text:
YouTube now requires creators to be partners to use external links in cards
by Rachel Kaser — in Video
According to several YouTube creators, the site is no longer allowing them to add external links in the cards at the end of their videos, unless they enable their channel for monetization through YouTube's Partner Program. While channels don't have to actually enable monetization on individual videos, the channel must join the program for external link cards to work.
The sudden change left some creators confused about why they suddenly couldn't link to their Patreon accounts.
Confirmed. This is bullshit. pic.twitter.com/Kh428fWiWO
— Ian Danskin (@InnuendoStudios) September 28, 2017
Ian Danskin of Innuendo Studios, who was one of several YouTubers to spot the change, told me:
It's also not clear yet whether or not just have to have ads enabled on your channel, or if a video will lose its links should it be demonetized, either through a copyright claim or YouTube deeming it "ad-unfriendly."
YouTube has since released a statement to explain the change:
In order to use externally-linking end cards in videos, creators are being asked to join the YouTube Partner program, so that we can evaluate the validity of the channel, as well as determine whether the channel is following our community guidelines and advertiser policies. This update is meant to curb abuse and does not affect current YouTube partners or existing end cards. Additionally channels do not have to actually monetize any videos as part of this requirement.
The change does add an extra step for YouTubers hoping to use external links to their own websites and crowdfunding pages, especially if they have no interest in joining YouTube's Partner Program otherwise. YouTube also removed ads from videos with less than 10,000 channel views earlier this year, meaning smaller YouTubers may have a harder time drawing followers to their Patreons.
Still, the change appears to have been made to curb abusive use of external links. By limiting the external links to partners, YouTube can make sure the creators aren't violating its terms of service and community guidelines.
While content creators who aren't part of the partner program can still put links in their description boxes, some have told me that very few of their viewers use those links. Endcards are much more convenient as they put the link in the same box the viewer is already looking at, in an eye-catching bubble. If you're a creator, you can sign up for YouTube's Partner Program here to add external link cards to your future videos.
This post previously suggested individual YouTube videos had to be monetized to use external links in end cards. We regret the error, and have updated the text to reflect clarification from YouTube.
Read next: Index is the cleaner, faster, better Evernote we've been waiting for
TechYouTube


(London, 25. Mai 2012) Wachwechsel bei der InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG): Chairman David Webster tritt zum Jahresende ab. Als Nachfolger wurde Patrick Cescau benannt. Webster war seit April 2003 Mitglied des Vorstandes und seit Januar 2004 Chairman der Hotelgruppe, die zu den Top 3 der Welt zählt.
Patrick Cescau kommt vom Markenkonzern Unilever. Von 2005 bis 2008 war er CEO und seitdem in verschieden Topfunktionen u.a. in der Sparte Food. Damit führt ein Branchenfremder die Hotelgruppe unter der obersten Führung von Richard Solomons.
Cescau gilt als gut vernetzt. Er ist derzeit als Director für Pearson PLC, Tesco PLC and International Airlines Group tätig.
Patrick Cescau joined the board of INSEAD in June 2009.
He was appointed a Non-Executive Director of International Airlines Group in 2011. He has been a Non-Executive Director of Tesco PLC since February 2009, and was appointed the Company's Senior Independent Director in July 2010. He is also a Non-Executive Director of Pearson PLC (since 2002) and in 2010 was appointed the Senior Independent Director.
From 2005 to 2008, Patrick was Group Chief Executive of Unilever, having previously been Chairman Unilever PLC, Vice-Chairman Unilever NV and Foods Director, following a progressive career with the Company, which began in France in 1973. Prior to being appointed to the Board of Unilever in 1999 as Finance Director, he was Chairman of a number of the Company's major operating companies and divisions, including in the USA, Indonesia and Portugal.
He is a trustee of the Leverhulme Trust and Chairman of the St Jude Children Charity.
Patrick Cescau was appointed a Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur in 2005.
David Webster was appointed to the Board of InterContinental Hotels Group PLC in April 2003 and became the Non-Executive Chairman in January 2004. He is also Chairman of the Company's Nomination Committee.
Chairman of Makinson Cowell since October 2004, David has also been Director of the National Life Story Collection since June 2005, is a knight of the Order of St John, joined the Board of the Temple Bar Investment Trust in January 2009 and is Non-Executive Director of Amadeus IT Holding SA effective from May 2010.
Prior to this, David was a co-founder, together with the late James Gulliver and Sir Alistair Grant, of Safeway PLC (formerly Argyll Group PLC) and was appointed Chairman in 1997. He had previously served as the Deputy Chairman and Finance Director. David retired as Chairman in March 2004 following Safeway's merger with Wm Morrison. David was also formerly a Non-Executive Director of Reed Elsevier PLC, and served in the Royal Naval Reserve for eight years from 1962 to 1970, latterly as a Lieutenant. Married with three sons, David's interests are sailing, skiing and military history.


A summary of the winners and losers at San Diego Comic-Con 2017. Particular attention is paid to many major films & television shows featured in panels.
A summary of the winners and losers at San Diego Comic-Con 2016. Particular attention is paid to many major films & television shows featured in panels.
A summary of the winners and losers at San Diego Comic-Con 2015. Particular attention is paid to many major films that were featured in panels.
A summary of the winners and losers at San Diego Comic-Con 2013. Particular attention is paid to many major films that were featured in panels.
A summary of the winners and losers at San Diego Comic-Con 2012. Particular attention is paid to many major films that were featured in panels.
A summary of the winners and losers at San Diego Comic-Con 2010. Particular attention is paid to many major films that were featured in panels.
A summary of the winners and losers at San Diego Comic-Con 2008. Particular attention is paid to many major films that were featured in panels.
A summary of the winners and losers at San Diego Comic-Con 2007. Particular attention is paid to many major films that were featured in panels.


Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield Delaware, with the assistance of National Imaging Associates, Inc. (NIA), an affiliate of Magellan Health, Inc., has implemented a new imaging privileging process.
On this page you will find Highmark Delaware's privileging requirements and online application instructions.
If you perform diagnostic imaging services and would like to apply to become a privileged provider, you must complete the online Highmark Delaware Privileging Application.
Highmark Delaware requires that all network providers comply with the terms and conditions of their contracts and meet the applicable requirements for performing imaging services. Highmark Delaware has established privileging requirements for providers who bill for imaging services in an outpatient setting.
Written appeals must be requested in writing within 60 days of receiving a denial letter.
Appeals and accompanying documentation should be faxed to 866-552-7589 (This fax number is intended for NIA Magellan application appeals only. Claim denial appeals should NOT be faxed to this number).
The Highmark Delaware Privileging Appeal Hearing Panel will review all submitted documentation and issue a written decision that includes a statement of the basis for the decision, within 60 days of receipt of your appeal.


The concept German literature -- 18th century -- History and criticism represents the subject, aboutness, idea or notion of resources found in Boston University Libraries.
Geist der Goethezeit versuch einer Ideel en Entwicklung der klassisch-romantischen Literaturgeschichte,, von H.A. Korff ..


Starting April 13, 2018, Disney's Contemporary Resort will introduce a brand-new, playful and immersive Pixar character experience as part of a pilot program. Each night, kids, ages 4-12, will be transported to a world full of excitement and adventure with their favorite characters from Disney•Pixar's "Toy Story" and "The Incredibles"! It all kicks off with Space Ranger Training where kids will learn how to identify and battle enemies of the Star Command. Then, Woody and Jessie will show them the ropes of the Wild West during Woody's Roundup. During the Piston Cup Challenge, youngsters will be able to build a race car, then race it on the Radiator Springs Racetrack. And finally, kids will learn some sweet dance moves during the Incredible Dance Party with Mr. Incredible and Mrs. Incredible. What else is on the menu? Games, dinner and dessert, of course! The nightly getaway for kids, ages 4-12, will open doors for registration at 5 p.m. and programming will run from 6-10:30 p.m. for a fee of $65 per child (plus tax). Children must be fully toilet-trained. While the kids play, parents can enjoy their own getaway throughout Walt Disney World® Resort. Stay tuned for more details and reservation information in the coming days!


