus, we quantify the error on our assignment as $\epsilon_{ij} \equiv \text{OVL}\left[ f(x_i), f(x_j) \right]$ where $i$ denotes the period of the distribution with the highest SSO and $j$ the period of the distribution with the second highest SSO.

The results of the comparison for all experiments are presented in Figs. \ref{fig:sso_2_15}, \ref{fig:sso_11_15}, \ref{fig:sso_2_21}, and \ref{fig:sso_4_35}. Figs. \ref{fig:sso_2_15} and \ref{fig:sso_11_15} show the SSO of the experimental distributions and their deviations obtained for $N=15$, $a=2$ and $a=11$, respectively. For $a=2$, the highest SSO is $0.97$ for the theoretical distribution corresponding to the period $r=4$. Thus, we assign the period $r=4$ to the experimental distribution obtained. The error we make in assigning the period $r=4$ instead of period $r=7$, which is the closest match, is $\epsilon_{47} = 3.8 \times 10^{-134}$. For $a=11$, the highest SSO is $0.92$ which correspond to $r=2$. The error in the assignment of $r=2$ with respect to $r=4$, which has the second highest SSO, is $\epsilon_{24} = 4.1 \times 10^{-31}$.
The results obtained for $N=21$ with $a=2$ are shown in Fig. \ref{fig:sso_2_21}. Here, it is more difficult to determine the period with certainty. The highest SSO is $0.78$, which corresponds to the theoretical distribution with $r=6$. The error in assigning $r=6$ to the experimental data is $\epsilon_{67} = 1.2  \times 10^{-3}$. Therefore, there is a $\sim 0.1\%$ chance that we assigned the period incorrectly and the true period was $r=7$ instead.
For the case of $N=35$ and $a=4$, the results presented in Fig. \ref{fig:sso_4_35} show that the highest SSO between the experimental data and the theoretical distribution corresponding to all possible periods is $0.99$ for $r=7$, although this is not the expected period. There is another close match with an SSO of $0.98$ for $r=6$, which is the correct one. The error in assigning period $r=7$ to the experimental data instead of $r=6$ is $\epsilon_{76} = 0.14$. Thus, in this case it is quite difficult to discern the correct period.

\section{Conclusions}
\label{conclusions}
Although the results are obtained with a compiled and simplified version of Shor's factoring algorithm, our purpose is to show a way to proceed with the implementation of generic algorithms on the approximate quantum computers available now. In practice, the non-negligible noise and the lack of key functions of the device force us to rethink how to design algorithms that can work on these machines. As it is evident from this work, one needs to supplement the deficiencies of the hardware with a more detailed theoretical analysis and classical processing. By doing so, one can reduce the length of the circuit needed to implement the algorithm, mitigating the effects of noise, and overcoming the lack of particular functions assumed for a general-purpose quantum computer. We emphasize that the simplification by inspection done here was possible only due to the small size of the circuit. Larger circuits would require a more sophisticated optimization.
We used different methods to evaluate the success of the experiment. The first one is the probability plot, which gives a qualitative measure of the similarity between the distribution of the experimental data and the expected theoretical distributions. The second one is the SSO, which gives a quantitative measure of the similarity between probability distributions. By using the SSO, we introduced a new way to assign a certain period to the probability distribution obtained from the experimental data. In this way, we avoid using the continued fraction algorithm, which fails when the number of bits used to encode the value of the period is particularly low, as in our situation. To correctly quantify the error which can be made in this assignment, the OVL between different candidates for the period is calculated. Overall, the experimental results obtained from running the algorithm on the \textit{ibmqx5} device are in agreement with the theoretical expectation values. Excellent agreement is found for $N=15$, while deviations from the theoretical results become more noticeable for $N=21$. Eventually, the algorithm fails to factor $N=35$. This is due to the cumulative errors coming from the increasing number of two-qubits gates necessary to implement the more complex MEF needed for this case.

\acknowledgments
We acknowledge use of the IBM Q for this work. The views expressed are those of the authors and do not reflect the official policy or position of IBM or the IBM Q team.
