text:
Ethel Larcombe, eg. Ethel Warneford Thomson gift Larcombe, född 8 juni 1879, Islington, London, död 11 augusti 1965, var en brittisk tennis- och badmintonspelare.

Tenniskarriären
Ethel Larcombe deltog i damsingel i Wimbledonmästerskapen första gången 1902 (förlorade i första omgången mot flerfaldiga finalisten Agatha Morton) och sista gången 1919. Denna gång förlorade hon i andra omgången mot slutsegraren, den legendariska fransyskan Suzanne Lenglen (6-2, 6-1). Från debuten i mästerskapen deltog hon årligen fram till och med 1906. Hennes singelresultat under denna period var skiftande, som bäst nådde hon finalen i All Comers Round 1903. Hon mötte där Dorothea Douglass Chambers, som vann med 4-6, 6-2, 6-2, och därmed tog sin första av sju singeltitlar. Ethel Larcombe deltog inte i turneringen 1907-1911.

Ethel Larcombe var tillbaka i god form i turneringen 1912 och besegrade Blanche Hillyard i semifinalen i All Comers Round (6-1, 6-0) och i finalen Charlotte Sterry (6-3, 6-1). Eftersom det föregående årets mästare, Chambers, inte ställde upp att försvara sin titel, korades Ethel Larcombe därmed som singelmästare. Året därpå, 1913, spelade Larcombe Wimbledonfinal i mixed dubbel tillsammans med irländaren James Cecil Parke. Denne råkade slå en retur rakt i ögat på sin medspelare Ethel Larcombe, som i och med detta blev oförmögen att spela. Hon hann heller inte återställas tillräckligt för att dagen därpå försvara sin singeltitel i mästerskapen. I 1914 års Wimbledonturnering mötte Ethel Larcombe åter Chambers i Challenge Round. Matchen blev jämn men Chambers vann till slut med 7-5, 6-4 och tog därmed sin sjunde och sista singeltitel i mästerskapen. Samma år spelade hon ännu en final i mixed dubbel i Wimbledonmästerskapen tillsammans med James Parke. Denna gång vann paret titeln mot Anthony Wilding/Marguerite Broquedis (4-6, 6-4, 6-2).

Ethel Larcombe vann 1912 både singel- och mixed dubbeltiteln i Irish Open.

Badmintonkarriären
Ethel Larcombe nådde ännu större framgångar som badmintonspelare än som tennisspelare. En av hennes främsta konkurrenter i denna idrott var tennisantagonisten Dorothea Douglass Chambers. Larcombe var dock med sina fem singeltitlar i Yonex All England Open 1900, 1901, 1903, 1904 och 1906 mer framgångsrik än Chambers med sina två titlar (dubbel och mixed dubbel). Ethel Larcombe vann dessutom dubbeltiteln i mästerskapen 1902, 1904, 1905 och 1906 samt mixed dubbel-titeln 1903 och 1906.

Tennisspelaren och personen
Ethel Larcombe hade som främsta vapen vid tennisspel en osedvanligt god backhand och dessutom en svårbedömd skruvad underhandsserve. Enligt Chambers i boken "Lawn Tennis for Ladies" hade Larcombe också en förnämlig taktik att attackera med volley framme vid nätet. Hon hade dock en tendens att tröttna vid längre matcher som hon sällan vann.

Ethel Larcombe verkade från 1922 som tennislärare. Hennes make, Major Dudley Larcombe var sekreterare i All England Club 1925-39.

Grand Slam-titlar
 Wimbledonmästerskapen
 Singel - 1912
 Dubbel - 1903, 1904
 Mixed dubbel - 1904, 1905, 1912, 1914

Referenser

Källor
 Gianni Clerici, 1974. 500 Jahre Tennis ( tysk översättning 1978). Verlag Ullstein ().
 Martin Hedges, 1978. The Concise Dictionary of Tennis. Mayflower Books Inc ().

Brittiska tennisspelare
Födda 1879
Avlidna 1965
Kvinnor


text:
La XXV Copa de España è la 25ª edizione (24ª disputata) della coppa nazionale di football americano, organizzata dalla FEFA.

Squadre partecipanti

Tabellone

Quarti di finale

Semifinali

Finale

Verdetti
   Vincitori della Copa de España 2021

Note

Voci correlate
Campionato spagnolo di football americano
Copa de España (football americano)
LNFA Serie A 2021
LNFA Femenina 9×9 2021

Collegamenti esterni

 2021

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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Search - Alexander - Director's Cut (Full Screen Edition) on DVD
Alexander - Director's Cut
Full Screen Edition
Actors: Colin Farrell, Anthony Hopkins, Rosario Dawson, Angelina Jolie, Val Kilmer
Genres: Action & Adventure, Drama, Military & War
Academy award winning director Oliver Stone presents a breathtaking new cut of his sweeping epic film, ALEXANDER, the true story of the world's greatest warrior. Using new footage and dramatically reshaping dozens of scene... more »s, he brings to life the overpowering forces and fierce personalities that forever changed history. Torn by the war between his parents (Angelina Jolie and Val Kilmer), Alexander (Colin Farrell) left Greece to face massive armies in Persia, Afghanistan and India -- and was never defeated. "Fortune favors the bold" Stone powerfully demonstrates in this bold new film, ALEXANDER DIRECTOR'S CUT. DVD Features:
Audio Commentary:Oliver Stone
Documentaries « less
Creators: Oliver Stone, Aslan Nadery, Fernando Sulichin, Gianni Nunnari, Hans De Weers, Christopher Kyle, Laeta Kalogridis
Sub-Genres: Action & Adventure, Love & Romance, Military & War
Format: DVD - Color,Full Screen,Widescreen - Closed-captioned,Subtitled
Screens: Color,Full Screen,Widescreen
Total Copies: 25
Edition: Director's Cut
Alexander, Revisited - The Final Cut (Two-Disc Special Edition)
Alexander (Director's Cut) (With BBQ Book)
Alexander (Director's Cut)
Alexander Revisited - The Final Cut [HD DVD]
Alexander, Revisited - The Final Cut [Blu-ray]
Alexander (Two-Disc Special Edition)
Alexander - Director's Cut (Two-Disc Special Edition)
HD DVD
Director: Wolfgang Petersen
Director: Robert Rossen
The True Story of Alexander the Great
Kingdom of Heaven/Crusaders
Director: Ben Affleck
Cold Mountain
Two-Disc Collector's Edition
Director: Anthony Minghella
Director: Clint Eastwood
King Arthur - The Director's Cut
Director: Antoine Fuqua
Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Director: Nancy Meyers
Karen R. from CHICAGO, IL
Historically a bit inaccurate, but a whalloping, entertaining movie...
--Karen--
Alexander Revisited...a review from one who has the 3 DVD's
Raymond F. Gillis | Yonkers, New York | 02/28/2007
"Oliver Stone's Alexander Revisited is now something of a masterwork. He is given the chance to tell the story as he would have originally liked to have presented it. The 45 minutes of extra's are true extra's...spread out in short 2 to 5 second edits...to more lengthly exchanges that happily include Brian Blessed as the Physical Instructor, Christopher Plummer as Aristotle and quite a bit more voice over and character addition from Anthony Hopkins as the aged Ptolemy.
The action starts almost immediately with a longer, more graphic version of the Battle of Gaugemela (Wonderfully undertaken, Stone paying homage to the great Sergei Bondarchuk with those terrific panning shots) and then works backwards through Alexanders youth. The film moves forward and backwards from there yet the new subtitles give you the year and how long, before or after, from the previous scene. It is quite instructive to anyone the slighest bit confused and is a superb history lesson. Also good are longer dancing scenes with Roxanna's troupe and Bogoas' troupe...both superb, filmic scenes...beautifully done. The Bogoas character (Francisco Bosch) is also expanded and made far more sympathetic.
The Indian Battle (wonderfully filmed in Thailand) is also more graphic as are some of the more intimate scenes yet nothing is without merit. This is not 2007, it's 330BC and mores and the concept of battle, honor, fidelity etc were different for those times. I for one, praise Mr. Stone for a very accurate feel and presence...and even minor characters are explained in far greater detail...such as the young Guardsman who killed Philip (Kilmer)...in a flashback we see his motives. It is now far more beautifully edited...from a master filmaker who values editing, JFK gets my vote as the best edited film of all time.
I am giving it 5 Stars...a masterpiece. Do watch the Stone introduction, he says it better than I..."If you liked the original you'll love this, if you hated the original you'll hate this even more!" Now there is a man!
The only part I am saddened about is that over the end titles Vangelis' epic piece 'Titans' is still only 2 minutes long...yet it fits the edit...and I would urge you to purchase the CD for the complete 4 minute version...one of the best pieces of film music I felt ever written."
More true to history than people think
A. M. Chugg | 03/11/2007
"I originally sat on the fence in my opinion of the theatre release of Alexander, but Alexander Revisited has won me over as admirer of the film. The new cut has a truly epic feel and the leading characters are portrayed with more breadth and depth. In particular, the climactic crises of Alexander's career are conveyed more intelligibly and convincingly than before. I am the author of both academic articles and non-fiction books on Alexander, so I feel I should comment particularly on the historical accuracy of the film. In my opinion Alexander Revisited is notably honest, daring and sincere in its pursuit of historical accuracy. Although Oliver has deliberately conflated events which actually occurred at different times and places into single scenes (I think he had to in order to tell the whole story in a single film), almost everything has some kind of historical basis in the group of 2000 year old accounts, which provide most of our knowledge of Alexander. For example, such details as Cleitus severing the arm of a Persian about to strike Alexander, the incident with the monkeys in India and Alexander's visit to the wounded after the battle are all in the sources. Even that eagle is mentioned by Curtius. Furthermore, many snippets of dialogue are based on words actually said to have been spoken by Alexander: e.g. "He too is Alexander", "So would I if I were Parmenion", "It is a lovely thing to live with courage..." Great attention to historical detail was also paid to the costumes and scenery. Babylon was particularly good - the ziggurat, the flowers and the caged big cats were all really there when Alexander drove into the city in a chariot. Overall, Alexander Revisited gives a more authentic sense of the real history than any other film about the ancient world that I can think of. Gladiator was a great film, but its greatness owed more to Marvel comic strip principles of action and violence than to its setting in ancient Rome. Alexander Revisited is a great film because it tells one of the most compelling human stories in all of history with faithfulness, drama and pathos."
Great Improvement
G. Tempany | Brisbane Australia | 03/31/2007
"Having admired the initial theatrical cut i was disappointed with the directors cut released on DVD. To me this appeared to be a sell out by Oliver Stone to appease the negative reaction this film received on release and try and win over more people with extended battles and less homosexual overtones. The directors cut played out badly and missed important backstory and character development shown in the original version. Hearing a final uncut, full length version was to be released i purchased hoping Oliver had had a rethink and restored his film to its greater glory. Well i can happily say he did and more. This is the cut which despite its 3.5 hour running time should have been released at the beginning. Alexander and his relationships have been given greater attention here and it helps the audience gain a greater understanding of this flawed but valiant person. The battle scenes have been extended and include some new graphic additions (a person being squashed to a pulp by an elephant being a memorable one) really adding to the scope and brutality of warfare. Colin Farrell does a great job however i felt Val Kilmer to be slightly weak and unbelievable. Overall this is a fine film which makes a noble attempt at capturing the essence of one of history's most revered and mysterious figures. The elephant battle scene is one of the best ever committed to film. Oliver Stone confirmed he wanted to make a film like the old greats (Ben Hur) with the same large canas and epic vision. Whilst he has succeeded i cannot forgive him for taking three goes to get it right. I would of thought someone as gifted as him wouldn't have needed to do this and is very lucky Warner Bros have given him another chance. I have not heard of anyone being this lucky before. Nevertheless i highly recommend this film for history buffs and battle fans who should rejoice in the fantastic canvas on display here. This is definitely NOT the disaster so many labelled it and the director should be very proud he has finally got it right."
Alexander Stoned
Tim Brough | Springfield, PA United States | 04/01/2007
"There aren't too many epic filmakers these days, and just about all of them court controversy at some point in their careers. Oliver Stone is just that kind of a man. From "JFK" to the recent "World Trade Center," he is not afraid to make decisions that will rankle people. Such is the case with his glorious mess, "Alexander." Everything about this movie is so right that the total failure of the film to connect can only lie on Stone's shoulders.
Colin Farrell plays Alexander as a troubled Mama's boy. The much debated 'gay content' is limited to googely-eyes shared between Farrell and Jared Leto (the hottest sex scene is when Rosario Dawson and Farrell get it on). Everyone - from Farrell to Val Kilmer, speaks as if Macedonia was Northern Ireland. Except Angelina Jolie, who plays Alexander's mother like she just left a gig doing Natasha voice overs for "Rocky and Bullwinkle" cartoons. Kilmer, by the way, is nothing short of brilliant as King Phillip. I didn't even recognize him at first, he is so enveloped in the role.
The filming itself is rich, lush, beautiful. So what does Stone do with it? Everyone stands up and makes speeches. Over and over, people talk on and on through scenes that go way beyond their need. Anthony Hopkin's voice overs give the film a much needed narrative connectivity, yet Hopkins himself barely appears. When he DOES show up, it is to pontificate like he's onstage at some Shakespearian production.
The battle scenes are mammoth, chaotic, splendid. That is, unless you want to have any indication of who is fighting who. Then, all the thrown dust and swirling camera work leave you guessing. Same with the bizarrely intercut timelines. You will have several WTF moments as you try to figure out not just the what, but the when an activity is taking place. Be patient and you will be rewarded with the spectacle of Alexander's final battle in India, with charging elephants and stunning scenery.
When comparing "Alexander" to "Troy" or "Kingdom Of Heaven," Stone's movie falls somewhere between the two. "Alexander" is more an accurate portrayal of Alexander than "Troy's" bungling of Homer's Iliad, (at least Stone didn't flinch away from bi-sexuality they way Wolfgang Peterson did with Achilles in "Troy"), but Troy never felt like it was dragging in pace. One the other hand, Colin Farell and the cast of "Alexander" are far more convincing than "Kingdom Of Heaven," even if I believe Ridley Scott managed to craft the more watchable movie.
It's too bad that all this amazing work is left floundering in chaos, becuase "Alexander" had all the making of a brilliant movie. It is so ambitious that I can't help but add the fourth star, but I suspect that a few more edits might have made this a more choherent movie. We all know Oliver Stone has it in him, after all, he made a movie that was mostly two hours of men buried in rubble fascinating. Why "Alexander" seems like it was left as rubble mystefies me.
The complete Alexander
Sebastian | 03/04/2007
"I really like this version. It gives more detail to the characters. I think Colin makes a great Alexander. He was a complicated and interesting person in history. This version shows more of his bisexuality. I think that is what a lot of folks do not like about this film, but it was part of who he is. I own the Director's Cut as well. The action scenes are more brutual here but also more dramatic and stunning. So glad this unrated complete version has been released."

