Many of us are already looking forward to hosting holiday gatherings this year — decorating our homes, whipping up festive foods, planning fun activities and surrounding ourselves with the warmth of family and friends.
In fact, one recent survey found 67 percent of U.S. consumers host and prepare food for holiday events, while another predicts we'll be spending an average $172 on such entertaining this season. As enjoyable as hosting is, however, the preparations can be time consuming. In a survey by Wakefield Research for BJ's Wholesale Club this year, 26 percent of U.S. respondents reported needing at least 24 hours to prepare for a holiday party. And trying to pull everything together can add pressure when we have copious other demands on our time.
"Our routines are interrupted by travel, guests, parties and the holidays themselves," notes physician Dr. Spencer Blackman in Entrepreneur. "If you're entertaining friends and family or organizing a work party, it takes upstream work to ensure a smooth event. Engage your support system and make a plan before things get crazy."
Consider these host-with-the-most suggestions for keeping the joy of the season no matter how large your impending event — and for making sure it's more fun than frantic.
* Santa knows who's on the nice list. You may be head elf, but there's no reason to take on every bit of the cooking, cleaning and entertaining yourself. Recruit a secondary elf squad ahead of time, assigning specific tasks so the work is parceled out evenly. Note: Youngsters needing gift-buying money may be motivated to take on the more grueling chores.
* Visions of sugarplums. Plan your menu ahead. When you know way ahead of time what you'll be serving, most food items and utensils can be purchased in advance — and in volume — so you'll have plenty to offer even if your guest list spikes unexpectedly. The last thing you want is to run out; of the 65 percent of Americans who told Wakefield they've been at parties that went awry, 28 percent pointed to a shortage of eating utensils and 27 percent were disappointed the food ran out early. BJ's Wholesale Club has everything you need to stock up for your party — at incredible value.
* Reindeer games? Check. Do the parents (and everyone else) at your gathering a favor by anticipating how your youngest party attendees will spend their time. Can you put together a kid-friendly craft, Lego, board game or cookie decorating table? Build a blanket fort? Set up age-appropriate video games? Rent movies? Stage a snowman-building contest? Put up port-a-cribs and baby swings for the nappers?
* Haul out the holly. Fifty-six percent of Americans see decor as more impactful on holiday spirit than food, according to Wakefield. You can always go all out on decorations if that's your thing, but the most striking ones are often the simplest. Hang multiple strands of sparkling lights, add a fire to the fireplace, light sweet-smelling candles and generously place fresh red-ribboned pine boughs on mantles, around doorways and banisters and in containers. Nearly instant magic.
* Mix and a-mingle. All too often, we're so busy making everything perfect for our guests we don't have time to join in the fun ourselves. The more you plan ahead to have your food, drinks and entertainment all planned out before guests arrive, the greater your chances of being able to relax and enjoy your own festivities.
The key to being a great host is to prepare enough so you're not hopelessly frazzled by the time guests arrive. Plan ahead this year so you can appreciate the joy of entertaining and create stellar holiday memories for all who attend. It may be the perfect ending of a perfect day.
Let BJ's Wholesale Club partner with you in providing all the fresh and frozen grocery items you need for your holiday soiree, in addition to decor, kitchen supplies and a cornucopia of gift ideas.