The authors are grateful to N. T. Bronn and R. Ya. Kezerashvili for the valuable and stimulating discussions.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaArXiv


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SAIS Europe Goes Orange For A Good Cause
The SAIS Observer Staff December 7, 2014 Student Life
Participants in the Women in International Affairs club's workshop on violence against women said they had some very fulfilling discussions. (Photo by Grace West)
by BRYN JANSSON
BOLOGNA — There was a prominent orange hue on the SAIS Europe campus Tuesday, Dec. 2, but it was not the long-lost sun reappearing. No, it was the SAIS community taking a stand as part of the UN's Campaign to End Violence Against Women.
The day's events – wearing orange to raise awareness and an evening workshop – were organized by the Women in International Affairs club.
They posted fliers around school in the days leading up to it and encouraged everyone to wear orange to school on Tuesday as part of the UN's #OrangeUrHood campaign to raise awareness.
Students contributed the bulk of the orange, but they were certainly not the only ones wearing it. "I was really impressed," club vice president Eloise Waldon-Day said. "Loads of the staff turned up in orange, which was really good."
Waldon-Day also set up a table in the lobby full of orange items to wear for those students who did not have any.
The period between Nov. 25 (International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women) and Dec. 10 (International Human Rights Day) has been designated by the UN as 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence.
The death late last month of a German woman who had stepped in to stop an episode of harassment is only the most recent story.
"It was fuel to the fire," Waldon-Day said. "There's so many of these stories that come out. There was this guy in the States who was stabbed for getting someone to stop cat-calling his girlfriend, a woman recently who was killed for fighting off someone who was attacking her on the street and now this story, so there's been a few recently about people trying to stand up for themselves."
The evening workshop, hosted at a club member's apartment, had a turnout of about 25 to 30 people, fairly even split between the two genders. The event received rave reviews.
"It was probably one of the best evenings at SAIS so far that I've experienced," attendee Marko Grujicic said.
Waldon-Day said she based the workshop on some she did last year as part of her training to be a rape crisis counselor. The activities largely centered around sexual violence, how it is defined by different people and different ways of responding to it.
"It was things like getting people in small groups to come up with a one-line definition of consent or handing out scenarios and talking about the grey areas, what is an appropriate response to the situation, has consent been given in the situation, to explore that murky area," she said.
Other activities included deconstructing myths around rape and writing down things that they could do individually or that the student body as a whole could do to make a difference, like calling out people's comments or making sure friends are OK and generally creating an awareness.
Sam Harper, another attendee said that type of event was exactly why she chose to attend SAIS.
"One of the things I was looking for in SAIS was people who are interested in social change and this was a forum of social discussion that I was looking for," she said.
Some of the most rewarding experiences for Waldon-Day were the conversations she had at school.
"I had a really good conversation in the student lounge," she said. "I was writing up questions, such as 'what percentage of rapists never go to jail?' or 'how many times does a woman (on average) have to be battered by her partner before she'll go to the police?' – it's 35, by the way, a terrifyingly high figure. The people sitting in the room were beginning to try to answer them. It felt like a constructive, productive way of dealing with it."
Grujicic, who comes from Serbia, said he found the data eye-opening and that he had no idea the statistics were so bad for places with strong democratic traditions.
"I didn't know the data for exact numbers of people who survived violence, physical and mental violence in everyday situations," he said. "For example, they had data from the U.S. and the percentage was extremely high and we were like, 'No, that's not possible.'"
While the club is primarily focused on advancing women's careers, this was an issue that seemed especially relevant.
"There's a sense that this is something our generation really needs to step up to," Waldon-Day said. "At SAIS we're supposedly young leaders going to go out and change the world, so it feels like creating that culture here, of communication, constructive approaches to things like sexual violence, we can take that out into the world."
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The Converse Blog: The Converse Blog: Even More Breaking News...maybe....Derrick Rose to Converse!
The Converse Blog: Even More Breaking News...maybe....Derrick Rose to Converse!
It seems like I've been doing this a lot lately. First with reports on Kevin Love and Michael Beasley, now with a report on Derrick Rose. Again I haven't heard anything official, and he was photographed wearing Fila's the day before the draft. But this is the day after the draft, in a very public appearance. How public, throwing out the first pitch in the White Sox Public. He is also wearing a navy colorway of the Pro Leather Ox which I don't believe has been released yet. So accept this as pure speculation.