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


If the player can pick something up, they must. Simply because that thing, whatever it might be, is necessary for progress.
The first video game about Hoarding was released in 1990.
Essentially: You're expected to take everything that isn't nailed down.
... one could assume that in some cases you'd need to take even those.
This doesn't refer to player being able to pick up everything, but rather everything must be taken and everything will have a use, one way or another (e.g. triggering a scene, even if the item is never actually used).
Usually also means that if your inventory is empty, you've missed something.


text:
UIKIT_EXTERN NSString *const TestHookModel2_sameMethod;
UIKIT_EXTERN NSString *const TestHookModel2_diffMethod;

@interface TestHookModel2 : NSObject

- (NSString *)common_swizzle_printLog;
- (NSString *)diff_swizzle_printLog;

@end

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Is Sitting down Gastric Sleeve Surgery in Delhi smoking?
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Wilmot Nh's home inspector of choice. We offer thorough reports, thermographic imaging, and competitive pricing.


December started on high spirit at the Beyond The Box in City of Dreams hosted the launching of the most anticipated iPhone X in the Philippines.
Ushering the Christmas month with stunning deals and freebies, Beyond the Box patrons and iPhone loyalists lined up as early as 1 in the afternoon of November 30 to be one of the first 50 Filipinos to own the most prestigious and latest iPhone brand.
Though, I really don't have the money to buy a new iPhone, I was there that night to join the excitement and to somehow party with the team that made this event possible. Live music and some entertainment were provided to shoppers and spectators that night to keep the excitement in the air.
And at exactly 12 o'clock of December 1, the doors of Beyond The Box - City of Dreams opened with flashy iPhone gadgets all over the place. The newest iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus and iPhone X were in the front line display that even I attracts quickly.
If you looking for an authorized Apple reseller, Beyond the Box offers a great deal for these newest iPhone. For financing that's right on the pocket, Beyond the Box offers 24 months 0% installment deals exclusive for BPI cardholders until December 31, 2017. With this offer, you can buy the iPhone 8 (64GB) at Php1,853.75 a month, the iPhone 8 Plus (64GB) at Php2,124.58 a month and the all-screen iPhone X (64GB) at Php2,666.25 a month.
For further details, I suggest that you visit their website at http://beyondthebox.ph or follow them on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/beyondthebox.ph) and on Twitter (https://twitter.com/beyondtheboxph).


