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The Artistic Synapse
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Escher, Chopin, and String Theory
A reflection on "String Theory and Little Bangs" with Prof. Gubser
In a dinner discussion with the Princeton society, "Music in Mind," Princeton Physics professor, Steven Gubser, shared with a group of around 45 students his research in using string theory to describe collisions of heavy ions. Along the way, he made some creative relations to art and music. I'd like to share them here:
1) The vibrational modes of a superstring are like the overtones of a piano string, allowing blends of overtones to create a note. One difference, however, is that the vibrational modes of a superstring are much less constrained than the possible overtones of a piano string's.
2) Professor Gubser explains how a hyperbolic geometry, AdS5, describes the geometry of D3-branes in a similar manner as an Escher artwork, "Angels and Demons:"
In Escher's artwork, the big angels are the same shape as the little angels, making the elements conformal. It is a self within a self. For example, the large angels and small angels may be distorted from each other, but in the end, they are still angels. The theory of real-world gluons and quarks is likewise approximately conformal.
3) Finally, in the Q and A session, Professor Gubser left us with a general statement about a similar type of thinking within musicians and physicists. That is, namely, how to reconcile conflicting or seemingly opposing items into a fluid whole. He gives the example of Chopin, who smoothly meshed a 3 against 4 right hand vs left hand rhythm in his famous "Fantasie-Impromptu:"
Lisewise, Professor Gubser argues that string theorists consistently must reconcile experimental data with theory, to see how the two could become consistent even in the face of seemingly inconsistent data.
Talk Description:
"String theory and little bangs"with Professor Steven Gubser, Princeton Physics departmenton Monday, September 24, 6-7 pm at the Mathey Firestone Society Room
String theory is an attempt to describe all of fundamental physics starting from microscopic, vibrating strings. In recent years there have been some remarkable successes in using stringtheory to describe collisions of heavy ions, which recreate the conditions present in the universe about a microsecond after the big bang. I'll summarize these developments, introducing some of the personalities involved and using analogies to music and art where I can. String theory has been called the "theory of everything." It seeks to describe all the fundamental forces of nature. It encompasses gravity and quantum mechanics in one unifying theory. But it is unproven and fraught with controversy.
Professor Steven Gubser is professor of physics at Princeton University (you may know him as your PHY 102 professor). His research focuses on theoretical particle physics, especially string theory, and the AdS/CFT correspondence. He is a widely cited scholar in these and other related areas. He is the author of "The Little Book of String Theory," which offers a short, accessible, and entertaining introduction to one of the most talked-about areas of physics today.
Webpages: http://www.princeton.edu/physics/people/display_person.xml?netid=ssgubser&display=faculty, http://wwwphy.princeton.edu/~ssgubser/
Labels: art, art of science, music, physics
Artistic Synthesis and Synthetic Art
There's hardly a thing that a man can name
Of use or beauty in life's small game
But you can extract in alembic or jar
From the "physical basis" of black coal-tar-
Oil and ointment, and wax and wine,
And the lovely colors called aniline;
You can make anything from a salve to a star,
If you only know how, from black coal-tar.
-Punch
For the creators out there--artists and musicians, scientists, humanists, engineers, I recommend this article: In Praise of Synthesis by Roald Hoffman.
As you open the article and start to groan because you see esoteric chemical molecules, hang in there and keep reading, and you'll find the hallmarks that link scientists and artists, similar things that President Shirley Tilghman mentioned in her Art of Science talk. Roald Hoffman was a recipient of the 1981 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, and these are his words:
Chemical synthesis not only shares some of the aesthetic criteria of art; I think it is art. At the same time, it is logic.
Consider the kind of art and creation that happens in making cubane:
The details of how it happens may be enigmatic, but surely it is obvious that a great process--part by design, part by chance, planned and experimented--occurs to create a elegant product. I agree, this is art. This is also logic. Wherein logic is art in this case, I also think, and I'm sure Escher would agree, that art is logic. Witness a Escher tessellation:
The mix of planning, experimentation, part by chance and part by design aspects of chemical synthesis are no doubt manifested in this beautiful, clever work of art--as in the beautiful, clever synthesis of cubane.
Beautiful logic (I mean art), isn't it?
Labels: art, art of science, organic chemistry
Giving At-Risk Youth Genuine Voices through Music
Yesterday was my first day working for Genuine Voices. These youth are teenage boys incarcerated in detention centers for crimes ranging from misdemeanor to serious violations. The boys may have been neglected as children, with parents unable to take care of them or in prison. At the juvenile detention centers, they are learning how to control their aggression.
They four boys took turns choosing an instrument on Garageband and creating 8-count sections of music. A.D. (names altered for privacy) started with the strings solo and wanted to be the lead singer. Later, he asked me to send him the music file so he could practice. T.X. added drums. J.S. added piano. Finally, T.R. finished off with guitar, and was eager to be the recording producer and edit the music. Later, T.R. went to the drumset in the room, and started playing. He told me he would practice the drums whenever he had nothing to do.
I saw determination in them--their eagerness to create something meaningful to share with the world. When I mentioned we could share their songs and stories with the world--on Youtube or produce a CD, they became even more determined. I witnessed the power of music to bring out creativity, determination, and meaning into their lives. I believe in music intervention programs to give genuine voices to these boys' lives and help them become productive members of society. I am asking you to join me in support of enriching lives through music by donating to Genuine Voices.
Please support the boys and the community!
Your support will help Genuine Voices grow and contribute to affecting positive changes in the lives of at-risk youth such as A.D., T.X., J.S., and T.R, and the community. Your tax-deductible contribution supports the power of music to empower, inspire, and enrich lives. 100% of your donation goes toward Genuine Voices.
To donate, click here: http://www.gofundme.com/unl5s. Thank you for your support!
About Genuine Voices:
Genuine Voices is a non-profit organization that teaches music, musical composition, and computer-based music "sequencing" to youths in juvenile detention centers and other educational and institutional settings across the United States and Worldwide.
We believe that by fostering their musical abilities and skills we can assist youths in their ability to make positive life decisions.
Our program aims to provide youth with the experience of planning and creating finished music productions. We also wish to help juveniles discover the world through participation in cultural events, travel and by inviting musicians to perform.
Please visit www.genuinevoices.com for more information.
Below is a song created by an at-risk youth, recorded during a Genuine Voices session.
President Shirley Tilghman on Art and Science
Shirley Tilghman, President of Princeton University, was invited to speak on the Art of Science by the student group on campus, Music in Mind. In her talk, she described ways that artists and scientists were similar and shared similar ways of thinking. Having raised a sound engineer and art historian, and a molecular biologist herself, she shared with us eager students her thoughts on what is required in both art and science:
1. Creativity and imagination
2. Seeing the world orthogonal to what is mainstream
Elizabeth Blackburn studied tetrahymena, the ends of chromosomes--an area few thought useful to study. She discovered the ends of these structures and won the Nobel Prize for her work. Similarly, the impressionists in art saw new ways of approaching art and representing the natural world.
3. Intense observations
4. Trying to reveal something new in the natural world
5. Appreciation of beauty
Both artists and scientists try to make the world a better place by enriching the experience of being human.
President Shirley Tilghman is a strong supporter of the Lewis Center for the Arts on the Princeton University campus. Recently, she gave a graduation commencement speech on the importance of a liberal arts education, citing the value of interdisciplinary perspectives on future innovation.
Labels: art of science, artscience, princeton university
Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle
The Heisenberg uncertainty principle: The uncertainty of energy and time are at tradeoffs to each other. (The same applies to momentum and position.) So, the more precisely we can measure energy, the less precisely we can measure how long that state will last.
According to the equation,
E = hf (h = plank's constant)
Energy is proportional to frequency, which is inversely proportional to the de Broglie wavelength. Your de Broglie wavelength is shorter when you're in love, whether it be familial, platonic, or romantic (trust me on this one). Thus, energy is directly proportional to intensity of love. (Intensity = the power (P) of love over the surface area of your body, which we can approximate as 4(pi)r^2.)
Therefore, the more certain of how much in love you are, the less certain of how long you will remain in that state. The less certain how in love you are, the more certain of how long you will remain in that state.
But that doesn't seem to make sense, does it? Those who are strongly in love more strongly believe that they will be for a long time. That's part of what is meant by "love is blind."
The statement doesn't make sense because our analysis was flawed. The Heisenberg uncertainty principle applies only to judgements made by an outside observer.
The stronger a love connection appears to an outside observer, the more uncertain the observer will be of how long that love will last.
Okay, this seems more plausible, but it still doesn't make intuitive sense. We're not convinced.
That's because we didn't take into account that the principle only applies at relativistic speeds to have any discernable effect.
At relativistic speeds, a person's de Broglie's wavelength becomes abnormally short, and the person experiences an condition called infatuation. As the person's wavelength further decreases, energy and love further increase toward a condition called limerence. So the Heisenberg principle becomes:
The more strongly infatuated a couple is judged to be according to an outside observer, the more uncertain the observer will be of how long that infatuation will last.
Empirical studies support this phenomenon, as experiments on such partners particles show that passion is negatively associated with relationship length. See original paper: G. Ahmetoglu, V. Swami, & T. Chamorro-Premuzic (2010). "The Relationship Between Dimensions of Love, Personality, and Relationship Length."
Disclaimer: Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle
Labels: love, physics
Mystery's Seduction
This poem was written a few months ago, about someone in particular, by someone in particular.
these words are
more than they
are but really
only a façade
of the person
you are it's
behind words which
have structure and
form but what
happens when they
don't poetry is
fickle and loved
for mystery most
by the poet
You may know this person.
Ambiguity holds us. We wonder what it means. The mysterious. The unknown. And though we might not always delight in it (though we often do), there's no denying we are innately drawn to decoding it. A simple phrase like "Will you be my asparagus?" delights us because we ponder what the chocolate cake it might mean. ...as does the cake part. (hm, I must be hungry at the moment.)
What is it that is so appealing about the mad scientist, or mad musician? Why is this image so popular in society? It's because there's this wonderful sense of magic, or mystery of how they function. The mad genius is so fascinating because they seem to exist in a world completely unknown to you. Sometimes they seem possessed with a disease, and at the same time this "disease" makes them interesting.
As observers we are quick to admonish against defining someone by their disease. But what happens when the "disease" is something the victim purposefully perpetrates, whether consciously or unconsciously? Chopin's pale, white, thin figure, his (do I dare say) effeminate manner of presentation, garners him intrigue by the audience. In a case like this, is Chopin the victim, or are we, the audience?
And so you find this post utterly incomprehensible. Good. I have caught your interest.
Labels: art, mystery, poetry
Seeing with New Eyes
The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new lands but seeing with new eyes.
~Marcel Proust
Proust reminds us a bit about what it is we hope the year and future brings. Sometimes the journey seems impossible. Sometimes we're not sure where we're going. And when we do, sometimes the destination clouds our vision of what we truly want.
Sometimes we don't realize. Our search for this new land--whether a dream job, dream school, dream house--doesn't matter so much in the end. Our journey is right here, right now, and to discover we'll just have to keep our eyes open, new, and shining.
Srikumar Rao: Plug into your hard-wired happiness
Labels: beauty, life
About the Synapse
A (neural) synapse is a space where impulses are transmitted. This synapse tends to be a space between art and science, and it makes connections into how both are relevant in our communities and our interactions with others. Please leave your own comments and transmissions, too!
Repository vesicle
My research datasets and PDFs
My recent articles online
Erica Cao
I enjoy finding beauty in unconventional places and believe the arts, humanities, and sciences intersect to make the world a better place. My PhD and nonprofit work is on civic engagement, the arts, and social care. My training is in psychology, music, and medicine.
The Art of Organic Chemistry
Synesthesia and Creativity
What Debussy and Sibelius Teach Us About Patriotism
What is the Literary Vesicle?
Seasons of Reading in 2019


