text:
Regional integration in Africa: Challenges and prospects
Jaime DE MELO
Scientific Advisor, FERDI
Emeritus Professor, University of Geneva
CEPR Fellow
Yvonne TSIKATA
CategoryWorking papers
Published on05 February 2014
JEL code(s)F12, F15, F16
PublishersFERDI
Political motives, geography, and the uneven distribution of gains trumped the traditional efficiency gains across Africa's Regional Economic Communities (RECs). The small, sparsely populated, fragmented, and often isolated economies across Africa make a compelling case for these economies to integrate regionally to reap efficiency gains, exploit economies of scale, and reduce the thickness of borders. But lack of complementarities among partners and diminishing returns to the exploitation of resources has reduced supply response to market-integration-oriented regional policies. Additionally, a very uneven distribution of resources has sharpened the trade-off between the benefits of common policies needed to tackle cross-border externalities and their costs, which are heightened by the sharp differences in policy preferences across members. African RECs have pursued the "linear model" of integration with a stepwise integration of goods, labour, and capital markets, as well as eventual monetary and fiscal integration. With the exception of the franc zone, the RECs have not yet completed goodsmarkets integration; the lack of adjustment funds to address the uneven distribution of benefits across partners contributing to the delay.Estimates reported here reveal the shortcomings of the linear model of integration, as behind-the-border measures aiming to reduce trade costs were largely ignored across African RECs until recently. While this is probably due to the difficulty in gaining the confidence necessary to get collection action started, many behind-the-border measures could still have been undertaken unilaterally.
FERDI-P93-Regional integration in Africa: Challenges and prospectspdf (691 KB)
de Melo, J. and Y. Tsikata "Regional integration in Africa: Challenges and prospects" Ferdi Document de travail P93, February 2014also UNU WIDER Working paper : WP/2014/037 Regional integration in Africa: Challenges and prospects


text:
Home » Carlo D'Este » The Valiant Poles – Pt 4
Posted on May 13, 2007 in Carlo D'Este, Front Page Features
The Valiant Poles – Pt 4
This is the final article in four-part series about the largely unknown contribution of the exile Poles in World War II.
General Stanislaw Maczek, leader
of the 1st Polish Armoured Division
In August 1984, my wife and I traveled to Normandy as guests of the veterans of the Polish 1st Armored Division. Before boarding a Channel ferry from Dover to Calais we were hosted in London by our sponsor, a former Polish soldier. He lived in a posh section of Holland Park in an enormous mansion. He had an amazing story to tell. After the battle of Normandy, the 1st Armored Division advanced along with other units of the British 21st Army Group toward the German border. In the autumn cold and mud, the Allies hit a brick wall and were unable to advance into Germany and end the war in 1944. The Poles fought a series of bloody battles in and around the border city of Aachen. One day our host, an infantryman, spotted a badly wounded soldier lying in the mud, more dead than alive. He gently placed the wounded soldier in his jeep and took him to a nearby aid station, assuming he would probably die there – and promptly forgot about the incident.
Fast forward to the early 1950s. Like so many other stateless Poles, our host never returned to Communist Poland after the war and instead began to carve out a new life for himself in England. One day he received a telephone call from a complete stranger who asked to meet later that day at the Dorchester Hotel on Park Lane. Once there, the stranger identified himself as another former Polish soldier presently living in Canada and said: "Do you know who I am?" Our friend said no, he hadn't a clue. "I am the man whose life you saved at Aachen in 1944 and I've come to reward you." The Canadian Pole had become a very wealthy businessman and explained it had taken him years to track down the man who had saved his life. The reward he bestowed was the British franchise for a fast growing, profitable product. Over the years our friend became very wealthy simply because of his small act of kindness.
We arrived in Normandy in a rental car and joined our host and several other Polish veterans at a hotel in Thury-Harcourt, a pleasant town on the Orne River, south of Caen. The first of the ceremonies took place on a Sunday in Falaise, the scene of very bloody fighting in August 1944. This ceremony was attended by French and Polish dignitaries and was followed by lunch at a local restaurant. The main event of the reunion was to take place later that day in the old Roman city of Argentan, thirteen miles south of Falaise. Another of our new friends was nicknamed "Zbig". He had carved out a very successful life in England after the war and owned his own business in London. My wife was not feeling well and he suggested she ride in his more comfortable Rover automobile rather than our rental car — a decidedly un-plush Volkswagen Rabbit. "Follow me," he said, and took off like the proverbial bat out of hell. Zbig seemed to think he should break the land-speed record for automobile travel from Falaise to Argentan. I had to drive at speeds approaching or exceeding 80 mph in an effort to keep the Rover in sight. Arriving in Argentan I promptly lost them. To make matters worse, I had absolutely no idea where the restaurant was situated and, wondering what sort of mess I had gotten myself into, by sheer luck spotted the Rover a few blocks ahead and, breathing a sigh of relief, followed it to our destination.
Poles know how to fight and they also know how to party. The reunion dinner was a raucous affair with endless courses of food, drink, toasts – and tears. Many of those present had not seen one another in forty years. My wife and I were the only Americans present and were warmly welcomed into a friendly new family.
We spent several more days in Normandy, and on one of them Zbig asked if we would like to accompany him on a quest to retrace his movements in 1944 during Operation Totalize. He had been a young cadet officer assigned to the lead tank of an armored battle group that had been assigned the mission of establishing blocking positions in the rolling farm and hill country east of Falaise around the village of Chambois. On one of the hottest days of the year we set off from a farm village that looked no different in 1984 than it had in 1944. Zbig's memory proved to be remarkable. Mile after mile we arrived at places he remembered passing. During the afternoon we came to an unmarked crossroads and there he described how his unit had stopped at this intersection to look at their maps to determine where to go next. From the west suddenly came a column of German tanks and vehicles fleeing the Allied trap. The Germans thought the Poles were a friendly unit. It was their first and last mistake. The Poles wiped out the column in a brief but fierce firefight.
Szymon 6/20/2009
Great piece, indeed there is too little attention and credit given to the Polish effort during the war. Hopefully this changes in the years to come.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Laguna Niguel Friends + Family Takeout Service Pre-opening Dinner in partnership with Laguna Niguel Family YMCA!
Thank you for your interest in our Friends and Family Event. Unfortunately, we are fully booked for the weekend. To join the waitlist, please email rsvp@stonefiregrill.com with your name, # of guests and day/time you would like to attend.* We look forward to serving you on the 22nd!


Want to remodel your bathroom? Do you have a new vision for your kitchen? Our team at Westside Plumbing & Heating in Brandon, MB can help you turn an outdated bathroom, kitchen, and other old fixtures into something that you will be delighted to show your family, friends, and guests.
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Whether you need a simple bathroom remodeling or a total makeover, our team has the skills and experience you can count on. From simple light fixture replacements to installing a new shower or tub, we will transform your bathroom into a room you love.


Right away, WebECS was very helpful when we moved our site from our old hosting provider. As always, you have a few glitches here and there, but the support team was with me every step of the way. Later, when we had problems with our database, they stepped right up to the plate and let me know where the problem was, even volunteering to recycle our site every few hours until the new database was ready.
The support team at WebECS is quick to respond, experienced, and stays on top of things by proactively helping us without the need for multiple support tickets. In fact, they have been fantastic. It is WebECS' outstanding customer support that lets us grow our business online. Since we have been in business for 24 years and have grown from 100 products to over 1000 products, we need an ASP.NET web hosting company that can support our continued success.
WebECS' ASP.net business hosting will empower us to offer our customers even more in the future and we have no plans to leave WebECS as good customer service is too hard to find these days. I would definitely recommend WebECS to anyone who wants incredible customer support and requires outstanding Windows hosting services.
Considering the scale of transition, WebECS came through and helped us successfully move our applications to their Windows hosting environment. This is where WebECS truly shines by offering extensive support from a team of qualified technicians who really know their stuff. Other hosting companies often take a while to reply to emails and phone calls, but WebECS went out of their way to inquire into our status and continues to do so today. It's a refreshing change to know that our website is in good hands and hosted on reliable servers by support staff who always ask what they can do to assist us.
Given the incredible uptime that our website has had since the move to WebECS, it is truly remarkable that they can offer top notch Windows hosting at such an affordable price. In fact, the affordability and reliability of our Windows VDS plan frees up budget for further web development. And their superior customer support and care makes us feel confident to expand what we do and continue using WebECS' managed hosting services.
The managed VDS hosting service we have at WebECS allows us to concentrate our attention on running our business, leaving server management to the experts. I would absolutely recommend WebECS managed VDS hosting services to anyone as their Windows hosting expertise has given us the ability to grow our business and allows us to concentrate on what we do best.
In the five years since we first came into contact with WebECS, we have made extensive use of our reseller account, which involves an ASP.Net shared hosting plan, SQL Server databases, email hosting, and some virtual server (VDS) systems. These features are all part of the affordable and robust services that make WebECS so great and are all things that we have made extensive use of over the years.
Throughout our relationship with WebECS, they have offered excellent support by responding quickly to issues and generally resolving things on the first communication. Of course, when those harder to solve issues inevitably crop up, WebECS can be depended on to follow through until we achieve an excellent solution. Today, we are working towards more and more autonomous servers and plan to continue investing in VDS systems from WebECS to meet our data center needs.
With a rock solid network infrastructure, broad service offering, and responsive support, our experience with WebECS has been painless and productive. I would recommend WebECS without hesitation.
There have been times when I was working late and ran into an issue. I always fill out a support ticket and never expect a response until morning, but you guys have always been right on top of things. My issues were resolved quickly and responsibly without delays. My website continues to thrive as a result of your responsiveness and dedication to customer support.
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We have experienced great service, particularly the initial switch over from our self managed/owned and operated servers in Australia to the VDS solutions provided by WebECS. WebECS helped us determine the best solution for our network needs in terms of load balancing and provided invaluable initial advice on specific set up requirements such as networking between our VDS's, VPN set up, and lock down of servers.
In terms of day to day operation we have experienced a huge improvement in uptime going from an average 96% uptime to 99.8% uptime. The 0.02% downtime we now experience is generally due to our site operational changes, code development – not actual hardware failures as experienced in the past. We also managed to upgrade to newer versions of SQL software without incurring the huge acquisitions costs associated with purchasing the products directly from Microsoft.
We owned our own servers, around AUD $100k of hardware and rented rackspace and bandwidth from a major Sydney data centre. All hardware and software costs were a major capital expenditure with no real write down value after their "used by date." The main difference now for us is our technical people can concentrate on being in the business of publishing rather than IT support. This 'frees up' these valuable resources to be assigned to more commercial tasks such as new code and product development.
I have used different hosting companies and each has their benefits and their deficits. I use WebECS because of the expert service and the reliable environment. If I were to recommend WebECS to anyone looking for Windows web hosting services, I can definitely say that WebECS provides a great service, offers a stable and reliable environment, and I like that they offer a good management tool (Helm).
Since starting with WebECS I have used their shared web hosting services, but recently added a virtual dedicated server (VDS) so currently I am running both. At the end of the month I'll switch solely to VDS because I do notice a big positive difference in performance. So I'm quite happy with the choice.
The WebECS service is excellent. The few issues we have had were resolved very quickly, whether it was when we utilized their shared hosting service or now, using their virtual hosting service. When we needed to upgrade features, they were willing to work with us to give us a good deal.
We recommend WebECS hosting services, especially since virtual dedicated servers are somewhat of a new technology and not many other hosting providers provide the same service and features that WebECS does. Furthermore, their response time for sales or support is quick and is usually answered in 15 minutes or less. Finally, I think I can only recall only about 3, maybe 4 times, if that, when the site was down during the course of our 7 plus years of hosting with WebECS. In all of those cases, downtime and impact was minimal.
The database is still the most important/critical component for us. We tried a previous Windows hosting company, but they limited the RAM allocated to each site on the shared platform. Our site is almost dormant at most times, but for a few hours a week it sees a lot of activity. Those spikes brought down the site due to a lack of memory and they didn't want to address that. WebECS changed all that. They cater to our needs and provide us with a hosting solution that meets our requirements for an affordable monthly price.
WebECS has helped our business due to providing reliable hosting for our website, database, and mail servers. All that for $30 or so per month has been absolutely essential. For the mail servers running on the two VPS, we tried some alternatives before involving our own machines running on business service cable, dsl, and fios lines. Things got much less trouble-prone when we moved to the WebECS VPS setup, and it was more affordable than we thought.
WebECS has been very professional and reliable. When there were downtimes, I always felt them being addressed in a professional manner. They are a reasonably priced Windows hosting company with generous database space allocation. And they provide professional support.