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Kanda Shipbuilding
Philippine Ferries That Are Celebrating Their Golden Anniversaries In 2017
Posted on May 30, 2017 May 30, 2017 by psssadmin
There are a few ferries in the Philippines which will be having their golden anniversaries this year because they have already reached 50 years of existence and sailing. That means these were built exactly in the year 1967 and all of these ferries are testaments to their design and engineering. It is also a testament to the Philippine side from the owners to the engineers for their loyalty and belief in their ships.
Not all of these ships are in the pink of health now, of course. In humans they might be the equivalent of our centenarians. But unlike our centenarians these are not exactly laid-up vessels and if not sailing they are being held in reserve. Some of these have hiccups at times but those episodes are not something that cannot be repaired. And unlike planes where there is always an emergency when an engine conks out, in ships even though it loses main engine power they simply become the equivalent of unpowered barges and barges sail day in and day out in all waters of the world.
Here then are our "golden" ferries this year:
Maybe we should start with the Maria Gloria of Montenegro Shipping Lines Inc. (MSLI). This is a notable ship because she was the first steel-hulled ferry of Montenegro Lines. She came to our country in 1994 when she was already 27 years old and she has been a good ship from the time she arrived and is still a very reliable ship until now. It looks like Montenegro Lines is taking care of her very well.
Maria Gloria by Raymond Lapus
The Maria Gloria is a short-distance ferry-RORO and for a long time served the Mindoro routes although at times she can also be found in the route to Siquijor. She was built as the Tenyo Maru for the Shimabara Tetsudo by Kanda Shipbuilding in Kure, Japan. She measures 42.9 meters by 11.0 meters and she has a passenger capacity of 413 persons. She is powered by twin Daihatsu engines with a total of 1,400 horsepower which is still good enough for some 10 knots today.
Another 50-year old ship in the fleet of Montenegro Lines is the ferry Maria Isabel which holds for the company their Iloilo-Cuyo-Puerto Princesa route across the wide Sulu Sea. Now if she is not a reliable ship Montenegro Lines won't assign her to that route especially since swells can be powerful in her route when the monsoons are acting up.
Maria Isabel by Carl Jakosalem
The Maria Isabel was originally the Shirakawa Maru in Japan and she was built by Taguma Zosen in Innoshima, Japan. Her external dimensions are 49.0 meters by 13.2 meters and she has a passenger capacity of 427 persons. A two-deck overnight ferry, her Gross Tonnage is rather high for her Length at 836 (this figure has no unit). She is powered by twin Hanshin engines of 1,700 horsepower and her design speed is high at 14.5 knots and maybe this was the reason she was assigned the long Sulu Sea route.
The Maria Isabel arrived in the country in 1997 when she was already 30 years old. Now who said imported surplus ferries should be no more than 20 years old? I say it depends on the condition of the ship. Maria Isabel has two sister ships in the Philippines and both are in the fleet also of Montenegro Lines. These are the Maria Erlinda and Maria Rebecca.
Another "golden" ship in the Philippines is one that has a complicated history and is a survivor. She first arrived in the country in 1982 as the first RORO ferry of Viva Shipping Lines which were formerly operators of motor boats like Montenegro Lines. The ship was 15 years old then, a relatively young age and she was named as the Viva Santo Nino.
The Viva Santo Nino was formerly the Bisan Maru of Sanyo Kisen of Japan. She was built by Kanda Shipbuilding in Kure, Japan and she measures 50.0 meters by 11.8 meters. Originally 665 GRT in Japan but here her GT was deflated. I am not sure of her original engines but later it were two Yanmar engines totaling 1,800 horsepower which was good for 13 knots.
The Viva Santo Nino sailed well for Viva Shipping Lines whose ships were rusty and lacked cleanliness but they don't sink or conk out because tale says the Captain is under the pain of death if his ship sinks. But when the company stopped operations because of the tightness of competition in the Verde Island Passage and of some family troubles this ship was one of those which was laid up.
Streamer of Joy-Ruby by Masahiro Homma
In 2003, the ship was sold to Silverio Atienza who was an operator of motor boats called batel in the area. With some modifications and repair, she became the Joy-Ruby, the first steel-hulled ferry of Silverio Atienza which later evolved into the Atienza Shipping Lines. However, once on a voyage to Puerto Princesa she developed a hull in the stern when she was already nearing the port. She continued sailing until she ended up sitting on her stern near the quay with her bow pointing to the sky.
The Joy-Ruby was subsequently salvaged and sold to Asian Marine Transport Corporation (AMTC) in 2008 where she became the Super Shuttle Ferry 15. For many years she plied the various routes of the company in the Visayas and mainly Ormoc but at times she also experienced some minor problems. This might not really be due to age but to the weakness of her company in maintaining ships. However, her Captain admitted that her engines were not that robust anymore but this is something that could be remedied by re-engining.
Another ship that was also built in 1967 was the Island Express II of Island Shipping Corporation. This ship is a short-distance ferry-cruiser that runs the Bantayan island route although not recently when Island Shipping was already able to build enough passenger-cargo LCTs and the cruisers of the company were already on the way out as cruisers can no longer compete against ROROs except in Zamboanga.
Island Express II by Masahiro Homma
The Island Express II was built as the Yuzuru by the Sanriku Shipbuilding & Iron Works in Shiogama, Japan. The ship's external dimensions are 28.5 meters by 7.0 meters and she is equipped by a single Daihatsu engine of 300 horsepower which means she is a slow craft. This ship came to the Philippines in 1994 when she was already 27 years old. The Island Express II has a passenger capacity of 354 persons all in benches.
Another cruiser ship that was built in 1967 but is an overnight ferry is the Gloria Two of Gabisan Shipping which has fishing vessel origin and was just converted in Leyte. This ferry measures 46.3 meters by 7.7 meters and is now equipped by a single Isuzu Marine engine of 960 horsepower which gives her a cruising speed of 11.5 knots.
The Gloria Two is a very reliable ship although she suffers now in competition versus RORO ships. She has a passenger capacity of 386 and she has no other route except the route to Hilongos, Leyte. This ferry is declared to have a Gross Tonnage of 246 with a passenger capacity of 386 person in bunks.
There is another highly-recognizable ship that is well-known in Cebu which is the Lapu-lapu Ferry 1 of Lapu-lapu Shipping. This ship was built by Okayama Shipyard in Hinase, Japan in 1967 and she came to Sweet Lines of the Philippines in 1978. In Sweet Lines she was known as the second Sweet Time doing the Cebu-Tagbilaran-Cagayan de Oro and Cebu-Tagbilaran-Larena-Plaridel routes. Her IMO Number is 7315753.
Sweet Time by Edison Sy
When Sweet Lines collapsed in 1994, she was laid up for a while until she became the Carmelita. Then she came to Lapu-lapu Shipping which renovated her extensively in 2002 in Villono shipyard until she no longer looked like the old Sweet Time, the reason why people can't connect her to her origin. But IMO Numbers don't lie and she was traced.
Lapu-lapu Ferry 1 by Mike Baylon
As Lapu-lapu Ferry 1 her dimensions are 52.2 meters by 8.0 meters by 4.1 meters and she is an overnight ferry-cruiser. Her passenger capacity is 509 and her primary route is Cebu to Cataingan, Masbate. She still has her original Hanshin engine with 1,100 horsepower which is now just good for 8 to 9 knots. To keep up with competition, the ship has an air-conditioned Tourist section.
Another ship built in 1967 is an LCT of E.B. Aznar Shipping of
Danao, the LCT Melrivic 1 which at one time was rumored to be gone but actually was just hiding in Republic Drydock in Danao City and being re-engined prior to re-fielding. A PSSS (Philippine Ship Spotters Society) tour group found her being refitted in that shipyard. This passenger-cargo LCT is a local-build in Manila.
LCT Melrivic 1 by John Carlos Cabanillas
This vessel's measurements are 37.4 meters by 8.0 meters which means she is a small LCT and her Gross Tonnage is 321. Originally powered by a single Yanmar Marine engine of 430 horsepower, she is now powered by a Weichai engine of 460 horsepower and her speed increased from 9.5 knots to 11 knots while being more fuel-efficient.
The next ship which is 50 years old now is a respected ship in Bicol but she was not originally a Bicol ferry. In Japan she was known as the Nangokutosa Maru of the Utaka Kokudo Ferry and she was built by Hashihama Zosen in Imabari, Japan. The ship measures 64.0 meters by 11.3 meters with an original Gross Register Tonnage of 904 tons and equipped with twin Daihatsu engines with a total of 2,200 horsepower.
Princess of Mayon (parsed from a PPA photo)
In 1990, this ship came to United Towage & Salvage of the Philippines when she was already 23 years old. In this company she was known as Horizon but United Towage & Salvage was actually not into passenger shipping. The ship underwent modifications and she was sold to Bicolandia Shipping Lines where she became known as the Princess of Mayon. For a very long time as in two decades, she was the biggest ferry in Bicol and she was always in the strongest route there, the Matnog to Samar route.
When Bicolandia Shipping Lines was sold lock, stock and barrel to Penafrancia Shipping Lines in 2006, the Princess of Mayon became part of the deal and in the new company she was known as the Don Benito Ambrosio II. She had periods of unreliability soon after. The company's solution was to build one reliable Daihatsu engine from her two Daihatsu engines and a Yanmar engine was mounted as the second engine.
Now Don Benito Ambrosio II is running well again and she is still in the same route again. The PSSS (Philippine Ship Spotters Society) touring group was able to ride her free last December, "Bridge Class" and know what? Her bridge is air-conditioned! Now, tell me, how many short-distance ferries locally can claim that kind of accoutrement?
The last two vessels that were built in 1967 are both local-builds. Both are small because they were ferries of their companies when they was still young. These two are obsolete now being slow, small cruisers and most of the time they no longer sail. The two are the Ever Transport of Ever Lines and the Magnolia of Magnolia Shipping Corporation, both of Zamboanga City.
The Ever Transport was built in Cebu and just measures 19.2 meters by 5.1 meters with a Gross Tonnage of just 68 and a passenger capacity of just 87 persons. Her engine is an Isuzu diesel of just 135 horsepower but she can reach 7.5 knots when she was still new. I thought then she was already gone and then I saw her being refitted in Varadero de Cawit in Zamboanga City and they said she will sail again.
Meanwhile, the Magnolia was built by Rato Brothers in Pagadian, Zamboanga del Sur. Her external dimensions are 26.6 meters by 5.4 meters with a Gross Tonnage of 81 and a passenger capacity of 122 persons. The upper half of her hull is wood and the lower half is steel. The Magnolia is powered by a single Caterpillar engine of 120 horsepower. The last time I saw her was she was laid up in Varadero de Recodo in Zamboanga City.
Both the Ever Transport and Magnolia are clearly obsolete now. In passenger capacity they are not even higher than the big passenger-cargo motor bancas which have the same horsepower as them or even more. However, the two can carry more cargo especially since they have high prows and freeboards so they can deal with the sometimes big swells of the seas near Zamboanga.
Magnolia by Mike Baylon
So that's it, folks. A total of eight ferries that will be celebrating their 50 years now. Some are already obsolete especially the cruisers because as they say times and modalities change but they are still alive. Do I hear the tune of the BeeGees, "Stayin' Alive"?
Not all the ferries mentioned have IMO Numbers and some were not traced initially but the cooperation with Angelo Blasutta of the former Grosstonnage.com bore fruit and so the Don Benito Ambrosio II and Lapu-lapu Ferry 1's origins were traced and both were actually clear surprises.
I always joke that ferries 50 years old should give a discount of 50%, a celebration for being still alive. Oh, it can be not the whole year. Maybe on the month that they were built, at least. And the crew might even be surprised because I found out over the years that many crewmen cannot trace the history of their vessels because they were not trained to look for the IMO Number.
On a future article I will deal with our our ferries built in 1967 that are no longer around and what has happened to them so the people including the haters of old ships will be more educated.
Posted in History, Information, Ship FeatureTagged Angelo Blasutta, Asian Marine Transport Corporation (AMTC), Atienza Shipping Lines, "golden" ferries, batel, Bicolandia Shipping Lines, Bisan Maru, Carmelita, Caterpillar engine, Daihatsu engines, Don Benito Ambrosio II, E.B. Aznar Shipping, Ever Lines, Ever Transport, Gabisan Shipping, Gloria Two, Grosstonnage.com, Hanshin engine, Hanshin engines, Hashihama Zosen, Horizon, IMO 7315753, IMO Number, Island Express II, Isuzu Marine engine, joy ruby, Kanda Shipbuilding, lapu-lapu ferry 1, Lapu-Lapu Shipping, LCT, magnolia, Magnolia Shipping, maria gloria, Maria Isabel, Melrivic 1, Montenegro Shipping Lines Inc. (MSLI), Nangokutosa Maru, Okayama Shipyard, Penafrancia Shipping Lines, Philippine ferries, Princess of Mayon, Rato Brothers, RORO Ferry, Sanyo Kisen, Shimabara Tetsudo, Shirakawa Maru, short-distance ferry-RORO, Silverio Atienza, Super Shuttle Ferry 15, sweet lines, Taguma Zosen, Tenyo Maru, Utaka Kokudo Ferry, Varadero de Cawit, Villono Shipyard, Viva Santo Nino, Weichai engine, Yanmar engines, Yanmar Marine engine, YuzuruLeave a comment
The Sister Ships Stephanie Marie and Starlite Annapolis
Posted on May 20, 2017 by psssadmin
These are two sister ships with different owners, routes and home ports in the Philippines and probably their paths do not cross and few are aware one has a sister ship or ever more saw both of them. I wrote about them not because they are that superlative but I think they have some uniqueness and I would like to compare them to a sister ship series that has just started arriving in the Philippines. These are mainly represented by the new ships of Starlite Ferries which all arrived here brand-new from Japan from a big loan package and ostensibly a push for shipping modernization in the Philippines.
One thing I noticed about the new Starlite ferries is their breadth which is on the large or wide end. Few are the 60-meter ferries that have 14 meters as breadth (most have breadths just in the 12 to 13 meter range) but the breadth of the new Starlite Ferries is 15.3 meters. There are just a few ferries in the Philippines that are in the 60-meter class that have 14 meters in breadth but the sister ships Stephanie Marie and Starlite Annapolis have the widest breadth at 14.2 meters and so the new Starlite ferries has an extra 1.1 meters over them.
The car deck of Stephanie Marie (Photo by Mike Baylon)
Now if this extra breadth converts to an extra lane of rolling cargo I am not sure of that. The average width of a truck or bus is just 3 meters and so in the two older sisters ships that might mean 3 buses or trucks abreast as other portions of the breadth consist of the hull and pathways. At their breadth the buses and trucks will not be too near each other which is important in choppy seas to avoid damage.
But rolling cargo loading in the Philippines is generally mixed with smaller vehicles like sedans, AUVs, SUVs, jeeps and light trucks. Now I don't know if in a mix the new Starlite ferries will have a higher total number of vehicles (the lengths of the two sets of sister ships are almost the same). In a maritime database the declared rolling cargo capacity of the new Starlite ferries is 21 trucks. I don't know how this was computed. At 3 abreast then it must be a row of 7 trucks. But the LOA (Length Over-all) is only 67 meters. Is this the Japan 8-meter truck standard and not our long trucks?
I am also interested in the breadths of ROROs because that figure is also needed in estimating the rolling cargo and not just the length. A little extra breadth is actually crucial in packing it in. In the new Starlite ferries they advertised that their stairs are wider. Did the extra 1.1 meters just went into that?
Stephanie Marie is more wide than tall
Before the arrival of the new Starlite ferries, I looked at Stephanie Marie and Starlite Annapolis as the benchmarks in the 60-meter class of ROPAXes. Viewed from the outside it is obvious they are a little wide and their bow design even emphasizes that. Even from the stern these two sister ships looks wide than tall and to think they both have three passenger decks. Well, this illusion is true even from the bow.
Just how wide is the Stephanie Marie and Starlite Annapolis? Well, let me state that in many 80-meter ROROs 14 meters is the common breadth like in Reina del Rosario, Filipinas Cebu, Filipinas Ozamis, Filipinas Iligan and Filipinas Butuan (well, the last two is just a shade under 80 meters), to name a few more famous ferries. In fact the 14.2 meters breadth of Stephanie Marie and Starlite Annapolis are wider than most Cebu overnight ships. 14.2 meters is even the breadth of the 90-meter Super Shuttle RORO 2. Actually before the arrival of the former Cebu Ferries ships Starlite Annapolis has the biggest breadth in the Batangas to Mindoro and Roxas to Caticlan ROPAXes. But then those three former Cebu Ferries average over 90 meters in LOA and so they are substantially bigger than the sister ships and that is the reason why now those three are already regarded as liners.
Maybe in that count the two sister ships can be considered superlative. And that is also the characteristic of the new sister ship series of Starlite Ferries, their wide breadth. If that translates into a technical advantage I am not sure of that but probably not. Anyway she has bigger engines than most ships of her class at 3,650 horsepower.
The Stephanie Marie of Aleson Shipping of Zamboanga City came earlier than her sister in 1998. She was built as the Marima III in Japan and she has the ID IMO 8427278. This ship was built by Kanda Shipbuilding in Kawajiri, Japan in 1979 which means if 35-year old ships are phased out then she would have to go. She has two masts, a steel hull, cargo ramps at the bow and stern, a single car deck and three passenger decks.
Stephanie Marie port profile
Stephanie Marie's LOA is 63.2 meters with a Length Between Perpendiculars (LBP or LPP) of 60.9 meters. Her Gross Register Tonnage or GRT in Japan was 910 tons but when that was converted into Gross Tonnage or GT here, the modern measure, it fell to 770 even when an additional passenger accommodations were built. Most likely the "MARINA magic meter" came into play here which shrinks the GTs of the ships for considerations. Her declared Net Tonnage or NT is just 316 and that is probably an underestimation too.
The passenger capacity of Stephanie Marie is 956 and this is high because she is a short-distance ferry-RORO just equipped with benches and there are no bunks. She had a large air-conditioned cabin at the front of the ship for the Tourist Class and the very front is actually a lounge and at the side of that is a sort of an open office. Her route is Zamboanga City to Isabela City, the capital of Basilan which has a distance of 14 nautical miles and she does two full voyages a day. A big ship for the route she is seldom full and that gives the passengers a lot of space. But even then she is a profitable ship and there is space in case there is a rush of passengers and vehicles especially since she holds the last trip to Isabela City.
Meanwhile, her sister ship Starlite Annapolis of Starlite Ferries in Batangas City held the Roxas-Caticlan route for Starlite Ferries for a long time although she is rotated too in the Batangas-Calapan route. Those were not her original routes as when the ship first came here in 1999 her first owner was Safeship/Shipsafe, two legal-fiction shipping companies that just operate as one and she was known as Princess Colleen. Her original route was actually Batangas to Romblon, Romblon. However, when their ship Princess Camille capsized in Romblon port in 2003 the company went into a downward spiral and when she became defunct the Princess Colleen was sold to Starlite Ferries. Princess Colleen was the biggest ship of Safeship/Shipsafe.
Starlite Annapolis port profile (Photo by Raymund Lapus)
Princess Colleen was built as the Yoshinagawa of the Blue Line by Kanda Shipbuilding in Kure, Japan in 1982 and so she is the younger of the two sisters. Her permanent ID is IMO 8125624. She has the same external dimensions as the Stephanie Marie but her original Gross Register Tonnage was bigger at 946 tons. Unlike her sister, however, Starlite Annapolis reflected the increase in her passenger accommodations and so the declared GT here is 1,176 (GT is a dimentionless number hence "tons" is not used) which is nearer to reality. Like her sister ship, she is a three-passenger-deck ship. In the number of masts, hull material, cargo ramps and car deck, she is like her sister ship and visually it is obvious they are sister ships although the passenger deck lay-out of the two ships is a little different.
The declared passenger capacity of Starlite Annapolis is only 704 passengers which is significantly lower than her sister. The reason is Starlite Annapolis has bunks and maybe that is important for the 4-hour crossing of the Tablas Strait at night. Like the Stephanie Marie, the Starlite Annapolis also has a lounge at the front and the cafeteria is superior than of her sister ship. Maybe that is needed because the transit time of Starlite Annapolis is longer whereas the crossing time of Stephanie Marie is just over an hour and there is no night voyage.
Stephanie Marie engine room (Photo by Mike Baylon)
In the engine department both ships are equipped with two Daihatsu engines with a total of 3,200 horsepower which is a little high for ROROs their size (and may I note the engine room is too loud when cruising unlike the more modern ROPAXes). Maybe their owners in Japan wanted a little more speed and so their design speeds are both 15 knots which is higher than the design speed (the maximum that can be sustained) of the new Starlite ferries although its power is greater (is that the penalty of having a larger draft?). Of course after three decades of service there is no way the two sisters ships can still run near those speeds and they will be lucky to develop 13 knots now. They might be old, however, but the two are still reliable and profitable ships. I just worry about Starlite Annapolis because her owner is one of the bashers of old ships and he might just simply decide to retire her if he wants to be true to his words.
If there is no forced phasing-out of old ships unlike what is pushed by those who have vested interests, I am sure both these ships will last 40 years or more if the record of the ROROs older than them is studied when some examples are already 50 years now. That is one blessing of having Daihatsu engines which have proven to be very sturdy and long-lasting and parts are easy to source or to re-manufacture. Regarding the hull, I am sure its integrity is still good especially since anodes are in wide use now and it is easy to replace damaged hull plates.
I will still be watching these sister ships in the next few years for I am impressed with them.
Posted in Information, Ship FeatureTagged Aleson Shipping, bashers of old ships, basic, short-distance ferry-RORO, Blue Line, breadth, Daihatsu engines, design speed, Gross Register Tonnage or GRT, Gross Tonnage or GT, IMO 8125624, IMO 8427278, Isabela City, Kanda Shipbuilding, Length Between Perpendiculars (LBP or LPP), LOA (Length Over-all), Marima III, Net Tonnage or NT, new Starlite ferries, Passenger capacity, Princess Camille, Princess Colleen, ROPAXes, ROROs, Safeship/Shipsafe, Sister Ships, Starlite Annapolis, Starlite Ferries, Stephanie Marie, YoshinagawaLeave a comment