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"We deliver vegan, safe, reliable, and cruelty-free products to support every phase of the motherhood journey."
- MARY LAWLESS LEE
Made and Tested by Moms
Our founder, a mother of two and former ICU nurse understood the need for nēmah firsthand. She listened to moms, who opened up about their struggles and successes of motherhood. She then developed products with sustainability and efficacy at the forefront, wanting mothers to experience intentionally designed products that support a toxin-free lifestyle.
OUR BANNED LIST
Made by Mom, For Mom.
Our founder, a mother of two and former ICU nurse understood the need for nēmah firsthand. She listened to moms, who opened up about their tests, triumphs, struggles and successes. She then developed products with sustainability and efficacy at the forefront. She wants all mothers to experience intentionally created products that support a toxin-free lifestyle.
NO PETROLATUM
NO FORMALDEHYDE
NO OXYBENZONE
NO DYE
NO TRICLOSAN & TRICLOCARBAN
The Ingredients We Trust
Fensebiome™
Vanistryl®
Actisoothe®
Antarcticine®
Lipomoist™ 2013
From our family to yours.
We source ingedients from the best of science and nature. Each one-of-a-kind product is dermatologist approved, and tested by a diverse group of moms, including our founder.
We banned over 3,000 ingredients
We hold ourselves to strict standards by developing our products in Europe where 1,400 ingredients are banned (compared to fewer than 50 in the U.S.) We eliminated over 3,000 known toxins across our product range. Our formulas are developed with integrity and made with clinically proven ingredients that are suitable for all skin types.
THE BANNED INGREDIENT LIST
Potential Skin Irritant
Can cause Cancer, endocrine disruption, developmental and reproductive toxicity, organ system toxicity, irritation, ecotoxicity
Butylated compounds (BHA and BHT) - Concerns about organ-system toxicity and endocrine disruption led the European Union to prohibit the preservative butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) from cosmetics
No animal testing is performed on our products or ingredients during production. Nemah is proud to be Leaping Bunny Certified globally
Ethanolamines
Ethanolamines are present in many consumer products ranging from cosmetics, personal care products and household cleaning products. Both have been linked to liver tumors. The European Commission prohibits diethanolamine (DEA) in cosmetics, to reduce contamination from carcinogenic nitrosamines. [1]
Formaldehyde (and formaldehyde-releasing preservatives)
Used in many personal care products,[1] particularly in shampoos and liquid baby soaps. These chemicals, which help prevent microbes from growing in water-based products, can be absorbed through the skin and have been linked to cancer and allergic skin reactions.
A byproduct of the oil refinery process, this petroleum-based product can contain harmful cancer-causing chemicals and is banned in the EU. In health and beauty products, it's typically used to lock in moisture, soften the skin and improve skin barrier function.
Parabens are unnecessary preservatives that extend the shelf life of health and beauty products. Some are linked to skin and breast cancer, reproductive toxicity, hormone disruption, and development disruption.
Petrolatum and Paraffin
This can contain harmful cancer-causing chemicals and is banned in the EU. In health and beauty products, it's typically used to lock in moisture, soften the skin and improve skin barrier function.
Pronounced THAL-ates, these chemicals, which are linked to endocrine disruption, developmental and reproductive toxicity, and cancer, have been banned from cosmetics in the European Union, but still remain prevalent in U.S. products.
Resorcinol is commonly used in hair dyes and acne medication. In higher doses it is toxic and can disrupt the function of the central nervous system and lead to respiratory problems. It has also been shown to disrupt the endocrine system, specifically thyroid function.
Synthetic fragrance
May be shown as 'fragrance' or 'perfume' in ingredient lists, these fragrances can contain untested chemicals including hormone disruptors, allergens, heavy metals and more. Added fragrance can also lead to skin irritation in those with sensitive skin.
Some talc may contain the known carcinogen asbestos, therefore it should be avoided in powders and other personal care products, unless it is known to be asbestos-free. Even asbestos-free talc should be avoided in the pelvic areas.
Toluene is a toxic chemical used in in nail products and hair dyes. Exposure to toluene can result in temporary effects such as headaches, dizziness and cracked skin, as well as more serious effects such as reproductive damage and respiratory complications.
Triclosan and triclocarban are commonly used antimicrobial agents found in many soaps and detergents. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention has identified triclosan in the urine of 75 percent people tested. Widespread use with few regulations has led to concerns regarding their effects on humans and the environment, such as endocrine disruption, bioaccumulation, and the emergence of bacteria resistant to antibodies and antibacterial products.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Le cabinet Brandt () peut désigner ces gouvernements allemands :

le cabinet Brandt I, au pouvoir entre 1969 et 1972 ;
 le cabinet Brandt II, au pouvoir entre 1972 et 1974.

le sénat Brandt I, au pouvoir entre 1957 et 1959 ;
 le sénat Brandt II, au pouvoir entre 1959 et 1963 ;
 le sénat Brandt III, au pouvoir entre 1963 et 1966.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Two years ago, the Narendra Modi administration attempted to put some focus on quality in higher education with its introduction of draft regulations for a new initiative called the UGC (Declaration of Government Educational Institutions as World Class Institutions) Guidelines, 2016. By 2018, when the first six institutions were named under this initiative, they were designated as "Institutions of Eminence" as opposed to "world class institutions".
Although the label has been changed, the intent remains the same. That is to give considerable discretion to and elevate the status of these institutions. This is not necessarily a bad thing. But it will do little to address the underlying problems of higher education in India.
That's not to say that India does not need world class institutions of higher education. It is to say that, more importantly, India, needs a world-class higher education system. A world-class higher education system is one that is student- or customer-centred rather than institution-centred. It comprises certified and caring institutions that have the resources required and the core mission of ensuring that students/customers acquire the knowledge/skills/abilities and dispositions that they need to achieve their individual goals and to maximise their contribution to society.
India's current system has been almost exactly the opposite of that. The emphasis has been primarily on a select group of institutions and individuals rather than embracing and addressing the needs of the whole.
- Increase public financing. The federal and state governments currently provide limited funding for higher education. As a result, over 70 percent of the higher education institutions are operated by the private sector. These institutions are not well regulated and are of highly variable quality. Public sector financing could be used to support existing public institutions and to establish new ones in regions in which there are limited higher educational opportunities.
- Enhance the infrastructure. Colleges and universities throughout India have inadequate physical settings, lack equipment, and suffer from a shortage of competent teachers. Ensuring that each higher educational institution is infrastructurally sound establishes the proper environment for learning and growth.
- Expand access to and participation in higher education. The enrollment in higher education is approximately 15 per cent of the eligible population. This percentage needs to be much higher for India to be considered and to become a developed or developing country. It also needs to be representative of the entire population, including females, those from the weaker sectors, and rural areas.
- Enforce standards and requirements appropriately. The announced replacement of the University Grants Commission (UGC) with the Higher Education Commission of India (HECI) created considerable debate within and outside of the educational community. The essential question regardless of whether there is an UGC, HECI or some other agency with an acronym must be: Is the proper data being collected and used to monitor performance and ensure accountability for each institution in the higher education system?
- Place an emphasis on vocational education. The higher education system must meet the needs of potential employers and prospective employees. Currently, there is a mismatch. The higher educational system must equip itself to be the provider of first resort and give the country the skilled workforce it requires.
There are many other steps that must be taken, such as addressing politicians controlling many educational institutions, to make India's higher education system world class. But there must be only one mindset. That mindset must be that the country's higher education system must be restructured, redesigned, and renewed in a way that benefits all of India and all Indians.


