text:
package com.amazonaws.services.directory.model.transform;

import java.util.Map;
import java.util.List;

import com.amazonaws.AmazonClientException;
import com.amazonaws.services.directory.model.*;
import com.amazonaws.transform.Marshaller;
import com.amazonaws.util.BinaryUtils;
import com.amazonaws.util.StringUtils;
import com.amazonaws.util.IdempotentUtils;
import com.amazonaws.util.StringInputStream;
import com.amazonaws.util.json.*;

/**
 * DirectoryDescriptionMarshaller
 */
public class DirectoryDescriptionJsonMarshaller {

    /**
     * Marshall the given parameter object, and output to a SdkJsonGenerator
     */
    public void marshall(DirectoryDescription directoryDescription,
            StructuredJsonGenerator jsonGenerator) {

        if (directoryDescription == null) {
            throw new AmazonClientException(
                    "Invalid argument passed to marshall(...)");
        }

        try {
            jsonGenerator.writeStartObject();

            if (directoryDescription.getDirectoryId() != null) {
                jsonGenerator.writeFieldName("DirectoryId").writeValue(
                        directoryDescription.getDirectoryId());
            }
            if (directoryDescription.getName() != null) {
                jsonGenerator.writeFieldName("Name").writeValue(
                        directoryDescription.getName());
            }
            if (directoryDescription.getShortName() != null) {
                jsonGenerator.writeFieldName("ShortName").writeValue(
                        directoryDescription.getShortName());
            }
            if (directoryDescription.getSize() != null) {
                jsonGenerator.writeFieldName("Size").writeValue(
                        directoryDescription.getSize());
            }
            if (directoryDescription.getAlias() != null) {
                jsonGenerator.writeFieldName("Alias").writeValue(
                        directoryDescription.getAlias());
            }
            if (directoryDescription.getAccessUrl() != null) {
                jsonGenerator.writeFieldName("AccessUrl").writeValue(
                        directoryDescription.getAccessUrl());
            }
            if (directoryDescription.getDescription() != null) {
                jsonGenerator.writeFieldName("Description").writeValue(
                        directoryDescription.getDescription());
            }

            com.amazonaws.internal.SdkInternalList<String> dnsIpAddrsList = (com.amazonaws.internal.SdkInternalList<String>) directoryDescription
                    .getDnsIpAddrs();
            if (!dnsIpAddrsList.isEmpty() || !dnsIpAddrsList.isAutoConstruct()) {
                jsonGenerator.writeFieldName("DnsIpAddrs");
                jsonGenerator.writeStartArray();
                for (String dnsIpAddrsListValue : dnsIpAddrsList) {
                    if (dnsIpAddrsListValue != null) {
                        jsonGenerator.writeValue(dnsIpAddrsListValue);
                    }
                }
                jsonGenerator.writeEndArray();
            }
            if (directoryDescription.getStage() != null) {
                jsonGenerator.writeFieldName("Stage").writeValue(
                        directoryDescription.getStage());
            }
            if (directoryDescription.getLaunchTime() != null) {
                jsonGenerator.writeFieldName("LaunchTime").writeValue(
                        directoryDescription.getLaunchTime());
            }
            if (directoryDescription.getStageLastUpdatedDateTime() != null) {
                jsonGenerator.writeFieldName("StageLastUpdatedDateTime")
                        .writeValue(
                                directoryDescription
                                        .getStageLastUpdatedDateTime());
            }
            if (directoryDescription.getType() != null) {
                jsonGenerator.writeFieldName("Type").writeValue(
                        directoryDescription.getType());
            }
            if (directoryDescription.getVpcSettings() != null) {
                jsonGenerator.writeFieldName("VpcSettings");
                DirectoryVpcSettingsDescriptionJsonMarshaller.getInstance()
                        .marshall(directoryDescription.getVpcSettings(),
                                jsonGenerator);
            }
            if (directoryDescription.getConnectSettings() != null) {
                jsonGenerator.writeFieldName("ConnectSettings");
                DirectoryConnectSettingsDescriptionJsonMarshaller.getInstance()
                        .marshall(directoryDescription.getConnectSettings(),
                                jsonGenerator);
            }
            if (directoryDescription.getRadiusSettings() != null) {
                jsonGenerator.writeFieldName("RadiusSettings");
                RadiusSettingsJsonMarshaller.getInstance()
                        .marshall(directoryDescription.getRadiusSettings(),
                                jsonGenerator);
            }
            if (directoryDescription.getRadiusStatus() != null) {
                jsonGenerator.writeFieldName("RadiusStatus").writeValue(
                        directoryDescription.getRadiusStatus());
            }
            if (directoryDescription.getStageReason() != null) {
                jsonGenerator.writeFieldName("StageReason").writeValue(
                        directoryDescription.getStageReason());
            }
            if (directoryDescription.getSsoEnabled() != null) {
                jsonGenerator.writeFieldName("SsoEnabled").writeValue(
                        directoryDescription.getSsoEnabled());
            }

            jsonGenerator.writeEndObject();
        } catch (Throwable t) {
            throw new AmazonClientException(
                    "Unable to marshall request to JSON: " + t.getMessage(), t);
        }
    }

    private static DirectoryDescriptionJsonMarshaller instance;

    public static DirectoryDescriptionJsonMarshaller getInstance() {
        if (instance == null)
            instance = new DirectoryDescriptionJsonMarshaller();
        return instance;
    }