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U.S. Multisociety Task Force on Colorectal Cancer releases new recommendations for hamartomatous polyposis syndrome
Bethesda, Maryland (April 26, 2022) – Gastrointestinal hamartomatous polyposis syndromes are rare, hereditary disorders associated with an increased risk of colorectal cancer. The U.S. Multisociety Task Force on Colorectal Cancer has released new guidance for the diagnosis and management of patients with rare hamartomatous polyposis syndromes with a focus on endoscopic management.
Key takeaway: The U.S. Multisociety Task Force on Colorectal Cancer recommends patients with two or more lifetime hamartomatous polyps, a family history of hamartomatous polyps, or a cancer associated with a hamartomatous polyposis syndrome in first or second-degree relative undergo genetic evaluation. If the patient and doctor determine genetic testing is warranted, it should be performed using a multigene panel test.
"Each hamartoma syndrome presents a different cancer risk and requires a different surveillance approach, making genetic testing a critical tool in cancer prevention," says lead author Dr. C. Richard Boland, University of California-San Diego School of Medicine. "By understanding a patient's unique genetic makeup, we can craft personalized cancer surveillance plans to prevent cancer progression and save lives."
The 14 recommendations in this new guidance document provide genetic evaluation guidance for patients with hamartomatous polyps as well as surveillance and treatment best practices. This new guidance is provided by the U.S. Multisociety Task Force on Colorectal Cancer, which is comprised of leading experts representing the American College of Gastroenterology (ACG), the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) and the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ASGE).
For more information, review the full publication: Diagnosis and Management of Cancer Risk in the Gastrointestinal Hamartomatous Polyposis Syndromes: Recommendations of the US Multi-Society Task Force on Colorectal Cancer.
ABOUT HAMARTOMATOUS POLYPOSIS SYNDROMES
Gastrointestinal hamartomatous polyposis syndromes are rare, autosomal dominant disorders, meaning one mutated gene is inherited from one parent. These syndromes are associated with an increased risk of gastrointestinal and colonic polyposis, colon cancer, and other extraintestinal manifestations and cancers. Hamartomatous polyposis syndromes include Peutz-Jeghers syndrome, juvenile polyposis syndrome, the PTEN hamartoma tumor syndrome (including Cowden's syndrome and Bannayan-Riley-Ruvalcaba syndrome), and hereditary mixed polyposis syndrome.
ABOUT COLORECTAL CANCER
Colorectal cancer, the second leading cause of cancer death in the U.S., is preventable when precancerous polyps are found and removed before they turn into cancer. With routine colorectal cancer screening, more than one-third of colorectal cancer deaths can be avoided. Screening for average-risk patients is recommended to begin at age 45, and earlier for patients with risk factors or family history. To learn more, access patient education from the GI societies: ACG, AGA and ASGE.
C. Richard Boland, MD, University of California-San Diego School of Medicine, San Diego, California
Gregory E. Idos, MD, MS, Center for Precision Medicine, City of Hope National Medical Center, Duarte, California
Carol Dumo, MD, Sinai Health The Zane Cohen Centre for Digestive Diseases, The Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto, Ontario
Francis M. Giardiello, MD, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland
Jason A. Dominitz, MD, MHS, Veterans Affairs Puget Sound Health Care System, Seattle, Washington
Seth Gross, MD, New York University Langone Health, New York, New York
Brian C. Jacobson, MD, MPH, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts
Swati G. Patel, MD, University of Colorado School of Medicine, Rocky Mountain Regional Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Aurora, Colorado
Aasma Shaukat, MD, MPH, Minneapolis VA Health Care System, Minnesota
Douglas J. Robertson, MD, MPH, Dartmouth Geisel School of Medicine, Hanover, New Hampshire
Joseph C. Anderson, MD, MHCDS, Dartmouth Geisel School of Medicine, Hanover, New Hampshire
Carol A. Burke, MD, Cleveland Clinic, Ohio
Samir Gupta, MD, MSc, University of California San Diego
Sapna Syngal, MD, MPH, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Massachusetts
The U.S. MSTF recommendations are published jointly in Gastroenterology, The American Journal of Gastroenterology, and Gastrointestinal Endoscopy.
About the AGA Institute
The American Gastroenterological Association is the trusted voice of the GI community. Founded in 1897, the AGA has grown to more than 16,000 members from around the globe who are involved in all aspects of the science, practice and advancement of gastroenterology. The AGA Institute administers the practice, research and educational programs of the organization. www.gastro.org.
AGA is now on Instagram.
Like AGA on Facebook.
Follow us on Twitter @AmerGastroAssn.
Check out our videos on YouTube.
Join AGA on LinkedIn.
About the American College of Gastroenterology
Founded in 1932, the American College of Gastroenterology (ACG) is an organization with an international membership of more than 14,000 individuals from 85 countries. The ACG will be the preeminent champion for prevention, diagnosis and treatment of digestive disorders by facilitating the highest quality, compassionate and evidence-based patient care. www.gi.org. Follow ACG on Twitter @AmCollegeGastro.
About the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy
Since its founding in 1941, the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ASGE) has been dedicated to advancing patient care and digestive health by promoting excellence and innovation in gastrointestinal endoscopy. ASGE, with more than 15,000 members worldwide, promotes the highest standards for endoscopic training and practice, fosters endoscopic research, recognizes distinguished contributions to endoscopy, and is the foremost resource for endoscopic education. Visit www.asge.org and www.screen4coloncancer.org for more information and to find a qualified doctor in your area. Connect with ASGE on Twitter @ASGEendoscopy, and on LinkedIn and Facebook.