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Q: Symfony 3 forms: add a new field+data on PRE_SUBMIT event listener I'm trying to add a field and give it a data using an event listener. The value of new data depends on the data of other submitted fields in the same form, so I''m using PRE_SUBMIT. I didn't try it on Symfony 2, so I don't know if the result is the same also.
class TaskType extends AbstractType
{
    /**
     * {@inheritdoc}
     */
    public function buildForm(FormBuilderInterface $builder, array $options)
    {
        $builder
            ->add('name')
            ->addEventListener(FormEvents::PRE_SUBMIT, function (FormEvent $event) {
                $form = $event->getForm();

                $form->add('country', null, array('data' => 'españa'));

        });
   }

The problem: the new data (country) is never persisted. What am I doing wrong?
Here you have the Task entity:
class Task
{
    /**
     * @ORM\Id
     * @ORM\Column(type="integer")
     * @ORM\GeneratedValue(strategy="AUTO")
     */
    protected $id;

    /**
     * @ORM\Column(type="string", length=255, name="name", nullable=true)
     */
    protected $name;

    /**
     * @ORM\Column(type="string", length=255, name="country", nullable=true)
     */
    protected $country;

    public function __toString()
    {
        return $this->name;
    }

    /**
     * Get id
     *
     * @return integer
     */
    public function getId()
    {
        return $this->id;
    }

    /**
     * Set name
     *
     * @param string $country
     *
     * @return Manufacturer
     */
    public function setCountry($country)
    {
        $this->country = $country;

        return $this;
    }

    /**
     * Get country
     *
     * @return string
     */
    public function getCountry()
    {
        return $this->country;
    }

    /**
     * Set name
     *
     * @param string $name
     *
     * @return Manufacturer
     */
    public function setName($name)
    {
        $this->name = $name;

        return $this;
    }

    /**
     * Get name
     *
     * @return string
     */
    public function getName()
    {
        return $this->name;
    }
}

A: try this:
$builder->addEventListener(FormEvents::PRE_SUBMIT (OR SUBMIT), function (FormEvent $event) {
                 dump($form);
                $form = $event->getForm();
                $form->getNormData()['country'] = 'espana';
                 dump($form);

}

If it is not correct yet, look at the dump($form) outcome before and after inside the function and pin down where you can change the value of your model as you wish.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Snapshot – rodzaj zrzutu danych rozumianego jako sposób zapewniania dostępu do starszych wersji danych przechowywanych w pamięci masowej, zwłaszcza dyskowej. Ze względu na brak utrwalonego i zaakceptowanego odpowiednika w języku polskim zjawisko to opisywane jest czasami przy pomocy kalki językowej migawka.

Sposób realizacji
Zazwyczaj snapshoty danych wykonywane są w taki sposób, że realizujący je obiekt (dysk, baza danych, system plików itp.) zaczyna zapisywać nowe dane w miejscu niezajętym dotąd przez starsze informacje. Równocześnie, zapewniony jest sposób odczytu zarówno danych współczesnych, jak i starszych.

Podczas odczytu danych współczesnych, dane starsze, zastąpione już nowszymi są ignorowane, mimo że fizycznie nadal znajdują się na nośniku. W efekcie, użytkownik nawet nie musi być świadomy, że takie starsze dane nadal przechowywane są na przykład na dysku twardym.

Podczas odczytu danych starszych, dane nowsze są ignorowane, a starsze (nienadpisane) dane są udostępniane aplikacjom.

Większość współczesnych realizacji funkcjonalności snapshotów umożliwia tworzenie wielu snapshotów i w efekcie dostęp do wielu wersji historycznych.

Aby móc zrealizować funkcjonalność snapshotów, należy zagwarantować:
 odpowiednią ilość miejsca w pamięci masowej. Ponieważ starsze dane są przechowywane na dyskach, ilość zajętego miejsca jest większa niż byłaby gdyby dostępne były wyłącznie dane aktualne. Należy przy tym zwrócić uwagę, że przyrost ilości danych zajętych przez snapshot jest bezpośrednio zależny od ich zmienności po wykonaniu snapshotu.
 API umożliwiające dostęp zarówno do danych starszych, jak i bieżących. Często dostęp taki realizowany jest poprzez tworzenie wirtualnych obiektów o właściwościach analogicznych do obiektu rzeczywistego. Na przykład snapshot katalogu może z punktu widzenia sięgającego do niego użytkownika wyglądać jak katalog, a snapshot bazy danych – jak baza danych.
 spójność danych. Przykładowo, aby cała funkcjonalność miała sens, aplikacja pracująca na serwerze musi umieć przeczytać i poprawnie zinterpretować dane ze snapshotu. Oznacza to, że zazwyczaj nie wystarczy utworzenie snapshotu w dowolnym momencie i że potrzebny jest ze strony aplikacji jakiś rodzaj sygnału, informującego pamięć masową, że w danym momencie dane są spójne i że na pewno zostaną zrozumiane.