The 1980s. A time of glitz, glamour and gold. When Labora Real Estate bought the '80s-era office building at 400 S. Record Street in Dallas, they wanted to recapture some of that glamour, but now as part of an updated, modern, amenity-rich workplace.
The building's owners wanted the changes to make an immediate statement that the 30-year-old building was now a new and improved addition to the downtown. To do so, they focused much of the exterior work on the two most eye-catching areas: the ground level and the top of the building.
Designed by Gensler, the ground level features an aluminum canopy that extends overhead from the main entrance to the sidewalk and street, drawing the eye to the front of the building and creating an elegance that matches that of neighbors like the Omni Dallas Hotel. But perhaps the most striking feature of the lower levels is the restaurant. Raised on columns above ground level but beneath the canopy, the curvy, rectangular structure is covered in gold-hued scales, making it shimmer as the light changes.
Coordinating many moving parts was also essential for the renovations at the top of the building. The original building had an all-glass ceiling on one side of the top floor. The design called for removing that ceiling and replacing the area with a sky garden for tenants to take in the amazing views of the city. In addition, one of the upper floors has a two-story shadow-box-type of outcropping that, again, provides breathtaking views of the city. Both features involved reconstructing the building's exterior—at dizzying heights.
Getting materials up to those heights—and finding a place to store them—was also a challenge. The team used a crane with a weight capacity of 550 tons to lift all the structural materials to the upper levels, and then added a work platform extending almost 6 feet from the edge of the building to work on the 17th floor terrace canopy. "We were either working from or storing things on these platforms for weeks at a time," Shah says.
With crews working at such heights, safety was, not surprisingly, a vital component of the project.
That careful attention paid off—the project had no major safety incidents, which Shah is especially proud of.
Now 400 Record stands tall as a renewed fixture of the Dallas skyline, a representation of its past, present and future.


text:
How Waze on the 2019 Ford Edge trumps every other navigation app
By John Brandon published 7 January 19
The wisdom of crowds
Photo credit: Ford
Finding your way through traffic has never been easier. Both Android Auto and Apple CarPlay now work on many makes and models of cars, and the in-car nav system on even the lowest priced vehicles tends to work reliably well. Yet, in a test of the Waze app in the 2019 Ford Edge, it became obvious that a few extra perks in the app make GPSing even easier.
I tested Waze on an iPhone X (you need to connect up with a lightning cable), which activated Apple CarPlay. As long as you have Waze installed on your phone, it appears in the dashboard display.
Waze, which is now owned by Google, has been around for almost a decade, although it really came into the forefront only in the last five or six years. One of the key differentiators is that users can crowd-source GPS information like traffic accidents and speed traps.
The fact that Waze has been around for a while is important. When any app relies on the information from other drivers, it needs a good market share. The more users the better. In my test, Waze popped up right away and has a bright and colorful (if slightly cartoon-look) appearance. You can easily identify where you are on the map, the roadways around you, and any points of interest like gas stations and restaurants.
So far, that part of the app is not that different from the one included with many cars. Ford does a good job with navigation on its own, so I was a bit incredulous about whether Waze would help that much.
I also tend to prefer a more detailed map. On an 2018 Audi Allroad test not long ago, i remember activating the Google Earth view for navigation and seeing details like lakes and rivers that helped me choose a more scenic route. Waze is not designed for that level of photo-realism, but the main advantage for me had to do with the alerts.
Having Waze running up on the main screen -- something I have not tested before -- helps because you can see any of the accidents, speed traps, or other problems right in the main display. During my test, I heard one strange chirping sound that indicated a speed trap.
You can also select an option to alert other drivers about issues. For whatever reason, the CarPlay link only shows traffic, police, crash, and hazards you can identify for other drivers, even though the app itself has a few other options available (including road closures and speed cameras). It's likely because Waze and Apple don't want you do be too distracted.
Of course, there are a few other perks as well. On one drive to a movie theater, I noticed another driver had flagged an icy road hazard. I pulled over and parked, and used my phone to type a public message asking how bad it was. I didn't hear back, and it would have been nice to be able to do this task while driving using Siri or Waze.
In Apple CarPlay, I didn't see a way to post a public message or even to get more info about the hazard. The only way I could see more detail was to create a route, then click the hazard icon on my phone.
Waze provides some nice integration with Spotify as well, which does work through Apple CarPlay. From within Waze, I was able to select a playlist and skip tracks.
Overall, Waze just worked better at directing me to my destination, providing alerts about speed traps and hazards along the way. It's hard to improve on the basic navigation provided with Apple Maps and the Ford Edge nav that's included (mostly because the main purpose of these apps is to give you clear directions), but Waze did make the journey easier.
On The Road is TechRadar's regular look at the futuristic tech in today's hottest cars. John Brandon, a journalist who's been writing about cars for 12 years, puts a new car and its cutting-edge tech through the paces every week. One goal: To find out which new technologies will lead us to fully self-driving cars.
John Brandon
John Brandon has covered gadgets and cars for the past 12 years having published over 12,000 articles and tested nearly 8,000 products. He's nothing if not prolific. Before starting his writing career, he led an Information Design practice at a large consumer electronics retailer in the US. His hobbies include deep sea exploration, complaining about the weather, and engineering a vast multiverse conspiracy.
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Unless your a Seattle Seahawks fan, chances are you're starting to lose interest in Super Bowl XLVIII. That's okay. You were only watching for the commercials, anyway.
It has become a bit of an internet meme to observe how the American obsession with football is a form of idolatry. For example, here, and here, and here. Since Judaism is highly concerned with the topic of idolatry, and since I am a big sports fan, it seems like a topic to reflect upon here, too.
The problem with idolatry, as I understand Jewish tradition, is that we are commanded to worship God and God only. Any time we worship something that is not God (whether we use the word "god" or not) we have committed idolatry. We have assigned ultimate meaning to another person, to a natural phenomenon, or to something of our own creation. Our tradition says that doing that is a way of enslaving ourselves to something that can never fulfill our expectations or hopes. Idolatry is a crime against ourselves.
Every sports fan, deep down, knows that this is true. My favorite team won the World Series this year, for example, and I know that the pleasure of winning is great, but it does not do anything to solve any of the real problems in my life. It doesn't make the world a better place or solve the riddle of existence. It sure makes Red Sox fans happy, but it is a very temporary joy. After all, as they say, there's always next season.
I like the Super Bowl. It's fun. It feels good to cheer on your team (even if it is only "your team" for today). We should remember, though, that to make it anything more is just a way to turn an entertainment into a form of self-enslavement.
If you're a Seahawks fan, enjoy the next half. Celebrate and have fun. If you're a Broncos fan, I won't mind if you pray for a little miracle. Just remember, it's only a game.