text:
Háa-þóra är ett berg i republiken Island. Det ligger i regionen Norðurland eystra,  km nordost om huvudstaden Reykjavík. Toppen på Háa-þóra är 738 meter över havet.

Trakten runt Háa-þóra är nära nog obefolkad, med mindre än två invånare per kvadratkilometer. Det finns inga samhällen i närheten.

Källor

Berg i Norðurland eystra
Berg i Island 500 meter över havet eller högre

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


I am very proud that my kids are taking their baby steps to cooking as I believe that every child irrespective of gender needs to know at least 10-15 basic dishes (not including how to make Maggi or coffee/tea :p) before they head out to college not only as a means of survival but also appreciate the considerable savings they can make with homemade food.
Wash and soak rice, cook till fluffy and keep aside. Let it cool completely. My kid simply pressure cooked the rice with some salt the previous night, cooled it a bit after fluffing it. and left it in the refrigerator.
Next day : Bring the rice to room temperature.
In a pan, heat sesame oil to smoking point, turn down and add the chopped onions, veggies and ginger garlic paste. Turn the heat up and quickly toss the veggies so they acquire a bit of burnt flavour as they crisp up a little. Add salt, soya sauce, pepper powder, sugar and toss again.
Now add the rice and toss the pan up and down, so as to not break the grains and now add in the Green chilli vinegar, Chilli sauce and toss again.
Adjust salt and spices and garnish with chopped spring onion greens.
Serve immediately or cool a bit and pack in the lunch box.
Kudos ! Young girls and boys these days are quite smart and they learn rather quickly . Your daughter has done a amazing job with the rice , cooked it perfectly - perhaps better than many of us ! It's hard to get that firm rice for fried rice . Hugs to her !
The rice looks perfectly made. Your daughter, who I am sure is not college ready yet has done an amazing job. I bet she will master the art of cooking by the time she is ready to leave the home.
Perfectly done fried rice, Good job by your daughter following mommy's footsteps.
Wow big hugs to your daughter and I agree with you. Irrespective of the gender kids need to learn cooking. I am slowly involving raghav in kitchen chores. Let's see. :-) Between the fried rice is amazing.
Kudos to your daughter Kalyani. She has done an amazing job. The plating too looks so good. Must have been an awesome meal.
So wonderful to know that your daughter made this. Looks awesome and inviting.
Kudos to your older one. She did a fabulous job with the fried rice. It will be such nice memory for her.
Wow! Your daughter has totally rocked that fried rice. You must be very proud. I agree that kids need to learn cooking, it is such a basic life skill. Awesome dish!!


text:
package editor

import (
	"bytes"
	"html"
	"strings"
)

// Input returns the []byte of an <input> HTML element with a label.
// IMPORTANT:
// The `fieldName` argument will cause a panic if it is not exactly the string
// form of the struct field that this editor input is representing
// 	type Person struct {
//		item.Item
// 		editor editor.Editor
//
// 		Name string `json:"name"`
//		//...
// 	}
//
// 	func (p *Person) MarshalEditor() ([]byte, error) {
// 		view, err := editor.Form(p,
// 			editor.Field{
// 				View: editor.Input("Name", p, map[string]string{
// 					"label":       "Name",
// 					"type":        "text",
// 					"placeholder": "Enter the Name here",
// 				}),
// 			}
// 		)
// 	}
func Input(fieldName string, p interface{}, attrs map[string]string) []byte {
	e := NewElement("input", attrs["label"], fieldName, p, attrs)

	return DOMElementSelfClose(e)
}

// Textarea returns the []byte of a <textarea> HTML element with a label.
// IMPORTANT:
// The `fieldName` argument will cause a panic if it is not exactly the string
// form of the struct field that this editor input is representing
func Textarea(fieldName string, p interface{}, attrs map[string]string) []byte {
	// add materialize css class to make UI correct
	className := "materialize-textarea"
	if _, ok := attrs["class"]; ok {
		class := attrs["class"]
		attrs["class"] = class + " " + className
	} else {
		attrs["class"] = className
	}

	e := NewElement("textarea", attrs["label"], fieldName, p, attrs)

	return DOMElement(e)
}

// Timestamp returns the []byte of an <input> HTML element with a label.
// IMPORTANT:
// The `fieldName` argument will cause a panic if it is not exactly the string
// form of the struct field that this editor input is representing
func Timestamp(fieldName string, p interface{}, attrs map[string]string) []byte {
	var data string
	val := ValueFromStructField(fieldName, p)
	if val == "0" {
		data = ""
	} else {
		data = val
	}

	e := &Element{
		TagName: "input",
		Attrs:   attrs,
		Name:    TagNameFromStructField(fieldName, p),
		Label:   attrs["label"],
		Data:    data,
		ViewBuf: &bytes.Buffer{},
	}

	return DOMElementSelfClose(e)
}

// File returns the []byte of a <input type="file"> HTML element with a label.
// IMPORTANT:
// The `fieldName` argument will cause a panic if it is not exactly the string
// form of the struct field that this editor input is representing
func File(fieldName string, p interface{}, attrs map[string]string) []byte {
	name := TagNameFromStructField(fieldName, p)
	tmpl :=
		`<div class="file-input ` + name + ` input-field col s12">
			` + attrs["label"] + `

					Upload
					<input class="upload" type="file">

					<input class="file-path validate" placeholder="` + attrs["label"] + `" type="text">

			<input class="store ` + name + `" type="hidden" name="` + name + `" value="` + ValueFromStructField(fieldName, p) + `" />

`

	script :=
		``

	return []byte(tmpl + script)
}

// Richtext returns the []byte of a rich text editor (provided by http://summernote.org/) with a label.
// IMPORTANT:
// The `fieldName` argument will cause a panic if it is not exactly the string
// form of the struct field that this editor input is representing
func Richtext(fieldName string, p interface{}, attrs map[string]string) []byte {
	// create wrapper for richtext editor, which isolates the editor's css
	iso := []byte(`<div class="iso-texteditor input-field col s12"><label>` + attrs["label"] + `</label>`)
	isoClose := []byte(`</div>`)

	if _, ok := attrs["class"]; ok {
		attrs["class"] += "richtext " + fieldName
	} else {
		attrs["class"] = "richtext " + fieldName
	}

	if _, ok := attrs["id"]; ok {
		attrs["id"] += "richtext-" + fieldName
	} else {
		attrs["id"] = "richtext-" + fieldName
	}

	// create the target element for the editor to attach itself
	div := &Element{
		TagName: "div",
		Attrs:   attrs,
		Name:    "",
		Label:   "",
		Data:    "",
		ViewBuf: &bytes.Buffer{},
	}

	// create a hidden input to store the value from the struct
	val := ValueFromStructField(fieldName, p)
	name := TagNameFromStructField(fieldName, p)
	input := `<input type="hidden" name="` + name + `" class="richtext-value ` + fieldName + `" value="` + html.EscapeString(val) + `"/>`

	// build the dom tree for the entire richtext component
	iso = append(iso, DOMElement(div)...)
	iso = append(iso, []byte(input)...)
	iso = append(iso, isoClose...)

	script := `
	`

	return append(iso, []byte(script)...)
}

// Select returns the []byte of a <select> HTML element plus internal <options> with a label.
// IMPORTANT:
// The `fieldName` argument will cause a panic if it is not exactly the string
// form of the struct field that this editor input is representing
func Select(fieldName string, p interface{}, attrs, options map[string]string) []byte {
	// options are the value attr and the display value, i.e.
	// <option value="{map key}">{map value}</option>

	// find the field value in p to determine if an option is pre-selected
	fieldVal := ValueFromStructField(fieldName, p)

	if _, ok := attrs["class"]; ok {
		attrs["class"] += " browser-default"
	} else {
		attrs["class"] = "browser-default"
	}

	sel := NewElement("select", attrs["label"], fieldName, p, attrs)
	var opts []*Element

	// provide a call to action for the select element
	cta := &Element{
		TagName: "option",
		Attrs:   map[string]string{"disabled": "true", "selected": "true"},
		Data:    "Select an option...",
		ViewBuf: &bytes.Buffer{},
	}

	// provide a selection reset (will store empty string in db)
	reset := &Element{
		TagName: "option",
		Attrs:   map[string]string{"value": ""},
		Data:    "None",
		ViewBuf: &bytes.Buffer{},
	}

	opts = append(opts, cta, reset)

	for k, v := range options {
		optAttrs := map[string]string{"value": k}
		if k == fieldVal {
			optAttrs["selected"] = "true"
		}
		opt := &Element{
			TagName: "option",
			Attrs:   optAttrs,
			Data:    v,
			ViewBuf: &bytes.Buffer{},
		}

		opts = append(opts, opt)
	}

	return DOMElementWithChildrenSelect(sel, opts)
}

// Checkbox returns the []byte of a set of <input type="checkbox"> HTML elements
// wrapped in a
 with a label.
// IMPORTANT:
// The `fieldName` argument will cause a panic if it is not exactly the string
// form of the struct field that this editor input is representing
func Checkbox(fieldName string, p interface{}, attrs, options map[string]string) []byte {
	if _, ok := attrs["class"]; ok {
		attrs["class"] += "input-field col s12"
	} else {
		attrs["class"] = "input-field col s12"
	}

	div := NewElement("div", attrs["label"], fieldName, p, attrs)

	var opts []*Element

	// get the pre-checked options if this is already an existing post
	checkedVals := ValueFromStructField(fieldName, p)
	checked := strings.Split(checkedVals, "__ponzu")

	i := 0
	for k, v := range options {
		inputAttrs := map[string]string{
			"type":  "checkbox",
			"value": k,
			"id":    strings.Join(strings.Split(v, " "), "-"),
		}