Implementacje
Funkcjonalność snapshotów realizowana może być na kilku warstwach stosu związanego z zapisywaniem danych w pamięci masowej. W szczególności, mogą być to:

Macierze dyskowe
Niektóre macierze dyskowe umożliwiają wykonanie snapshotu. Starsze dane mogą być udostępniane na przykład przy pomocy specjalnego LUN.

System plików
Systemy plików (na przykład ZFS, UFS i NTFS) realizują funkcjonalność snapshotów, rezerwując na nie część przestrzeni dyskowej. Użytkownik systemu ma możliwość sięgnięcia do starszych wersji danych, na przykład, gdy w systemie Windows Vista nadpisze lub skasuje pliki. W systemach Microsoft Windows snapshoty często określane są nazwą Shadow Copy, a usługa odpowiedzialna za ich obsługę nazywa się VSS.

Bazy danych
Microsoft SQL Server w edycji Enterprise umożliwia tworzenie migawek przy pomocy polecenia CREATE DATABASE xxx AS SNAPSHOT OF yyy. W takiej sytuacji oryginalna baza yyy nadal jest dostępna i normalnie pracuje, podczas gdy użytkownik uzyskuje dostęp tylko do odczytu do bazy xxx będącej snapshotem. W prosty sposób można zarówno skasować snapshot (gdy nie jest już potrzebna), jak i powrócić do zachowanego w migawce stanu danych.

Dyski maszyn wirtualnych
Jednym z praktycznych zastosowań snapshotów jest "zamrożenie" stanu dysków maszyn wirtualnych. Dzięki takiej funkcjonalności możliwe jest przywrócenie stanu maszyny do zapamiętanego wcześniej punktu. Umożliwia to proste odtwarzanie w przypadku niektórych rodzajów awarii lub problemów związanych z konfiguracją. Praktyczna realizacja takich snapshotów może opierać się zarówno na mechanizmach udostępnianych przez system plików, jak i na wirtualnych dyskach, zapisywanych w wielu plikach na dysku twardym.

Bazy danych
Systemy plików

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Control Center steht für:

 Area Control Center, Flugsicherungszentrale
 Berlin Air Route Traffic Control Center, Luftverkehrskontrollzentrum Berlin
 Catalyst Control Center, Treiberpaket
 Darmstadt Control Center, Europäisches Raumflugkontrollzentrum der Europäischen Weltraumorganisation
 Mission Control Center,  Raumfahrt-Flugkontrollzentrum

Siehe auch:
Control Center Solutions


Why A Levels & not IB or Pre-U?
The A Level exam system has been undergoing a period of reform in recent years, and this has given us a very good opportunity to review all that is on offer as a potential Sixth Form academic curriculum. There are a number of reasons why we continue to offer A Levels at St Catherine's, rather than IB or Pre U, or a mixture, but chief amongst these is that they continue to be the best guide to potential. University admissions tutors have told us that they like the fact that A Level students have studied topics in depth.
The A Level structure also offers students much more flexibility and personal choice; for example, in IB you may not study all three sciences together, which many girls wish to do at St Catherine's, and indeed do so with great distinction. We believe students about to enter the Sixth Form are already highly qualified at GCSE across a broad range of subjects; they are more than capable of making well-informed choices, fully ready to focus on subjects they enjoy and which will prepare them for Higher Education and potential career choices. Girls can choose freely from 27 subjects. Additional languages such as Mandarin, Cantonese and Russian are also available by arrangement. It may be possible to pick up GCSE Italian in the L6.
Alongside the A Level subjects, the Sixth Form curriculum also includes SCOPE (St Catherine's Ongoing Programme of Enrichment), which is an hour-long session each week, designed to complement academic study.
Education encompasses more than specialised areas of study and in SCOPE lessons you will encounter a broad range of topics, which will help you to approach the challenges of adult life, the world of work and university study. As part of this programme, students are given an overview of higher education, work experience, Gap Year information, student finance, interview techniques and careers guidance, as well as specialist support with their UCAS or overseas applications via the BridgeU online resource.
The programme also covers a select range of healthcare and citizenship issues. Topics include advice on personal safety, sexual health, alcohol and drug awareness, safe driving, digital skills and other relevant subjects, which will be useful as you gain independence.
SCOPE incorporates visiting lecturers, cultural and current affairs sessions, and is excellent pre-university experience.
On Tuesday - Friday, a supervised House Study period of 30 minutes allows you to begin your prep in the Speech Hall Library or access subject clinics. You may also be asked to help lead in clinics and teach younger girls, consolidating your own subject knowledge and confidence as you do so. Subject mentors particularly enjoy this opportunity.
From 4.30 - 5.30 on Tuesday, after Senior Games, all academic departments offer extension sessions for girls in U5-U6 in which the subjects are explored beyond the confines of public examination specifications.
You will take part in a general programme which takes place on Tuesday afternoons each week. A range of interesting activities is offered, designed to encourage you to think in terms of exercise and fitness for fun and for life. The sports facilities at St Catherine's are second to none.
The Chapel at St Catherine's offers a quiet place for reflection and contemplation in an otherwise busy environment. All Sixth Formers attend a short weekly Chapel Service conducted by our very popular Chaplain, Rev'd Dr McNair Scott.
There is lots of flexibility at St Catherine's over the choice of subjects, enabling you to specialise in those you most enjoy and at which you are most successful. If you do have a specific career in your sights, then bear this in mind when you make your choices. If you do not, do not panic. You are almost certainly in the majority at this stage which is absolutely fine! We do emphasise, however, that study in the L6 year is very important and will provide you with a sound platform for A Level in the U6, and for your future career.
It is never too early to start researching your subjects and trying to glean as much information as you can. If you are already a St Catherine's student, as well as talks from the respective Heads of Departments, you will also have a 1-2-1 interview with a senior member of staff. Ask students already studying the subjects you are considering taking as well as friends and family. Make sure, however, that the information is as up to date and accurate as possible. You will see from the table that each department has chosen the method of examining that is most appropriate for the subject and for our students. Please do not select your four choices on the basis of the system of examination. Instead, focus on what you most enjoy and in which you are most successful. Trust our team of highly experienced Heads of Departments, many of them experienced examiners, who have chosen the approach that best suits their students and helps them gain the right outcomes at the end of U6.
The flexibility of the above system enables you to choose four subjects, one of which may be a deliberate choice to AS Level only. This may be a subject that you want to pursue to complement your other A Level subjects and have recognised in a formal qualification after a year. You can then focus on 3 full A Levels, knowing that your university application will be enhanced by having that extra qualification.
In making your subject choices, you will find a great deal of advice on hand, both if you are a current student or an applicant for a place at St Catherine's. Just ask us.
Architecture Some universities express a preference for art A level, most will want to see a portfolio of visual work – drawings, sketches, photography, painting, or collage. A few may ask for maths or science at A level.
Law Any A-levels at the highest grade, ideally with one essay based subject e.g. English, History, R.S.


text:
The Emigrants
Author(s): W.G. Sebald (tr from German Michael Hulse)
Fiction | Anna's Recommendations
At first "The Emigrants" appears simply to document the lives of four Jewish emigres in the twentieth century. But gradually, as Sebald's precise, almost dreamlike prose begins to draw their stories, the four narrations merge into one overwhelming evocation of exile and loss. Written with a bone-dry sense of humour and a fascination with the oddness of existence "The Emigrants" is highly original in its heady mix of fact, memory and fiction and photographs.
An innovative twentieth-century classic from a major European author
W. G. Sebald was born in Wertach im Allgau, in the Bavarian Alps, in 1944. He studied German language and literature in Freiburg, Switzerland and Manchester. In 1966 he took up a position as an assistant lecturer at the University of Manchester, settling permanently in England in 1970. He was professor of Modern German Literature at the University of East Anglia, and is the author of The Emigrants which won the Berlin Literature Prize, the Literatur Nord Prize and the Johannes Bobrowski Medal, The Rings of Saturn and Austerlitz. W. G. Sebald died in 2001.
Imprint : Vintage Classics
Author : W.G. Sebald (tr from German Michael Hulse)
Illustrations : 78

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


1)	The heads and feet of the lions featured on the stamp have been bevelled and embossed to make them stand out.
2)	A multi-coloured foil has been used for the shield which means the background changes colour when the stamp is moved / viewed from different angles.
3)	Colour hologram has been added to the spots on the lions which mean the spots also change colour when the stamp is moved / viewed from different angles.
This new £5 Definitive stamp is the first stamp in the world to feature the effect of a hologram which has been embossed.