This is very exciting. I do have an update on the Kevin Love signing, it also being reported through Sole Collector. If you would have told me that Converse signed just one of these three rookies I would very pleased. If they have actually signed all three, well I am not sure how I would respond. To put this perspective, Converse hasn't signed a number one draft pick since Larry Johnson in 1991. They also haven't signed the rookie of the year since Larry Johnson either. And while neither Rose, Beasley, or Love are locks for the award I like their chances, even with Oden being a rookie too. With the other brands reportedly shy about passing out endorsement dollars, Converse has the chance to make a big splash with this class.
Labels: Converse, Derrick Rose, Fila, Greg Oden, Kevin Love, Larry Johnson, Michael Beasley, NBA, Rookie, sole collector, White Sox.


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Historical ALA Girls State & ALA Girls Nation
ALA Girls State Store
STAGE 2- Delegates
Graphic Design Contest
ALA - Hawai'i Girls State
CLICK PHOTO FOR LINK TO STORY & VIDEO
VIDEO LINK: SUNRISE INTERVIEWS
By Grace Lee | March 27, 2019 at 10:23 AM HST - Updated March 27 at 10:23 AM HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) -
"ALA Hawaii Girls State" is a leadership program for high school girls
State Representative Della Au Belatti, Stephanie Sakamoto, and Amy Yang joined Lacy Deniz on Sunrise to talk about, "A-L-A Hawaii Girls State" -- a leadership program for high school girls.
The program is seeking girls that are juniors in high school to apply to the program; ALA marquee Youth Leadership, Civics Engagement program that is held each year in June, this year it will be on June 9-11, 2019. ALL juniors from across the state encouraged to apply.
The 74-year-old program, ALA HAWAII Girls State, is currently seeking females that are juniors in high school to apply for the limited spots for this extremely prestigious youth leadership program. Students will learn first hand the significance and practical application of a civics education through leadership development and consensus building.
While many that grew up in Hawai'i might not be familiar with this program, due to the fact that it was on a 32-year hiatus, this is a highly regarded youth leadership program that colleges, universities, military schools, and jobs regard with extremely high regard. It empowers Hawai'i's youth to find their voices for government advocacy.
Hawai'i will accept about twenty-five girls in 2019.  Hawaii is the only state that their girls state has to also raise funding, so, always looking for grants, donations, etc.
For more information: www.HawaiiGirlsState.org or email alaHawaiiGirlsState@gmail.com
Copyright 2019 Hawaii News Now. All rights reserved.
Karen Pence, right, receives a lei at the 2017 Joint Spouses' Conference from ALAAGS Director, Brister Thomas.
Karen Pence expresses admiration for military spouses at conference
Ho'okele Staff | Oct 20, 2017
Don Robbins
Editor, Ho'okele
Karen Pence, the wife of Vice President Mike Pence, shared gratitude for military spouses as the keynote speaker at last month's 2017 Joint Spouses' Conference, an annual conference for all military spouses held this year at Blaisdell Center Exhibition Hall in Honolulu.
"You've had to leave your homes, you've had to give up or postpone your personal aspirations, and even change careers. I for one admire your steadfast devotion to your spouses and our nation," Pence said in her speech.
Each year a different branch of military operates the conference.
This year the Army hosted the event and chairperson of workshops Jodi Peterson invited Pence.
"As military spouses we are in a constant state of giving up things we love, redefining our passions and starting from scratch. Mrs. Pence was an Air Force child, is a Marine mother and has dedicated her life to supporting Mike Pence on his journey," Peterson said.
"To know our demographic is understood by the executive branch is a breath of fresh air. Having Mrs. Pence travel to Oahu, specifically to honor military spouses was everything. I was honored beyond words that she carved out time to recognize military spouses and our sacrifices," Peterson added.
Pence participated in some of the conference workshops held this year.
The American Legion Auxiliary (ALA) Aloha Girls State hosted a workshop on "The Living Lei" and presented Pence with an Ali'i Pikake lei.
"To be able to present the 'second lead spouse' of our country with aloha today was a momentous occasion," said Brister Thomas, the director of the ALA Girls State in Hawaii.
"As a military spouse, we do so much and really do not expect anything in return. However, when someone reaches out, looks you in the eye and says a heartfelt, 'thank you,' it truly touches our hearts," Thomas said.