		// check if k is in the pre-checked values and set to checked
		for _, x := range checked {
			if k == x {
				inputAttrs["checked"] = "checked"
			}
		}

		// create a *element manually using the modified TagNameFromStructFieldMulti
		// func since this is for a multi-value name
		input := &Element{
			TagName: "input",
			Attrs:   inputAttrs,
			Name:    TagNameFromStructFieldMulti(fieldName, i, p),
			Label:   v,
			Data:    "",
			ViewBuf: &bytes.Buffer{},
		}

		opts = append(opts, input)
		i++
	}

	return DOMElementWithChildrenCheckbox(div, opts)
}

// Tags returns the []byte of a tag input (in the style of Materialze 'Chips') with a label.
// IMPORTANT:
// The `fieldName` argument will cause a panic if it is not exactly the string
// form of the struct field that this editor input is representing
func Tags(fieldName string, p interface{}, attrs map[string]string) []byte {
	name := TagNameFromStructField(fieldName, p)

	// get the saved tags if this is already an existing post
	values := ValueFromStructField(fieldName, p)
	var tags []string
	if strings.Contains(values, "__ponzu") {
		tags = strings.Split(values, "__ponzu")
	}

	// case where there is only one tag stored, thus has no separator
	if len(values) > 0 && !strings.Contains(values, "__ponzu") {
		tags = append(tags, values)
	}

	html := `
	<div class="col s12 __ponzu-tags ` + name + `">
		` + attrs["label"] + ` (Type and press "Enter")
		<div class="chips ` + name + `">

	`

	var initial []string
	i := 0
	for _, tag := range tags {
		tagName := TagNameFromStructFieldMulti(fieldName, i, p)
		html += `<input type="hidden" class="__ponzu-tag ` + tag + `" name=` + tagName + ` value="` + tag + `"/>`
		initial = append(initial, `{tag: '`+tag+`'}`)
		i++
	}

	script := `

	`

	html += `</div>`

	return []byte(html + script)
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
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Catching Up with Holes, Skeletons, Build Outs, and More
Sunday morning brought a confluence of a clear calendar, clear skies, and a sort-of-unexpected desire to "get back to work," such as it is, so I took a long walk to get the JDLand camera caught up with the goings-on in the neighborhood. Here's the rundown:
* UPWARD: The biggest news (for me, anyway) is that at last the 99 M office building project has peeked up above ground-level. Also worth getting excited about is seeing the structural steel going up for the new DC Water headquarters along the banks of the Anacostia.
* DOWNWARD: There's digging underway (or about to be) in multiple locations, and the camera peeked past the fences to check out the holes. In order, may I present the current state of: the former McDonald's site at 2 I Street (where a 380-unit apartment building will rise), the Yards Parcel O site at 4th and Tingey (where a joint condo/apartment project has been slooowly underway thanks to the need to dig very carefully when it's an old munitions site), the mixed-income Capper apartment building at 3rd and L, and the JBG West Half residential project directly north of Nats Park.
(I missed the hole at South Capitol and M where the new NAB headquarters and the 10 Van residential building will rise, but it probably doesn't look all that much different from this.)
Then there's the Half Street Hole, where work does appear to be underway, but since excavation was done in 2007, it's kind of hard to tell what's new (I should have gone up to the Hampton Inn roof). Finally, there's the lot at Half and L where fences recently went up around the site that will be Phase II of the Parc Riverside apartment building, but while some dirt has been turned, heavy equipment isn't quite yet on site.
So, if you are counting, that is eight additional projects that will rise out of the ground in the coming year or so, along with the four others that are already above ground but not done.
* OUTWARD: Vertical construction has been finished for a while at the residential building 1221 Van just north of the ballpark, but exterior work has progressed since I last wandered by. And ditto for the District Winery building at 4th and Water.
* ONWARD: Some additional catching up.
And there are going to be lots of other "for the historical record" photos that have been needed to be taken for some months added to various project pages in coming days. Just click around from the main map--you'll never know what you might find.
Coming Soon, a Coming Soon post.
More posts: 1221 Van, 1250 Half St., Novel South Capitol, 99m, Capper, Development News, districtwinery, The Bixby, The Harlow/Capper, Parc Riverside Apts, DC Water (WASA), West Half St., Bower Condos/Guild Apts/Yards
Photo Update: Surveying the Landscape, Part I
These days I'm generally the last person laying eyes on something new in the neighborhood, but I still find it necessary to conduct photo documentation when the calendar and forecast align. Which they did on Sunday.
Let's look at signs and entrances, starting first at F1rst and its Residence Inn, where it looks like the homestretch has been entered (click to enlarge, of course):
Then, let's go over to 4th Street, where the District Winery building continues to zip along. It's also where the Bower is now signed, as is Conte's space in Arris:
Then we'll double back westward (you're getting a sense for how far I walk on these excursions), taking a look at the new sidewalk on New Jersey Avenue in front of Insignia on M. Shake Shack's signage at the Homewood Suites, and the One Hill South entrance (very New York, isn't it). (I caught the Bethesda Bagels signage back in December, just in case you think I'm missing it.)
I even caught the view from the bridge of the new Bardo beer garden at Florida Rock, with a few hardy souls in attendance. Plus, views of both Agora on New Jersey Avenue (aka the Whole Foods Building) and 1221 Van (aka That Big Building On South Capitol Immediately North of the Ballpark):
All the links above to project pages have additional brand spanking new pics, and of course Before photos.
Next up, checking out holes in the ground, both current and coming soon.
More posts: 1221 Van, Homewood Suites, Agora/Whole Foods, One Hill South, bardo, Development News, districtwinery, Florida Rock, Arris/Parcel N/Yards, Bower Condos/Guild Apts/Yards
Eighteen Eight 'Fine Men's Salon' Coming to Foundry Lofts
The photo from the 300 block of Tingey St. SE says it all--"fine men's salon" Eighteen Eight is apparently coming to the former leasing office space in the ground floor of the Foundry Lofts at the Yards.
This would be the second DC opening for the company, joining its 14th St. NW location (along with one in Bethesda and two others in Maryland).
In addition to haircuts, 18|8 offers face, scalp, and nail treatments, shaves, waxing, and coloring; there are also grooming party packages for when you guys want to get with your buddies and get all gussied up.
It's Tingey Street's second grooming outlet, joining the Bang Salon one block to the east. (Too bad Unleashed doesn't offer grooming, otherwise there'd be a Tingey trifecta.)
No official word on when it will open, so don't let your hair get too long while waiting.
Meanwhile, one block to the south, the new District Winery building is getting its face on.
(h/t to reader RMP for the 18|8 sighting)
More posts: districtwinery, eighteeneight, Foundry Lofts/Yards, Retail, The Yards
Now Official: District Winery Coming to New Pavilion at Yards Park
Rumored a few months ago after a liquor license application appeared in the pipeline, it's officially being announced today by Forest City Washington that the owners of Brooklyn Winery will be opening DC's first "urban winery" in a new 16,000-square-foot pavilion on the southwest corner of 4th and Water Streets SE in the Yards Park.
It will be named District Winery, and is to "feature the most popular components" of the Brooklyn version--it will be a full-service restaurant, and will also have a wine tasting area, a private events space with an open-air terrace, and, "of course, an impressive collection of wines, crafted and aged onsite." The Brooklyn operation is also apparently a quite popular venue for weddings.
The new pavilion's design will apparently be quite a wood-and-glass look that will echo the nearby Lumber Shed and the Yards Park itself. When I wrote about the rumors back in May, I included some 2009-era imaginings of what the pavilion could look like from when the Yards Park was going through its approvals process, but my understanding is that the design has evolved considerably, with District Winery's input. (No new renderings are being made available just yet, however.)
Forest City says it expects to start construction in the spring of 2016 and that the winery would open in the fall of 2017.
More posts: districtwinery, Restaurants/Nightlife, Yards Park
Winery Looking to Come to Water Street - Time for New Building(s)?
A Friday afternoon post over at City Paper's Young and Hungry site broke the news of a liquor license application for a "multipurpose facility" by the name of District Winery, saying that it would have "450 seats (with a total capacity for 750) plus dancing, a 100-seat summer garden, and a wine pub."
And that it would be at 385 Water St., SE.
Which is pretty cool news, except that right now there is no building with an address of 385 Water St., SE.
There were theories that it would be the first hint of retail leasing in the under-construction Arris, which is indeed in the 300 block of Water, but is on the north side of the street and so would have to be an even-numbered address.
The Lumber Shed is 301 Water--if all of the retail spaces in that building weren't spoken for, the notion of just a fat-fingering of the address could have been assumed.
But, 385 Water... Hmmm....
Many of you may not have been around back in 2009 when Forest City received approvals for its plans for Phase 2 of the Yards Park. This included approving the remaking of the Lumber Shed as a glass-enclosed retail pavilion--and also included the plans for two additional retail pavilions on what is now open lawn space between the Shed and 4th Street SE.
The drawings you see here are from 2009 and have actually been on my Yards Park and Lumber Shed pages since then--they show various views of all three pavilions, including a view from a deck on the easternmost pavilion looking toward the west with the Shed and other pavilion visible. (Click to embiggen.)
The larger, eastern pavilion, dubbed P2B (because this is Parcel P) would have a footprint of about 10,300 square feet, while the smaller middle one's footprint would be about 6,300 square feet. Each of them would be less than 40 feet high and would have "open roof terraces on the second story for outdoor dining." And, as the drawings show, they would have much the same glass-and-concrete look as the Lumber Shed does.
And it could certainly be possible that the larger eastern one could have an address of 385 Water Street. And it looks sizeable enough for a venture looking for 450 seats with capacity for 750, plus dancing.
Forest City, as always, makes no comment on tenant-related information when there is no signed lease. And so it's also interesting that District Winery (which City Paper says appears to be from the same folks behind the Brooklyn Winery in New York) has made the move to apply for a liquor license before any lease has been signed.
We Shall See on all of this, including what any potential timeline might be for the construction of one or both of these new pavilions, but at least it means there would appear to be some definite leasing interest for these spaces. Either that or I am terribly off base with all this pondering.
UPDATE: All that pondering, and I could have just read that yes, it is indeed a new building being planned."Plans are still in the early stages, putting an opening at least two years away[.]" (h/t @JES)
More posts: districtwinery, Restaurants/Nightlife, Lumber Shed/Yards, Yards Park


text:
\section{Introduction}

It is becoming increasingly clear that wormholes play an important role in the physics of quantum black holes. They explain the long-time behavior of the spectral form factor \cite{Saad:2018bqo}, \cite{Saad:2019lba}, correlation functions \cite{Saad:2019pqd} and the entropy of Hawking radiation \cite{Penington:2019kki}, \cite{Almheiri:2019qdq}; can be traversable \cite{Gao:2016bin}, \cite{Maldacena:2017axo}, \cite{Maldacena:2018lmt} and sometimes even by humans \cite{Maldacena:2020sxe}.