New Album from Mardelas | JaME U.S.A.
Hard rock band Mardelas will release a new album on May 22nd.
Ground ZERO has been described as a melodious rock album, and it will feature LIGHT BRINGER keyboardist Mao as a guest musician. At present, not much is known about the tracklist. Further information should be revealed soon.
Mardelas will support the release with a short one-man tour consisting of three dates. It will start on June 1st.
The band will also be returning to Europe later this year. They have been confirmed as part of the line-up for Metal Matsuri, which will be held in London this October.


text:
Lipno nad Vltavou () is a municipality and village in Český Krumlov District in the South Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 600 inhabitants. It is a popular summer resort.

Administrative parts
The village of Slupečná is an administrative part of Lipno nad Vltavou.

Geography
Lipno nad Vltavou is located on the Vltava river on the shore of the Lipno Reservoir, which was named after the village. It lies in the Bohemian Forest mountain range. The highest point of the municipal territory is Kaliště with an altitude of .

History
The first written mention of Lipno nad Vltavou is from 1530. It was originally a small lumbering settlement belonging to the Vyšší Brod estate. During the construction of the Lipno Reservoir between 1952 and 1959, the settlement was flooded and a new resort was built instead.

Economy

Thanks to its location by the Lipno Reservoir, Lipno nad Vltavou is one of the most popular tourist and recreational places in the country. Lipno Reservoir is used for recreation, water sports, and fish-farming. The Lipno Hydroelectric Power Station has been in operation since 1959 and has nameplate capacity 2x60 MW.

Sport
Lipno nad Vltavou hosted the 1967 ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships.

Sights
Treetop Walkway in Lipno nad Vltavou is among the most visited tourist destinations in the South Bohemian Region. It is an educational trail with an observation tower and toboggans.

References

External links

Villages in Český Krumlov District
Bohemian Forest


You may have enjoyed some wine, said three cheers over a whiskey or downed a pint of beer, but have you had a sip of what has to be one of India's oldest and most earthy brews-the Mahua?
The story of this drink and how it dominates the heart of India is fascinating.
The Mahua drink comes from the Mahua plant (Madhuca Longifolia) that grows wild and in abundance in India, from parts of Maharashtra in the south to Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh in central India and Odisha to the east. A large part of this is the old Gond land (from which the term 'Gondwana Age' is derived) and not surprisingly, the Mahua plant played a big role in tribal economies, in the region.
In fact, the Gond people, from around the Central Indian plateau of Chota Nagpur, have revered the Mahua tree as the 'tree of life' for centuries. According to Gond mythology, the Mahua flower is a divine entity, believed to never dry up. A little bit of water is said to bring it back to life, no matter how dry it has been left.
During Chaitra, the first month of the lunar calendar (March/April), the Gonds celebrated the festival of Chaitrai Mahaparv marking the beginning of their New Year. An important part of this festival is the sampling of the freshest mahua flowers of the season. Just before the rains arrive, they would also celebrate the Mahua Tyohar or festival of the Mahua, in honor of their beloved tree. This was before they brewed their drink from the flowers.
In the old days, boiled Mahua was also a staple meal for the tribal folk, and all celebrations had the mahua laata—basically balls of boiled, crushed flowers and Mahua ka Paag, a syrupy concoction to be had with rotis. The Koya tribe also considers this tree as sacred, using its wood for their funeral pyres.
One of the earliest texts mentioning the mahua drink was the Charaka Samhita (Charaka's compendium), the definitive Sanskrit text on Ayurveda written between the 4th and 2nd centuries BC. It extols Mahua's medicinal and astringent properties. Herbal historian CP Khare in his book, 'Indian Herbal Remedies' also mentions the flower's 'cooling, demulcent and tonic properties' against cough and bronchitis-related ailments.
The early distillates of the drink were mostly made from Bassia latifolia a.k.a. madhuca indicaor, another complex botanical name for, you guessed it, the mahua flower. Mahua flowers were first soaked in water and fermented, yielding a drink with inordinate amounts of glycoside, which also served as a laxative.
The distilled version of mahua, however, which is popular among the tribal belt is a largely colourless, cloudy, whitish-tinged drink, reminiscent of the Japanese sake drink, only milder. It's made by mixing granular molasses (chhowa gud) with the musky-scented dried flowers, giving it its peculiar odour.
Around 629 AD, during King Harsha's (c. 590–647 CE ) reign in North India, Hiuen Tsang, the Chinese traveller who is said to have visited then, refers to the concept of caste-based drinking, noting that while the nobility (Kshatriyas) consumed fruit or flower wines, the rich (Vaishyas) preferred to drink potent distilled liquor, while the elite (Brahmins) stuck to fruit juices for the most part.
This finds parallel in modern day society, with flower-based drinks yet to gain acceptance within the elite drinking culture, outside the tribal areas where they are brewed and consumed.
This distillate however, once established en masse, should be better preferred, with a more pronounced effect on your vowels than your bowels. It would also be one of the few to distillates to be based on flowers, which could set the mahua drink apart as a unique Indian spirit; much like tequila has done for Mexico.
The only concern that may arise is the paradox that the mass production of factory-made mahua could alter the sacred consumption culture of the very tribes that enabled it.