Ho'okele 2017
ALA Aloha Girls State delegates meet with Rep. Della Au Belatti, Hawaii's state House vice speaker, (center) about the issues affecting Hawaii. Photo courtesy of Brister Thomas
Military teens experience how state, federal government work
(click title for link to article)
Ho'okele Staff | Aug 25, 2017
Ho'okele Editor
Teens from military families in Hawaii are among those who participated in this year's American Legion Auxiliary of Hawaii (ALA) Aloha Girls State program.
Moanalua High School students Abigal Horan, the newly elected ALA Aloha Girls State governor, and her sister, Felicity Horan, are daughters of military parents.
Felicity Horan and student Sienna Byrne from Hawaii Preparatory Academy on the island of Hawaii also represented the state of Hawaii as senators for the competitive ALA Girls Nation program in Washington, D.C. during the month of July. Byrne was also elected lieutenant governor of ALA Aloha Girls State.
Felicity Horan and Byrne drafted a resolution to promote integration of improved processing of immigrants and presented it on the floor for debate during American Legion Auxiliary (ALA) Girls Nation.
"This past week has given me such a positive attitude towards the future of women in government and leadership positions in general. The other girls there were not only intelligent but very supportive of one another and vastly differing view points," Byrne said after representing the state in Washington, D.C.
She felt her biggest accomplishment was making a point to participate as much as possible in the senate sessions.
"It was initially scary to get up in front of everyone, but after a week of doing this I am confident in my public speaking abilities," Byrne said.
Felicity Horan said, "The week at Girls Nation was amazing because I had the opportunity to meet 98 other girls from every state who shared the same passions and patriotism towards our country."
"From this opportunity I learned why it is so important for women to prove that they can participate in government and that they shouldn't be afraid to stand up for what they believe is right, even if they are the minority."
Horan said she felt that her biggest accomplishment was definitely to run for an elected position.
"At first I was scared because I didn't feel qualified enough, and almost didn't run. But when I heard my name as the party secretary for my party, I was so excited and glad that I chose to run. Also, the other girls in my party were so supportive of my decision and election," Horan said. Felicity Horan is the daughter of retired Col. David Horan and Belgica Horan.
"The two girls that went to D.C. accomplished huge feats! I am still in awe that they had such powerful roles at national," said Brister Thomas, the program's director.
"ALA Aloha Girls States elected two high school juniors to represent the state at ALA Girls Nation in Washington, D.C. They toured our nation's highlights, got to meet President Trump and participated in a ceremony at Arlington Cemetery by the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier," Thomas said.
The ALA Aloha Girls State and Girls Nation program is focused on nonpartisan political learning experience for select female students who have just completed their junior year in high school.
Every spring, across the United States, every state selects students to convene in a hands-on, educational opportunity designed to instruct tomorrow's leaders in the privileges and duties of responsible citizenship.
ALA Aloha Girls State delegates gather for a mock government experience to learn parliamentary procedure, campaign, hold rallies, debate and ultimately vote to elect city, county and state officials.
This year's program included speakers from the government and private sectors and included a full schedule for the delegates, learning firsthand how the state of Hawaii government operates.
Delegates met with Rep. Della Au Belatti, Hawaii's state House vice speaker about the issues affecting Hawaii today.
"It is nice to see a time where young women feel they can have a voice to be heard. Women do not see themselves as electable and we need to work together to recruit women. Be students of history and continue the ALA Girls State. It is a great opportunity to learn leadership and practice your skills," Au Belatti said to the high school students.
In addition, Jaime Hearther, a delegate the 2017 ALA Aloha Girls State, was awarded the Samsung State Scholarship. Hearther, a military family member, was selected due to her dedication to community service and scholastic performance.
She now moves on to the national competition and will vie for the $10,000 award. "Her positive energy and incredibly dedication to her fellow delegates placed her well among the top in the state for this prestigious award. We are very proud of her," said Haylie Culp, program chairman.
The American Legion Auxiliary (ALA) is the world's largest women's patriotic service organization, Thomas said. For nearly a century, the American Legion Auxiliary has been serving, helping, and meeting the needs of the nation's veterans, military, and their families, both here and abroad.