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Massive military drills underway in Iran's southern waters
Tasnim – The Army of the Islamic Republic of Iran on Thursday started a massive military maneuver dubbed "Zolfaqar" in the country's southern waters and in international waters.
Deputy Coordinator of the Army Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari announced that the main stages of the "Zolfaqar" joint exercise will continue for three days.
He pointed out that the exercise will be carried out in three stages: intelligence, tactics, and demonstration of power.
The main stages of the exercise are being attended by units of the Navy, Air Force, and Army Ground Forces and carried out in an area of two million square kilometers in the eastern waters of the Strait of Hormuz, Makran coast, Oman Sea and North Indian Ocean.
Warships, submarines, aircraft and some equipment and weapons belonging to the Army Combat Organization have been employed in this exercise.
The homegrown submarine Fateh and Simorgh drone are among the main equipment being used in the exercise.
Iran's Army, Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari, Zolfaqar-99 drill	September 10, 2020
Iranian diplomat meets Afghan, UN officials in Kabul
President opens 58 development projects across Iran


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text:
title: Fourth Post
date: 2012-12-07
layout: post.html
---

A really short, rushed-feeling string of words.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


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Part of HuffPost Black Voices. ©2020 Verizon Media. All rights reserved.
Olivia A. Cole, Contributor
Author, blogger, and bigmouth.
Why I'm Not Here for #WhiteGirlsRock
The Black Girls Rock! Foundation was founded in 2006 as an organization dedicated to the empowerment of young women of color; a foundation committed to helping black and brown girls overcome the myriad of obstacles a misogynoiristic society places squarely in front of them. The Black Girls Rock! Awards are now featured on BET as a way of recognizing role models, encouraging teachings of self worth, and emphasizing the talents of extraordinary women of color who are otherwise unseen in American media.
Let me emphasize that last part. "Women of color who are otherwise unseen in American media." We need Black Girls Rock! because black girls and women are almost invisible in American media. Because if you were a black girl growing up in this country, watching TV and movies and reading magazines like every other kid, looking for some representation of yourself as something beautiful or heroic, you would be sorely disappointed.
Black Girls Rock! is necessary because when you Google "beautiful women," this is what you see.
Because when you look at the covers of Vogue, this is what you see.
Because when Vanity Fair printed their Hollywood issue, they put the black actresses on the back cover.
Because when a dark-skinned woman is put on the cover of a magazine, this is what is done to her.
Because Pixar has never made a movie featuring a black cartoon character.
Because a black actress has never won a drama series Lead Actress Emmy. (Although Kerry Washington will change that, I am certain.)
Because in 39 years, only three black women have been part of the cast of SNL.
Because, until Scandal, the only real place you could find black women in leading roles on television was The Real Housewives of _______.
Because the "first black Disney Princess" was a frog for 95 percent of the movie.
I could go on. But I think you get the gist. What it comes down to is that black girls are missing representations of themselves in positive contexts. When they turn on the TV, they are missing. When they are looking at the cover of magazines like Vogue and Elle, they are missing. When they go to the movie theater, they are missing. For black women's faces to appear in mainstream films, it seems they must be either wearing a maid's apron or chains. So when Black Girls Rock! appears on the scene, ready to uplift and empower the girls who are so tragically neglected in American media, ready to showcase women of color who are smart and fun and beautiful and accomplished and positive, I am so here for it.
But let me tell you what I'm not here for.
I'm not here for #WhiteGirlsRock. The hashtag appeared on Twitter in an apparent response to Black Girls Rock! that aired on Sunday night with typical nonsense such as:
It's funny that if this hashtag was #WhiteGirlsRock instead of #BlackGirlsRock it would be considered RACIST.
— Liberal Tolerantist (@DPRFOZ) November 4, 2013
How the fuck is there a #BlackGirlsRock show? If there was a #WhiteGirlsRock, black people would fucking riot.
— T. Roberts (@JustKickinIttt) November 4, 2013
Let me tell you something, white folks. From one white person to another.
You are in everything. 99 percent of Hollywood movies feature your faces. 99 percent of magazine covers are covered in you. The Emmy Awards and Oscars are almost entirely you. If you Google "beautiful people" the screen is covered in white faces. Black girls (and boys) are taught from birth that there is one version of beauty, and it is you. Many black girls go their entire lives thinking they are ugly, thinking they need to be lighter, straighter, whiter in order to have value. Everything that you see every day that reaffirms your whiteness; every commercial that has a nice white lady embodying the perfect "mom;" every magazine that has blue eyes and bone-straight hair; every Hollywood blockbuster that has a leading lady with skin never darker than Halle Berry... all of these things are reinforcements of your identity that you take for granted.
You may be fat. You may have hair that curls up at the ends. You may even have acne. But your face is everywhere. Your people are everywhere. What in your heart recoils when you see Black Girls Rock? What bone in your body sees empowerment for black girls and thinks "that's not fair"? Where is your bitterness rooted? What do you think has been taken from you when women of color are uplifted?
All of the things you take for granted are what you're protecting when you shout down Black Girls Rock: your whiteness, the system that upholds your face as the supreme standard of beauty, your place in the center of a culture that demands people of color remain hidden in the margins, present but only barely and never overshadowing the white hero/heroine. Your discomfort with black girls who rock tells me that you prefer the status quo: you prefer for black faces to remain hidden, you prefer for America's heroes to have white faces, you prefer for black actresses to wear aprons and chains.
This is not to say that white girls don't rock. I'm white. I kind of rock. But this conversation isn't about you, it isn't about us. Why must everything always be about us? It doesn't have to be. And it shouldn't be. From one white person to another... please sit down. Queen Latifah is on and you're blocking the screen.
Olivia Cole writes a blog at oliviaacole.wordpress.com.
Black Voices Black Girls Rock Race


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Q: One Keyboard Key Not Functioning Few weeks ago I noticed that the 'p' key was not functioning normally. Since then I have had to press the key progressively harder for a 'p' to appear on the screen. Now it has stopped working. The last attempts (last 2 days), I pressed the key so hard that it could potentially have broken the keyboard.
I am now using the on-screen virtual keyboard to typppppppppppppppppppppppppe the 'ppppppppppppppppp' but this is exactly what happpppppppppppppppppppppppens when I click only once(!!) on the virtual keyboard's 'pppppppppppppppppppp' key.  Maybe this strange result is a clue to the cause of the ppppppppppppproblem ?
PLEASE HELP

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


To Tunni on the "Ships starting with T" page.
Built in Sliedrecht in 1919.
According to the external page that I've linked to above, she was delivered in June-1919 as Duivendrecht to N.V. Maats Kustvaart (Van Ommeren), Rotterdam. Owned from 1923 by W. Biesterfeld Reederei & Schiffs Gmbh., Hamburg, renamed Louise Tiemann. From 1924, sailed as Bratholm for Skibs A/S Bratholm (G. Gabrielsen), Farsund. From May-1932, owned by A/S Joachim (J.M. Johannessen), Farsund, renamed Tunni.
My page Merchant Marine Prisoners of War has the names of Tunni's other Norwegian officers. I believe the majority of her crew was Chinese.
It'll be noticed, when going to Page 1 above, that Tunni appears to have had a long stay in Hong Kong in the fall of 1940.
Tunni was scuttled at Sourabaya on March 2-1942 (possibly March 3) - my page about Prominent has some background history.
Tunni had had a cargo of sugar on board since the middle of Jan.-1942, intended for the Persian Gulf, but she was held back by the authorities, possibly because the Americans wanted her for military transport to the Philippines. According to Page 2, she had arrived Sourabaya on Jan. 6.
The captain was later told through the ship's agents Hodden & Co. that she would be controlled by the Dutch Government, who wished the captain and officers to remain on board. However, at the end of Febr. it was determined at a meeting of all captains that all the ships at Sourabaya were to be scuttled to keep them from falling into Japanese hands, as any attempts to leave seemed hopeless. At another meeting on March 1 it was decided that Tunni was to be scuttled at 05:00 on March 3. On the day of this meeting all officers and crew were taken off the ship by Dutch Naval personnel. This happened without previous warning, so nobody was able to save any of their personal belongings. By then the destruction of the harbour had already begun and it was in flames after oil and gasoline tanks had been blown up, resulting in burning oil flowing into the harbour, so they had to get ashore as quickly as they could. Therefore, none of Tunni's complement actually saw her being scuttled because access to the harbour was prohibited.
With the help of the Swedish Consulate at Sourabaya all stranded Norwegian seamen were accommodated at a house there, but were later placed in internment camps (from Dec. 12-1943?). My POWs page has the names of her Norwegian officers. Her chief engineer, Albert Albrigtsen died while interned. He's commemorated at the memorial for seamen in Stavern, Norway, see the link below. According to "Våre falne", a series of 4 books naming Norwegians who lost their lives during the war, he died of dysentery on Apr. 9-1945 (on Java).
Stavern Memorial commemoration - Chief Engineer Albert Albrigtsen is commemorated.
Back to Tunni on the "Ships starting with T" page.
The text on this page was compiled with the help of: "Nortraships flåte", J. R. Hegland, "Sjøforklaringer fra 2. verdenskrig", Vol II - (ref. My sources).


but where you download the stickers for TrackMania Nations Forever?
how to create stickers TrackMania Nations Forever ???????????
Re: Stickers -How/Where to Create/Download?
...try the forums of TM Creative, Here & TM Carpark ...They are 3 sites right there to browse for stickers or ask for collections etc.