text:
Office space in Robert Speck 2
2 Robert Speck Parkway, Suite 750, Mississauga, Ontario, L4Z 1H8
Located on the seventh floor, with views over the city, the Mississauga Executive Centre is in Tower 2 of a landmark cluster of four 16-story office buildings at the centre of Mississauga's commercial district. The centre, in the western part of the Greater Toronto Area, is on Hurontario Street (Hwy. 10) just opposite Square One, Ontario's largest shopping mall, with its selection of restaurants and facilities. Secure underground parking is available for tenants.
Mississauga is Canada's sixth-most populous municipality, almost doubling in population in each of the last two decades. More than one in ten of Fortune 500 base their Global or Canadian Head Offices in Mississauga. Some of the strongest industries are pharmaceuticals, Banking and Financials, electronics and computers, transportation parts and equipment industries.
Robert Speck 2
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German Exams
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DEFA Film Heritage
"Did they really allow things like that?"
Entrance area of the Babelsberg film studios in Potsdam during GDR times, when the state-owned DEFA company's (Deutsche Film AG) studios were located here. | Photo (detail): © DEFA-Stiftung
The films of the GDR's state film production company, DEFA, always bore the stigma of being permeated by propaganda. That, however, is only part of the truth. When it comes to feature and animation films, fairy tales and documentaries there is a valuable artistic film legacy to be found. The DEFA Foundation wants to make them more easily available digitally.
By Judith Reker
Around 700 feature films, including 150 children's films, 750 animated films as well as 2,250 documentaries and short films, were produced by the GDR state film company DEFA (Deutsche Film AG) over a period of almost five decades. Its fairy tale films have become cult for generations, but there were also literary adaptations, anti-fascist films and politicised Westerns among its productions. The DEFA Foundation is the guardian of this film collection. This is a conversation with its chairperson, Stefanie Eckert, about the relevance of the GDR's film heritage and new distribution channels. Media scientist Stefanie Eckert has been working for the DEFA Foundation since 2001 and has been its chairperson since July 2020. | Photo: © DEFA-Stiftung/Xavier Bonnin Ms. Eckert, it has been 30 years since reunification. Why is there a foundation that only devotes itself to GDR films?
This can be explained by history – after the end of the GDR, there was a need for an institution to which the rights to DEFA's films could be transferred. As early as the spring of 1990, numerous DEFA filmmakers were already calling for the establishment of a foundation that would safeguard their cinematic oeuvre and prevent the film collection from being broken up in favour of private film rights dealers. Since it was established in 1998, the DEFA Foundation has held the rights to all DEFA cinema productions – around 13,500 films from five decades, including in-house productions as well as many foreign films dubbed into German and other material. The DEFA Foundation owns the rights, but not the material – this has been transferred to the German Federal Archives, which are also responsible for its preservation.
Do the East German films have a specific audience?
There are of course people who grew up watching DEFA films. They also write to us, wanting to see certain films or stars on television. Tens of thousands of DVDs are currently sold each year, primarily with children's and fairy tale films, and the vast majority of these are distributed in East Germany. Then there are films that are popular all over Germany and also in an international context. Jakob der Lügner (Jacob the Liar) by Frank Beyer is a well-known example. The USA is also an important target group. There is a DEFA Film Library in America, which works closely with the Goethe-Institut and distributes DEFA films to academic circles in the United States.
What about the younger generation in Germany?
They cannot be reached via television, and this generation does not buy DVDs either. That is why our top priority is to get into the online market, that is, to be represented on as many streaming platforms as possible. In the meantime, our official channel "DEFA-Filmwelt", operated by our distribution partner ICESTORM, is now available on YouTube.
Are young people at all interested in GDR films?
Of course, to grab them, you have to make the films known. On the one hand, this can be done via social media. Another focus that is important to me is to integrate the DEFA film more into academic discourse. The films can be used in very different fields of study in order to analyse certain aspects of life in the GDR, such as film aesthetics or fashion. The DEFA film could also be examined as part of European cinematic history, because the DEFA filmmakers, like the West German filmmakers, always compared themselves with their West and East European neighbours. Cinematic movements such as the New Wave in Poland or the Nouvelle Vague in France were also reflected in the film language of East and West German filmmakers.
In order to get onto the online market, the films have to be digitised. Given the large number of films, how do you decide in which order this happens?
When it comes to digitisation, we try to strike a balance, for example, between the different genres and between commercial necessity and curatorial interest. When a request comes from a television company, a film is, of course, digitised immediately, because it is clear – we are going to gain an audience with it. By the way, digitisation is a very intensive, detailed and, therefore, expensive job that takes several weeks, sometimes several months, per film. Our aim is for a digitised film to have the same quality as the premiere copy. We try to achieve this through careful colour correction and careful retouching, if possible in cooperation with the respective filmmakers and cameramen.
Do you actually experience a West German prejudice against GDR films?
No, we are not confronted with such prejudices in our everyday work.
Back in 2008 the filmmaker, Volker Schlöndorff, publicly voiced criticism. He said, among other things, "The DEFA films were terrible." He later withdrew that. You were already at the DEFA Foundation back then, what was the reaction?
We were horrified and it left an uncomfortable feeling, especially so many years after the fall of the Wall. I think the discussions about the East German identity and the feeling of not being taken seriously also stem from such, perhaps carelessly made, statements.
Is it a prejudice or a fact that GDR films were propaganda films?
Generally speaking, it is a prejudice. Yes, the DEFA was part of the state apparatus; it was a VEB, a state-owned company. The main film administration, which was based in the Ministry of Culture, had to accept every film that was shown. It is therefore understandable that such prejudices arise, that all DEFA films are propaganda films or at least politically one-sided films. That, however, is actually not the case. In almost five decades of DEFA, there were phases that were much more restrictive, and there were phases when films were produced that would make today's audiences think: Wow, did they really allow things like that?
Germany will commemorate its reunification 30 years ago on October 3, 2020. Do you have any film recommendations?
Unsere Kinder (Our Children), a documentary by Roland Steiner. The filmmaker portrays the various youth movements in East Berlin from the late 1980s, from Goths to neo-Nazis. The film says a lot about the GDR at that time and maybe also about what happened in the East German federal states afterwards. In any case, it is one of many films worth seeing from the legacy of films left to us from the former East Germany.
Photo: © DEFA-Stiftung
Numerous DEFA productions were shot in the Babelsberg film studio in Potsdam-Babelsberg. The oldest and largest film studio in Germany was founded in 1912 and is still in operation today.
Photo: © DEFA-Stiftung/Herbert Kroiss
"To free German heads from fascism" was one of the founding mandates of DEFA, which is why anti-fascism was an important topic in the first DEFA productions. The 1974 film adaptation of Jurek Becker's novel "Jakob the Liar" about a Jew who lived in a Polish ghetto during the Nazi regime, was nominated for an Oscar (here Henry Hübchen in the role of Misha).
Photo: © DEFA-Stiftung/Heinz Wenzel
Because of films such as "Ernst Thälmann – Sohn seiner Klasse" (Ernst Thälmann – Son of His Class) from 1954, with Günther Simon in the role of KPD (Communist Party of Germany) chairman Ernst Thälmann, the DEFA films were sometimes dismissed as propaganda. Both this film and the follow-up production "Ernst Thälmann – Führer seiner Klasse" (Ernst Thälmann – Leader of His Class) were made on the initiative of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED).
사진: © DEFA 재단/Eberhard Daßdorf
Other productions did not make it onto the cinema screens, because of their political or ideological orientation. The film "Karla" produced in 1965, for example, with Jutta Hoffmann in the role of a teacher who wants to educate her students to think critically, was banned by the Central Committee of the SED. The production was first broadcast publicly in 1990.
Photo: © DEFA-Stiftung/Hans Schöne & Manfred Henke
DEFA also produced numerous children's films – including "Die kleine Hexe" (The Little Witch) by Bruno J. Böttge, one of the most renowned German silhouette filmmakers. All figures and dolls for the children's films were made in-house in the DEFA animation studio founded in Dresden in 1955.
Photo: © DEFA-Stiftung/Wolfgang Ebert & Ingo Raatzke
Film adaptations of literature were also part of the DEFA program: the actors Lilli Palmer and Martin Hellberg in "Lotte in Weimar", a production based on the novel by Thomas Mann, which was filmed in 1974 and 1975 on original locations in the city of Weimar.
Photo: © DEFA-Stiftung/Michael Lösche & Rainer Schulz
Contemporary history in a DEFA film: "Unsere Kinder" (Our Children) documents youth groups in East Berlin in the late 1980s. The writers Christa Wolf and Stefan Heym also have their say in the film.
Photo: © DEFA-Stiftung/Waltraut Pathenheimer
What Winnetou was to the West, Tokei-ihto was to the East: the actor Gojko Mitic in the DEFA native American film "The Sons of the Great Bear" in 1965.
Photo: © DEFA-Stiftung/ Jaromír Komárek
This fairy tale film from DEFA's inventory – a co-production with the Barrandov film studios – is still known today by every TV viewer in Germany: "Drei Haselnüsse für Aschenbrödel" (Three Wishes for Cinderella).
Judith Reker works as a freelance journalist in Frankfurt am Main.
Translation: Paul McCarthy
Copyright: Text: Goethe-Institut, Judith Reker. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution – Share Alike 3.0 Germany license.
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text:
package org.apache.eagle.storage.hbase.aggregate.coprocessor;

import java.io.IOException;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.Arrays;
import java.util.HashMap;
import java.util.List;

import org.apache.eagle.common.config.EagleConfigFactory;
import org.apache.eagle.storage.hbase.query.coprocessor.AggregateProtocolEndPoint;
import org.apache.eagle.storage.hbase.query.coprocessor.impl.AggregateClientImpl;

import org.apache.eagle.storage.hbase.query.coprocessor.AggregateClient;
import org.apache.hadoop.conf.Configuration;
import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.client.HTableFactory;
import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.client.HTableInterface;
import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.client.Scan;
import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.coprocessor.CoprocessorHost;
import org.apache.hadoop.io.BytesWritable;
import org.apache.hadoop.io.DoubleWritable;
import org.junit.*;
import org.slf4j.Logger;
import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory;

import org.apache.eagle.log.base.taggedlog.TaggedLogAPIEntity;
import org.apache.eagle.log.entity.GenericEntityWriter;
import org.apache.eagle.log.entity.meta.EntityDefinition;
import org.apache.eagle.log.entity.meta.EntityDefinitionManager;
import org.apache.eagle.log.entity.test.TestLogAPIEntity;
import org.apache.eagle.query.ListQueryCompiler;
import org.apache.eagle.query.aggregate.AggregateFunctionType;
import org.apache.eagle.query.aggregate.raw.GroupbyKey;
import org.apache.eagle.query.aggregate.raw.GroupbyKeyValue;
import org.apache.eagle.query.aggregate.raw.GroupbyValue;
import org.apache.eagle.service.hbase.TestHBaseBase;