\vskip .3in

On the other hand, wormholes in AdS/CFT lead to a factorization problem \cite{Maldacena:2004rf}. From the boundary point of view, two decoupled systems $L$ and $R$ have a factorized partition function $Z=Z_L Z_R$. While from the bulk perspective, there could be contributions from wormholes connecting the two boundaries that might spoil such factorization.

\vskip .3in

Strictly speaking, there is no sharp paradox. In all known UV-complete string-theoretic examples, the wormhole solutions are either subdominant or suffer from brane-nucleation instabilities \cite{Maldacena:2004rf}, \cite{Marolf:2021kjc}.\footnote{In some of those examples, it is simply not known whether wormholes are dominant or not. } On the other hand, in some cases, there are wormhole solutions that dominate over the disconnected solutions and have no known instabilities, but do not have a known embedding in string theory (see \cite{Marolf:2021kjc} for a nice overview of these results and references therein). In the latter case, it is not clear whether we should expect to have two decoupled boundary systems with a factorized partition function. Or if instead the boundary theory is an ensemble and its partition function does not factorize, as for example in JT gravity \cite{Saad:2019lba}.

\vskip .3in

At the very least, wormholes contribute as off-shell configurations. So even though there is no paradox, one might wonder what is the mechanism for getting a factorized answer. A nice example, where our expectations are reasonably clear, is the spectral form factor. The wormhole, in this case called the ``double-cone'', describes \cite{Saad:2018bqo} the linear ramp behavior at long times \cite{Cotler:2016fpe}. However, if we do not do either an ensemble or time averaging, the spectral form factor is expected to have large oscillations, comparable to the size of the ramp itself \cite{Prange}. Therefore, we should expect that there are contributions in the bulk describing these oscillations that are comparable in size to the wormhole contribution and must be taken into account.

\vskip .3in

Recently, a toy model, where the issue can be settled, was studied by Saad, Shenker, Stanford and Yao (SSSY) \cite{Saad:2021rcu}. They considered a finite dimensional Grassman integral that can be thought of as an SYK model where the time direction is reduced to one point. They computed a two-boundary observable $z_L z_R$ and showed that even with fixed couplings one can introduce collective field variables $G_{LR}, \Sigma_{LR}$ representing correlations between the two systems $L$ and $R$. These variables can be thought of as a proxy for the bulk description. Then the configurations with $G_{LR}, \Sigma_{LR}  \neq 0$ can be viewed as wormholes.

\vskip .3 in

In the theory with fixed couplings they found two types of saddles: wormhole saddle and a ``pair of linked half-wormholes'' saddle. Crucially, the new half-wormhole saddle is not self-averaging and depends strongly on the couplings. It disappears if we consider the average $\langle z_L z_R \rangle$. But for fixed couplings, the wormhole and linked half-wormholes combine to give a good approximation of $z_L z_R$, thus restoring factorization.

\vskip .3in

In this note, we provide some further details of this model. We derive explicit formulas for both the partition function and the half-wormhole contribution. Both are expressed as ``hyperpfaffians'', a generalization of pfaffian to tensors, of the tensor of SYK couplings. We then develop a perturbation theory around the linked half-wormholes. It truncates at finite order. Again, we compute every term in the expansion explicitly and show how they combine to give the exact result.

\vskip .3in

An interesting feature of the model is that the last term in the perturbation theory around linked half-wormholes coincides with the wormhole contribution. Therefore, the wormhole saddle in this model need not be added separately, but can instead be described as a large fluctuation around linked half-wormholes.

\section{SYK with one time point}

We would like to study a partition function given by a finite-dimensional Grassmann integral\footnote{We define Grassmann measure s.t. $i^{N/2}\int d^N \psi ~ \psi_1 \dots \psi_N = 1$. This will be convenient because there will be no factors of $i$ in the final expression for $z$.}
\begin{align}\label{sykdef}
z= \int d^N\psi ~ \exp\left( i^{q/2} \sum_{1 \leq a_1 < \dots < a_q \leq N}J_{a_1\dots a_q} \psi_{a_1 \dots a_q} \right) \ , \qquad \psi_{a_1\dots  a_q} \equiv \psi_{a_1} \dots \psi_{a_q}
\end{align}
with the completely antisymmetric tensor of the couplings $J_{a_1 \dots a_q}$ drawn out of a gaussian ensemble with zero mean and variance given by
\begin{align}\label{Jdist}
\langle J_{a_1 \dots a_q} J_{b_1 \dots b_q}  \rangle = \bar J^2 \delta_{a_1b_1} \dots \delta_{a_qb_q} \ , \qquad
\bar J^2 \equiv {(q-1)! \over N^{q-1}} \ .
\end{align}
We assume that $N,q$ are both even integers and $N$ is divisible by $q$ (otherwise $z=0$)
\begin{align}
p \equiv {N\over q} \in {\mathbb N} \ .
\end{align}
In \cite{Saad:2021rcu} this model was naturally called SYK with one time point.

\vskip .3in

In what follows, we will use capital latin letters $A,B,C, \dots$ to denote ordered $q$-subsets of $\{ 1,\dots , N\}$. For example
\begin{align}
A = \{ a_1 < \dots < a_q \} \ , \qquad J_A \psi_A \equiv J_{a_1 \dots a_q} \psi_{a_1 \dots a_q} \ .
\end{align}
We define an ordering on the $q$-subsets by their first elements\footnote{To be more precise, if $a_1 = b_1$ then we should compare $a_2$ and $b_2$ and so on. However, in the present work we will only be considering non-intersecting $q$-subsets $A \cap B = \varnothing$, so this issue never arises.  }
\begin{align}\label{ABordering}
A<B \qquad \Leftrightarrow \qquad a_1 < b_1 \ .
\end{align}

\vskip .3in

It is straightforward to compute the integral\footnote{Summation over repeated indices is implied henceforth.} \eqref{sykdef}
\begin{align}
z &= \int d^N\psi ~ \exp( i^{q/2} J_A \psi_A ) \\
& = i^{N/2}  \int d^N\psi ~ { (J_A \psi_A)^{N/q}  \over  (N/q)!  } \\
& =  i^{N/2} \sideset{}{'} \sum_{A_1 < \dots < A_p}  J_{A_1} \dots J_{A_p}  \int d^N \psi ~ \psi_{A_1} \dots \psi_{A_p} \\
& =  \sideset{}{'} \sum_{A_1 < \dots < A_p} \text{sgn}(A) J_{A_1} \dots J_{A_p} \ ,
\end{align}
where $\text{sgn}(A) = \text{sgn}(A_1 \dots A_p)$ is the sign of the corresponding permutation. The prime on the sums means that we include only non-intersecting $q$-subsets: $A_i \cap A_j = \varnothing$, a condition enforced by the Grassmann integral. We will often use this notation below to avoid cluttering with explicit summation constraints. The resulting expression is called a ``hyperpfaffian'' of the tensor $J_A = J_{a_1 \dots a_q}$ and was first introduced in \cite{Barvinok}
\begin{align}\label{sykres}
z = \text{PF} J =  \sideset{}{'} \sum_{A_1 < \dots < A_p} \text{sgn}(A) J_{A_1} \dots J_{A_p} \ .
\end{align}
For $q=2$ this reduces to the usual pfaffian of an antisymmetric matrix $J_{ij}$.

\section{Averaged theory}

Ensemble averages can be computed using the hyperpfaffian expression for the partition function \eqref{sykres}. The simplest non-trivial quantity is $\langle z^2 \rangle$
\begin{align}
 \langle z^2 \rangle = \langle z_L z_R \rangle  &=   \langle (\text{PF} J)^2 \rangle \\
\label{z2av2}
&=  \sideset{}{'} \sum_{A_1 < \dots < A_p \atop B_1 < \dots <B_p} \text{sgn}(A) \text{sgn}(B) \langle J_{A_1} J_{B_1}\rangle  \dots  \langle J_{A_p} J_{B_p} \rangle \\
&=  {N! \over p! (q!)^{p}} \times  \left(\bar J^2 \right)^{p} \ .
\label{z2av3}
\end{align}
In the second line, we kept the only non-trivial Wick contraction.\footnote{The prime on the sum here obviously implies only that $A$'s are non-intersecting among each other and the same for $B$'s, but no such condition between $A$'s and $B$'s. We will often abuse notation in this way to keep equations readable. Hopefully, the precise constraint will be clear from the context.} Indeed, because of the ordering both $A_1$ and $B_1$ start with the index $1$. So they can be only contracted with each other. Once we contract them, the same argument goes for $A_2,B_2$ and so on. Only the diagonal terms $A_i = B_i$ survive and the result is simply the number of terms in the sum times $\left(\bar J^2 \right)^{N/q} $.

\vskip .3in

This, of course, is the same result as in \cite{Saad:2021rcu}, which SSSY computed from the collective field description. In particular, in the large $N$ limit $\langle z^2 \rangle$ is approximated by the wormhole saddle found in \cite{Saad:2021rcu}
\begin{align}
 \includegraphics[scale=.6, valign=c]{z2avworm.pdf}
\end{align}
where the LHS represents the contractions of $J$'s in \eqref{z2av2}.

\vskip .3in

Next, we compute $\langle z^4 \rangle$
\begin{align}\label{z4av1}
\langle z^4 \rangle &=\langle z_L z_R z_{L'} z_{R'} \rangle =   \sum_{n_1+n_2 + n_3 = N/q \atop n_i \geq 0} \quad \includegraphics[scale=.5, valign=c]{z4av.pdf} \\
\label{z4av2}
&=({\bar J}^2)^{2N/q} \sum_{n_1+n_2 + n_3 = N/q \atop n_i \geq 0} {N! \over (qn_1)! (qn_2)! (qn_3)!}
\times
\left[ {(qn_1)! \over (q!)^{n_1} n_1!}
{(qn_2)! \over (q!)^{n_2} n_2!}
{(qn_3)! \over (q!)^{n_3} n_3!} \right]^2
\\
&= \left({\bar J}^2 \over q! \right)^{2N/q} N!  \sum_{n_1+n_2 + n_3 = N/q \atop n_i \geq 0} {(qn_1)! (qn_2)! (qn_3)! \over (n_1! n_2! n_3! )^2 }  \ .
\label{z4av3}
\end{align}
Each of the four hyperpfaffians corresponding to systems $L,R,L',R'$ has $p = {N\over q}$ factors of $J_{A_i}$. In the most general pattern of Wick contractions, represented pictorially in \eqref{z4av1}, we split $J$'s of each system into $p = n_1 + n_2 + n_3$. One can check that $n_1,n_2,n_3$ must be the same for all four systems.\footnote{There are six lines with associated $n_i$ in \eqref{z4av1} connecting the four corners. At each corner there is a constraint that $n_i$'s sum to $p=N/q$. Therefore, we have two independent parameters. Or, equivalently, three parameters with a constraint $n_1 + n_2 + n_3 = p$.  } Then the combinatorics in \eqref{z4av2} works as follows. First, we assign $N = qn_1 + qn_2 + qn_3$ indices to one of the three groups of $J$'s described above. There are ${N! \over (qn_1)! (qn_2)! (qn_3)!} $ ways to do that. At this stage we do not count permutations within each of the three groups. Now, there are $(qn_1)! \over  (q!)^{n_1} n_1! $ ways to assign $qn_1$ indices to $n_1$ $J's$, where we do not count permutations of indices on one $J_A$ and do not count permutations of $n_1$ $J$'s. Similarly for $n_2, n_3$. Finally, assignment of indices must be the same for Wick-contracted pairs. Therefore, we have a factor of $(qn_i)! \over  (q!)^{n_i} n_i! $ for each of the six pairs of systems contracted as in \eqref{z4av1}. This agrees with the computation in collective field description in \cite{Saad:2021rcu}.