text:
Q: While loop missing value where TRUE/FALSE needed simulate_queue<- function(open_time, rate, low, high){
i<-1
j<-1
a<-rexp(1,rate)
b<-runif(1,low,high)
c<-a+b
d<-a + rexp(1,rate)
e<-c()
 while (d <= open_time) {
  a[i+1]<- d
  if (a[i+1] < c[i]){
  c[i+1]<-c[i]+b
  b<- runif(1,low,high)
}
else c[i+1]<-a[i+1]+b
e[i]<-( while(d <= open_time){
  if (c[j] < a[i+1]) {sum(c[j]< a[i])
   i <- i+1
    }
  else if (c[j] > a[i+1]) {0
  j <- j+1
  }
  else 0
 }
  )
  i<-i+1
  d <- a[i] + rexp(1,rate)
 }

 L <- list(arrival_times=a,queue_lengths=e,departure_times=c)
 L
}

I don't know why there is an error message
Error in if (c[j] < a[i + 1]) { : missing value where TRUE/FALSE needed
Please help me..

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Arizona legislation would abolish state income tax
Wed, Jan 18, 2023 2:00 PM
By Cole Lauterbach, The Center Square
Although Arizona's state income tax recently dropped to one of the lowest in the nation, a rookie lawmaker disagrees with the concept of having an income tax at all.
Rep. Austin Smith, a West Valley Republican, filed House Bill 2395. He said taxpayers have struggled to make ends meet due to the current economic environment.
"With millions of Arizonans suffering to make ends meet due to the devastating effects of Democrats' hyperinflation and rising interest rates, I can't think of a better time to get government out of the wallets of taxpayers by eliminating the income tax altogether," Smith told The Center Square.
The state collected $9.3 billion in individual income and withholding tax in fiscal year 2022, according to information from the state Department of Revenue. The figure represents a sizeable portion of the state's total $27.8 billion in gross revenue from that fiscal year.
The state's economic growth triggered legislation that flattened the state income tax to 2.5%, down from a graduated rate with a high of 4.5% with an additional 1% tax on revenue over $250,000.
Nine states – Alaska, Florida, Nevada, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington and Wyoming – do not levy state income taxes.
Though Smith has three other House lawmakers willing to sponsor his legislation, his bill faces an uphill climb in a narrowly-Republican House and Senate. Should both chambers agree to erase the state's income tax, newly-elected Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs has the power to veto the bill.
The Center Square
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