}


i found out friday that i'll have another student monday. (i actually had a new student friday but that's normal.) the difference with the student on friday is that i will be teaching him geometry. i have not taught geometry before, and i will be teaching him geometry while i'm teaching algebra 1b (and algebra 1a to one student). the base school has agreed to send (by tuesday or wednesday) some resource materials that should help me set up a curriculum which incorporates a decent amount of independent work.
i am rather disappointed as i don't believe this is ideal. (also because i've wanted to teach geometry - but not like this.) i now have two courses with state given final exams in the same period. (this period is also the one with "my favorite student" who has been given "one last chance" again.
on the last progress reports i included a comment about welcoming contact and asking for parents to put their email address on the provided line as well as the standard signature. i mentioned that the email address would be used to send out periodic updates about class related information. it seemed like a reasonable attempt. 2 foreseen problems arose. first, only 3 students returned their progress reports. second, they did not have email addresses. one student said his father was going to get one.
in response to the inability to gather email addresses, i decided to send a message to the secretary asking that email address be added to the contact information that parents/guardians must complete as part of the enrollment. after sending it, i wondered if i would have ruffled some feathers. (maybe on monday i'll post the message for perusal.) i have sent seemingly innocuous messages before only to have people get upset and defensive. i was quite pleased, relieved when opening the response i read: "GREAT IDEA!!!"
as a i was told, this is not a novel idea.
other attempts at technological advances: the county keeps saying that class webpages will be available "soon." however, the last time i hear what soon meant, it was next semester at the earliest. i decided to see how well blogspot would serve for the interim. in order to keep the different classes separate, i signed up for multiple blogs and linked extensively and it appears rather seemless i believe. it's doable but quite time consuming so far. the students have not shown much interest, and i highly doubt anyone has visited the site.
i have shown the ec department since i have so many of their students. this way, they can keep up with what i'm doing. (they have some students which do not attend my class but are enrolled in the same course - the level of required learning / work is a different issue.) they seemed to like it. i also showed the secretary. it may help a substitute teacher if i ever take a day off.
i am not sure if this is just a common work situation (and it was much worse during a previous nonteaching life i dated a coworker *shudder*), but sexual comments directed toward me are the norm for 3 separate teachers. i'm also wondering if it's seen as okay since i'm the young white guy.
it doesn't really bother me, but at times it's rather embarassing. one staff member was especially forward last year; valentine's day was somewhat awkward. i'm fine with playing along, but i am always worried that somehow i'll say something that they'll find inappropriate and then i'll be getting in trouble for all this.
anyway, this is all to say that i recently went to a barber and had a much closer cut. (yes this is somewhat a response to being referred to as "shaggy" by several students.) the response from teachers was mixed, but one seemed to find it a positive change. "mmmm...mr. archimedes got himself a fresh cut. we're gonna have to go out. do you swirl?"
now i was not sure how to respond to that. for one i was unsure exactly as to its meaning. it sounded sexual, but for all i knew it could just be referring to ice cream. if it was as i suspected, what's the correct answer? yes - seems to i'm ready to start of the marvin gaye. if i say no - then does that make me seem racist? i felt the best response was to laugh and play dumb like i had no clue what she was talking about.
it seems walmart has provided an answer. while quickly perusing the $5.50 dvds yesterday i came across this film. i nearly bought it.


The amendment may result in a cost of up to $2.0 million to the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) as it allows DEEP to hire consultants with expertise in quantitative modeling of electric markets and physical electric system modeling to assist in evaluating certain proposals. The costs for consultants would be recovered by a reconciling component of electric rates, as determined by PURA and as required by the bill. These costs would increase electric rates, including the rates the state and municipalities pay. Any resultant costs to the state and municipalities would be negligible.


These sunglasses feature a sleek dark blue acetate frame and 3/4 temple sleeves with the Canali monogram on the tips for an elegant finishing touch. The temples come in a sophisticated gray-colored metal that has been engraved with the Canali logo. The style's rectangular lenses offer a contemporary aesthetic and have been treated to be water and oil repellent, making them resistant to smudging and easy to clean.


A mix of lush ruby and pure white roses, mingled with glossy red berries and greenery, create a classic Christmas arrangement. A simple glass rose bowl adds just the right touch. Flowers are subject to seasonal availability. In the event that any of the flowers are unavailable, the florist will substitute with a similar flower in the same shape, style and colour. Stem count, packaging and container may vary.