/**
 * @since : 10/30/14,2014
 */
public class TestGroupAggregateClient extends TestHBaseBase {
    HTableInterface table;
    long startTime;
    long endTime;
    List<String> rowkeys;
    AggregateClient client;
    Scan scan;
    int num = 200;

    private final static Logger LOG = LoggerFactory.getLogger(TestGroupAggregateClient.class);

    // This is Bad, It will hide TestHBaseBase.setUpHBase!!!!
    @BeforeClass
    public static void setUpHBase() {
        Configuration conf = new Configuration();
        conf.setStrings(CoprocessorHost.REGION_COPROCESSOR_CONF_KEY,AggregateProtocolEndPoint.class.getName());
        TestHBaseBase.setupHBaseWithConfig(conf);
    }

    @Before
    public void setUp() {
        hbase.createTable("unittest", "f");
        startTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
        try {
            rowkeys = prepareData(num);
        } catch (Exception e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
            Assert.fail(e.getMessage());
        }
        endTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
        table = EagleConfigFactory.load().getHTable("unittest");
        client = new AggregateClientImpl();
        scan = new Scan();
        scan.setCaching(200);

        ListQueryCompiler compiler = null;
        try {
            compiler = new ListQueryCompiler("TestLogAPIEntity[@cluster=\"test4UT\" and @datacenter=\"dc1\"]{@field1,@field2}");
        } catch (Exception e) {
            Assert.fail(e.getMessage());
        }
        scan.setFilter(compiler.filter());
    }

    @After
    public void shutdown() {
        try {
            hbase.deleteTable("unittest");
            new HTableFactory().releaseHTableInterface(table);
        } catch (IOException e) {
            LOG.error(e.getMessage(), e);
        }
    }

    private List<String> prepareData(int count) throws Exception {
        List<TaggedLogAPIEntity> list = new ArrayList<TaggedLogAPIEntity>();
        EntityDefinition ed = EntityDefinitionManager.getEntityDefinitionByEntityClass(TestLogAPIEntity.class);

        if (ed == null) {
            EntityDefinitionManager.registerEntity(TestLogAPIEntity.class);
            ed = EntityDefinitionManager.getEntityDefinitionByEntityClass(TestLogAPIEntity.class);
        }
        ed.setTimeSeries(true);
        for (int i = 0; i < count; i++) {
            TestLogAPIEntity e = new TestLogAPIEntity();
            e.setTimestamp(System.currentTimeMillis());
            e.setField1(1);
            e.setField2(2);
            e.setField3(3);
            e.setField4(4L);
            e.setField5(5.0);
            e.setField6(5.0);
            e.setField7("7");
            e.setTags(new HashMap<String, String>());
            e.getTags().put("cluster", "test4UT");
            e.getTags().put("datacenter", "dc1");
            e.getTags().put("index", "" + i);
            e.getTags().put("jobId", "job_" + System.currentTimeMillis());
            list.add(e);

        }
        GenericEntityWriter writer = new GenericEntityWriter(ed.getService());
        LOG.info("Writing " + list.size() + " TestLogAPIEntity entities");
        List<String> result = writer.write(list);
        LOG.info("Finish writing test entities");
        return result;
    }

    @Test
    public void testGroupAggregateCountClient() {
        try {
            EntityDefinition ed = EntityDefinitionManager.getEntityByServiceName("TestLogAPIEntity");
            List<GroupbyKeyValue> result = client.aggregate(table, ed, scan, Arrays.asList("cluster", "datacenter"), Arrays.asList(AggregateFunctionType.count), Arrays.asList("field2")).getKeyValues();
            if (LOG.isDebugEnabled()) LOG.debug("COUNT");
            logGroupbyKeyValue(result);
            Assert.assertNotNull(result);
            Assert.assertTrue(result.size() > 0);
        } catch (Exception e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
            Assert.fail(e.getMessage());
        }
    }

    @Test
    public void testGroupAggregateAvgClient() {
        try {
            EntityDefinition ed = EntityDefinitionManager.getEntityByServiceName("TestLogAPIEntity");
            List<GroupbyKeyValue> result = client.aggregate(table, ed, scan, Arrays.asList("cluster", "datacenter"), Arrays.asList(AggregateFunctionType.avg), Arrays.asList("field2")).getKeyValues();
            if (LOG.isDebugEnabled()) LOG.debug("AVG");
            logGroupbyKeyValue(result);
            Assert.assertNotNull(result);
            Assert.assertTrue(result.size() > 0);
        } catch (Exception e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
            Assert.fail(e.getMessage());
        }
    }

    @Test
    public void testGroupAggregateMaxClient() {
        try {
            EntityDefinition ed = EntityDefinitionManager.getEntityByServiceName("TestLogAPIEntity");
            List<GroupbyKeyValue> result = client.aggregate(table, ed, scan, Arrays.asList("cluster", "datacenter"), Arrays.asList(AggregateFunctionType.max), Arrays.asList("field1")).getKeyValues();
            if (LOG.isDebugEnabled()) LOG.debug("MAX");
            logGroupbyKeyValue(result);
            Assert.assertNotNull(result);
            Assert.assertTrue(result.size() > 0);
        } catch (Exception e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
            Assert.fail(e.getMessage());
        }
    }

    @Test
    public void testGroupAggregateSumClient() {
        try {
            EntityDefinition ed = EntityDefinitionManager.getEntityByServiceName("TestLogAPIEntity");
            List<GroupbyKeyValue> result = client.aggregate(table, ed, scan, Arrays.asList("cluster", "datacenter"), Arrays.asList(AggregateFunctionType.sum), Arrays.asList("field2")).getKeyValues();
            if (LOG.isDebugEnabled()) LOG.debug("MAX");
            logGroupbyKeyValue(result);
            Assert.assertNotNull(result);
            Assert.assertTrue(result.size() > 0);
        } catch (Exception e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
            Assert.fail(e.getMessage());
        }
    }

    @Test
    public void testGroupAggregateMinClient() {

        try {
            EntityDefinition ed = EntityDefinitionManager.getEntityByServiceName("TestLogAPIEntity");
            List<GroupbyKeyValue> result = client.aggregate(table, ed, scan, Arrays.asList("cluster", "datacenter"), Arrays.asList(AggregateFunctionType.min), Arrays.asList("field2")).getKeyValues();
            if (LOG.isDebugEnabled()) LOG.debug("MIN");
            logGroupbyKeyValue(result);
            Assert.assertNotNull(result);
            Assert.assertTrue(result.size() > 0);
        } catch (Exception e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
            Assert.fail(e.getMessage());
        }
    }