Why Is Coal Conveyed In Conveyer Belts. How to Increase Conveyor Capacity - womp-int. How to Increase Conveyor Capacity Start by . the cost of material transportation per ton conveyed.
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A gentle seawater-based exfoliating cream containing pumice and pearl crystals to refine skin surface and promote cellular turnover. Fortified with antioxidants and organic essential oils, this exfoliator will leave your skin smoother and more radiant.
It's gentle, first and foremost, but does what you would expect of an exfoliator. The blend of essential oils make it an experience that will remind you of 23 shades of vanilla, grapefruit, orange, and a tiny hint of peppermint. It is the Goldilocks blend…not too much – not too little – just right.
Now, you'll find this information in our ingredient section but we wanted to also get it up front here on center stage. Have you heard of micro-plastics? These are tiny spherical particles of polyethylene also referred to as micro-beads, and are often used in cosmetics and toothpastes. These little guys are bad news for everyone. So small, they pass right through municipal water systems, ending up back in the environment and our oceans. The worst part is, they almost never disappear. Sadly, these man-made elements are beginning to make their way into our food-chain. Read more about this important issue in this piece done by NPR and researcher Dr. Sherri A. Mason, a professor of chemistry at the State University of New York, Fredonia.
We don't use micro-plastics. Ocean Rescue formulas, in particular our exfoliants, use only natural ground pearl and pumice crystals, never artificial poly-anything. We are also working on bamboo exfoliants. We'll let you know as soon as they are introduced.
Two to three times a week after nighttime cleansing. Massage into face and neck using small circular movements. For sensitive skin, dilute with water. Rinse thoroughly and continue with toning mist, serum, and moisturizer of choice. May also be used with a mask for a weekly home spa treatments.
Isotonic seawater, algae extracts, butyrospermum parkii (shea butter), micro pearl crystals, fine pumice, and allantoin. Fortified with carrageenan red algae and scented with natural citrus oils.


There is so much to do and explore in the Horse Capital of the World, from sophisticated cuisine, to quaint Southern Charm, eclectic boutiques, quirky arts scene, live music every night of the week, equestrian events and memorabilia, walking and biking trails, public gardens, arts & theatre … Lexington KY is a destination that will delight and intrigue you.
Please let us know if you need additional helpful information or recommendations when staying in Lexington. We encourage you to call our office (859.273.3303) if you have any questions regarding upcoming events in Lexington.
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Feb. 1, 2022 Recent Transactions and Cases
Summary Judgment Granted in Lawsuit to Recover Liquidated Damages
On December 22, 2021, Judge Arlene Bluth of the Supreme Court of the State of New York, County of New York granted Kane Kessler's cross motion for summary judgment, awarding damages, costs, and attorney's fees in a dispute between two Manhattan property owners over the enforceability of a liquidated damages provision. The Court rejected defendant's arguments challenging the enforceability of the liquidated damages provision, finding unpersuasive, among other things, defendant's argument that actual damages were readily ascertainable. The Court also found that defendant failed to show that the provision, which required defendant to pay $500 for each day of noncompliance, was grossly disproportionate. In its Decision and Order, the Court awarded plaintiff the liquidated damages, plus pre-judgment interest, costs, and attorney's fees.
The attorneys for the Firm who represented the plaintiff property owner were S. Reid Kahn and David A. Gold of the firm's Litigation Department. See 600 Broadway Partners LLC v. 598 Broadway Realty Associates, Inc., No. 653679/2020 (Sup. Ct. New York Cnty.) (Bluth, J.) (NYSCEF No. 106).


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The city so full nobody can breathe
When Mongolia established its modern incarnation in 1992 after the fall of the Soviet Union, over half of its population lived as nomads who derived their primary income from herding. These nomads lived in tents with canvas walls and buckled down for the occasional harsh winter. It was one of the least densely populated countries in the world, with just 1.2 million people living in urban areas, and Ulaanbaatar, the nation's capital, had a population of just 606,000.
That's all changed, except for the yurts. Desertification as a result of climate change has driven Mongolia's herders to abandon their nomadic lifestyle and set up their gers --- the squat, one-room tents originally made to be dismantled and moved to enable a nomadic lifestyle --- permanently on the outskirts of Mongolia's cities. The resulting districts have had disastrous consequences for the country's air quality, mainly due to the fact that gers are heated by individual coal-burning stoves.
Ulaanbaatar has been hit hardest: 600,000 domestic migrants have taken up residence since 1992, and almost 60 percent of the city's residents now live in the ger district, with 200,000 gers burning an estimated 600,000 tons of coal every winter. The resulting smog accounts for 80 percent of the capital's air pollution emissions.
That's according to a 2017 report by the Mongolian National Agency for Meteorology and Environment Monitoring. Today, the IQ Air live rankings found it to be the world's fifth most polluted city. Mongolia emits just a tiny percentage of the world's carbon --- .07 percent compared to the United States' 13.77 percent --- but for its residents, Ulaanbaatar's pollution is an enormous problem.
Not only is Ulaanbaatar home to the country's largest ger district, but it is also now home to 47 percent of Mongolia's total population. With almost half of the population subjected to the smog that blankets Ulaanbaatar every winter, the cost to the country's health system is considerable --- and growing. Figures released by UNICEF say air pollution--related diseases in children cost the city's public health services $4.8 million in 2016. When the cost to adults is factored in, the figure rises to $8.5 million, accounting for 4.6 percent of Ulaanbaatar's entire annual health care budget. Over the past decade, respiratory infections have risen by 270 percent. Children in Ulaanbaatar have 40 percent lower lung function than those in the countryside. By comparison, growing up in a house with a smoker can reduce a child's lung function by 20 percent.
Steps are being taken to find solutions, but results are varied. UNICEF helps ensure "that the health sector is well prepared for winter season to manage the overwhelming number of sick children and pregnant women" by providing training to health care professionals and ensuring medicine is readily available, says UNICEF Mongolia representative Alex Heikens. The government has outlawed the burning of raw coal and plans are in place to sell 600,000 cleaner burning charcoal briquettes to the residents of Mongolia's ger districts every winter. Critics argue the former is almost impossible to police and the latter difficult to sell.
Last year, UNICEF's Office of Innovation invited a number of companies and experts to help modernize Mongolia's gers. As part of the project, outdoor clothing company Arc'teryx used its expertise in insulation and design to limit the amount of coal needed for warmth by making them better insulated. "The current ger community get the issues they face in using a ger as a permanent place of residence, as opposed to one eminently suited to a nomadic way of life," says Patrick Fitzsimmons, design developer for tooling and machines at Arc'teryx. "The prevalence of outdoor insulation ... indicates a basic understanding of the nature of the problem, but the solutions in play are, at best, stopgap."
Efforts by UNICEF, private companies like Arc'teryx and Mongolian authorities are in the early stages and have so far been slow to show signs of progress. According to the National Statistics Office of Mongolia, average monthly readings for PM10 (airborne particle matter with less than 10 microns), PM2.5 and sulphur dioxide levels in Mongolia's capital increased from 2018 to 2019. "Pollution levels seem to have leveled off, and may even be improving slightly," says Ryan Allen, professor in environmental health at Simon Fraser University. "But concentrations remain several times higher than international guidelines, particularly in winter, so without unprecedented improvements in air quality, this is going to remain a public health crisis for the foreseeable future."
As the ger districts swell and expand as even more herders abandon the nomadic way of life in favor of permanence, the people of Mongolia's cities, particularly the young, will continue to face the consequences. The issue may be a seasonal one, but the effects on the country's collective health will likely be felt year-round for generations to come.
© 2015 Klean Industries Inc. All Rights Reserved.