Hawaii News Now March 2016
Hawaii News Now (click here for video)
HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) March 14, 2016-In an era where social media and cable news shapes so much political opinion, the need for basic citizenship education is more prevalent than ever. The American Legion Auxiliary is pleased to announce the revitalization of the prestigious Youth Leadership program: ALA- Aloha Girls State program, where students will learn first hand the significance and practical application of a civics education.
The ALA-Girls State Program is a nonpartisan political learning experience for female students who have just completed their junior year in high school. Every spring across the United States, each state carefully selects students to convene in a hands-on, leadership, educational opportunity designed to instruct tomorrow's leaders in the privileges and duties of responsible citizenship. Delegates will gather for a mock Hawaiian state government experience to learn parliamentary procedure, campaign, hold rallies, debate and ultimately vote to elect political officials. There is also a potential for college credit for participants. At the conclusion of each state's program, two delegates are selected to represent Hawai'i at ALA-Girls Nation in Washington, DC where most years include a trip to the White House to meet the President of the United States.
For additional information, please contact: Brister Thomas (808) 284-0293, alaAlohagirlsstate@gmail.com or go to our Facebook page or website: http://www.alaalohagirlsstate.org/.
Copyright 2016. Hawaii News Now. All Rights Reserved.
A program of the American Legion Auxiliary Aloha Girls State announces
ALAAGS Alumni In the News
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2016/09/21/west-point-women-have-a-new-bloody-requirement-as-the-army-completes-gender-integration/
ALA Aloha Girls State Press Release
The American Legion Auxiliary (ALA) is pleased to announce the revitalization of a prestigious youth leadership program: American Legion Auxiliary- Aloha Girls State program, where students will continue to learn first hand the significance and practical application of a civics education, leadership, and consensus building.
The ALA-Girls State Program is a nonpartisan political learning experience for female students who have just completed their junior year in high school. States across the nation select qualified candidates for this program. ALA-Aloha Girls State will be accepting applications January 1, 2017 through a deadline of March 17, 2016 online.
Selected delegates may be eligible for college credit as the program focuses on developing tomorrow's leaders in the privileges and duties of responsible citizenship. Two delegates from each state are selected to attend ALA-Girls Nation in Washington, DC where most years include a trip to the White House to meet the President of the United States.
Punahou senior, Kiana Stewart, 17, recognizes the value of such a leadership experience. "I was disappointed when I discovered that Hawai'i didn't offer the ALA-Girls State opportunity, and that we are the only state in the nation not to have a place in the 78 year old program. When I attended the ALA-Girls State program in Oregon, I realized that I could make a difference in my own state of Hawai'i; I can give back and pay forward something special. I was empowered."
Returning to Hawai'i, Stewart vowed to bring ALA-Girls State back home. She approached her AP Government teacher, Eric Eads, "I was thrilled to be of assistance as we decided to build a team of achieved community leaders who recognize the value in continuing the legacy of learning civics and love of country." Together, they reached out and formed a small, yet determined board to revitalize the program that began in Hawai'i in 1961, but ended in 1984 when volunteers and funding fell away.
Together Stewart and Eads approached the national sponsors of Girls State, local department where ALA-HI President Laura Hashimoto stated, "We are a small department that seems to get smaller every year. We are honored to have ALA-Girls State return to Hawai'i and hope that this will also serve as a tool to broaden our membership to continue throughout time. All females related to (or are) veterans are invited to join the ALA to show our support of ALA-Aloha Girls State."
ALA Aloha Girls State Chairperson, Haylie Culp an ALA-GS alumna, has been the boots on the ground to get the Hawai'i program organized for the first of week of June. "ALA-Girls State sets the stage for life long service to our communities, which can be the most fulfilling, and inspiring thing we as citizens can do."
Honored to announce the first Gold Sponsors as the law firm of Alston, Hunt, Floyd & Ing, Co-Director, Brister Thomas states, "Tanya Alston was a member of the first Girls State when she was a Junior in High School. Her participation and support to revitalize this program is a testimony to the lasting positive impact this youth leadership program is designed to impart."
While continuing to seek funding, Co-Director and ALA Girls State Alumna, Crissy Gayagas stated, "We welcome volunteers and donors to support the reviving of ALA Aloha Girls State to provide leadership, education, and team building for Hawai'i's young women. This is a worthwhile investment that will positively impact current and future generations. We are honored to have the Daniel K. Inouye Institute's support and we look forward to welcoming additional supporters for this valuable program."