text:
Disappointing tech forecasts drag stocks lower
NEW YORK — The stock market resumed its slide Thursday as disappointing forecasts from technology companies brought new concerns about the economy.
A weaker outlook from technology maker Qualcomm Inc. dragged the Nasdaq composite index lower. Drops in Motorola Inc. and Apple Inc. also hurt tech stocks. The Dow Jones industrial average fell almost 116 points, its sixth loss in nine days.
Technology shares could get a bounce today from Amazon.com Inc. and Microsoft Corp., which posted improved earnings after the closing bell. Their stocks rose in after-hours electronic trading.
The Dow fell 115.70, or 1.1 percent, to 10,120.46. The drop put the psychological barrier of 10,000 back in investors' sights. The Dow, which had been down as much as 181 points Thursday, hasn't traded below 10,000 since Nov. 6.
The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 12.97, or 1.2 percent, to 1,084.53, while the Nasdaq fell 42.41, or 1.9 percent, to 2,179.00.
The market's drop Thursday also came in response to a report from Standard & Poor's that said it no longer considers Britain's banking system among the "most stable and low-risk." The report added to recent concern about rising debt levels in countries such as Greece and drove the dollar higher as investors sought safety. That sent some commodities prices lower, hurting materials stocks.
The tech forecasts and bank worries were yet more concerns for investors who have been focused on politics, not the economy. Stocks have been sliding as concern builds that a fragile economic recovery could be derailed by missteps in Washington. The questions have some analysts saying that a 10-month surge of 60.3 percent in the Standard & Poor's 500 index isn't warranted.
President Barack Obama's plan to overhaul banking regulations and restrict trading at large financial institutions spooked the market during the past week. The possibility that Federal Reserve Board chairman Ben Bernanke wouldn't be confirmed for a second term also had investors on edge, though those worries eased as the vote neared. The Senate confirmed Bernanke for a second term as the market was closing. His first four-year term ends Sunday.
"Our full-contact politics is really beginning to affect the markets as it's migrating into subjects that investors care deeply about, like who is our Fed chairman going to be," said Lawrence Creatura, portfolio manager at Federated Clover Investment Advisors. "That wasn't uncertain two weeks ago."
During his State of the Union address Wednesday, Obama avoided talking about the banking overhaul plan.
Uncertainty over details of how that might be enacted are adding to investors' jitters.
Concerns about the economy are also creeping back to the forefront. The Fed said Wednesday it would keep interest rates at historic lows and that the economy was showing signs of improvement. That helped stocks reverse a slide to end higher.
The enthusiasm faded Thursday after the Labor Department said jobless claims decreased by less than expected last week and the Commerce Department reported durable goods orders didn't rise as fast as anticipated last month. The reports provided reminders that the economic recovery is likely to be slow.
The recent drop in stocks is worrisome for some analysts because today is the last trading day of January. Traders often note that as goes January, so goes the year. The so-called January barometer holds that the performance of the S&P 500 index in January is a predictor of how stocks will end the year. There have been only five major errors since 1950, for an accuracy rate of 91.5 percent, according to the Stock Trader's Almanac.
The S&P 500 index is down 2.7 percent for January. It is down 5.7 percent since closing at a 15-month high last week. That is still short of a correction, which is generally defined as a drop of at least 10 percent.
Bond prices rose, pushing yields lower. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note fell to 3.64 percent from 3.66 percent late Wednesday.
The dollar rose against other major currencies, while gold fell.
Crude oil fell 3 cents to settle at $73.64 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Jason Weisberg, director of institutional trading at Seaport Securities Corp. in New York, said the concerns about how Washington will change the rules for banks and steer the economy are overshadowing profit reports that are stronger.
"There is a disconnect between corporate earnings forecasts and guidance from those companies and the political environment," Weisberg said.
He predicts that stocks will resume their climb as some of the political uncertainties dissipate.
Investors might not be drawing much cheer from improved forecasts but they are punishing companies that fall short.
Tech stocks slid after Qualcomm, which makes chips and other technologies used in cell phones, said it expects a "subdued" rebound in the economy and reduced its full-year sales forecast. The stock fell $6.72, or 14.2 percent, to $40.48.
Motorola slid 92 cents, or 12.4 percent, to $6.48 after its profit forecast fell short of expectations. Apple Inc. fell $8.59, or 4.1 percent, to $199.29.
In economic news, new requests for unemployment benefits dropped by 8,000 last week to 470,000. Economists polled by Thomson Reuters expected a bigger decrease.
Meanwhile, orders to U.S. factories for big-ticket manufactured goods rose less than expected in December, increasing 0.3 percent. Economists expected a 2 percent rise.
Today the government will release its initial reading on fourth-quarter gross domestic product. Analysts predict that GDP, which measures the country's economic output, likely rose at an annualized rate of 4.5 percent during the final three months of 2009.
More than two stocks fell for every one that rose on the New York Stock Exchange, where consolidated volume came to 5.5 billion shares compared with 5.4 billion Wednesday.
The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies fell 10.45, or 1.7 percent, to 607.93.
Britain's FTSE 100 fell 1.4 percent, Germany's DAX index dropped 1.8 percent, and France's CAC-40 fell 1.9 percent. Earlier, Japan's Nikkei stock average rose 1.6 percent.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Call 919-234-7597 to schedule your first appointment.
Miracle-Ear is America's most recognized brand of hearing aids. Since 1950, we've developed bold and innovative solutions for hearing loss. We've established a solid reputation for providing excellent customer care, and we have technically advanced hearing aids and accessories at our hearing aid centers to accommodate the needs, preferences, and diverse lifestyles of our customers.
Miracle-Ear's remarkable GENIUS™ Technology employs bilateral hearing technology that allows the brain to process sound naturally. This innovative technology also has noise cancellation features that protect the ears from feedback and environmental distractions like wind and sudden abrasive noises.
Our new GENIUSlink™ application utilizes cutting-edge Bluetooth®* connectivity to enable wearers to synchronize their hearing aids to wireless devices and to turn their smartphones into remote controls. This setup will permit you to discreetly customize the settings of your volume at a moment's notice.
At Miracle-Ear, our hearing aids come with up to three years of warranty** against loss and damage. Your path to a better future begins with a hearing test, so call our hearing aid center in Smithfield to schedule an appointment today.
Mike is an exclusive Miracle-Ear provider who has a strong history of providing outstanding service and customer satisfaction since 2002. He is Board Certified by the National Board for Certification in Hearing Instrument Sciences, licensed in multiple states and has held a variety of roles- including Technical Trainer and Regional Manager for the New England Region.
As a hearing aid user himself, Mike has a very clear understanding of the challenges confronting the hearing impaired. He is passionate about helping others experience the life-changing effects of being able to hear the sounds of life again though the application of the latest hearing aid technology.
Mike relocated to Clayton, NC with his wife and family in 2018. In his spare time, he enjoys spending time with his loved ones, riding on motorcycles and listening to music. He is excited to meet you at the Miracle-Ear office in Smithfield to help you begin your journey to better hearing.


text:
Julija Oleksandrivna Bebko (rojena Golovan; ), znana kot Julija Sanina, ukrajinska pevka, * 11. oktober 1990, Kijev, Ukrajinska SSR, Sovjetska zveza.

Javnosti je znana kot pevka in frontmanka ukrajinske alternativne rock zasedbe The Hardkiss.

Življenjepis
Sanina se je rodila 11. oktobra 1990 v Kijevu, v glasbeni družini. Na odru je prvič nastopila, ko je bila stara tri leta. Tedaj jo je kot pevko spremljal ansambel, ki ga je vodil njen oče. Sčasoma je začela nastopati kot solo pevka, bila pa je tudi članica otroških ansamblov in big banda.

Leta 2005 je zaključila s šolanjem na glasbeni šoli za jazz in estradno umetnost. Zatem se je vpisala na Inštitut za filologijo na Državni univerzi Tarasa Ševčenka v Kijevu, kjer je leta 2013 diplomirala iz folkloristike. Med študijem se je navdušila tudi nad novinarstvom.

Med letoma 2006 in 2008 je bila pevka v glasbeni skupini Sister Siren.

Septembra 2011 sta Sanina in glasbeni producent Valerij Bebko ustvarila pop duet Val & Sanina, ki je izvajal pesmi v ruščini. Posnela sta eksperimentalni videospot, pa tudi nekaj pesmi, med njimi "The Love Has Come" (; besedilo: Robert Roždestvenski, glasba: Raimonds Pauls).

Kmalu zatem sta izboljšala svojo scensko podobo in spremenila ime skupine v The Hardkiss. Začela sta tudi s pisanjem pesmi v angleščini, zvok skupine pa je postal težji. Jeseni 2011 sta izdala nekaj novih pesmi in posnela debitantski videospot "Babylon". Konec oktobra 2011 je skupina The Hardkiss nastopila kot predskupina britanski skupini Hurts. Še istega leta sta izdala še en videospot "Dance with Me", ki se je predvajal na vodilnih glasbenih televizijskih kanalih.