\vskip .3in

In the large $N$ limit, the three terms when one of the $n_i$'s is $N/q$ dominate, giving $\langle z^4 \rangle \approx 3 \langle z^2 \rangle^2$. They correspond to the three wormhole saddles \cite{Saad:2021rcu}
\begin{align}
 \includegraphics[scale=.3, valign=c]{z4avworm.pdf}
\end{align}

\section{Non-averaged theory}

We now turn to studying $z^2$ with fixed couplings. SSSY \cite{Saad:2021rcu} noted that in a theory with fixed couplings we can still introduce a collective field description. This is done by inserting identity as an integral
\begin{align}
1 = \int_{-\infty}^\infty dG
\underbrace{ \int_{-i\infty}^{i\infty}
 {d\Sigma \over 2\pi i /N} ~ \exp \left[ - \Sigma\left( N G-   \psi_i^L \psi_i^R \right) \right] }_{\delta(G - {1\over N} \psi_a^L \psi_a^R)}~ \exp\left\{ {N\over q} \left[ G^q - \left({1\over N} \psi_a^L \psi_a^R \right)^q \right] \right\} \ .
\end{align}
After rotating the contour by $\Sigma = i e^{- i \pi/q} \sigma , G = e^{i\pi/q} g$, we have a representation of $z^2$
\begin{align}\label{z2fixed}
z^2 = \int_{-\infty}^\infty d\sigma ~ \Psi(\sigma) \Phi(\sigma) \ ,
\end{align}
where the first factor
\begin{align}\label{PsiDef}
\Psi(\sigma) = \int_{-\infty}^\infty {dg \over 2\pi/N} \exp\left[ N\left( -i \sigma g - {1\over q} g^q \right) \right]
\end{align}
is a function that does not depend on the couplings and is highly peaked around $\sigma = 0$. While the second factor
\begin{align}\label{PhiDef}
\Phi(\sigma) = \int d^{2N} \psi ~ \exp\left[ i e^{-{i \pi \over q} }\sigma \psi_a^L \psi_a^R + i^{q/2} J_A (\psi_A^L + \psi_A^R) - i^q \bar J^2 \psi_A^L \psi_A^R \right]
\end{align}
is a function that contains all of the information about the couplings. Note that $\Phi(\sigma)$ is a polynomial of order $N$ and only integer powers of $\sigma^q$ are present.

\vskip .3in

Let us summarize the findings of \cite{Saad:2021rcu}. They showed that the integral \eqref{z2fixed} has two types of saddles. First, for $\sigma$ outside of a certain finite region near $\sigma = 0$, the function $\Phi(\sigma)$ is self-averaging and is well approximated by $\sigma^N$. In this region there are ``wormhole'' saddles living on the unit circle $|\sigma| = 1$ in the complex $\sigma$ plane. They reproduce the averaged answer $\langle z^2 \rangle$. Second, in a region near $\sigma = 0$ the function $\Phi(\sigma)$ is not self-averaging and has a weak dependence on $\sigma$ since it is a polynomial. Near $\sigma = 0$ it is well approximated by $\Phi(0)$. While the function $\Psi(\sigma)$ is exponentially peaked at $\sigma = 0$. This is the second type of saddle, referred to as a ``pair of linked half-wormholes'' in \cite{Saad:2021rcu}.\footnote{This is contrasted with ``unlinked half-wormholes'', which describe $z_L$ and $z_R$ separately. In this description factorization is manifest. See \cite{Saad:2021rcu} for details.} Therefore, SSSY concluded, in the theory with fixed couplings and at large $N$ we have an approximate identity
\begin{align}\label{SSSYid}
z^2 \approx \langle z^2 \rangle + \Phi(0) \ .
\end{align}
This is a remarkable identity and we would like to understand it better.

\subsection{Linked half-wormholes}

We start with computing the contribution of linked half-wormholes $\Phi(0)$ (recall that $p = {N\over q}$)
\begin{align}\label{PhiLine1}
\Phi(0) &= \int d^{2N} \psi ~ \exp\left[ i^{q/2} J_A (\psi_A^L + \psi_A^R) - i^q \bar J^2 \psi_A^L \psi_A^R \right] \\
&= i^N \sum_{k=0}^{p} \left(-\bar J^2 \right)^k \int d ^{2N} \psi ~  {\left(\psi_I^L \psi_I^R \right)^k \over k!}
\times { \left(J_A \psi_A^L\right)^{p-k}  \over \left(p- k\right)! }
\times { \left(J_B \psi_B^R\right)^{p-k}  \over \left(p - k\right)! } \\
\label{PhiLine3}
&= i^N \sum_{k=0}^p \left(-\bar J^2 \right)^k  \int d ^{2N} \psi ~ \sum_{I_1 < \dots < I_k} (\psi_{I_1}^L \dots \psi_{I_k}^L )
 \times (\psi_{I_1}^R \dots \psi_{I_k}^R ) \\
 &\qquad \qquad \qquad \qquad \qquad  \times \sum_{A_1 <  \dots < A_{p-k}} J_{A_1} \dots J_{A_{p-k}} ~ ( \psi_{A_1}^L \dots \psi_{A_{p-k}}^L ) \\
  &\qquad \qquad \qquad \qquad \qquad  \times \sum_{B_1 <  \dots < B_{p-k}} J_{B_1} \dots J_{B_{p-k}} ~ ( \psi_{B_1}^R \dots \psi_{B_{p-k}}^R ) \\
 &= \sum_{k=0}^{p} \left(-\bar J^2 \right)^k \sideset{}{'} \sum_{I_1 < \dots < I_k} \left( \text{PF} J^{(I_1, \dots, I_k)} \right)^2 \ .
 \label{PhiLine6}
\end{align}
In the second line, we kept only the terms that saturate the Grassmann integral. Next, we wrote out the sums more explicitly utilizing our convention for ordering on $q$-subsets \eqref{ABordering}. In the final line, we expressed the result in terms of the hyperpfaffian of the tensor $J_A^{(I_1, \dots, I_k)} = J_{a_1 \dots a_q}^{(I_1, \dots, I_k)}$. It is defined to be the original tensor $J_A = J_{a_1 \dots a_q}$ with indices restricted to not be in $I_1, \dots, I_k$. This condition comes about due to the fermions in \eqref{PhiLine3}. The final expression can in fact be put into a more suggestive form
\begin{align}\label{Phi(0)Res}
\Phi(0) = \sideset{}{'} \sum_{A_1 < \dots < A_p \atop B_1 < \dots < B_p} \text{sgn}(A) \text{sgn}(B) \left(J_{A_1} J_{B_1} - \bar J^2 \delta_{A_1B_1} \right) \dots \left(J_{A_p} J_{B_p} -  \bar J^2 \delta_{A_pB_p} \right) \ .
\end{align}
This is one of our main results.

\vskip .3in

 The expression \eqref{Phi(0)Res} makes it obvious that $\langle \Phi(0) \rangle = 0$. It also clarifies how the equation \eqref{SSSYid} is satisfied. Using \eqref{sykres}, we can write the exact answer as follows
\begin{align}\label{z2split}
z^2 = \sideset{}{'} \sum_{A_1 < \dots < A_p \atop B_1 < \dots < B_p} \text{sgn}(A) \text{sgn}(B)
\Big( \bar J^2  \delta_{A_1B_1}  +   \left(J_{A_1} J_{B_1} -\bar J^2  \delta_{A_1B_1}  \right) \Big) \dots
\Big( \bar J^2  \delta_{A_pB_p}  +   \left(J_{A_p} J_{B_p} -\bar J^2  \delta_{A_pB_p}  \right) \Big) \ .
\end{align}
Now we can start expanding this by choosing either of the two terms in each of the $p$ factors. If we choose all $\bar J^2 \delta_{A_i B_i}$ terms, we get the wormhole contribution $\langle z^2 \rangle$ given in \eqref{z2av2}. On the other hand, if we choose $(J_{A_i} J_{B_i} -\bar J^2  \delta_{A_iB_i}) $ we get the linked half-wormholes \eqref{Phi(0)Res}. In the section \ref{pertAll} we will see how the remaining terms are reproduced in perturbation theory around the half-wormhole.

\vskip .3in

Another way to think about linked half-wormholes $\Phi(0)$ is to note that $\normord{J_{A} J_{B} } \equiv J_{A} J_{B} -\bar J^2  \delta_{AB}$ can be viewed as a normal ordered product. We can suggestively write
\begin{align}\label{PhiNormOrd}
z^2 \approx \langle z^2 \rangle + \normord{z^2} \ , \qquad \normord{z^2} \equiv \Phi(0) \ .
\end{align}
This of course doesn't yet explain why the remaining terms in \eqref{z2split} are small. We turn to this next.

\subsection{Computation of Error}

\label{Error}

We should emphasize that the approximation \eqref{PhiNormOrd} is not a conventional large $N$ limit. In particular, it is possible to choose a set of fixed couplings $J_A$ for which it is not a good approximation. Instead, the approximation \eqref{SSSYid} is valid for a {\it typical} realization of the couplings $J_A$. Namely, if we draw the couplings from the gaussian ensemble \eqref{Jdist}, we find that \eqref{PhiNormOrd} is a reliable approximation on average. In other words, the variance (or uncertainty) of $z^2$ around $\langle z^2 \rangle +  \normord{z^2}$ is small in the ensemble \eqref{Jdist}.

\vskip .3in

To quantify the errors in \eqref{PhiNormOrd}, following SSSY we define
\begin{align}\label{Err}
\text{Error} = z^2 - \left(\langle z^2 \rangle + \Phi(0) \right) \ .
\end{align}
To show that Error is small for a typical realization of the couplings, we need to compute
\begin{align} \label{errsq}
\langle \text{Error}^2 \rangle = \langle z^4 \rangle - \langle z^2 \rangle^2 + \langle \Phi(0)^2 \rangle - 2 \langle z^2 \Phi(0) \rangle \ .
\end{align}

 \vskip .3in

 To calculate $\langle \Phi(0)^2 \rangle$ it is convenient to think about $\Phi(0)$ as the normal ordered $z^2$, see \eqref{PhiNormOrd}. Then the computation of $\langle \Phi(0)^2 \rangle = \langle \normord{z^2}\normord{z^2} \rangle$ is similar to the computation of $\langle z^4\rangle$ in \eqref{z4av1} - \eqref{z4av3}, except that we do not include contractions between $L$ and $R$ and between $L'$ and $R'$. That is, we set $n_1 = 0$
 \begin{align}\label{PhiPhi}
 \langle \Phi(0)^2 \rangle &=
 \left({\bar J}^2 \over q! \right)^{2N/q} N! \sum_{n_2+n_3  = N/q \atop n_i \geq 0} {(qn_2)! (qn_3)!  \over (n_2! n_3! )^2 }  \\
 &\approx 2\langle z^2 \rangle^2 \ . \qquad (N \to \infty)
 \end{align}
Here, in the large $N$ limit the sum is dominated by the two terms when one of $n_i$'s is $N/q$.