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Japan to Dispatch Expert Team to Russian Kurils to Look Into New Mutual Projects
© Sputnik / Alexander Liskin
https://sputniknews.com/russia/201709201057540903-tokyo-japan-kuril-islands-cooperation/
Japan looks forward to envoy its public representatives to the Kuril Islands in a hope to establish new economic cooperation between Moscow and Tokyo as Japanese authorities believe that this step might pave the ultimate way toward signing the bilateral peace treaty.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Tokyo will send a joint team of public and private sector representatives to the Kuril Islands to look into opportunities for the new Russia-Japan economic activities in the near future, Japanese Foreign Ministry's Press Secretary Norio Maruyama told Sputnik on Tuesday.
"We will send a joint team again to the Northern Island not so far away from now … There are five areas decided by both leaders so we need to go again to check it on the local basis what kind of new joint activities can be done. So, the private and public sectors both together will visit again the four islands to find out what way we can proceed at these five areas," Maryuama said on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York on Tuesday.
The spokesman noted that during Putin's visit to Japan in 2016, the sides agreed that they need to develop a new approach in their relations in order to move forward and opted for a strategy on economic cooperation.
"Prime Minister Abe visited Vladivostok and had a meeting with president Putin and they identified five areas for joint economic cooperation. We are going to concretize this project but at the same time we need to have some kind of understanding of how we can not abandon our legal position but how we can go directly to these important economic activities and in doing this we can apply step by step approach to the peace treaty," Maryuama said.
© Sputnik / Grigoriy Sisoev
Japanese Prime Minister Calls to Carve Out New Era in Japan-Russia Relations
The Japanese official underlined that the joint approach on the Northern Kuril Island might pave the way toward the bilateral peace treaty.
"Our position is that without having solved the question of the belonging of the four islands we can never sign the peace treaty. So we can do something with this new approach for the Northern Island and we consider that this new approach might pave the way for the treaty," Maryuama added.
Earlier in September, Abe expressed hope that the strengthening of mutual trust in Japan-Russia relations will eventually result in the signing of the peace treaty between the two counties. The Japanese prime minister noted that the gradual implementation of the Russian-Japanese cooperation plan contributes to the increase of trust between Tokyo and Moscow, as demonstrated by joint projects in medicine and urban development.
© Sputnik / Ekaterina Chesnokova
Russia, Japan Plan to Coordinate Joint Economic Projects in Southern Kurils
The decision to establish joint economic activities on the disputed islands, namely Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and Habomai, was reached during Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to Japan in December 2016. In March, then-Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida handed over to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov Tokyo's proposals on joint economic activities.
The Kuril Islands are the subject of a long-standing territorial dispute between Russia and Japan. The latter lays claims to Kunashir, Iturup, Shikotan islands and the Habomai group of islets. The dispute has prevented Moscow and Tokyo from signing a peace treaty after World War II.
Russian President Putin, Japanese PM Abe Hold Joint Presser (VIDEO)
Russia, Japan to Sign 40 Deals at Eastern Economic Forum
Russian Wealth Fund RDIF, Japanese Bank JBIC to Buy Stake in Russian Pharma Firm
Japanese Group Calls for Simplified Visas to Promote Tourism in Russian Far East
cooperation, development, economy, peace treaty, disputed islands, United Nations General Assembly, Vladimir Putin, Shinzo Abe, Kuril Islands, Japan, Russia


Jada Pinkett Smith is back with her hugely successful Facebook talk show, Red Table Talk, along with her mother, Adrienne Banfield Norris and daughter, Willow Smith.
The Girls Trip star dropped the trailer for the upcoming season on Saturday, filled with clips of a wide range of guests and topics. Though the trailer only gives a glimpse of what we can expect for the October 22 premiere, the show will again tackle important conversations with an introspective spin from the three hosts along with a bevy of special guests.
Guest appearances from Will Smith, actresses, Ellen Pompeo and Leah Remini are slated to appear to add a colorful perspective on the topics at hand. With 13 episodes this season, here are some topics they touch on as well as some we hope they explore/revisit.
Will Smith appears in the beginning clip where he and Jada seemingly discuss their views on marriage. "We don't even consider ourselves married anymore," they say as Willow and Adrienne look on in disbelief. Will they talk about the "open-marriage," rumors that have circulated their relationship for years?
A longer clip from the upcoming episode recounts a dark period in their marriage where Will says he watched Jada cry for 45 days straight.
"He started hitting me and he was in a rage," Banfield Norris says at one point during the trailer. Banfield Norris, also known as "gammy," has been very open about her past romantic relationships and how she came to find her self-worth as a recovered addict. While the relationship she's referring to is unclear, a very emotional Jada looks on.
In one portion of the new trailer, Jada shares that she's dated "a lot of people." Her candid Instagram videos about love and acceptance makes us wonder if she will give us more details on her romantic past and how she found her path in overcoming heartbreak.
Actress Leah Remini appears in the trailer where they discuss Scientology and how her job to bring people into the fold. Along with whispers of having an open-marriage, the Smith's were also once labeled as Scientologists. Will the family confirm or deny the rumors or is this roundtable a deeper discussion about religion in general?
Last season's episode on addiction featured singer August Alsina, Banfield Norris and Will Smith's sister, Ashley Marie, as they talked about their personal struggles with substance abuse. In one clip of the new season, Jada's brother, Caleeb Pinkett, appears to recount watching his father's addiction struggles. Will this upcoming season delve more into this topic as substance and addiction in Black households becomes a more open discussion?
Last season the ladies of Red Table Talk had a very frank conversation about body perception and the struggles they overcame to accept themselves as they are. However, will the group openly delve into plastic surgery and how it is becoming more accepted across Black Hollywood and in Black America?
Actress Ellen Pompeo takes a seat at the Red Table Talk in what looks like a conversation on race relations. The Grey's Anatomy star is in an interracial marriage with her husband Chris Ivey, and will hopefully expand upon what she has learned in raising three Black children in America, and what she has taught them.
Activist Jane Elliott also appears on one episode in the upcoming season to have a in-depth discussion on her decades long work in education and anti-racism.
While acts of sexual violence and assault remain at the center of the national conversation, will the women of Red Table Talk open up about their own personal journeys regarding what the word "consent" means and how to approach the subject in your household with your family and children?
While many enjoyed the blended-family conversation between Jada and Will's ex-wife Sheree Zampino last season, will Jada and her mother Adrienne open up more about what they've learned in how to mother adult children and tips for anyone going through the process? Or will they bring in celebrity guests to talk about raising children and balancing a career?
14. 38th Annual Kennedy Center Honors' on CBS.