Februarja 2012 sta sklenila pogodbo z založbo Sony BMG. Skupina je začela pridobivati na popularnosti in je osvojila več glasbenih nagrad v Ukrajini in nekaterih tujih državah. Leta 2014 je Sanina začela z objavljanjem video bloga o svojem življenju in o delovanju skupine na YouTubeu kanalu. Leta 2016 je Sanina postala ena izmed štirih žirantov v sedmi seriji ukrajinske različice X-Factorja.

Osebno življenje
Leta 2011 se je Sanina poročila z Valerijem "Valom" Bebkom, kreativnim producentom in glavnim kitaristom skupine The Hardkiss. Spoznala sta se leta 2010, ko je Sanina z njim naredila intervju, on pa je bil tedaj producent MTV Ukraine. Par je skrival svoje razmerje javnosti pet let. Njuna poroka je bila okrašena v avtentičnem ukrajinskem slogu. Prvi otrok para, Danylo se je rodil 21. novembra 2015.

Slog
Sanina posveča veliko pozornosti svojim oblekam. Za vse člane skupine The Hardkiss ustvarjajo različni stilisti, med njimi Slava Čajka in Vitalij Dacjuk. Skupina sodeluje tudi z mladimi oblikovalci, kot so Ivanova, Bekh, Nadia Dziak, Anouki Bicholla, ... Sanina je velika ljubiteljica dela Alexandra MxQuenna, Vivienne Westwood in Garetha Pugha. V vsakdanjem življenju rada nosi znamke Diesel, H&M in Topshop.

Sklici

Zunanje povezave

 The HARDKISS Vlog

Živeči ljudje
Ukrajinski pevci

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
package com.winterwell.maths.timeseries;

import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;

import com.winterwell.maths.stats.algorithms.IPredictor;
import com.winterwell.maths.stats.algorithms.ITimeSeriesFilter;
import com.winterwell.maths.stats.distributions.IDistribution;
import com.winterwell.maths.stats.distributions.d1.DistributionFrom1D;
import com.winterwell.maths.stats.distributions.d1.Gaussian1D;
import com.winterwell.utils.time.Dt;
import com.winterwell.utils.time.TUnit;

import no.uib.cipr.matrix.Vector;

public class TimeSeriesFilterFromPredictor implements ITimeSeriesFilter {

	IPredictor base;
	private int stateDim;
	private double noiseVar;

	@Override
	public int getMeasurementDimension() {
		return 1;
	}

	@Override
	public int getStateDimension() {
		return stateDim;
	}

	@Override
	public IDistribution filter(IDistribution stateIsIgnoredHere, Vector observation) {
		double pred = base.predict(observation);
		return new DistributionFrom1D(new Gaussian1D(pred, noiseVar));
	}

	@Override
	public List<IDistribution> smooth(IDistribution initialState, IDataStream observations) {
		List<IDistribution> predicted = new ArrayList();
		for (Datum obs : observations) {
			IDistribution pred = filter(null, obs);
			predicted.add(pred);
		}
		return predicted;
	}

	@Override
	public Dt getTimeStep() {
		return TUnit.SECOND.dt;
	}

}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


The University of Manchester is pleased to announce that we have been awarded £300,000 from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) to deliver the BBSRC Impact Acceleration Account (IAA), over a period of three years.
The IAA aims to strengthen knowledge exchange, support the translation/commercialisation of early-stage research and support imaginative and innovative approaches to impact delivery. All funded projects must be linked to BBSRC funded research and will be awarded through four schemes.
The Relationship Incubator supports projects that explore and exploit the potential of the research with an industrial partner/user organisation who can offer a potential pathway to impact. The scheme aims to support academics looking to identify new partners or build early stage relationships with existing partners.
The scheme is an open, responsive call and is open now. If you have a project you think may be suitable, please contact us for more information.
The Concept and Feasibility scheme is targeted at academics with early stage research that require financial support in making the first steps on the translational pathway. Activities can include prototype evaluation, proof-of-concept studies, pump priming of initial trials and scoping exercises. Projects are expected to have an external collaborator(s).
The scheme is now open with an extended deadline of Tuesday, 5 February 2019. If you have a project you think may be suitable, please contact us for more information.
The scheme aims to drive impact from research disclosures/commercialisation by supporting projects where the intellectual property (IP) position is currently confounded or immature for pure commercialisation. The scheme will fund the delicate and crucial final steps in reaching the stage of patent filing or strengthening the case for patent protection.
The Impact Awareness scheme aims to promote and build awareness around projects that require additional support or external interest to explore and fulfil their impact potential. Relevant mechanisms include hosting networking events, seminar series, website development and case studies. Proposals must be orientated towards engaging with external organisations.
The scheme is an open, responsive call, opening in March 2018. If you have a project you think may be suitable, please contact us for more information.


Learn to cook delicious, traditional Italian dishes.
This course focuses on some of the best traditional Italian meals, and is for anyone with an interest in developing their culinary skills and a particular interest in/passion for Italian cuisine. The course fee includes expert tuition and you will also be provided with recipes to take away, so you can practice your new culinary skills at home!