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Poperinge − miasto w Belgii, w prowincji Flandria Zachodnia. Około 19,6 tys. mieszkańców.

Z Poperinge pochodzi Charlotte Leys, belgijska siatkarka, reprezentantka kraju.

6 września 1944 roku miasto zostało wyzwolone przez polską 1 Dywizję Pancerną, było to pierwsze wyzwolone przez aliantów belgijskie miasto podczas II wojny światowej.

Miasta partnerskie
  Žatec, Czechy
  Wolnzach, Niemcy
  Hythe, Wielka Brytania
  Rixensart, Belgia

Przypisy

Miasta we Flandrii Zachodniej


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Q: Which os is better for development : Debian or Ubuntu? Are there any real differences between them?
I want to program in java and python. And of corse be a normal user: internet, etc
Which one will give me less headaches/more satisfaction ?
And which is better for a server machine ?
Thank you

A: Both use Debian packages and Ubuntu is based on Debian but is more user friendly. Everything yo can do on one you can do on the other. I'd recommend Ubuntu if your new to linux on a Desktop. Though when it comes to servers I'd recommend Debian as it has less stuff "taken out" basically.

A: java and python would most likely run the same on both.
With Ubuntu you get additional space of support and active community, and perhaps larger user base.
So if and when you face a particular problem, chances are with Ubuntu, the solution will appear faster.
(although, whatever works on this should work on the other as well in theory)

A: Ubuntu is the more user-friendly of the two (I think Ubuntu is actually one of the most newbie-friendly Linux distros), so if you are new to Linux, Ubuntu is the way to go.  Otherwise, the packages are mostly the same except for branding, so it's pretty much your choice.

A: Since Ubuntu is based on Debian, development is almost exactly the same for both.  They're both quite suitable for server machines.  The fundamental difference is that Debian follows a Free software ideology, while Ubuntu sacrifices that purity for practicality when no Free equivalent exists for important proprietary software.
If you choose Debian, you will have a choice of distribution series ("unstable" / "testing") that may get you newer releases of pre-packaged software a few months sooner than Ubuntu.  Unless your development projects require bleeding-edge kernel or support libraries, this probably won't matter to you at all.
If you choose Ubuntu, certain proprietary software might be easier to install because it will be available through package repositories.  For example, nVidia's proprietary video driver.  That's not to say you can't make such things work on Debian; they will simply be easier on Ubuntu.
I personally choose Ubuntu, for these reasons:

*

*Ubuntu has a free multi-platform build farm and software hosting system called Personal Package Archives.  (Only to be used for freely redistributable software, of course.)

*The Ubuntu bug reporting/tracking system is far more user friendly than Debian's.

*Software packages I develop are guaranteed to work (with no extra dependency testing) for Ubuntu users, of which there are many.

I'd seriously consider switching to Debian on my workstation if they offered a PPA equivalent.  I don't use Ubuntu-centric stuff like Unity desktop anyway, and I no longer need nVidia graphics drivers (I finally got tired of their deeply broken OS support and switched to an AMD card).  I already run Debian on my servers.

A: In Ubuntu it is a bit easier to install packages for Java development, but it doesn't really matter that much. Remember that Ubuntu is based on Debian, so it works the same. Ubuntu just adds more user-friendly GUI's.