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var forkJoin_1 = require('../../observable/forkJoin');
Observable_1.Observable.forkJoin = forkJoin_1.forkJoin;
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I recently spoke with Erik Troan about a topic he's passionate about: bringing version control concepts and tools to IT Operations. Below is the lightly edited transcript of the highlights of the conversation.
Erik Troan is the Founder and CTO of rPath. Erik previously served in various roles at Red Hat including Vice President of Product Engineering, Senior Director of Marketing, and chief developer for Red Hat Software. You might also know him as one of the two original engineers who wrote RPM.
You were one of the original engineers who wrote RPM. Since your RPM days, how has your thinking about the role of version control in operations evolved?
RPM was originally written to let two guys in an apartment build a Linux distribution without losing their minds. We really focused on the build side. Pristine source and patches were very important to us. The idea of sets of packages was not important to us. Probably the biggest shift as I started working with large companies and large deployments — originally at Red Hat and now with rPath — package management wasn't about moving around individual packages, it was about installing a consistent set of software on machines and making sure those machines stayed consistent. So that's where this idea of strong system version control came from.
It's interesting to have a version of a package but it's more interesting to be able to have a version of a deployed system. One helps the developers at a Linux distribution shop and the other helps systems administrators out in the wild. When you look at how RPM dependencies work, dependencies are solved against whatever packages happens to be newest (which can change tomorrow) while tools in the version control universe solve dependencies against a versioned repository with richer and finer grain dependency discovery and resolution. When you look at version control from that perspective, you get a sys admin tool rather than a developer tool.
Version control for system definitions is one piece of the scheme — you still have to have configuration, orchestration, and orchestration processes around that. But version control is a great underpinning to all of that because your orchestration tools and your configuration tools get smarter as you have consistent sets of software on client boxes and a consistent way to maintain those over time. It's the difference between puppet making sure apache is installed and it making sure the right version of apache is installed along with the system components that apache has been validated against. You put puppet policies into a version control system; shouldn't configuration versioning be matched by a version control system for provisioning software?
From a modern software development point of view, keeping everything in version control is almost a forgone conclusion. However, in IT Operations the role of version control systems is fairly new and the use of version control systems is an underused strategy. Why do you think that is?
I think that version control is a response to complexity. If you go back 30 years who would use version control for software development? The guys who built UNIX used it. People at IBM used it a little bit. But most people had a directory full of source code and they just lived with it. In the 80's, source code became complicated. Projects became bigger. All of a sudden you had a whole bunch of fingers in the pot and things were changing all the time. You needed the ability to understand what was going on. To track what was going on. To do bisection when something broke – discover when it broke? Which patch broke it? All of this really just arose out of the complexity of source code development.
I think you are seeing the same thing happen in the IT arena. Again, if you go back to the 80's, minicomputers had just come out and people only had three computers to maintain. That's just not that hard. Then the 90's come along and people had 25 or 30 Sun machines to maintain. In today's world, people have tens of thousands of machines to maintain. I don't talk to very many companies now who have fewer than 5,000 machines. They have them in cloud environments, datacenters, virtual environments — just the sheer complexity and scale of that is making version control an important part of the process. It lets you ask questions like "how is this machine configured today?", "how is it going to be tomorrow?", "how is it different than it was yesterday?". It adds that time dimension to systems management so you understand where you are, how you got there, and where you are going next. That's really what version control is all about. And then of course the ability to go backwards — if something breaks, how can I undo that and get back to something that worked?
Just logging into a box and changing the software stack or its configuration is an idea whose time has passed.
What is the value of using version control in an operational environment from an individual's point of view? What's the value from an organizational point of view?
One of the things I should emphasize is when we talk about version control we are really talking about a version control system — the whole system for how you do version control. You can think about it like CVS or Subversion. As an individual systems administrator, I can log into a box and see what version of what software is on the box, which you can do with something like RPM. But I should also be able to see what version of the entire manifest is on there. So instead just versioning individual packages, you've versioned a set of packages. If box #1 and box #2 are running the same manifest version, then I know that the boxes are probably the same. Having the version numbers of 1000 RPMs is information overload; simplifying that to a version number of the complete system manifest simplifies things and makes them comprehensible.
But you also want to do things like tell how a system is different from the version that is supposed to be on there. So you can go to the box and say show me how you are different from the manifest that is on this box? Or, there's a new manifest — show me how this system differs from that new manifest. The other thing you can do is say that this box is broken — it was working yesterday but it is not working today — let me look to my version history and know exactly what has changed. What packages have changed? What configuration files have changed? Who made the changes? This box needs to be online right now so let me undo those changes — go back in time and put the box back to how it was. So this idea of being able to examine forward, move backwards, and having all of your configurations and everything else under a version control system is really a strong tool in a system admin's quiver.
On the enterprise or departmental level, this really becomes valuable by enabling automation. The Visible Ops handbook certainly talks a lot about the idea of a Definitive Software Library, which is a versioned repository where all of your software comes from. The reason it does that is for all of the software artifacts that are going on machines in your infrastructure you want to know where they came from and how they got there. You want to be able to go back and say "I need to know everywhere this version of SSL is running because there is a security hole in the library". Version control systems let me ask that kind of question. For automation, version control becomes critical. If you are deploying 1,000 machines you're not deploying 1,000 individual machines. You're deploying 1,000 cookie cutter machines. If they are all the same, then that definition ought to be in a version control system so you can view that definition over time and understand how it has changed — from yesterday to today to tomorrow. Not to mention deploy another 1000 next week that are exact replicas of the last 1000.
Version control systems also bring structure and predictability to the release lifecycle. Systems can be easily and consistently recreated as the system moves through the development, test and production lifecycle and it eliminates the risk of configuration drift as the system progresses through those stages.
Like all ideas in technology, I'm sure there are those who will come out on the other side of this issue. What are some of the arguments you hear against the idea of advanced usage of version control in operations or objections as to why it won't work in their specific situation?
There's really two arguments. One of which is "that's not the way we do it now… what we do now is OK… it's too hard to change and we just don't want to do it". I get that a lot — just that inertia — people don't want to change their systems. The other argument you get is "every machine we have is different so we can't make our machines the same… every artifact is different so why would you version control them?" My answer to that is if you have 1,000 machines in your business and they are all different then you are doing something extremely wrong. Your version control system can help you understand why they are different. It can represent why they are different. But it can also help you eliminate those differences.
And then there is also just the prioritization — "how much of a priority is this?" and "do we have other things we need to solve today?". It's unusual to talk to anyone who says that using version control to deploy systems is a bad idea. It's just finding the people who feel like it's problem that they have to solve right now because they have a compliance issue, or a repeatability issue, or an automation issue. In IT, it's the problems that get fixed. You don't do a lot of things without a problem to solve.
How would you go to a company's executive-level management and explain that they need to be dedicating resources to bringing strong version control practices to their operations?
A lot of this comes down to cost control or reduction. Everywhere I look the number of servers under management is growing. Virtualization is putting four managed instances on each physical box. Cloud technologies are provisioning new instances in thirty seconds; each of those needs to be managed. Most shops try to hold a constant ratio of machines per sysadmin. If you let the number of instances grow by five times thanks to virtualization and cloud, are you planning on growing your IT team by five times? If not, you better automate everything you can see. Complete system version control makes system administrators more efficient.
There are two external drivers as well. One is risk; when systems are being hand assembled and configured — you'll see a Puppet, a Chef, or a cfengine used in a pretty small percentage of enterprises — how do you know they are going to work tomorrow? if you lose an employee is that kind of knowledge that that person had about how a system is put together — and why it was put together — captured anywhere? Or is it just in their head? Version control systems capture that information.
Compliance, such as security compliance standards, is another great motivator. You can have external compliance with a standard like PCI or Sarbanes Oxley. Can you audit your systems to know that they are right? If all of your systems are hand assembled then you don't even have a definition of what correct looks like. So what are you measuring against if people are just allowed to long into a box and change things willy nilly? For example, with PCI compliance — the standard you have to adhere to if you are going to hold onto credit card numbers for subscription billing — you are going to have auditors come in and ask "Where does this package come from?", "Who put it there?", "Why is it there?", "How do you get updates on there?", "How do you know which boxes need updates?". Those are the kinds of questions that could be answered by a good version control system. But if you have hand assembled boxes then they are pretty much impossible to answer.