One of the most common mistakes a lot of riders make is failing to stay properly hydrated while out on their bike. Hydration packs are one of the most convenient ways to carry water and other accessories when you ride.
Hydration packs have come a long way since their inception in the late 1980s, when paramedic Michael Eidson was gearing up to enter the "Hotter'N Hell 100" race in Texas, USA. He wanted to be able to carry more fluids than a regular bottle & cage would allow, without having to make complicated and awkward modifications to his bike.
Ingeniously, Eidson took a medical IV (the kind you normally see hanging from a drip-feed rail), wrapped it in a sports sock, pinned the it to the back of his jersey, looped the tube over his shoulder and held it in place with a clothes peg. Shortly after, Eidson founded CamelBak.
Fast forward 25 years and the huge range of hydration packs now available means there is something out there to suit every type of rider, but which one is the right one for you?
Aside from a few exceptions, hydration packs are typically available with 3 bladder volumes: 1-1.5 Litre, 2 Litre and 3 Litre. The bladder volume is usually quoted separately from the luggage carrying capacity, although as you would expect the general rule is that the larger the bladder, the larger the luggage capacity and vice versa.
When buying a hydration bladder, remember: The recommended fluid intake while exercising is 500ml per hour minimum, so bear that in mind when purchasing your hydro pack.
1 – 1.5 Litre bladders will be sufficient for children, leisure cyclists or short distance training sessions & commutes. Quite often these will have zero carrying capacity, however they are popular with road cyclists who prefer the convenience of a hydration pack drinking tube vs. faffing around with a regular water bottle. With this limited capacity, it is likely you will need to stop and refill at some point on a reasonably long ride.
2 – 3 Litre bladders are the most popular size. They strike a balance between the lightweight and minimalistic convenience of a 1L pack, but with the benefit of carrying a greater volume for longer excursions. For all-day-long riding sessions you may need to top up on fluids at some point however.
3+ Litre bladders are recommended for long distance touring rides where you might find yourself a long way away from a clean water supply, or simply on all day rides because you don't want to have to stop to refill a water bottle. You can fill a 3L reservoir with however much fluid you need instead of brimming it every time you use it, and with the added carrying capacity that comes with packs that have larger bladders, these are generally the most versatile hydration backpacks.
If you're going to be spending a whole day out on the bike, you're probably going to want to take a few things with you besides water. Spare inner tubes, tools, food, a change of clothes, wallet, phone, keys, torch, jelly beans and whatever else you may need for a day out on the bike. You will have to consider how much carrying space you'll need to make sure you don't have to leave anything behind.
If you already have pannier bags, saddle bags or keep your absolute essentials tucked away in your jersey back pocket, you may not even need a hydration pack with carrying space built in. The convenience of being able to take a drink from your pack hands free and without stopping pedalling is a huge benefit all on its own.
Small, zero-cargo packs with up to 2 Litre reservoirs are low bulk, lightweight and comfortable to wear and don't sit high and proud on your back, which would just make a mockery of the carefully designed aerodynamic bike you're riding.
Still very minimalistic when it comes to carrying additional kit. You will fit a spare tube, small multitool and one or two CO2 canisters into 2 Litres of carrying space, but don't expect to fit much more in there. Often these small packs are limited to external net carrying pouches, rather than zipped internal pockets, so take care not to leave any dirt/moisture sensitive items like phones exposed to the elements.
10 Litres of luggage carrying is ample for most casual riders. You will be able to fit a few items, such as a short pump, spare inner tubes, trail tool and possibly a packable jacket & lightweight overtrousers into packs this size. Most of this carrying capacity will be internal and high quality packs may even feature a soft fleece-like lined security pocket to protect your delicate smart-phone screen.
This amount of carrying capacity really starts to open up the options for how you use a hydration pack. You can take everything you've squeezed into a sub 10L pack, and fit in a good few extras.
For example, if you commute to & from the office each day, you will have room for a pump, multi tool, a spare tube or two, a set of tyre levers, a puncture repair kit, shirt, trousers, small shower towel, shower gel and deodorant.
These super-sized hydration packs not only carry plenty of water, but have ample carrying capacity for everything you could possibly need out on your bike, and are perfect for long-distance touring rides or overnight adventures.
Tools, tubes, food, waterproofs, spare clothing, towels, or even just the weights from your dumbbells if you're training.
Most hydration packs use the standard shoulder, chest & waist strap design to help keep your pack where you want it, and prevent it from flopping around all over your back like an angry salmon. Higher quality packs will include features like elasticated waist & chest straps which allow you greater freedom to breathe from your stomach and are less likely to chafe while you do so.
More and more mountain bike specific hydration packs are coming to market with spine protection already built in. Evoc have their Freeride series with a 'CE certified Liteshield safety device', while Deuter's 'TUV/GS certified PSA back system made from a visco-elastic foam' also protects your back in the event of an accident.
If you're used to using water bottles and keeping them clean after every ride, taking care of your hydration pack is no more of a chore. If you fill it with flavoured drinks and forget to clean it, mould will quickly spread and can be difficult to fully remove from tight corners.
The CamelBak Antidote cleaning kit is primarily meant for use with their own Antidote reservoir, however the clips, brushes and tablets are equally suitable for cleaning almost any hydration bladder from any brand. The kit includes dispersible cleaning tablets, and a long-reach flexible brush for cleaning the inside of the feeding tube.


Victims of wildfires this year in Monterey County are being urged by the Monterey County district attorney to be cautious as they go back to their homes and seek services to restore their lives.
Monterey County District Attorney Dean Flippo is warning people to be cautious of people who may try to take advantage of a resident's misfortune.
Various scams may occur such as charity fraud, price gouging and insurance scams, prosecutors said.
At least one county office received fraudulent invoices recently for fire extinguisher inspections, according to prosecutors.
A suspect has been arrested in the case.
Prosecutors recommend downloading the county's Post Disaster Awareness brochure for information on how to avoid becoming a victim of a scam and for important phone numbers for anyone who becomes a victim.
The brochures are also available at public libraries, chambers of commerce and the county building and planning departments.
Anyone with questions or concerns about disaster services, which are being offered or which are being sought, can call the Monterey County District Attorney's Office at (831) 647-7770 or local police.


Dexterous: Skill or grace in movement (especially in use of hands).
Ambidextrous: Somebody capable of using both hands with equal proficiency.
The psychological term ambisexual is used for a person who is bisexual or androgynous. This has been extended to mean an indefinite small number in words such as ambiguous (Latin agere, to drive), a matter open to more than one interpretation, or ambivalent (Latin valere, be worth), having mixed feelings or contradictory ideas about something or someone. The sense of being or going around appears in ambient, relating to the surrounding area or environment, and in ambit, the scope, extent, or bounds of something (in both cases from Latin ambire, to go around).
10. Ambiregnal: Classified into the taxonomic schemes of two different kingdoms of life simultaneously, either as Protozoa and Algae or as Protozoa and Fungi.
11. Ambifix: A string of characters used for both prefix and suffix.
12. Ambigender: Of both male and female genders.
14. Ambisense: Used in genetics too describe single-stranded, viral RNA, part of which has a positive sense and part negative.
15. Ambilateral : Affecting both sides of the body, or of an organ.
16. Ambitransitive : Able to be used transitively or intransitively without requiring morphological change.
17. Ambisinister: Awkward or clumsy with both hands.
We hope this article on the commonly used Ambi Root Word and it has been helpful to you in remembering the words based on the Root Word Ambi and enhance your vocabulary.