\vskip .3in

To calculate $\langle z^2 \Phi(0) \rangle$ we note that because of normal ordering every $J_A$ in $\Phi(0)$ must be contracted with some $J_A$ in $z^2$. This takes up all $J$'s in $z^2$, so there are no contractions of two $J$'s in $z^2$. Therefore, we get the same result as for $\langle \Phi(0)^2 \rangle$
\begin{align}\label{z2Phi}
\langle z^2 \Phi(0) \rangle = \langle \Phi(0)^2 \rangle \approx 2 \langle z^2 \rangle^2 \ .
\end{align}
 Combining \eqref{errsq}, \eqref{z2av3} \eqref{z4av3}, \eqref{PhiPhi}, \eqref{z2Phi} we find
 \begin{align}\label{ErrVar}
 \langle \text{Error}^2 \rangle =  \left({\bar J}^2 \over q! \right)^{2N/q} N! \sum_{n_1+n_2 + n_3 = N/q \atop {1\leq n_1 \leq p-1\atop n_1,n_2 \geq 0}} {(qn_1)! (qn_2)! (qn_3)! \over (n_1! n_2! n_3! )^2 } \ .
 \end{align}
At large $N$ this sum is dominated by ``boundary'' terms with $(n_1, n_2, n_3)$ taking one of the four values $(1,0,p-1), 1,p-1,0), (p-1,0,1), (p-1,1,0)$. Altogether, we have
\begin{align}
{ \langle \text{Error}^2 \rangle \over \langle z^4 \rangle} \approx {4\over 3} {(q-1)!\over q} {1\over N^{q-2}} \ .
\end{align}
In this sense, corrections to \eqref{SSSYid} are small for $q>2$.

\subsection{Perturbative expansion around linked half-wormholes to all orders}

\label{pertAll}

Now we turn to computing corrections to the equation \eqref{SSSYid}. From the integral representation \eqref{PhiDef} of $\Phi(\sigma)$ it is clear that it is a polynomial of order $N$ and only powers of $\sigma^q$ are present
\begin{align}\label{PhiPol}
\Phi(\sigma) = \sum_{k=0}^p {\sigma^{kq} \over (kq)! } \Phi^{(kq)}(0) \ .
\end{align}
This is a perturbative expansion around the half-wormhole saddle $\sigma = 0$. After inserting \eqref{PhiPol} and \eqref{PsiDef} into \eqref{z2fixed}, we can compute both $\sigma$ and $g$ integrals (see appendix \ref{app}). The result is
\begin{align}
z^2 = \int_{-\infty}^\infty d\sigma ~ \Psi(\sigma) \Phi(\sigma) &= \sum_{k=0}^p  {(-\bar J^2)^k \over k!} \left( i^q \over q! \right)^k \Phi^{(kq)}(0) \ ,
\label{z2PertAll}
\end{align}
where we substituted factors depending on $N,q$ for $\bar J^2$ in a way that will be convenient momentarily. To compute $\Phi^{(kq)}(0)$, we note that $\Phi(\sigma)$ satisfies an equation
\begin{align}\label{Phiq}
{i^q \over q!} \partial_\sigma^q \Phi(\sigma)  &=  {\partial \over \partial \bar J^2} \Phi(\sigma)
\ .
\end{align}
This is derived from the definition \eqref{PhiDef}. Here, we think of $\bar J^2$ as a free parameter in \eqref{PhiDef} and set it to its value \eqref{Jdist} after computing $\bar J$ derivative.\footnote{In deriving \eqref{Phiq} it is also convenient to use an identity ${i^q \over q!} (\psi_a^L \psi_a^R)^q = \psi_A^L \psi_A^R$. } Now, our perturbative expansion takes the form
\begin{align}\label{z2PertAllFinal}
z^2&= \sum_{k=0}^p  {1\over k!} \left( \bar J^2 \right)^k \left( - {\partial \over \partial \bar J^2 } \right)^k \Phi(0) \\
& = \sum_{k=0}^p \Phi_k \ ,
\label{z2PertAllFinal2}
\end{align}
where we also introduced a new notation $\Phi_k$ for later convenience. If we insert $\Phi(0)$ here from \eqref{Phi(0)Res}, we see this precisely corresponds to doing the expansion of the exact answer as in \eqref{z2split}. The operator $-\bar J^2 {\partial \over \partial \bar J^2}$ acting on \eqref{Phi(0)Res} substitutes one of the factors of $\normord{J_{A_i} J_{B_i}}$ by $\bar J^2 \delta_{A_i B_i}$. So $\Phi_k$ represents a piece of \eqref{z2split} when we choose $\bar J^2 \delta_{A_i B_i}$ in $k$ of the $p$ factors and choose $\normord{J_{A_i} J_{B_i}}$ in the rest.

\vskip .3in

Of course, the expansion \eqref{z2PertAllFinal} is just reorganizing the exact answer. What is interesting is that it has an interpretation of a semi-classical expansion at large $N$.

\vskip .3in

Again, we should emphasize that the expansion \eqref{z2PertAllFinal} is not a conventional perturbative large $N$ expansion. Instead, it is a perturbative expansion for a typical choice of the couplings in the gaussian ensemble \eqref{Jdist}. Below, we will estimate the typical values by $\Phi_k \sim \langle \Phi_k \rangle + \sqrt{\langle \Phi_k^2 \rangle}$ and show that for these typical values the expansion \eqref{z2PertAllFinal} behaves as a perturbative series at large $N$.

\vskip .3in

It is particularly interesting to consider the last term in \eqref{z2PertAllFinal}
\begin{align}
 {1\over (N/q)!} \left( \bar J^2 \right)^{N/q} \left( -  {\partial \over \partial \bar J^2 } \right)^{N/q} \Phi(0) = \langle z^2 \rangle \ .
\end{align}
It gives the same contribution as the wormhole saddle, even though we were doing a perturbative expansion around the linked half-wormholes at $\sigma = 0$. Should we separately include the wormhole, since it is also a saddle, in addition to the linied half-wormholes with fluctuations \eqref{z2PertAllFinal}? The answer is no, because \eqref{z2PertAllFinal} already gives the exact answer. We checked this explicitly above by computing \eqref{z2split}, \eqref{Phi(0)Res}, \eqref{z2PertAllFinal}.

\vskip .3in

In this sense, the wormhole does not have to be included in our toy model path integral as a saddle. But instead, it can be viewed as a large fluctuation around the linked half-wormholes. This is possible because we could track terms of order $\sigma^N$ in the expansion around $\sigma=0$, something that might be hard to do in more sophisticated models.

\vskip .3in

Of course, one can reverse the logic and do perturbation theory around the wormhole instead. In this case, the half-wormhole contribution $\Phi(0)$ would arise as a large fluctuation around the wormhole.\footnote{A similar phenomena was recently observed in the tensionless string \cite{Eberhardt:2021jvj}, where the perturbative expansion around the wormhole geometry background can be computed exactly. And it gives a factorized answer without including any other semi-classical geometries as additional saddles. }

\vskip .3in

One potential objection to this picture is that for a typical realization of the couplings the half-wormhole and the wormhole contributions, which represent the first and the last terms in the perturbative expansion \eqref{z2PertAllFinal}, are of the same order
\begin{align}
\langle z^2 \rangle \sim \sqrt{ \langle \Phi(0)^2 \rangle } \ .
\end{align}
While the remaining terms are suppressed, as we discussed in the section \ref{Error}. This means that when we do the expansion \eqref{z2PertAllFinal}, for low orders of perturbation theory $k$, corrections become more suppressed. But at some point in the expansion they start increasing again and the last term is of the same order as the first one. This seems reminiscent of the fact that perturbation theory in higher dimensional QFTs is often only asymptotic and not convergent. Let us make this more precise in our model.

\vskip .3in

We would like to estimate $\Phi_k$ for a typical realization of the couplings. The average value vanishes $\langle \Phi_k \rangle = 0$ for $k\neq p$, because $\Phi_k$ contains at least one normal ordered factor $\normord{J_{A} J_{B}}$. So we need the variance $\langle \Phi_k^2 \rangle $. The computation is similar to $\langle \Phi(0)^2 \rangle$ in \eqref{PhiPhi} and $z^4$ in \eqref{z4av1}. The answer is simply given by the diagram \eqref{z4av1} where we set $n_1=k$
\begin{align}\label{PhikVar}
\langle \Phi_k^2 \rangle =
\left({\bar J}^2 \over q! \right)^{2N/q} N! ~ {(qk)! \over (k!)^2} \sum_{n_2+n_3  = p-k \atop n_i \geq 0} {(qn_2)! (qn_3)!  \over (n_2! n_3! )^2 }  \ .
\end{align}
While
\begin{align}
\langle \Phi_k \Phi_{k'} \rangle = 0 \ , \qquad k \neq k' \ .
\end{align}
In particular, this is related to Error computed in the section \ref{Error} (see \eqref{Err}, \eqref{ErrVar})
\begin{align}
\text{Error} &= \sum_{k=1}^{p-1} \Phi_k \ , \\
\langle \text{Error}^2 \rangle  &= \sum_{k=1}^{p-1} \langle \Phi_k^2 \rangle \ .
\end{align}

\vskip .3in

For large $N$ and fixed $k$, the sum \eqref{PhikVar} is dominated when one of the $n_i$'s is $p-k$ and we estimate
\begin{align}\label{PhikN}
{ \langle \Phi_k^2 \rangle \over \langle z^4 \rangle } \propto {1\over N^{k(q-2)}} \ , \qquad (N\to \infty, ~ k \text{ - fixed}) \ .
\end{align}
We see that for $q>2$ higher orders $k$ of perturbation theory give supressed corrections, as long as $k$ is not too large. However, when $k$ becomes of order $N$, corrections start growing. And in the complementary regime we have contributions of the same order as \eqref{PhikN} ($p = N/q$)
\begin{align}
{ \langle \Phi_{p-k}^2 \rangle \over \langle z^4 \rangle } \propto {1\over N^{k(q-2)}} \ , \qquad (N\to \infty,  ~k \text{ - fixed}) \ .
\end{align}

\section{Two replicas with a coupling}

Another interesting variation of the model, considered in \cite{Saad:2021rcu}, is to add a coupling $\mu$ between the two replicas
\begin{align}
\zeta(\mu) = \int d^{2N} \psi \exp
\left[
\mu \psi_a^L \psi_a^R + i^{q/2} J_A(\psi_A^L + \psi_A^R)
\right] \ .
\end{align}
This can be thought of as either analogous to the coupling between the two boundaries in the eternal traversable wormhole \cite{Maldacena:2018lmt}, or as an SYK model with two instants of time. Working in the collective field description, SSSY found \cite{Saad:2021rcu} that for $1/N \ll\mu \ll 1$ the wormhole contribution gets enhanced relative to the half-wormhole and $\zeta(\mu)$ becomes self-averaging.