A: Neither is better. They both support the same tools and libraries. They are both linux. Anything and everything you can do on one you can do on the other.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


In his efforts to help Apple's stalling green initiatives hit the ground running, CEO Tim Cook looked for some outside help and in May hired Lisa Jackson. Formerly the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Jackson is charged with overseeing iCloud data centers and Apple's other environmental projects and reports directly to Cook.
Speaking earlier today at the sustainability conference VERGE in San Francisco, she noted that "Tim Cook didn't hire Lisa Jackson to be quiet and keep the status quo" and shared a few updates concerning Apple's clean energy strides.
According to GigaOM, one of the sustainability projects within Apple deals with the challenge of collecting solid data and being able to measure projects and their success rates.
This includes Apple's method to calculate the energy use and carbon footprint of its operation and products, the manufacturing of its devices and the supply chain and customers' use of the products.
Jackson pointed to the life cycle analysis that Steve Jobs publicized back in 2009 in an effort to change the company's image, as an example of Apple's attention to creating sustainability metrics and data.
Her group at Apple counts 17 people and they call themselves Apple Earth.
Among Jackson's responsibilities: recruiting "champions" who can help advance Apple's sustainability projects. She joined that group on her second day at Apple.
Although clean power projects are generally good PR, it's not the first thing Apple looks at when it thinks about energy use. "Energy efficiency — how to use energy more efficiently by conserving or cutting wasteful use — is the first thing Apple considers," Jackson said.
After taking tremendous criticism by environmental organizations for its dirty iCloud and lack of effort to reduce its carbon footprint, Apple's late co-founder Steve Jobs felt the urge to make the case for a greener Apple via an open letter to the public, prompting sweeping changes at the company.
Nowadays, many Apple products receive Gold-level green ratings and tick off all of the right boxes on the environmental checklist. Apple's data centers are a different story.
In its 2012 Environmental Footprint Report the company confirmed building an 18-megawatt photovoltaic solar plant to power the northern Nevada data center. Apple says the facility was designed to generate approximately 43.5 million kilowatt hours of clean energy, "equivalent to taking 6,400 passenger vehicles off the road per year".
DataCenterKnowledge writes today that Apple's been expanding its Prineville, Oregon data center to include a new power substation. The Prineville facility (see the aerial shot above) is located right in the neighborhood of Facebook's massive new data center and is expected to support Apple's iCloud services.
The city of Prineville is apparently discussing the idea of expanding its urban growth boundary to include a 96-acre lot next to Apple's Prineville site. The firm is also building a new site in Maiden, North Carolina, rated at another 20 million kilowatt hours.
That particular facility will draw up to 60 percent of power from a solar array, with the remaining 40 percent of energy needs met by acquiring clean, renewable energy directly from local and regional sources.
Former EPA head Lisa Jackson, now charged with leading Apple's environmental efforts.
Apple is also building new server farms in Reno, Nevada costing north of $1 billion.
As if that weren't enough, the company's rumored to be planning another enormous facility in Hong Kong. With an estimated one billion iOS devices in the wild by 2015, Apple will need super data centers to serve content and synchronize users' devices.
Earlier this year, Apple stressed its corporate facilities are running on 75 percent renewable, a notable jump from just 35 percent two years ago.
All of its data centers were 100 percent solar, the firm claimed. Apple's goal is to power its every facility entirely with energy from 100% renewable sources: solar, wind, hydro and geothermal.
Pictured top of post: Apple's massive Maiden, North Carolina iCloud data center.


Founded in 2011, Bulletproof is a premier lifestyle brand that sells innovative coffee, ready to drink beverages, quality fats, proteins, collagen bars and other quality snacks, and dietary supplements for upgrading the mind and body. Bulletproof has successfully differentiated its products from the competition by merging the science of biohacking with its products and services. Bulletproof sells its products through a variety of channels, both direct and indirect, including major grocery chains, Amazon, direct-to-consumer, and has opened up retail storefronts as well.
In 2015, the company received a Series A round of financing from Trinity Ventures. As the company continued to grow, exceeding $50 million in revenues in 2016, the CEO, Dave Asprey, and Board of Directors saw the opportunity to raise a Series B round of equity for expansion capital. Members of The CEO's Right Hand (TCRH) worked in conjunction with the management team to develop a detailed 5-year forecast model for use in discussions with prospective investors. The financial model included detailed revenue models for ecommerce, wholesale, grocery, retail and ancillary products based on historical trends as well as forecast expansion opportunities and product introductions.
In addition, TCRH developed a comprehensive investor pitch deck, 2-page Executive Summary, press package or use in the investment process. Working collaboratively with the CEO, VP of Finance, and other members of the management team as well as company advisors, including legal counsel, TCRH was able to prepare the materials necessary to enable a successful close of this significant round of financing in Q2 2017.
"William Lieberman and Ed McCormick at The CEO's Right Hand really helped to put together the financial story behind Bulletproof's success so that I could share it effectively with potential investors. Because we were already running on all cylinders managing Bulletproof's rapid growth, we simply didn't have the resources to craft an effective and compelling investor presentation. It worked, and it rapidly accelerated our fundraising without causing me to take my foot off the accelerator to make time for the arduous task of preparing to raise capital," Dave Asprey, Chief Executive Officer.


Jersey Trees for Life- A Short History The Association traces its roots in Jersey to 1937 when a number of Islanders established a Jersey branch of the Men of the Trees, led by Dr Stapleton, when the organisation was more concerned with the planting of exotic trees and shrubs (collected from around the world) in members' gardens.
However, the Men of the Trees was founded in Kenya in 1922 by Dr Richard St Barbe Baker (1889-1982) who was the Assistant Conservator of Forests in Kenya and working, with Kenya's Kikuyu people, helped in conserving the indigenous forests. He dedicated his whole life to planting and protecting trees throughout the world. He helped to save thousands of acres of the Californian Redwoods forests; started efforts to reclaim parts of the sub-Saharan area; launched the "Decade of the Trees" in Brazil, in the early 1980's, in an effort to halt the destruction of the Amazonian rain forest and he was responsible for many other tree planting projects throughout the world.
It has been estimated that, during his lifetime, he was responsible for the planting of over twenty seven million trees. and, in consequence, he became known as "The Man of the Trees" – an epithet which gave rise to the name of the association which he founded.
The Jersey Association of the Men of the Trees has played an important part in helping to plant and to care for trees within the Island. It employs a dedicated team which each year plants many thousands of trees, generally in areas intended to provide maximum benefit for landscape enhancement, for wildlife benefit and for shelter.
The Association's staff and committee members have over the years been involved in many important projects relating to trees and woodlands within the Island, including the planting of trees along the old Corbière railway track, the replanting of the avenue by St Ouen's Manor and the planting of a woodland at Grainville school; the latter won an award as part of Queen Elizabeth II's 40th Anniversary celebrations. The Association is dedicated to educating people on the importance of trees in our environment.
The Jersey Association was established as an independent Jersey charity in 1989, so allowing it to own and rent land and to receive gifts or devises by agreement or by legacies from those who wish to assist it in such a way.