Welcome to Volusia County's learning place specially designed for kids, teachers and parents!
To learn about what to compost, what not to compost, and reasons why not, click here.
Compost use can result in a variety of environmental benefits, including suppressing plant diseases and pests, reducing or eliminating the need for chemical fertilizers, and promote higher yields of agricultural crops. To learn more, click here.
The composting process involves organic matter (plants and animals that were once living) being broken down into simpler compounds. The result of this process is a soil-like humus. New life is nourished by this nutrient-rich humus. Learn more.


This pretty little bowl with a bright blue interior suggests many uses for itself. Food and dishwasher-safe, it would be perfect for dips or salsa. Alternatively, it could be used around the house to hold anything from jewelry to potpourri or a candle.


Joseph Debunks "Cassandra Affective Deprivation Disorder (CADD)"
What we have here is a syndrome that has not been shown to exist, with alleged causes that might be erroneously attributed to autism, and with symptoms that haven't been shown to be associated with the alleged causes.
Sound familiar? This is no different to crankery like "autistic enterocolitis" or "mercury-induced autism." Except the promotion of CADD has the potential to result in a lot more direct damage to the personal lives of autistic adults.
Have you ever thought about how much fun it would be to invent a bogus disorder and to rake in the money from persuading gullible people that they were in dire need of your expertise and therapy? No, me neither. Most of us are ethical enough so that we would never consider such a thing. But Maxine Aston, notorious inventor of "Cassandra Affective Deprivation Disorder," evidently has no such qualms.
Dear Sir: I am a PhD-ed scientist, previously married to a man, another PhD-ed scientist, with serious emotional problems due to undiagnosed AS. Over several years of trying to make the marriage work, I developed extreme symptoms that profoundly affected my health and ability to work, which were very consistent with those described by Maxine Aston. They went away quite rapidly after my husband I broke up, although the emotional scars will likely never heal. My ex-husband's experience was analogous. I believe this meets the criteria of a relational disorder. I have since become well acquainted with others who have had very similar experiences. Your words above may be further hurting people whose lives have already been permanently scarred, by ensuring that friends and therapists will not take them seriously despite the fact that what they are experiencing is very real. Realize that just because you personally cannot relate to something, does not debunk it. So grow up, get over yourself, and try to do something useful for people instead of wasting your time making their lives even more difficult than they already are.
I agree with Margaritte. I am in the midst of working through the most painful time of my life finally realizing that it isn't me after all. My husband of 26 years is clearly AS but won't admit it. It has affected every aspect of out marriage. The information I have read by M. Aston makes complete sense and actually gives me hope. Since the DSMIV has only had AS since 1994, doesn't it make sense that the fall out with NT spouses is becoming more and more exposed?
My name is Vicki. My husband and I are going through a divorce. We were married 7 long years. The most painful years of my life. He was diagnosed after I asked that he be tested for AS. I know all to well the symptoms of CADD. I am affected every day. It has been debilitating. I know I need help with this but no one I've seen will even acknowledge the seriousness of this disorder...which only makes matters worse. I fear that many suffer silently and are unaware what is happening. It is certainly the most painful time of my life. My heart goes out to all those that suffer from this.
CADD is as real as it gets. Maxine Aston's research offers a life-line to both AS and NT people, as a way of increasing understanding between them. I say this through personal experience.
It's a shame that some people allow their personal bias ( in the case the notion that the AS sufferer is the only one affected by their condition) to cloud such an important issue.
Every doctor, therapist, and mental health professional needs to know about this, and should consider it when confronted with any case of depression / anxiety or related issue. It's that important.
I am 19 years into a life with my undiagnosed AS husband. Now that we realize he is AS we better understand what has been breaking down between us in every communication on every level since the day we met. We have worked very hard for all of those 19 years to keep our family together, with the power of information I believe we finally have the tools to begin to speak the same language. I know we are going to be ok because under all of the anger & frustration, impatience & resentment the Love has always been there. Aside from my husbands AS I realize that I too have much work ahead of me to start to find a way to undue the devastating affects that living with an undiagnosed AS partner has had on my being. I have so much I can say on what it has done to me, but reading the signs & symptoms of CADD sums it up exactly.
I feel the intensity of the comments made in other posts regarding CADD, I would like to remind both the supporters & naysayers that we are just in the infancy stages where understanding Aspergers and CADD is concerned. It doesn't matter whether it is labeled a disorder or syndrome, the reality is that the affects of living with an undiagnosed AS partner greatly impacts all parties involved and I doubt anyone would honestly dispute that. The frustration of being misunderstood at every turn for both the AS person & AS partner tears both of you down. Please don't get caught up in the name or title because that is so not the important part. What ever we call it will not offer any help to us, what we can learn from further study & exploration can possibly put the world right side up for the many of us who have been free falling. Maybe we can then start to rebuild ourselves and our relationships...the important part!
I have been married to a man with AS for 7 years. He is in the process of accepting his aspergers diagnosis and we are both working on finding a way to communicate with each other. The idea of CAD or whatever you want to call it gives me hope in that I know I am not alone with this. To see that the so called professionals are debunking it does nothing more than add to the feeling of being disbelieved. GREAT. Thank goodness our psychologist was open minded enough to give me the article. Quite frankly, I am pretty sure people did not believe that antibiotics worked when the first came out. Thank goodness for the those who listen and have open minds and hearts.
Why is it that militant Aspie's and their crusaders refuse to face the fact that CADD - under any name - is real, and can be serious problem to those of us who suffer in silence, misunderstanding and disbelief. A situation made thousands of times worse when the party who fails to believe or understand is our own AS spouses, who will not try to comprehend what they have not directly experienced.
Aspies need to stop being afraid of being blamed for something, or thinking their spouses are crazy, and try to understand their contribution to this RELATIONSHIP crisis.
My husband disclosed his AS to me early in our relationship. No matter how much I read, how many workshops I attended, or how many support groups I worked with - nothing could prepare me (or many of the other women I met in these groups)for where I found myself 8 years later. The toll the relationship has taken on me has caused life-long friends to tell me they hardly recognize me, mentally and physically, as the person I was before my marriage.
For those who REFUSE to believe that the effects of living a life deprived of essential emotional or physical connections can cause severe physical or psychological harm to individuals - take the time to do a little research before you go off in half-cocked defensiveness.
Psychologists have known this cause and effect relationship to be true for decades, and there are a number of related differential diagnosis already existing within the DSM-IV, as they pertain to an INDIVIDUAL. However, CADD is proposed as a RELATIONSHIP disorder, and it is not limited solely to relationships where one partner in diagnosed as having AS (Perhaps you should actually try reading the proposed language for the DSM-V?).
Finally, if you should need more convincing on the subject, I suggest you take a moment to educate yourself and read about Harry Harlow's research into emotional and physical deprivation, and the horrendous effects it had on his research subjects. Results that continued to hold true in subsequent, and more humane research.
In fact, Harlow's results were so astonishing and irrefutable, that extreme forms of physical and emotional deprivation were, and still are, used as a common and effective form of interrogation and torture.
If extreme forms can break a person's psyche in a matter of days, what do you think a little bit, everyday, for years, will do?
CADD is real, just as Aspergers is real. I have been in a 20 year relationship with my AS husband and nothing has helped me feel better, not RX drugs or therapy until we started to learn to deal with how my husband AS affects our relationship. We are finally getting the help we need with our counselor who is using Maxine's book and I am finally getting heard and no longer think I am just crazy! So perhaps you might want to consider the possibility that there is some validity to CADD!
Discriminate against people with disabilities? Reality is that living with someone with AS and not realizing it can have a PROFOUND impact on the NT partner. I have just 2 days realized why my 18 year marriage has struggled almost from the beginning. I too have experienced the same issues as the women above. It is sad to think that no matter how hard you try you are blamed, verbally abused, disrespected, and taken for granted all the while being unloved and appreciated. My son has the same disorder. My husband said it was my fault he didn't love me. After years of knowing something is wrong you start to question your self worth. You are so deeply lonely. Women need love. It's in their DNA. Like a flower without water a woman wilts without love. This disorder is so easy to recognize by those affected by it. Easy from someone on the outside to discount it.
I should restate...."feeling unloved" rather than "being unloved" because I think my husband has loved me.....I now know why it seems as if he didn't. I know things won't ever be close to a traditional marriage but with this new knowledge I have hope that "I" will be better able to cope. Knowledge is power. This is both sad and enlightening. I feel like a weight is lifted off my shoulder.