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Hello to all of you Beautiful, Silly, but never Terrible people!
2018 has been a powerful year. That's the best way I think that we can describe it.
Back in 2014 when we first created Beautiful, Silly, & Terrible Things, the name was chosen because that's how we see what life consists of, moments of beauty, silliness, and terror.
This year has been exemplary in all categories. We hit the convention road in exponentially greater fashion than we'd ever done before. We met more of you than in all years prior combined, and we enjoyed it so much! Next year will not see quite as much exposure, but that's just because of life and not anything to do with what we wish it could be like.
But it's been a year of setbacks on a horrible scale, too. We're a small band of creators. Since we began, our number at this point is still about only 15 people. For an indy comic book company, that's actually quite a bit, but still … in 2018, 3 of our number lost our parents. That seems unfathomable to my mind, that a full fifth of us, 20% of such a small starting number, would lose someone that close to us in one calendar year. That doesn't even count hospitalizations and other nasty little life events.
Still, I cannot bring myself to curse this year as I've done with previous ones. This year brought such joy and accomplishments in addition to the grief. Even so, it has taken its toll. Specifically, The Black Gate # 2 is not going to make its official release prior to the end of 2018 as we'd hoped, planned, and tried so diligently to accomplish. We are sorry for this, but know that it's in the can and coming as soon as possible (hopefully January of 2019).
In the meantime, be kind to yourselves and to one another. Enjoy the Beautiful, laugh at the Silly, and stand or sit with those who endure the Terrible.


text:
Review: Wilko Johnson – he does it right
Hair long gone, eyes still staring… Wilko Johnson. Photographs: Steve Cowell
15 Jul 2013 @ 9.32 am
Steve Cowell | News
Hair long gone, eyes still staring… Wilko Johnson. Photographs & video: Steve Cowell
Review: Wilko Johnson
Venue: Fibbers, York DV8 Festival, Sunday July 14
Wilko Johnson first grabbed my attention back in the late 1970s when he teamed up with the late, great Lee Brilleaux to form Dr Feelgood, a pub-rock / R&B band from Canvey Island, Essex. Wilko stood out both in his looks, his actions and his guitar playing style.
Always dressed in black, the staring eyed, mop topped youth would move around the stage as he played the guitar in the choppy style that he become famous for. He once explained that he had seen Mick Green, of Johnny Kids & The Pirates, combining lead and rhythm playing styles, and from there he developed his own distinctive technique.
After leaving Dr Feelgood, Wilko went on to play with Ian Dury and The Blockheads – where first played with bass impresario, Norman Watt-Roy, before stepping up to the mic and fronting the Wilko Johnson Band.
In January this year, Wilko made public the news that he had been diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer – and that he had decided not to take up the option of chemotherapy. He announced a farewell tour which, unfortunately, had to be cut short due to his ill health.
But recently Wilko issued a statement saying, "It seems that I am still being spared the final onslaught of my terminal cancer… I am feeling again the desire to get up on stage and do my thing while my health allows".
He announced that he would make some festival appearances over summer. York's DV8 was one of the festivals lucky enough to be added to Wilko's list of shows.
Incredible show, emotional night
Wilko played an incredible show at Fibbers, opening with All Through The City from Dr Feelgood's debut album, Down By The Jetty. The set included Roxette and She Does It Right – other Feelgood classics from this seminal album – as well as a number of his later works.
Wilko, the hair long gone, but the eyes still staring, prowled around the stage and he made his Telecaster sing out the tunes we wanted to hear. The guitar was underpinned by Norman Watt-Roy's amazing bass lines and drums courtesy of Dylan Howe. There were extended guitar, bass and drum breaks – all enthusiastically received by the crowd.
The once, apparently, emotionless features of Wilko have slipped slightly – even allowing himself the odd smile. But it was during his encore and final number – Chuck Berry's Bye Bye Johnny – that the singalong chorus became more poignant… the music stopped and the audience sang "Bye, bye, bye, bye" as Wilko waved back.
It was a great night – but one of mixed emotions. I left the venue elated, yet sad. My ears were ringing, but there was a tear in my eye. I can only hope that he staves off his illness for long enough in order to "do his thing" many, many more times.