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Research Overview: Toward End-to-End Quantum Applications
This is an exciting time for quantum computing! With the availability of prototypes of quantum machines, especially the recently established quantum supremacy and two 53-qubit machines from both Google and IBM, it becomes possible for quantum computing researchers to go beyond purely theoretical studies and to investigate the implementation and actual performance of real-world quantum applications. A paramount goal of quantum computing research is to bridge the gap between theoretical studies and the limitation of real-world QC hardware to achieve end-to-end quantum applications.
Research Goals
My research aims to fill the gap between purely theoretical study of quantum applications and experimental implementation of quantum hardware. In particular, I believe that research on end-to-end applications would benefit from end-to-end thinking. My research aims to identify and contribute to the research where the ideas from computer science in general, i.e., computational thinking, can help facilitate the implementation of end-to-end quantum applications. To that end, my research investigates a broad range of perspectives of quantum computing, including its theoretical foundation and applications, applications and system engineering of near-term quantum devices, the software foundation (programming languages and system) of quantum computing, and the computer-aided design for quantum devices. My research has also been published in prestigious venues of all relevant fields such as quantum information (e.g., QIP), theoretical computer science (e.g., STOC, CCC, ICALP), machine learning (e.g., ICML, NeurIPS, AAAI), and programming languages (e.g., POPL, PLDI).
Quantum Applications in Optimization and Machine Learning
Provable Quantum Advantages for Optimization and Machine Learning
My recent research aims to understand the landscape of provable quantum advantages in optimization and machine learning, a major targeted domain of quantum applications. To that end, I have developed quantum algorithms with polynomial speed-ups over classical ones for semidefinite programs (SDPs), general convex optimization, training linear and kernelized classifiers, and estimating volumes of high-dimensional convex bodies. My algorithms also hint at possible exponential quantum speed-ups when using quantum data as inputs/outputs of SDPs and the principal component analysis problem.
Sublinear Classical and Quantum Algorithms for General Matrix Games. Tongyang Li, Chunhao Wang, Shouvanik Chakrabarti, Xiaodi Wu. To appear at the 35th AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI 2021).
Quantum algorithm for volume estimation of convex bodies. Shouvanik Chakrabarti, Andrew Childs, Shih-han Hung, Tongyang Li, Chunhao Wang, and Xiaodi Wu. QIP 2020. arXiv:1908.03903.
Sublinear quantum algorithms for training linear and kernel-based classifiers. Tongyang Li, Shouvanik Chakrabarti, and Xiaodi Wu. In the proceedings of the 36th International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML 2019). Also available at arXiv:1904.02276.
Quantum SDP Solvers: Large Speed-ups, Optimality, and Applications to Quantum Learning. Fernando G. S. L. Brandao, Amir Kalev, Tongyang Li, Cedric Yen-Yu Lin, Krysta M. Svore, and Xiaodi Wu. arXiv: 1710.02581v2. QIP 2019. ICALP 2019.
Quantum algorithms and lower bounds for convex optimization. Shouvanik Chakrabarti, Andrew M. Childs, Tongyang Li, and Xiaodi Wu. arXiv: 1809.01731. QIP 2019.
Quantum Algorithms for Property Testing
Another well-motivated topic is the property test of quantum and classical distributions. I have closed a long-standing gap between the upper and the lower bound of the sample complexity of testing the whole information of quantum states, so-called quantum tomography, which is a fundamental step to verify the preparation of the experimental setup. I also demonstrated the quantum speed-up in estimating the Shannon and Renyi entropies of classical distributions.
Quantum query complexity of entropy estimation. Tongyang Li and Xiaodi Wu. IEEE Transaction on Information Theory, Vol. 65, Issue 5, pages 2899 - 2921, May 2019. arXiv: 1710.06025.
Sample-optimal tomography of quantum states. Jeongwan Haah, Aram W. Harrow, Zhengfeng Ji, Xiaodi Wu, Nengkun Yu. QIP 2016 and STOC 2016.
Variational Quantum Methods and Quantum Neural-Networks
Quantum Neural-networks (i.e., parameterized quantum circuits) are important and promising candidates for applications of quantum machine learning. My research aims to conduct a comprehensive investigation in this regard, including functionality (e.g., representation learning, generative models), training methods (e.g., landscape characterization, the efficiency of gradient and non-gradient based optimization methods), and separation between quantum and classical neural-networks.
Exponentially Many Local Minima in Shallow Quantum Neural Networks. Xuchen You and Xiaodi Wu. Manuscript, 2020.
Quantum Wasserstein Generative Adversarial Networks. Shouvanik Chakrabarti, Yiming Huang, Tongyang Li, Soheil Feizi, and Xiaodi Wu. In the Proceedings of the 33rd Annual Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS 2019).
Differentiable Quantum Programming Languages & Quantum Neuro-Symbolic Applications
Inspired by the emerging paradigm shift from deep learning towards differentiable programming promoted by prominent classical machine learning researchers, I have initiated the formalization of differentiable quantum programming. This project not only provides the auto-differentiation technique for quantum programs, in particular the possibility of using quantum programs to compute the gradients of another quantum program, for the scalability of gradient-based training in quantum machine learning. It also opens the possibility of designing novel quantum "neuro-symbolic" applications that combine program features/synthesis with simple neural-networks. The study of their classical counterpart, although still in its infancy, has already shown great potential and promise over conventional neural-networks. We demonstrated, for the first time, one such example for quantum machine learning.
On the Principles of Differentiable Quantum Programming Languages. Shaopeng Zhu, Shih-han Hung, Shouvanik Chakrabarti, and Xiaodi Wu. In the Proceedings of the 41st ACM SIGPLAN Conference on Programming Language Design and Implementation (PLDI 2020).
Software Foundation of Quantum Computing
Quantum Program Analysis & Verification
Quantum programs are error-prone and their verification is challenging due to the limit of standard software assurance techniques in the quantum setting. My research investigates the verification of quantum programs via their static analysis with the help of quantum Hoare logic. A prominent approach for program verification is to generate invariants and inductive assertions, which is already a highly non-trivial task even classically. I made the first proposal of quantum invariants and demonstrated its use in quantum program verification, which can be generated by semidefinite programs (SDPs).
We also investigate algebraic reasoning of quantum programs inspired by the success of classical program analysis based on Kleene algebra. One prominent example of such is the famous Kleene Algebra with Tests (KAT), which has furnished both theoretical insights and practical tools. A few key features of KAT including the idempotent law and the nice properties of classical tests, however, fail to hold in the context of quantum programs due to their unique quantum features, especially in branching. We propose the Non-idempotent Kleena Algebra (NKA) as a natural alternative, and identify complete and sound semantic models for NKA as well as their appropriate quantum interpretations, which hence enables algebraic proofs in NKA of quantum compiler optimization and the normal form of quantum while-programs.
Algebraic Reasoning of Quantum Programs via Non-Idempotent Kleene Algebra. Yuxiang Peng, Mingsheng Ying, and Xiaodi Wu. Manuscript, 2020.
On the Theory and Practice of Invariant-based Verification of Quantum Programs. Shih-han Hung, Yuxiang Peng, Xin Wang, Shaopeng Zhu, and Xiaodi Wu. Manuscript, 2019.
Invariants of Quantum Programs: Characterizations and Generation. Mingsheng Ying, Shenggang Ying, and Xiaodi Wu. POPL 2017.
Formally Verified Software Tool-chain for Quantum Computing
The complexity of quantum computing and the limitations of near-term quantum devices suggest that the development of sophisticated quantum algorithms and clever optimizations is more likely to have mistakes. This calls for verifying every stage of quantum computation, from the software tools used to generate quantum circuits to the architecture and system design.
We are inspired by formal methods applied in safety-critical domains to ensure the correctness of code by construction, especially in the example of CompCert (a C compiler written and proved correct in Coq) and the NSF project of deep specification (a project to develop specifications of software toolchains to prove end-to-end correctness of whole systems). A verified quantum computing stack would ensure that each level of quantum computation is implemented satisfying certain specifications and the correctness of the final system, which would have a wide practical impact. This approach is especially appealing to quantum computing since alternative software assurance techniques are very limited due to the substantial expense involved in the quantum setting. As an important first step, we have built a proved-correct optimizing compiler for quantum algorithms to optimize the gate count, the depth of circuits, etc., while adhering to any architectural constraints. To that end, we developed an infrastructure for reasoning about quantum programs/operations in Coq, which is so expressive and flexible that we recently accomplish an end-to-end implementation of Shor's algorithm, with both classical and quantum parts as well as a formal correctness proof of everything, in Coq.
A Verified Optimizer for Quantum Circuits. Kesha Hietala, Robert Rand, Shih-Han Hung, Xiaodi Wu, and Michael Hicks. POPL 2021. (GitHub).
Verified Optimization in a Quantum Intermediate Representation. Kesha Hietala, Robert Rand, Shih-Han Hung, Xiaodi Wu, and Michael Hicks. Extended Abstract at QPL 2019. Available at arXiv:1904.06319.
Design of Quantum Programming Languages
Quantum circuits, which are simple to understand, have served as the main description language for most quantum applications so far. However, there are also many challenges and limitations when using quantum circuits as the only description language of quantum applications both in theory and in practice. We are inspired to investigate the more appropriate abstractions as well as the language design built on top of these abstractions for various quantum applications, such as variational quantum algorithms and quantum simulation. We are also working on the formulation of useful classical semantic constructs, e.g., recursion and abstract data types, in the context of quantum programming languages.
Quantum Architecture Engineering for NISQ era
Near-term quantum computers are likely to have very restricted hardware resources, where precisely controllable qubits are expensive, error-prone, and scarce. Therefore, application designers for such near-term intermediate-size quantum (NISQ) computers are forced to investigate the best balance of trade-offs among a large number of (potentially heterogeneous) factors specific to the targeted application and quantum hardware.
Noise-Analysis of Quantum Applications
We believe that one way to attack these problems is to set aside a one-size-fits-all approach to fault tolerance and instead consider elevating the question of errors and related architecture-specific resource optimization to the level of the programming language and algorithm design. In particular, inspired by techniques in approximate computing that optimizes computation on unreliable classical hardware, we've built formal semantics and a logic for reasoning about reliability in the presence of noise in quantum computation.
Quantitative Robustness Analysis of Quantum Programs. Shih-Han Hung, Kesha Hietala, Shaopeng Zhu, Mingsheng Ying, Michael Hicks, and Xiaodi Wu. POPL 2019.
Meta-Programming Framework for Automating NISQ Application Design
We propose Meta Quantum Circuits with Constraints (MQCC), a meta-programming framework for quantum programs, to assist the balance of trade-offs in NISQ application design. Designers express their application as a succinct collection of normal quantum circuits stitched together by a set of meta-level choice variables, whose values are constrained according to a programmable set of quantitative optimization criteria. MQCC?s compiler automatically generates the appropriate constraints, hands them to a solver (e.g., a Satisfiability Modulo Theories (SMT) solver), and from the solution produces an optimized, runnable program. We demonstrate MQCC's expressiveness through an extensive case study, demonstrating that ideas from previous examples of NISQ application design – such as multi-programming, cost-effective uncomputation, and crosstalk mitigation, as well as their combination – can be readily implemented in MQCC, and produce comparable results.
Automating NISQ Application Design with Meta Quantum Circuits with Constraints (MQCC). Haowei Deng, Yuxiang Peng, Michael Hicks, and Xiaodi Wu. Manuscript, 2020.
Leveraging Small Quantum Machines for NISQ Applications
To accelerate NISQ quantum applications on small quantum machines, we designed a systematic framework of decomposing quantum computation into small pieces and then combining simulation results from each piece for the final output. A particular application is, e.g., a practical scheme to implement a 60-qubit quantum computation with only 45-qubit quantum machines.
Simulating large quantum circuits on a small quantum computer. Tianyi Peng, Aram Harrow, Maris Ozols, and Xiaodi Wu. Physical Review Letters 125, 150504. Available at arXiv:1904.00102.
Treating NISQ Machines as Analog Machines
Recent research results suggest a promising approach to designing resource-efficient NISQ applications by breaking high-level abstractions, such as quantum circuits, and directly compiling applications to the pulse-level control of quantum machines. This approach essentially treats near-term quantum computers as analog quantum machines. We are inspired to identify qualitative/quantitative advantages of treating near-term quantum computers as analog quantum machines. To that end, we will investigate the robustness and the interpretability of the generated control pulses, as well as the scalability of variational algorithms generating these pulses. Moreover, we aim to study the optimal pulse-control-inspired ansatz design for variational quantum methods, as well as their implementation based on the pulse-level, rather than the gate-level, compilation.
Cryptography & Security in the Quantum Regime
Tamper-resilient Cryptography under Physical Assumptions
Devices, classical or quantum, are subject to tampering in cryptographic settings, especially due to the proliferation of side-channel attacks. These attacks exploit the fact that de- vices leak information to the outside world not just through input-output interaction, but through physical characteristics of computation such as power consumption, timing, and electro-magnetic radiation. Research on this topic explores two possible solutions to protect cryptographic systems from (quantum) side-channel attacks.
Device-independent Cryptography: In this setting, none of the devices can be a priori trusted: security is based solely on simple tests performed by the honest users on the input-output behavior of their devices. The security analysis guarantees that any set of devices meeting reasonable physical assumptions (e.g., spatial separations of devices that prohibit mutual communication) and conducting an acceptable interaction will lead to a secure outcome, regardless of the actual process inside the devices. My research focuses on generating uniform random bits in this setting under minimal assumptions. Check the recent review in Nature (Certified randomness in quantum physics) about this research direction and my work.
Leakage-resilient Cryptography: Modern computing environment, such as cloud computing where computation no longer takes place on private machines under our control, makes a lot of classical cryptographic systems victims to all kinds of side-channel attacks. The leakage can be quantum. Collecting and storing quantum side information is technically much less challenging than building fully-fledged quantum computers, and could become realistic in the near future. My research focuses on studying the role of quantum side information in both information-theoretical and computational settings. In a recent result, I initiated the study of computational notions of entropy in the quantum setting and developed the first quantum leakage-resilient cryptographic protocol.
Both device-independent and leakage-resilient cryptography can be deemed as tamper-resilient cryptography under physical assumptions. My future plan is to bring these cryptographic designs closer to practice, with better efficiency and broader functionality.
Computational Notions of Quantum Min-Entropy. Yi-Hsiu Chen, Kai-Min Chung, Ching-Yi Lai, Salil P. Vadhan, and Xiaodi Wu. QCrypt 2017. arXiv: 1704.07309.
General randomness amplification with non-signaling security. Kai-Min Chung, Yaoyun Shi, and Xiaodi Wu. QIP 2017.
Multi-Source Randomness Extractors Against Quantum Side Information, and their Applications. Kai-Min Chung, Xin Li, and Xiaodi Wu. arXiv:1411.2315.
Physical Randomness Extractors. Kai-Min Chung, Yaoyun Shi, and Xiaodi Wu. Plenary talk at QIP 2014.
(Practical) Delegation and Verification of Quantum Computation
In a recent breakthrough, Mahadev constructed a classical verification of quantum computation (CVQC) protocol for a classical client to delegate decision problems in BQP to an untrusted quantum prover under computational assumptions. We explore further the feasibility of CVQC with the more general sampling problems in BQP and with the desirable blindness property, and contribute affirmative solutions to both. We also investigate the lightweight verification of quantum supremacy, where all existing protocols, either based on classical simulation or public-key quantum cryptography, are too expensive to serve the purpose of practical verification. We propose a circuit-obfuscation-based verification scheme for quantum supremacy that is scalable and has some complexity-theoretic support based on the quantum minimum equivalent circuit problem (QMECP). We also implement a prototype of our circuit obfuscator which has the desired empirical performance against the attack from all the off-the-shelf tools.
Constant-round Blind Classical Verification of Quantum Sampling. Kai-Min Chung, Yi Lee, Han-Hsuan Lin, and Xiaodi Wu. Manuscript, 2020.
Scalable Verification of Quantum Supremacy based on Circuit Obfuscation. Shouvanik Chakrabarti, Chi-Ning Chou, Kai-Min Chung, and Xiaodi Wu. Manuscript, 2020.
Mechanized and Automated Security Analysis of Cryptographic Systems under Quantum Attacks
The emergence of quantum computing technology has promised unprecedented improvement in our computational ability, which, however, also leads to quantum attacks that would put many security techniques for modern communication in peril in the not-too-distant future. The defense against quantum attacks should ideally be deployed in the near future to protect today's secret information from future quantum attacks, especially in security-critical domains like hardware signatures or block-chains, both with very long life cycles.
Inspired by the success of the development of formal methods in the security analysis for large, real-world cryptographic systems, we are excited to develop and apply formal method techniques in quantum cryptography for automated security analysis of cryptographic systems under quantum attacks. Formally generated security analysis will provide not only efficient and high assurance proofs that can replace the tedious and error-prone analysis for experts, but also independently verifiable proofs that can be used by security practitioners without much quantum knowledge. One of our ultimate goals is to formally verify candidates of cryptographic systems from the NIST quantum-secure cryptography standardization.
Computer-aided Design of Quantum Devices
The design complexity/productivity of quantum devices will conceivably significantly increase as the quantum devices become more complicated. A lot of existing quantum devices are relatively small, and their design is mostly done by manual analysis. Achieving this requires leading experts on this topic, and is usually is time-consuming, and error-prone. Scaling up this approach for slightly larger or more complicated quantum devices seems very challenging, and less effective. A natural candidate to replace human manual design is computer-aided design. Inspired by the success of classical hardware description languages (HDLs) as an integral part of electronic design automation (EDA) systems, we are inspired to develop quantum HDL (QHDL) for the design of quantum devices. To that end, we will develop formal abstractions of various experimental platforms for quantum devices (e.g., superconducting qubits, neutral atoms), building on top of which we will develop design automation, automatic control generation, and formal verification. We will also directly link the precise description of quantum devices to the high-level quantum programming languages on the software developer's side, which will enable a hardware-software co-design framework for quantum applications.
Quantum Sensing Networks
The demand for highly accurate position and time information, provided by localization and synchronization methods, respectively, is growing rapidly. However, classical localization and synchronization methods are approaching their limits. Utilizing quantum properties promises to push these boundaries beyond classical limitations and provide unprecedented accuracy. We aim to develop theoretical and practical methodologies for the design and analysis of quantum localization and synchronization networks. These methodologies consist of statistical models and distributed algorithms to harness quantum phenomena for beyond-classical localization and synchronization.
Earlier Theoretical Studies in Quantum Information and Computation
Entanglement, Quantum Correlations, and Sum-of-Squares
Research on this topic studies many aspects of one of the key quantum features, entanglement and non-locality. I attack this topic by exploring a surprising connection between quantum information and the sum-of-squares (SOS) proof in approximation algorithms and the famous Unique Games Conjecture (UGC). This connection allows one to leverage technical advances in one field to apply to the other. Specific problems that I am working on include the characterization of separable (unentangled) states, the complexity of quantum Merlin-Arthur games with unentangled provers (QMA(2)), the possibility of a quantum-inspired approach to attack the UGC.
Limitations of semidefinite programs for separable states and entangled games. Aram Harrow, Anand Natarajan, Xiaodi Wu. QIP 2017. Communications in Mathematical Physics, Volume 366, Issue 2, pp 423–468, 2019.
Tight SoS-degree bounds for approximate Nash equilibria. Aram Harrow, Anand Natarajan, Xiaodi Wu. CCC 2016.
An improved semidefinite programming hierarchy for testing entanglement. Aram Harrow, Anand Natarajan, Xiaodi Wu. Communications in Mathematical Physics, June 2017, Volume 352, Issue 3, pp 881– 904.
Epsilon-net method for optimizations over separable states. Yaoyun Shi and Xiaodi Wu. QIP 2012, ICALP 2012. Theoretical Computer Science, Volume 598, Pages 51–63.
Quantum Computational Complexity
Interactive proof systems have been a central model in complexity theory with applications ranging from the PCP theorem in the hardness of approximation to cryptography. It studies problems with efficiently verifiable proofs via interactions between a polynomial-time verifier and all-powerful provers, where the verifier determines the validity of the proofs. My main contribution on this topic is the development of the Equilibrium Value Method to obtain space-efficient simulations of quantum interactive proof systems, including QIP=PSPACE, QRG(2)=PSPACE. Recently, I have been working on the quantum variant of the PCP theorem in the interactive proof setting. As a concrete first step, I have obtained a parallel repetition result for entangled k-player games.
Parallel repetition for entangled k-player games via fast quantum search. Kai-Min Chung, Xiaodi Wu and Henry Yuen. CCC 2015.
Epsilon-net method for optimizations over separable states. Yaoyun Shi and Xiaodi Wu. QIP 2012, ICALP 2012. Theoretical Computer Science, Volume 598, Pages 51-63.
Parallel approximation of min-max problems with applications to classical and quantum zero-sum games Gus Gutoski and Xiaodi Wu. QIP 2012, CCC 2012. Computational Complexity, 22(2):385-428, 2013, the special issue of CCC 2012.
Equilibrium Value Method for the proof of QIP=PSPACE. Xiaodi Wu . arXiv:1004.0264.