25 Sep 2012, the library libml is on bitbucket: https://bitbucket.org/blackswift/libml/. The code was written more than two years ago and has not been maintained since then. It was to accompany this article, but not to be used practically.
F# is a newly released language in Visual Studio 2010, as the 4-th language in .Net platform officially supported by Microsoft, aside with C#, VB.Net and C++/CLI. It has been a research project within Microsoft Research Cambridge for more than 5 years. Its origin could date back to the ML language designed by Turning Award winner Robin Milner in 1970s.
Why F# is the language for data mining.
1. a review of data mining environments and a feature summary from them.
2. the answer. I list 7 reasons with 2 short examples.
3. a preview of a data mining library in F#, which will be open sourced this summer.
Before we go to the answer of this question, let's see some existing data mining environments.
SAS and SPSS are the main commercial data mining software. SAS has a mature macro language, also a reasonable GUI support. SPSS has a good GUI support. Their data mining algorithms are written in C/C++. The user doesn't need to know about the underlying languages (C/C++), the data mining API is provided by a macro language (SAS) or GUI (SPSS). Using a macro language or GUI greatly eases users to perform data mining tasks.
There are also other products, e.g. the decision tree family developed by Salford.
Matlab is perhaps the most popular software in data mining community, especially in machine learning community. Although Matlab is not free, it is easily available in schools and research institutions. There are a lot of free programs in Matlab to perform data mining tasks. Matlab is so popular that putting an data mining algorithm name + "matlab" into Google gets what you need. The other reason is that the matrix operations in Matlab are efficient and convenient considering that the data tables in data mining are either dense or sparse matrices.
1. R. R is for statistics. The core part of R contains the R languages and the stable statistical procedures. The data mining part is a set of external packages. Most of the data mining models are available, e.g. Decision Trees, Neural Network, SVM, etc. R is a very capable language, however, it is not popular in data mining community. For data mining and machine learning, Matlab is more popular than R. R core does not support sparse data, thus a lot of extensions do not consider this support, which is extremely important. As in data mining, a lot of datasets are sparse, a tool that has sparse and large scale design in the beginning is very critical for performing data mining.
2. Weka. Weka is the most famous open source software in data mining and machine learning field. If data mining has three perspectives: database, machine learning and statistics. Weka is from the second. Weka is widely used in data mining courses, in which instructors are able to show a lot of data mining algorithms to the students, turning the formulas in the book into several mouse clicks and the resulting figures and graphs. Who use Weka for serious data analysis? As I know, most people only use Weka's decision tree implementation J48, because decision tree is really useful sometimes and Weka is handy to run to get the tree and its results are close to the standard C4.5's. But its usage is often on dense data set, as building a tree on sparse data sets costs a huge amount of memory in Weka. Weka does support sparse dataset, however, the performance is very bad, the speed is slow, the memory usage is unacceptable. The design in Weka is too general, thus sacrifices the speed.
Weka is written in Java. So the extensions to Weka, e.g. a different boosting scheme for trees, are usually written in Java. This kind of task is better done in a language like R or Matlab, i.e. a interpreted script language, not in Java. There are interpreted languages in JVM, most notably, Scala and Clojure. Calling Weka from Scala or Clojure will be a good idea.
3. Orange. Orange is written in Python and C++. All data mining algorithms are coded in C++ for performance's sake. Python is used as the script language to call the algorithms and the language to build the GUI. Using Python in data mining is a great idea. It is interpreted, an concise language to read and write, easy binding to C/C++. Orange only supports dense data set.
4. Lush. Designed by Prof. Yann LeCun. He is a big figure in machine learning, a definite expert. There are not so many researchers, who write great programs, and write great papers at the same time. Prof. LeCun is one of the few. Lush is a Lisp environment with bindings to algorithms written in C/C++. The neural network in it is mature. Lisp is good, very expressive. However, nowadays, not many people write it.
1. Data mining algorithms are built in. The implementation should reliable and efficient. It should supports dense and sparse datasets equally well. It should also be robust, e.g. effectively handle missing values, large datasets, etc.
2. script language and iterative shell. The script language could be used to do data preprocessing, calling data mining procedures, visualization and report easily.
3. Math: Matrix and vector (both sparse and dense), linear algebra, common numerical optimizations. Sometimes, we need to design new algorithms or modified existing algorithms to suite one specific data mining application. In this case, these math tools are really important, e.g. a simple logistic regression could be done in several lines of code if these math modules are available.
4. GUI is preferred, but not a must. GUI is good for data exploration and visualization, e.g. Excel is used a front end for a lot of Business Intelligence solutions for its great GUI and stability. When performing data mining, most of the time, we don't need GUI (just as when we use Matlab, we seldom use its START menu and prefer command line).
5. A integrated system. You use tool A do download the data, use tool B to do clean the data, use tool C to do some matrix operations on the data, finally you get a dataset and put it into an SVM command line tool. Not the end, you still need to parse the ouput of the SVM to get the result. And think about you need to repeat this process for several times. What's wrong here? Tools are scattered. The Unix philosophy "do one thing and do it well" does not apply here because the data structure from one thing to the other is very complex. This is why we need a integrated system, at least data processing and model building are connected seamlessly, like in Matlab.
Weka has all the 5 points. However, none of them are very good. E.g. Java is hard to be used as a script language as you need to write a lot of lines of code and compile them to perform an easy task, and using Java also requires you to be very familiar with Weka's java classes, which is just huge. Java could also be used to do data preprocessing, however, few use it for this purpose. Python, Perl or F# are more appropriate.