\vskip .3in

In this section, we compute $\zeta(\mu)$ exactly, similarly to the section \ref{pertAll}. And show how the coupling $\mu$ leads to the enhancement of the wormhole from this point of view.

\vskip .3in

The coupling $\mu$ modifies the formula \eqref{z2fixed} by a shift of the argument of $\Phi$
\begin{align}
\zeta(\mu) = \int_{-\infty}^\infty d\sigma ~ \Psi(\sigma) \Phi( \sigma - i e^{i {\pi\over q} \mu} \mu ) \ .
\end{align}
A computation similar to \eqref{PhiPol}, \eqref{z2PertAll} shows (see appendix \ref{app})
\begin{align}
\zeta(\mu) &= \sum_{k=0}^p \zeta_k(\mu) \Phi_k \ , \\
\zeta_k(\mu) &= \sum_{n=0}^k {k! \over (k-n)! (nq)! } \left( q\over N \right)^n (N \mu)^{n q} \ ,
\label{zetak}
\end{align}
where $\Phi_k$ were defined in \eqref{z2PertAllFinal2}.

\vskip .3in

We estimate the wormhole contribution $k = p=N/q$ at large $N$ and $1/N \ll \mu \ll1$\footnote{In this regime the sum is dominated by $n \sim N \mu$.}
\begin{align}
\zeta_p(\mu) \approx \sum_{n=0}^\infty {1\over (nq)!} (N \mu)^{nq} \approx {1\over q} e^{N\mu} \ .
\end{align}
While the half-wormhole and small fluctuations around it contribute
\begin{align}
\zeta_k(\mu) \sim \mu^{kq} N^{k(q-1)} \ , \qquad (N\to \infty,  ~k \text{ - fixed}) \ .
\end{align}
In this case the sum $\eqref{zetak}$ is dominated by the last term $n=k$.

\vskip .3in

Altogether, we find that the half-wormhole contribution is suppressed in the regime $1/N \ll \mu \ll 1$ and the partition function is dominated by the wormhole and is self-averaging
\begin{align}
\zeta(\mu) \approx {1\over q} e^{N\mu} \langle z^2 \rangle \ .
\end{align}
In the collective field description of \cite{Saad:2021rcu}, $e^{N\mu}$ comes from the value of $e^{\mu N G}$ on the dominating wormhole saddle $G=1$. And the factor $1\over q$ corresponds to breaking of the degeneracy between $q$ wormhole saddles by the coupling $\mu$.

\section{Discussion}

In this paper we considered a simple finite-dimensional SYK model with fixed couplings living at one time point. The partition function of this system is given by the hyperpfaffian of the tensor of SYK couplings. Working in the collective field description, we explained how the exact factorized answer for the square of the partition function arises in perturbation theory around the linked half-wormholes. Finally, we observed that in this model it is enough to consider one saddle point and fluctuations around it. While contributions of other saddles arise as large fluctuations.

\vskip .3in

It would be interesting to know if this simple model has a dual 1d gravity system, perhaps along the lines of
\cite{Casali:2021ewu}. And if any our findings carry over to the full-fledged SYK and more sohpisticated models of holography.

\section{Ackhonwledgements}

I am grateful to Lorenz Eberhardt, Adam Levine, Juan Maldacena, Phil Saad and Ying Zhao for useful discussions. I am supported by NSF grant PHY-1911298.

{

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaArXiv


text:
The Youth Engagement Project is working closely with long-standing community-based project partners in Inner East Belfast and in the Ardoyne/Woodvale area of North Belfast in order to target, recruit and retain young people aged between 12 and 18 years (with a degree of flexibility at either end of the age spectrum depending on need) into the programme.
The project is delivering an innovative and effective programme of diversionary work with young people, based on methods that have been tried and tested, that will support the first phase of the Belfast Youth Engagement Project to:
Engage with "hard to reach" young people involved in antisocial behaviour, or on the periphery of, local dissident/paramilitary/emerging gang culture to reduce incidents of violence and create alternative pathways to improve their life chances through the delivery of specific interventions.
Improve the quality of life in communities at interface areas by addressing issues with anti-social behaviour and disengaged youth
Deliver a focused and specific project of intervention and support to identified young people
Support the development of an all agency, sustainable model of collaborative youth engagement, that will seek to address issues at interface areas in a more effective way
Help to support delivery of an approach by commissioning the community and voluntary sector to deliver projects that will address gaps in statutory service provision and will enable "on the ground" targeted support
The project has been designed and developed using a bottom up approach through consultation with partner groups. Active partner participation and local involvement remains a central feature of the programme.
The project runs to 31st December 2013 and is divided into four distinct phases:
Targeting and recruitment
Single identity preparation and capacity-building
Critical dates diversionary and relationship-building programme
Summer (July & August) provision of cross-community activity residentials
A number of key themes and issues will be addressed through the programmes of directed youth work sessions and activity above, including the following:
crime and anti-social behaviour.
mental health issues including youth suicide.
relationship-building within and between local communities.
tolerance and respect issues amongst the young people regarding people.from the other community and their culture and traditions.
trust and confidence issues amongst the young people regarding statutory agencies including Council, NIHE, BELB and PSNI.
This project is supported under the Belfast PEACE III Plan by the European Union's European Regional Development Fund through the PEACE III Programme


text:
All The Man That I Need Whitney Houston Download 'All The Man That I Need' on iTunes
Boy George says he recorded a George Michael duet, but has no plans to release it
28 October 2017, 12:00 | Updated: 2 November 2017, 15:29
The two biggest Georges of the 1980s (sorry George HW Bush) apparently teamed up for a single, but it failed to materialise.
Boy George has revealed that he and George Michael once recorded a duet together, but that the latter wasn't happy with it.
The Culture Club singer said that he and Michael recorded a studio version of 'Freedom' (the Boy George song from 1987, not to be confused with Michael's song of the same name, or even the Wham! song), a song they performed together at an AIDS charity show.
"We sang it together in the studio but he wasn't happy with it, so it was never ever released," Boy George told news.com.au.
"I know what he was like. It's one of the things I admired about him. I always imagined him in the laboratory with a white coat - his vocals, the production, the harmonies, they were so perfectly executed. Maybe that song is lying around somewhere, unless he wiped it!"
Boy George also elaborated on his recent comments about the posthumous George Michael song 'Fantasy'.
"My point was would have he wanted it out? Prince never wanted his songs on YouTube or Spotify now they're all over both of them. I think that's a good thing. I always used to go on YouTube looking for Prince songs and they weren't on there.
"The point I made was it's amazing George is being celebrated. I quite liked seeing 'Wham Rap' in that new H&M commercial, it made me smile, but I did think what would he say if he was around? But I'm an artist. Rather than criticising, I'm asking how he would feel? I think that's a very valuable question. Why do people think I was slamming him? I was a massive fan. That's why I wonder what he'd think."
George Michael scored a posthumous number one album with the re-release of Listen Without Prejudice Vol 1 this week.
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Watch 25-year-old Elvis Presley sing duet with Frank Sinatra in incredible footage from 1960
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text:
Car barge prices rise
April 10, 2005 • 0 Comments
Blaming higher fuel costs, one of the three companies which operates car barge service from St. John to Red Hook will boost its round trip fare from $35 to $50 beginning Friday, April 15. One-way fares will be boosted from $22 to $30.
Cheri Jackson, manager at Boyson Inc., said, "We have no choice," the Virgin Islands Daily News reported. Boyson runs two barges, the General and General II. "It's nothing that anybody wants to do. But we're operating a business and we have no choice. It's simple economics," she added.
The two other barge operators, Global Marine and Republic Barge Service have not boosted rates, but it may be only a matter of time. Global's Stanley Hedrington said he may raise rates and if he does, he will also increase service. He's considering expanding his hours to include runs until midnight. Anecia Sewer, whose Republic company operates the Captain Vic, told the newspaper her company is not boosting prices at the moment. "We realize that car ferries are the umbilical cord that connects the islands, and our customers depend on it," she said.
Passenger ferries to charge for baggage
April 10, 2005 • 1 Comment
If you checked it on the airplane, chances are you're going to pay $2 a bag when you take it on the ferry from Red Hook to Cruz Bay.
The Public Service Commission approved requests to collect handling fees from Varlack Ventures and Transportation Services. "Baggage equals extra weight, which equals fuel," said Claudette Ferron, counsel for Transportation Services.
A manager for the company pointed out that on a recent weekend, 380 pieces of luggage and cargo were on board one ferry. The companies had previously been authorized to charge baggage fees, but had not done so. "It is the law, and it is in the rules and regulations," said Yvette Canegata-Jones, a PSC member.. "They are asking us to take advantage of the law.
Ferry fares likely to go up, too
Passenger ferries between Red Hook and Cruz Bay have charged $3 a ride for almost 15 years. That's likely to change. In February, ferry operators alerted the Public Service Commission higher fuel costs were making a price hike necessary. Formal requests for new fares are now to be expected next month, according to the Virgin Islands Daily News.
In another report, the Water and Power Authority said higher fuel prices are likely to generate as much as a 10 percent rise in electric bills next month. "The territory is solely dependent on fossil fuels," said Alberto Bruno-Vega, WAPA's executive director. A year ago, the utility was paying $41 a barrel for oil. Oil is now selling in the open market at about $54.
Fish Bay owners pay it forward
Almost three dozen property owners in Fish Bay have put their money where they want their paved roads to be. They have signed up for an offer by the homeowners group to pay their association dues 10 years in advance with the understanding all the money will go to improving the roads. "This means we have over half (56 percent) of the needed funds to pave a considerable portion of Marina Drive between the entrance (and) the second bridge," according to the group's newsletter on the Web at http://www.estatefishbayowners.org/MarinaDrive/Index.html. "We are (also) close to paving from the entrance of Fish Bay for a distance of over 500 feet," it added.
Ruby Rutnik tourney played
Under sunny skies with temperatures in the mid-80s, the ninth annual Ruby Rutnik Softball Tournament for girls' high school teams was played this weekend on St. John. Friends and players' parents were on hand in the bleachers at the Winston Wells Ballfield in Cruz Bay. The games began Friday night with the Antilles School, which Rutnik attended, beating Eudora Kean High School. Andy Rutnik, father of the daughter who died in an automobile accident almost a decade ago, credited the owner of Starfish Market for the tournament. "David Mugar said that it would be a good way to remember her," Rutnik said. Proceeds from sponsorships and donations help finance the Ruby Rutnik Scholarship Fund.
St. Thomas Postmaster vows improvement
April 3, 2005 • 0 Comments
Robert Allen, the new Postmaster on St. Thomas, says things have gotten better since he arrived from New Jersey a month ago. "I have already had phone calls remarking on the improved service (on St. John)," he told the St. John Source. His claim was challenged by Cidney Hamling, owner of Connections. "In the past six months it has steadily gotten worse," she said. Priority mail is delivered after two or three weeks, and one Saturday two weeks ago, she said 10 mail bags and boxes arrived, containing December and January magazines.
Postmaster Allen, a 20 year veteran of the Postal Service, said he observed operations during his first three weeks. Now, he has developed recommendations and forwarded to his supervisor, on Puerto Rico. "The problem here is logistics," he said. St. Thomas district mail is routed through Jacksonville, Fla., then to Puerto Rico, and then to St. Thomas. However, it is not sorted on the big island, something Allen thinks should be done. "One sorting machine can do the work of 100 individuals," he told the Source.