    @Test
    public void testGroupAggregateMultipleClient() {
        try {
            EntityDefinition ed = EntityDefinitionManager.getEntityByServiceName("TestLogAPIEntity");
            List<GroupbyKeyValue> result = client.aggregate(table, ed, scan, Arrays.asList("cluster", "datacenter"),
                    Arrays.asList(AggregateFunctionType.min,
                            AggregateFunctionType.max,
                            AggregateFunctionType.avg,
                            AggregateFunctionType.count,
                            AggregateFunctionType.sum),
                    Arrays.asList("field2", "field2", "field2", "field2", "field2")).getKeyValues();
            logGroupbyKeyValue(result);
            Assert.assertNotNull(result);
            Assert.assertTrue(result.size() > 0);
            Assert.assertEquals("test4UT", new String(result.get(0).getKey().getValue().get(0).copyBytes()));
            Assert.assertEquals("dc1", new String(result.get(0).getKey().getValue().get(1).copyBytes()));
            Assert.assertEquals(2.0, result.get(0).getValue().get(0).get(), 0.00001);
            Assert.assertEquals(2.0, result.get(0).getValue().get(1).get(), 0.00001);
            Assert.assertEquals(2.0, result.get(0).getValue().get(2).get(), 0.00001);
            Assert.assertTrue(num <= result.get(0).getValue().get(3).get());
            Assert.assertTrue(2.0 * num <= result.get(0).getValue().get(4).get());
        } catch (Exception e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
            Assert.fail(e.getMessage());
        }
    }

    private void logGroupbyKeyValue(List<GroupbyKeyValue> keyValues) {
        for (GroupbyKeyValue keyValue : keyValues) {
            GroupbyKey key = keyValue.getKey();
            List<String> keys = new ArrayList<String>();
            for (BytesWritable bytes : key.getValue()) {
                keys.add(new String(bytes.copyBytes()));
            }
            List<Double> vals = new ArrayList<Double>();
            GroupbyValue val = keyValue.getValue();
            for (DoubleWritable dw : val.getValue()) {
                vals.add(dw.get());
            }
            if (LOG.isDebugEnabled()) LOG.debug("KEY: " + keys + ", VALUE: " + vals);
        }
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


An ideal candidate for this role will possess a balanced combination of pastoral ministry experience, a high commitment to Christian education, and solid business acumen. In this particular role, the Senior Executive Pastor (SEP) will be a visionary leader, advancing the mission of the organization by providing guidance to what could be called the three legs of the North Hills "stool." These legs are the congregation, the school (K-12), and the preschool. The new SEP will have a high and equal regard for all three legs of this stool and will continue to advance the organization's fiscal and ministerial agenda.
The organization is seeking a leader and shepherd who enjoys preaching 8-10 times per year, mentoring staff, overseeing the annual budget (over $3 mil), and serving along with the elected leaders from the congregation. A Pastor's heart is essential, but candidates will be considered coming out of church, faith-based non-profit, business, or education backgrounds. An entrepreneurial spirit, a man of prayer, and a heart for people are highly sought after traits for this position.
The church, school and preschool are also highly diverse, so experience with cultural diversity would be greatly valued. A candidate who feels called to fill "first-chair" responsibilities in administration and vision, without feeling the need to be the primary pulpit voice, and who sees the powerful role Christian education plays in a community, ought to take a serious look at this opportunity.
A qualified public speaker who is experienced in communicating through electronic mediums.
The SEP will be the official face and voice of the North Hills organization and should be a strong representative in a variety of public situations.


Couple of notes. Dave Hill has put up an excellent piece about visiting Wards Corner on his Guardian blog.
And I just acquired a piece of Heathrow. It's the third blade of grass on the left past the lamppost. Get yours now before they are all gone.
Last night there was (were?) hustings for the Seven Sisters ward by-election which happens this Thursday. Here they are, plus the chair of the Tottenham Traders and minus the Tory candidate who sent a sub.
Five good burghers and true, all promising everything. Reminds me of how Boris promised to save the market, the day before he was elected Mayor in May. Then dumped us.
Then browsing Dave's links, there's a piece about Fairlop Waters. Could this be the Fairlop Lake that was at the bottom of the garden of the prefab I grew up in, in Barkingside? Maybe if my cycling legs have arrived by then, I'll have a look this summer. No trace of the prefab now, nor of Kelvedon Gardens, from the days before postcodes.


People say we're in the middle of a second civil rights movement, and we are. The only surprise is that the first one ever ended. The artist Kerry James Marshall was there for it. He was just a kid then, born in Birmingham, Ala., in 1955. But kids take in a lot.
He was in Birmingham in 1963, when white supremacists dynamited a Baptist church and killed four young girls. He was 9 and living in Los Angeles in 1965 when Watts went up in flames. He remembers all that, just as he also remembers growing up in those years in a loving family: mother, father, sister, brother. Home.
Artists take in a lot, too. Mr. Marshall has absorbed enough personal history, American history, African-American history and art history to become one of the great history painters of our time. That's the painter you'll see in "Kerry James Marshall: Mastry," the smashing 35-year career retrospective that opens on Tuesday at the Met Breuer.
The first thing you may notice about him as an artist is that he's an ace storyteller, so good that you realize how rare that is. Sometimes he spells out narrative scenes, even somewhat fantastical ones, straightforwardly as in the sublime 1997 painting "Souvenir I," in which a middle-aged matron arranges her living room as a shrine to 1960s civil rights martyrs. What's fantastical is that the woman has glitter-encrusted wings, like an angel.
Just as often, stories are merely implied, and they can be perplexing. One of the earliest of the show's 72 paintings, "A Portrait of the Artist as a Shadow of His Former Self," dates from 1980, two years after Mr. Marshall graduated from what was then called the Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles. It's a small image — he would later typically work at mural scale — of a bust-length, black-skinned male figure whose contours are barely readable against a slightly lighter black background. His only clear features are the whites of his eyes, and his broad, gap-toothed smile.
You may think, with a twinge of unease, of cartoons, or of old racist stereotypes, or of race as performance: blackamoors, Sambos, Madea. What Mr. Marshall was thinking of was Ralph Ellison's 1952 novel "Invisible Man," whose African-American hero knows that his color makes him unseeable as a person in white America: He's a black; that's it. Mr. Marshall complicates this idea by taking it in two directions: His "self-portrait" is simultaneously recessive and unmissable, with his eyes and his assertive, mock-cheerful, near-skeletal smile that shine like pin spots in the dark.
Black skin is a constant in Mr. Marshall's art. More than three decades ago, he resolved to devote himself to creating a new, disruptive art history, one that would insert — big-time — the absent black figure into the tradition of Western art, which was a tradition he loved and identified with.
It's a treat to see these things. And it's not hard to track down traces of the artists who made them in his work. Always in his paintings, he gives his painter-heroes their props.
And it's his art you're here for, and may well want to come back to see again. The show — which originated at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago and is organized at the Met by Ian Alteveer, associate curator of modern and contemporary art, and Meredith Brown, a research assistant — verges on being disorientingly rich.
Chronologically, it starts on the Met Breuer's third floor with a few abstract collages and the 1980 "Self Portrait," then moves through the career in thematic increments. Early things are texturally dense and tactilely experimental. Mystically-themed pictures from 1992 are done on wood, leather and sheets of paper glued to canvas.
Kerry James Marshall's "Voyager" is a 1992 work.CreditKerry James Marshall, Corcoran Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington..
Imagery is similarly layered. The celestial-feeling 1992 painting "Voyager" — a memorial to lives lost on a 19th-century slave ship, and one of Mr. Marshall's first big history paintings — brings together anatomical prints, Haitian veve emblems, and showers of hand-stamped and painted roses. Some of these also turn up, not at all incongruously — part of the brilliance of Mr. Marshall's art is that it's incongruity-free — in scenes of domestic romance, like the 1992 "This Could Be Love," where a couple undresses for bed as the notes and lyrics of a pop song, Mary Wells's "Two Lovers," float over head.
In painting African-American daily life, Mr. Marshall monumentalizes and ennobles it. Ordinary is extraordinary. This is the dynamic in a 10-foot wide picture of terrific wit and gravity called "De Style." Five figures pose in a barbershop. Three have sensationally sculptural 'dos; the barber-artist responsible is haloed, like a saint.
The painting's title is multiply coded. It refers to the shop, Percy's House of Style, and to the princely chic of its clientele. It also points backward to the utopian Dutch art movement De Stijl, which, in the early 20th century, sought to aestheticize the everyday environment and produce universal harmony. Piet Mondrian was an adherent, and the barbershop's décor is based on his primary-colors palette.
In 2012, Mr. Marshall produced an indescribably fabulous pendant to "De Style" called "School of Beauty, School of Culture," set in a women's hair salon. The references are updated (there's a Chris Ofili poster on the wall), and the politics sharpened (the dominant colors are the red, black and green of the Pan-African flag). It is not to be missed.
Such images represent a conscious effort on Mr. Marshall's part to rescue the image of black life from a default air of pessimism. But he does not avoid bitter realities. A painting called "The Lost Boys," done the same year as "De Style," is a stabbing memorial to the violent deaths of black children. Nine immense pictures installed together in a wide-open gallery on the fourth floor tell a tale of a utopia failed — and worse, betrayed. Five of these paintings, collectively called "The Garden Project," date from 1994-95 and are reunited here for the first time in two decades. Mr. Marshall has said that one of his motivating ambitions as an artist was to paint black life "in the grand style," and here he did, in a fusion of autobiography and politics.
Part of the story of black urban life in late-20th- and 21st-century America, and part of Mr. Marshall's story, is of life in low-income housing projects. Such projects were designed by the government in the 1930s as alternatives to city slums. But the gesture had no follow-up. Once built, economic support was scant and by the 1960s the projects had drastically deteriorated, becoming media emblems of poverty and crime.
Mr. Marshall briefly lived in a project when he was a child and has good memories of it. In "The Garden Project," those memories collide and fuse with social realities. Landscaped projects in Los Angeles and Chicago (where Mr. Marshall lives) look both idyllic and corrupted. They are painted with photorealist precision, spattered with daubs of pigment that suggest bullet holes.
We see children, among them the young Mr. Marshall with his sister and brother. They play, glance shyly toward us, seem innocent of fear. Adults are not so carefree. In a picture called "Many Mansions," three men dressed in formal clothes, like churchgoers or undertakers, appear to be either gardening or digging a grave. Bluebirds flutter about; Easter baskets sit on the grass. The distant project towers look blank, dead; the earth seems to bleed.
In the years since 1995, Mr. Marshall has painted many gardens, blighted and edenic, ambiguously shaded. He has painted, with unambiguous seriousness, a gallery's worth of revolutionaries. In the "Portrait of Nat Turner With the Head of His Master" (2011), the ax-wielding rebel is a kind of biblical hero, a black David turning his back on a dead Goliath whose severed head is one of the show's very few images of a white person.
And he has painted artists, fictional ones, male and female, with regal coiffures; immense, paint-caked palettes; and paint-by-numbers self-portraits on their easels. As the catalog points out, the paint-by-number craze arrived in the 1950s, around the time the civil rights movement started, which was around the time Mr. Marshall was born. It was a type of painting for anyone and everyone, universal in that way. And although the subjects were fixed, the colors were not; you could switch them around, personalize your look, the way Mr. Marshall taught himself painting, and enriched it, by sampling themes and styles of older masters.
One of his fictional artists seems to be basing her portrait colors on those of the stunning print wrap she's wearing, which is a painting in itself. Another has depicted himself dressed entirely in pink, though he's wearing drab green and tan. In all cases, the painting of the face has been left unfinished — in some, untouched, as if that would be the last decision to make. Is it because they don't know what the colors will be? Or because black is so complex?
You know there would be some interesting choices from this group. Together, they look like an artist-army: mature, sober, purposeful, full of ideas, ready to get great, which Mr. Marshall already is.
"Kerry James Marshall: Mastry" opens Tuesday and runs through Jan. 29 at the Met Breuer; 212-535-7710, metmuseum.org.