For the last few years, James Rollins has been building up a big confrontation between his series heroes, Sigma Force, and the Guild, an international group of evil baddies out to take over the world. The plots in the novels have been straight out of comic books and the old Hollywood serials – and I've loved every minute because Rollins plays true to the form while at the same time providing three-dimensional characters with emotional history and cutting-edge science.
Gray Pierce is still trying to recover from his mother's sudden death (last book) and his father's dementia while trying to figure out his star-crossed love affair with Seichan, who used to be a female assassin for the Guild. Seichan's backstory comes into play in this novel in a big, big way as well, and I was blown away, though Rollins played fairly and all the clues were there.
A couple of new characters get added in this novel as well. Tucker Wayne and Kane are a soldier/dog unit that got showcased in a prequel novel. They played well with the other Sigma Force characters. Rollins was a veterinarian, so his interest in the dog was genuine, but there were some passages where the awe and praise tended to get repetitive.
One of the real surprises was the cameo of Jack Kirkland, the hero from Deep Fathom. The new submarine Kirkland is running made me hungry for another adventure that focuses on him. Or maybe a longer pairing with Sigma Force.
The novel isn't meant for casual reading, though. Rollins keeps the pace accelerated, moving things forward at a heart-straining rush. The idea of putting the book down at any point was just hard to contemplate. Too much was going on, and there were too many questions, too many people in trouble. This is also one of those books that a new reader can't just jump into. Readers need some familiarity with the characters and the events that have brought everything to a head in these pages. A new reader will be able to get the gist of what's going on, but the read won't have the emotional depth it does for confirmed fans.
This entry was posted on August 24, 2012 at 4:17 pm and filed under Adventure,Audiobook,series fiction,Thriller. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS feed.


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Q: How to Measure Azure Function Cold Start Time I've been doing research lately around Azure Function cold start time that can occur with a consumption-based plan. I understand the concepts, but how do I actually measure the cold start time of my Azure Functions? I can't seem to find any good documentation on this.
In the Azure Portal, I see there is a "Monitor" tab for each of my functions, but the only statistic shown is "Duration (MS)" and it is unclear if this includes the start up time.
In general, are there better ways to monitor this?

A: I don't think that there is an official metric which shows cold start time.
I've been measuring it by running a function with predictable "hot" execution time, and then measuring the total latency from a client who calls the function. The client was located in the same region as function under test.
Also, my function was returning the ID of an instance it was running on. The first response from each instance is definitely a cold start.
I hope you find my blog posts on cold starts useful:

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*Cold Starts in Numbers

*Cold Starts Beyond First Request