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Texas judge rules homophobia and transphobia in healthcare is absolutely fine
A federal judge in Texas has ruled that discrimination against LGBTQ+ people in healthcare settings is perfectly legal.
In its landmark 2020 decision in Bostock v Clayton County, the US Supreme Court ruled that existing provisions under the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which outlaw discrimination based on sex, also apply to cases where "an employer fires an individual merely for being gay or transgender".
In May 2021, the Biden administration said that these protections should also extend to healthcare, with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announcing that everyone – including LGBTQ+ people – would be able access healthcare without the fear of discrimination.
The distinction was made that Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, which bans healthcare providers from discriminating on the basis of sex, also covered gender identity and sexual orientation.
But on Friday (11 November), Trump-appointed US District judge Matthew Kacsmaryk ruled that healthcare discrimination should not be prohibited.
The case was brought by two Texas doctors – Susan Neese and James Hurly – who said being unable to discriminate against LGBTQ+ people would interfere with their ability to practice medicine.
According to Reuters, Kacsmaryk said that legislators could have included LGBTQ+ discrimination protections in the 2010 Affordable Care Act, but "chose not to do so".
He ruled that the discrimination protections under Obamacare should only be interpreted as applying to discrimination based on sex assigned at birth.
Neese and Hurly were represented by America First Legal, which was founded to "oppose the radical left's anti-jobs, anti-freedom, anti-faith, anti-borders, anti-police, and anti-American crusade".
Following the ruling, America First legal founder Stephen Miller tweeted: "Huge litigation win for America First Legal. Federal judge just ruled that Biden's edict forcing doctors to treat patients based on 'gender identity' and not scientific reality (eg chemical castration) is unlawful.
"Historic victory against gender lunacy and child abuse."
Miller, who is also an advisor to Donald Trump, has been on the Southern Poverty Law Center's list of far-right extremists since 2020.
The post Texas judge rules homophobia and transphobia in healthcare is absolutely fine appeared first on PinkNews | Latest lesbian, gay, bi and trans news | LGBTQ+ news.
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Astronauts Blast NASA Global Warming Stance
By the Editor on April 13, 2012 in Around_the_Web
A group of 49 former NASA scientists and astronauts believes NASA is playing fast and loose with climate change science. In March, the group sent a letter to NASA administrator Charles Bolden, Jr., blasting the agency for making unwarranted claims about the role of carbon dioxide in global warming, Business Insider reported.
"We believe the claims by NASA and GISS [NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies], that man-made carbon dioxide is having a catastrophic impact on global climate change are not substantiated, especially when considering thousands of years of empirical data … it is clear that the science is NOT settled." the group wrote, requesting that NASA refrain from mentioning CO2 as a cause of global warming in future press releases and websites.
Tags:BIG Problems, BIG Questions, Climate Events, Environment, Governance, Values & Virtues


← What people are saying about Feedity!
Thanks to everyone for their feedback on Feedity. Traffic to Feedity and the number of unique feeds generated via Feedity has increased during February 2007.
Meanwhile we also evaluating the future roadmap for Feedity (version 2.0), so if anyone has any ideas or suggestions then please share your comments.


After a significant programme of expansion, we have diversified our services and we are now able to provide a full in house design solution, detailing, fabrication and erection of structural steelwork to a variety of sectors.
All of our buildings meet with current cladding requirements with BSF950 standards and can be certified by independent structural engineers. We supply direct either to the end user or as a subcontractor and we are compliant with all HSE and CDM requirements.
Our dedicated team have extensive experience in all aspects of project development and can advise you on all elements of your project from design to programming.
We are able to provide a complete design solution; our teams are fully equipped with the latest AutoCAD and Tekla Software.
We are continuing to invest heavily in our manufacturing facilities and expand our already extensive services to the construction industry.


In recent news, high-profile African-American men have come out of the closet. The latest to announce that they are gay are CNN News anchor Don Lemon and Georgia State Rep. Rashad Taylor, both of whom named homophobia in the black community as one of their reasons for previously staying quiet about the matter.
When I first heard about their announcements, a couple of thoughts came to mind: 1) I was glad that they came out and 2) yes, homophobia is rampant — but not just in the black community. I understand their fears. But at the same time, I couldn't help worrying that some would think that homophobia is specific to our community as opposed to the world community, lessening the possibility of addressing the issue on a global scale.
Some bloggers wondered if Lemon in particular had thrown black folks under the bus. I didn't see it that way. But I do think that in making his declaration about homophobia in the black community, he was inadvertently overlooking black women. Most of us love and support gay black men. But Lemon managed to group us with straight black men, many of whom (but not all) are homophobic.
Sexism functions in the black community the same way that homophobia does — making black women, who are hypervisible in many spaces, including schools, churches and as heads of households, invisible by virtue of being black and female. Homophobia makes gay and lesbian blacks invisible by virtue of requiring heterosexuality as a characteristic of blackness. So when Lemon and Taylor named the black community as culprits in their decision to hide their identity, the voices of black women who support gay black men were silenced. While I don't believe that silencing black women was their intention, that was the result.
When I speak of loving and supporting gay black men, I'm not talking about high-profile celebrity hookups or alleged "arrangements," like the marriages between Star Jones and Al Reynolds or Terry McMillan and Jonathan Plummer. I'm talking about the black women who are in the trenches with gay black men on an everyday basis, serving as confidantes, loyal friends and extended family members. I'm not talking about the sisters who complain that they don't have husbands because there are too many gay black men on the "down low."
I'm talking about women who know that the "down low" is a marketing term that does not apply to all gay black men and is often used by the media to further demonize black men as if they are the only ones who are creeping. I'm talking about the mothers, sisters, aunts and cousins who always assumed that you were gay and could not care less about it.
I'm not talking about women who called you the f-word out of fear and hatred or who prayed for you to become straight, knowing that you were gay all along. I'm talking about the black women who prayed for your happiness and wholeness so that one day you could be yourself because of the beautiful person you are inside.
These are the types of black women I'm talking about, who get silenced when they are grouped into the larger category of the black community; we belong to that category but may not be of it in the way that Lemon and Taylor describe. Black women and black gay men have a special relationship. Whether you look at fan groups (Diana Ross or Lil' Kim, anyone?), the church or local hair salons, by and large you find black women (gay and straight) and gay black men coexisting peacefully. My intention is not to use stereotypical representations of sexuality — merely to highlight the cultural spaces where black women and gay black men connect.
I suppose in Lemon's and Taylor's comments, I wanted to see a space for women like me, who love and support gay black men. When Lemon and Taylor announced pubicly that they were gay, it reminded me of when my gay friends were able to do the same, and the freedom that came along with it. While I understand that their announcements were not about black women in general — the announcements were about them and their freedom — by implicating the black community, in my mind, they then became about black women's invisibility.
There is a tradition of closeness between black women and gay black men that should not be overshadowed by membership in a complicated club.
Nsenga K. Burton, Ph.D., is an associate professor of film and new media at Goucher College in the department of communication and media studies. She is editor-at-large for The Root.


Former University of Alabama safety Jeremy Downey now plays quarterback at Bistro V. As chef and owner, Downey starts with top quality products, prepares them to perfection and serves them at affordable prices—a winning combo.
The "V" stands for "Vestavia," as Bistro V is located in the former City Hall Diner building at Vestavia Place—next door to Vestavia's City Hall and Police Station. This small, corner space has a spacious and airy feel with its high ceiling interior and large windows. Comfy black leather chairs and oversized tables invite us to linger over Saturday brunch. And when weather permits there are sidewalk tables for al fresco dining.
A native of Bayou La Batre, Alabama, Downey played on the University of Alabama's 1992 National Championship Football Team—and wears his national championship ring with pride. He graduated with a B.S. in English with plans to teach literature. Yet his family's love of cooking enticed him to pursue a cooking career instead. After stints in San Francisco and Washington D. C.—at Vidalia—Downey came back to Alabama, where he worked for Frank Stitt at Bottega. Bistro V became Downey's "gridiron" in 2010 when he bought the restaurant.
Lunch, dinner and weekend brunch menus have a Bayou La Batre flavor. Menus are seasonal and incorporate top quality ingredients including local products such as McEwen Grits and Farm Eggs. Located down the block from Snapper Grabbers, Downey is one of their special customers with daily selections chosen for Bistro V.
While looking over the brunch menu we order Bloody Marys, which are offered with a choice of vodkas and spicy or not—we opt for Grey Goose and spicy. The rusty red cocktails arrive in a tall, slender glass with olives, celery, lime, a pickled green bean and the most small and delicate crushed ice I have ever encountered, which chills the drink throughout without watering it down. The Bloody Mary is rich in texture, has the perfect balance of spice and is among the best I have ever tasted.
Brunch dishes of Chocolate Chip Pancakes, Bayou La Batre Po Boys, Crab Benedict, Fish and Grits tempt. Yet seeing that McEwen Farm Eggs are served here, we opt for the Eggs Benedict and the Bistro Steak and Eggs. If you have not tasted a farm fresh McEwen egg, you have not tasted an egg. The Benedict arrives with a generous helping of Hollandaise sauce over these lovely and delicious, poached farm eggs and a Southern surprise—country ham. This salty, smoky and tender ham paired with these divine eggs made this a memorable Benedict that will bring me back for more. The Steak and Eggs arrive cooked to order. The steak is served sliced alongside two flavorful farm eggs—cooked over easy—three slices of fresh tomato, and a side of toast to coat with the yolk of the egg. Hints of spice enhance the succulent steak's flavor, and the tasty, toasty potatoes that accompany both dishes are served generous in cut and in portion.
Dessert options include Chocolate Silk Pie, Apple Pie and Vanilla Bean Custard paired with Mimosas. We split the custard, which arrives in its own ramekin topped with fresh, sliced strawberries. Small bites of the custard's cool, creamy sweetness along with small sips of the citrusy bubbly provide a heavenly end to our Saturday brunch.


In nomine Iesu omne genu flectatur caelestium terrestrium et infernorum quia dominus factus est pro nobis obediens usque ad mortem, mortem autem crucis.
In the name of Jesus may every knee of celestial, terrestrial and infernal creatures be bent, because the Lord was made obedient for us until death, until death on the cross.
No direct correspondence in a standard ref work could be found.


One of the major challenges for those effected by natural flood disasters is finding clean drinking water. The Source of Water concept aims to help those in need get clean water quickly and conveniently. The design is based on a simple principle that water pressure around the tube will push through the purifying layers, producing drinkable water with very little effort. The user simply has to drop the tubular filter in the center of the cross within the buoyant ring and remove when full.
Must for India, Haiti, Pakistan, Africa, alone.
Does it filter leptospirosis, e.coli, and other bacteria?