text:
We will walk away from this application – there will be no more court battles
October 21, 2012 by CHASE
Speech delivered by Jackie Keaney, Commercial Director MSW at the 9th National Waste Management Summit In Association with the Irish Waste Management Association
Indaver call for reopening of oral hearing
29-11-2011 – Indaver call for reopening of Ringaskiddy waste-to-energy oral hearing
Ladies and Gentleman, I am delighted to have the opportunity to speak to you today.
As many of you aware, Indaver is a leading waste management services company, offering specialist treatment solutions in Ireland for over 30 years.
We are probably best known as the operator of Ireland's first waste-to-energy facility at Duleek, County Meath, and for our proposal to build a similar facility in Ringaskiddy, County Cork.
Today, I will briefly update you on our Meath facility, discuss the impact of waste policy on our work, and review measures to help waste collectors and producers to meet recovery targets.
I will conclude with some comments on our experience of working with local communities.
Before I start, I would like to address a subject many of you here have been asking me about – the status of our proposed Cork facility.
This is a proposal that Indaver has sought to develop for over a decade now.
The most recent development in this process came in May when An Bord Pleanála turned down Indaver's application.
All of us at Indaver are well used to the ups and downs of the planning process – although our Belgian board is often amused, or should I say confused, by the Irish process.
We felt we put forward a strong proposal.
We felt that domestic and European policies were on our side.
We felt that circumstances on the ground, in particular the deficit in any local solutions, made our proposal a compelling one.
Therefore, to get a refusal from the Board was naturally disappointing, particularly since previously, the Board had signalled its preparedness to grant permission.
As we reflected on the refusal, and specifically on the reasons given for the refusal, our disappointment turned to somewhere between surprise and shock.
This was because it came to our attention that the Board's decision failed to take account of crucial new information that came to light prior to its final determination.
That new information – that the Bottlehill landfill would not proceed and that Cork County Council was withdrawing from the waste business – was first signalled as far back as July 2010.
This development raised serious doubts about claims made fewer than 12 months previously at the oral hearing that the Bottlehill landfill was the solution to Cork's waste difficulties.
It was clear that the position locally was changing.
By the time it came to make a decision on our application, the original reasons given not to grant permission were not just undermined, they were demolished.
Indaver Ireland had been concerned to ensure that the Board has access to all current, important and relevant information available before making a final decision.
We wrote to this effect to the Board in advance of its final decision.
Then came the decision to reject the application.
A core reason cited for the rejection was that the Cork region was providing its own local waste infrastructure.
The Board's decision specifically referred to this when it stated that our application was not appropriate (and I quote) 'having regard to the current strategy of the Cork local authorities in respect of waste management as set out in the submissions of the planning authority in connection with the application, including to the Oral Hearing'.
So, as the Board itself states, its decision was influenced by submissions made and evidence given to the Oral Hearing in 2009.
But all had changed, changed utterly in the intervening two-year period.
Cork County Council had stated openly during that two-year period – in official correspondence, at meetings of elected members, and in the media – that its proposed landfill facility at Bottlehill will not proceed.
It is inconceivable that the Board would not have been aware of these developments.
Yet we cannot be sure.
Many questions arise, but one in particular: did the Board have all the facts when it made its decision?
Indaver cannot answer this question.
That is why, with no other option available to us, we sought to judicially review the decision.
Our application was accepted in July and we are now awaiting a full High Court hearing.
Indaver had no desire to take legal action against the Board.
We still don't.
But it is the only actual mechanism available to challenge that the Board did not consider the true state of Cork's waste facilities when it made its decision.
We do not relish a further lengthy legal case and its associated costs.
What we do want, and believe we are entitled to, is a fair hearing, based on all the facts.
No more, no less.
What we now have is an unpalatable stalemate.
All the while, the region remains without the waste facilities it urgently requires.
So how do we overcome this stalemate?
The only way to resolve this issue definitively is to reopen the Board's oral hearing.
We have always wanted this process to be fair to all. Fair to Indaver, to the local community, to end-users, local authorities and other key stakeholders.
Unfortunately, the failure to consider the full facts has meant this has not happened.
Re-opening the oral hearing offers all parties the opportunity to put all information before the Bord for its ultimate and final decision.
It provides what we have always sought – a fair hearing on the merits of our proposal.
If the hearing is reopened, Indaver will accept the Board's ultimate decision.
Even if the outcome is not in our favour, we will walk away from this application.
There will be no more court battles.
This application will end.
To us, and to most fair minded people, reopening the hearing to present this crucial evidence it is the most equitable means of concluding this matter.
We remain convinced of the merits of our proposal.
Equally, we accept others do not share this view.
That is their right.
However, whether you are for or against the Ringaskiddy proposal, it is an imperative that all facts are considered before this matter is determined.
We hope this will happen.
Original Source: http://www.indaver.ie/index.php?id=1888&no_cache=1&L=0&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=486
Filed Under: An Bord Pleanala