Working as a consultant in the trenches, I find myself practicing an implicit methodology that helps me focus on short term improvements while working towards long term gains. The methodology applies to many aspects of the software development life cycle that spans development, test and operations.
The methodology begins by looking for the right people or person to fulfill a needed role. Secondly, ensure that role's process is correct and optimal. Lastly, improve the process' efficiency by reducing steps through some tool based automation. Notice, tools and automation are last! I call this methodology: People over Process over Tools. It's my mantra and I sound like a broken record about it.
The people I work with are typically techies and like many techies, there is often a preference to first react to process problems with tools. The thinking goes like this: tools institute a methodology, embody a process and through their use enforce a policy. Tools can seem like a magic bullet. Address all the issues at once in a new tool project, the thinking goes.
What I have found is this: selecting and instituting a tool is almost always the worst first step in improving an important function, especially when the function is spread over more than one team. This is because it is almost always simpler to look at how the function is being done — who does it and how. Choosing, developing, rolling out a tool is an investment and one that might not pay off if the right people and process are not first put into place.
Aligning the team to the function and then fixing or optimizing the process they use is almost always much more straightforward and is a prerequisite to the use of new tools or automation.
Often the very easiest step to improvement is making sure there is a person responsible for the function at hand. This seems obvious but often organizational dislocation results in ambiguities about what person or group is actually responsible. For example, a process might be repeated inside several groups. Roughly the same process may occur in each group, but there is no sharing of knowledge or procedure between them. To address this kind of dislocation, the organization might centralize that function into one role or set up a meeting to ensure common practices. In other examples, perhaps the needed skill set does not exist for that function. The solution in that case would be to define the needed skills for the role and offer training or fill that position accordingly.
The right people might be on the job but how the job is done is not correct or is very difficult. Incorrect processes are those that do not end with the desired result. Incorrect processes might have undocumented assumptions or preconditions. Steps might not be explained accurately or presented in the wrong order. Often processes evolve over time and become dogma even if they present many hurdles or exceptions to the person that performs it.
In these cases, an eye towards process (re-)engineering can help. Concentrating on accuracy and order are first priorities. Optimization and reduction of duration must come later.
Once the right people are performing the right process one can look for further gains by using tools to automate steps… assuming it is worth the cost and effort. I always like to emphasize the cost and effort side of the decision. It may be obvious to tools developers how automation will make drastic improvements but they might not build a business case needed to support their effort over the long haul.
For tool makers with the right skills, a development project that yields productivity gains always seems like a no brainer. But how do they prove it to their management? More importantly, how can they increase their chances that their tool will be adopted by the people that will use it as opposed to those people working around it. I have found that building a relationship with the future end users is always the first and most important step.
Rather than begin with code, begin by looking at the process from an organizational perspective. Make sure there isn't dislocation at the hand off points. Make sure the procedure is correct and manually repeatable. Only then look for available tools or a justification to write your own.
Update 2: Follow-up posts on the business problems that DevOps solves and the competitive business advantage that DevOps can provide.
If you are interested in IT management — and web operations in particular — you might have recently heard the term "DevOps" being tossed around. The #DevOps tag pops up regularly on Twitter. DevOps meetups and DevOpsDays conferences, are gaining steam.
DevOps is, in many ways, an umbrella concept that refers to anything that smoothes out the interaction between development and operations. However, the ideas behind DevOps run much deeper than that.
DevOps is a response to the growing awareness that there is a disconnect between what is traditionally considered development activity and what is traditionally considered operations activity. This disconnect often manifests itself as conflict and inefficiency.
As Lee Thompson and Andrew Shafer like to put it, there is a "Wall of Confusion" between development and operations. This "Wall" is caused by a combination of conflicting motivations, processes, and tooling.
Development-centric folks tend to come from a mindset where change is the thing that they are paid to accomplish. The business depends on them to respond to changing needs. Because of this relationship, they are often incentivized to create as much change as possible.
Operations folks tend to come from a mindset where change is the enemy. The business depends on them to keep the lights on and deliver the services that make the business money today. Operations is motivated to resist change as it undermines stability and reliability. How many times have we heard the statistic that 80% of all downtime is due to those self-inflicted wounds known as changes?
Both development and operations fundamentally see the world, and their respective roles in it, differently. Each believe that they are doing the right thing for the business… and in isolation they are both correct!
To make matters worse, development and operations teams tend to fall into different parts of a company's organizational structure (often with different managers and competing corporate politics) and often work at different geographic locations.
Adding to the Wall of Confusion is the all too common mismatch in development and operations tooling. Take a look at the popular tools that developers request and use on a daily basis. Then take a look at the popular tools that systems administrators request and use on a daily basis. With a few notable exceptions, like bug trackers and maybe SCM, it's doubtful you'll see much interest in using each others tools or significant integration between them. Even if there is some overlap in types of tools, often the implementations will be different in each group.
Nowhere is the Wall of Confusion more obvious than when it comes time for application changes to be pushed from development operations. Some organizations will call it a "release" some call it a "deployment", but one thing they can all agree on is that trouble is likely to ensue. The following scenario is generalized, but if you've ever played a part in this process it should ring true.
Development kicks things off by "tossing" a software release "over the wall" to Operations. Operations picks up the release artifacts and begins preparing for their deployment. Operations manually hacks the deployment scripts provided by the developers or creates their own scripts. They also hand edit configuration files to reflect the production environment, which is significantly different than the Development or QA environments. At best they are duplicating work that was already done in previous environments, at worst they are about to introduce or uncover new bugs.
Operations then embarks on what they understand to be the currently correct deployment process, which at this point is essentially being performed for the first time due to the script, configuration, process, and environment differences between Development and Operations. Of course, somewhere along the way a problem occurs and the developers are called in to help troubleshoot. Operations claims that Development gave them faulty artifacts. Developers respond by pointing out that it worked just fine in their environments, so it must be the case that Operations did something wrong. Developers are having a difficult time even diagnosing the problem because the configuration, file locations, and procedure used to get into this state is different then what they expect (if security policies even allow them to access the production servers!).
Time is running out on the change window and, of course, there isn't a reliable way to roll the environment back to a previously known good state. So what should have been an eventless deployment ended up being an all-hands-on-deck fire drill where a lot of trial and error finally hacked the production environment into a usable state.
While deployment is the most obvious pain point, it is only one part of the need for DevOps. As John Allspaw points out, the need for cooperation between development and operations starts well before and continues long after deployment.
What's the benefit of DevOps?
DevOps is a powerful idea because it resonates on so many different levels.
From the perspective of individuals toiling in hands-on development or operational roles, DevOps points towards a life that is free from the source of so many of their hassles. It's by no means a magical panacea, but if you can make DevOps work you are removing barriers that are both a significant time-sink and a source of morale killing frustration. It's a simple calculation to make: invest in making DevOps a reality and we all should be more efficient, increasingly nimble, and less frustrated. Some may argue that DevOps is a lofty or even farfetched goal, but it's difficult to argue that you shouldn't try.
For the business, DevOps contributes directly to enabling two powerful and strategic business qualities, "business agility" and "IT alignment". These may not be terms that the troops in the IT trenches worry about on a daily basis, but they should definitely get the attention of the executives who approve the budgets and sign the checks.
A simple definition of IT alignment is "a desired state in which a business organization is able to use information technology (IT) effectively to achieve business objectives — typically improved financial performance or marketplace competitiveness" [source].
DevOps helps to enable IT alignment by aligning development and operations roles and processes in the context of shared business objectives. Both development and operations need to understand that they are part of a unified business process. DevOps thinking ensures that individual decisions and actions strive to support and improve that unified business process, regardless of organizational structure.
A simple definition of agility in a business context is the "ability of an organization to rapidly adapt to market and environmental changes in productive and cost-effective ways" [source].
Of course, developers also have their own specialized meaning of the word "agile", but the goals are very similar. Agile development methodologies are designed to keep software development efforts aligned with customer/company goals and produce high quality software despite changing requirements. For most organizations, Scrum, the iterative project management methodology, is the face of Agile.
Agile promises close interaction and fast feedback between the business stakeholders making the decisions and the developers acting on those decisions. If you look at the output of a well functioning Agile development group you should see a steady stream improvement that is in tune with business needs.
However, when you step back and look at the entire development-to-operations lifecycle from an enterprise point of view, that Agile stream and it's associated benefits are often obscured. The Wall of Confusion leads to a dissociation of the application lifecycle. Development works at one pace and Operations works at another. The long intervals between production deployments, in effect, turn the Agile efforts of an organization right back into the waterfall lifecycle it was trying to avoid. No matter how Agile the development organization is, it's exceedingly difficult to change the slow and lumbering nature of a business while the Wall of Confusion is in place. Andrew Rendell has a great post that tells the anecdotal story of how an organization's cumbersome release processes turn their agile development efforts right back into a waterfall.
DevOps enables the benefits of Agile development to be felt at the organizational level. DevOps does this by allowing for fast and responsive, yet stable, operations that can be kept in sync with the pace of innovation coming out of the development process.
If you are seeking to establish a DevOps project within your organization, be sure to keep the terms "IT alignment" and "business agility" in mind.
How do we bring DevOps to life?
Like most emerging topics, it's easier to find a consensus about the problem than it is about the solution.
1. Measurement and incentives to change culture – Changing culture and reward systems is never easy. However, if you don't change your organization's culture, fulfilling the promise of DevOps will be difficult, if not impossible. When looking to influence culture in a business organization, you need to pay close attention to how you measure and judge performance. What you measure influences and incentivizes behavior. All parties across the development-to-operations lifecycle need to understand their stake in the larger business process of which they are a part. The success of both individuals and groups needs to be measured within the context of the success of the entire development-to-operations lifecycle. For many organizations this is a shift from more of a siloed approach to performance measurement, where each group measures and judges performance based on what matters to that specific group. This previous post I wrote dives deeper into the process for getting the correct end-to-end view of measurement into place.
2. Unified processes – The important theme of DevOps is that the entire development-to-operations lifecycle must be viewed as one end-to-end process. Individual methodologies can be followed for individual segments of that processes (such as Agile on one end and Visible Ops on the other), so long as those processes can be plugged together to form a unified process (and, in turn, be managed from that unified point-of-view). Much like the question of measurement and incentives, each organization will have slightly different requirements for achieving that unified process. Here is an excellent post by Six Sigma Blackbelt Ray Riescher on his experience bridging Scrum and ITIL.
3. Unified tooling – This is the area in which most of the DevOps discussion has been focused. This isn't surprising since it seems to be the natural reflex of technologists, for better or for worse, to jump straight into tooling discussions when looking to solve a problem. If you follow the communities of tools like Puppet, Chef, or ControlTier then you are probably already aware of the significant focus on bridging development and operations tooling. "Infrastructure as code", "model driven automation", and "continuous deployment" are all concepts that would fall under the DevOps banner. Alex Honor wrote a good post about some of the design patterns that toolsmiths working on DevOps tools need to worry about.
A version-controlled software library—which ensures all system artifacts are well defined, consistently shared, and up to date across the release lifecycle. Development and QA organizations draw from the same platform version, and production groups deploy the exact same version that has been certified by QA.
Deeply modeled systems—where a versioned system manifest describes all of the components, policies and dependencies related to a software system, making it simple to reproduce a system on demand or to introduce change without conflicts.
Automation of manual tasks—taking the manual effort out of processes like dependency discovery and resolution, system construction, provisioning, update and rollback. Automation—not hoards of people—becomes the basis for command and control of high-velocity, conflict-free and massive-scale system administration.
It's essential that all individual tools be considered part of a larger toolchain that spans the entire Development to Operations lifecycle (even if tight technical integration isn't a option). Tool choice and implementation decisions (on both the toolchain and individual tool levels) need to be made in the context of their impact on that end-to-end lifecycle. If you are wondering how that is done, take a look at this example of an open source fully automated provisioning toolchain that can be plugged into a larger Development to Operations toolchain.
At the recent OpsCamp Austin, Adam Jacob from OpsCode/Chef railed against the idea that some system administrators were now seeking to change their job title to "DevOps". I have to admit that, at the time, I was a bit skeptical that this was actually happening. However, I have since witnessed people on multiple occasions expressing this desire to rewrite job titles or establish DevOps as some sort of new role to be filled.
For example, Stephen Nelson-Smith wrote an excellent post about DevOps. While I agree with almost everything he said, I have to strongly disagree with the idea that DevOps should be a unique position or job title.
Turning "DevOps" into a new job title or special role sets a dangerous precedent. This makes DevOps someone else's problem. You're a DBA? Don't worry about DevOps, that's the DevOps team's problem. You're a security expert? Don't worry about DevOps, that's the DevOps team's problem.
Think of it this way. You wouldn't say "I need to hire an Agile" or "I need to hire a Scrum" or "I need to hire an ITIL" would you? No, you would just say I need to hire developers, project managers, testers, or systems administrators who understand these concepts and methodologies. DevOps is no different.
Probably because it's catchy. It's also a good mental image of the concept at the widest scale — when you bring Dev and Ops together you get DevOps. There has been other terms for this idea, such as Agile Operations, Agile Infrastructure, and Dev2Ops (a term we've been using on this blog since 2007). There is also plenty of examples of people arriving at the idea of DevOps on their own, without calling it "DevOps". For an excellent example of this, read this recent post by Ernest Mueller or watch John Allspaw and John Hammond's seminal presentation "10+ Deploys Per Day: Dev and Ops Cooperation at Flickr" from Velocity 2009.
For better or for worse, DevOps seems to be the name that is catching peoples' imaginations. I credit the efforts of Patrick Dubois for championing the term "DevOps", bringing the first DevOps Days conference to a (successful) reality, and maintaining the devops.info site.
Be sure to join in the DevOps conversation at the upcoming DevOps Day USA conference on June 25, 2010 in Mountain View, CA. It's the day after O'Reilly's Velocity 2010 conference, so be sure to hit both!
If you are an application developer you are probably accustomed to drawing from established design patterns. A system of design pattern can play the role of a playbook offering solutions based on combining complimentary approaches. Awareness of design anti-patterns can also be helpful in avoiding future problems arising from typical pitfalls. Ideally, design patterns can be composed together to form new solutions. Patterns can also provide an effective vocabulary for architects, developers and administrators to discuss problems and weigh possible solutions.
It's a topic I have discussed before, but what happens once the application code is completed and must run in integrated operational environments? For companies that run their business over the web, the act of deploying, configuring, and operating applications is arguably as important as writing the software itself. If an organization cannot efficiently and reliably deploy and operate the software, it won't matter how good the application software is.
But where are the design patterns embodying best practices for managing software operations? Where is the catalog of design patterns for managing software deployments? What is needed is a set of design patterns for managing the operation of a software system in the large. Design patterns like these would be useful to those that automate any of these tasks and will facilitate those tools developers who have adopted the "infrastructure as code" philosophy.
So what are typical design problems in the world of software operation?
Application deployments are complex: they are based on technologies from different vendors, are spread out over numerous machines in multiple environments, use different architectures, arranged in different topologies.
Management interfaces are inconsistent: every application component and supporting piece of infrastructure has a different way of being managed. This includes both how components are controlled and how they are configured.
Administrative management is hard to scale: As the layers of software components increase, so does the difficulty to coordinate actions across them. This is especially difficult when the same application can be setup to run in a minimal footprint while another can be designed to support massive load.
Infrastructure size differences: Software deployments must run in different sized environments. Infrastructure used for early integration testing is smaller than those supporting production. Infrastructure based on virtualization platforms also introduces the possibility of environments that can be re-scaled based on capacity needs.
Pagoda as an acronym might be a bit of a stretch but the image of a pagoda just strikes me a as a picture of how the set of patterns can be combined to form a layered structure.
Here is a diagram of the set of design patterns arranged by how they interrelate.
The diagram style is inspired by a great reference book, Release It. You can see the anti patterns are colored red while the design patterns that mitigate them are in green.
Of course, this isn't the absolute set of deployment management patterns. No doubt you might have discovered and developed your own. It is useful to identify and catalog them so they can be shared with others that will face scenarios already examined and resolved. Perhaps this set offered here will spurn a greater effort.
Here's the second round of "3 Questions" style interviews I filmed at OpsCamp Austin 2010. For the first round, go here.
1. What brought you to OpsCamp?
2. What excites you in 2010?
Michael Coté is noted analyst and blogger/podcaster at RedMonk covering primarily enterprise software.
Wildcard question: How can open source projects better interface with analysts?
Travis Campbell is a Senior Systems Administrator at UT Austin and is on the board of directors of LOPSA.
Wildcard question: What does the HPC community think of "cloud computing"?
Wildcard question: How does BitRock's unique legacy set it up for success today?
Andrew Shafer is a blogger, speaker, and developer currently focused on Agile Infrastructure.
Wildcard question: What advice would you give people looking into the topic of Agile Operations?
Here's the first round of "3 Questions" style interviews I filmed at OpsCamp Austin 2010.
Luke Kanies is the CEO of Reductive Labs and the original author of Puppet.
Wildcard question: How did you enable the Puppet Community's early success?
Bill Karpovich is the CEO & Co-Founder of Zenoss.
Wildcard question: Where is the innovation happening in monitoring?
Ernest Mueller is a Web Systems Architect at National Instruments.
Wildcard question: What advice do you have for open source toolmakers?