Following lists the notable features, which I think are helpful for data mining.
1. Succinct, static typing at the same time. These two features are combined together. When we write programs, we need to think about the programming logic and the programs, e.g. write the loop, define a variable, write the type for it, etc. Programming logic is the core thing, but every language has a syntax to obey, so we need to write a lot of other things, which could be distractive during programming because you need to think about more things at the same time. More succinct means you don't need to write so many `declarations' for your programs. Python is also succinct, however it is not static typing, which means typing checking is done during runtime. Dynamic typing is slow. In a lot of cases, F# does not need to write types, its other syntax is also succinct, it is also static typing at the same time. Combining these two together means we can focus on the programming logic and at the same time keep the performance.
to perform string split, filtering using a self defined filter and doing word stemming in a single line!
In an OOP language, this would require to use a pipe line design pattern, which is far more complex than high order functions here.
3. Functional and parallel. A function is pure if it does not change anything outside the function, and every time you pass the same parameter into it, it gets the same result (this is a weaker version of purity). Based on this, we can easily parallel pure functions. In data mining, most of cases, we can simply split the data into several parts to get parallel execution.
Note that the difference between sequential code and parallel code is minor.
A classification algorithm has two components, a learner and predictor. All learners implement ILearner interface. All predictors implement the IPredictor interface,some predictors also implement the IProbPredictor interface if it supports probability output. Because the code is so concise, I can change this interface more easily than in C#.
5. Interpret language. This is simply a must! Everyone wants to write a single line to perform data loading and model building together and see the result immediately.
6. .Net! If F# has the above 5, but without this one, it will not be successful. Tied with .Net has a lot of advantages, most notably a) a stable environment and a lot of stable libraries, b) writing components in C# when needed, c) the components in F# could be used by other .Net languages with no effort d) Visual Studio 2008 and 2010 are very good IDEs and finally e) Microsoft supports it, the `evil company' is more responsible for its products than others and at last f) the performance of .Net is very good.
7. IO and preprocessing! This point is subsumed in previous points. However it is so important that I separate it out. A lot of software simply assume that data mining is the processing applying an algorithm to a dataset. This is WRONG! It is said that 80% of the data mining work is to preparing the data to get a dataset. To prepare the data, we need to do a lot of IOs, from Internet, databases, xml files etc. .Net provides the most stable yet simple way to do these tasks. F# language is also well suited to perform data preprocessing. As an interpreted language, we can test and see the result immediately.
I use two examples from the code in my data mining library as examples to show F#'s strength.
The following code is the Tokenizer module for text mining. It is so short, yet can perform various tokenizing tasks, removing stop words, doing stemming, bi-gram etc.. The conciseness comes from F# as a functional language and .Net library.
You probably see similar code before as an example of the F# asynchronous programming. Here I changed the 'example' code to let it disguises as a Mozilla browser(this is useful when you try to crawling Google search results), also it does some retries and support exception handling. The code is so short!! Using it downloading 10000 posts (I need some special posts from a question answer forum for my research) in parallel costs only half an hour.
Dense and Sparse datasets are equally support! Various data formats are supported, csv files, weka's ARFF format, libsvm/svm light data format, Excel table, for both read and save. The library does not have its own data format. Processed data are stored in different formats for different needs. Using a built-in database will be considered in the future, e.g. the light-weight SQLite.
There are a set of preprocessing functions for datasets, e.g., filling missing values, feature value normalization, etc.
classification: decision tree family, logistic regression, support vector machines (by compiling libsvm to .Net using C++/CLI), neural networks, Naive Bayes, KNN.
regression: simple least square linear regression, neural networks and SVM(using libsvm).
dimension reduction: SOM, PCA, LDA.
feature selection: Mutual Information, decision trees, logistic regression with Wald test.
association rule and sequence mining: I have a plan in mind, but the actual implementation may delay.
The library is mainly for data mining, not for machine learning research. So only the most useful models are implemented. I hope after several years, the they will be very stable with few bugs. Trying to make it big would be dangerous. E.g. Weka is big in the sense of its algorithms, however, the standard statistical and data mining workhouse, logistic regression, is badly implemented there. If even logistic regression cannot apply to a modest text classification problem, what shall we expect Weka's other algorithms?
Also, implement a lot of immature models is less meaningful for practical data mining. E.g. the data mining module in SQL Server 2008 only implements a few state-of-the-art models. The novel algorithms are suitable to be implemented on demand for a specific application or dataset.
Data mining tasks in the library run in parallel on default, e.g. performing a classification task and a clustering task at the same time, or, doing cross validation on different parameters to choose the best parameter of a model at the same time. A major technique to boost the performance of classifiers is ensemble learning, which bags a lot of models together. Parallel really helps a lot in this kind of learning task. Of course, parallel programming could be done in C++/Java using threads too. The advantage of using F# is that the interface is very easy to use, parallel executing various tasks at the same time needs only a single line.
4. A service provider design pattern for data mining algorithms. An algorithm, e.g. KNN will have several implementations, F# implementation is called on default, the user could also start a service provider and call the implementation of that provider. A candidate for such a wrapper is OpenCV's machine learning component for its robustness, speed and friendly license.
ML library in OpenCV only supports dense dataset as machine learning tasks in CV usually use dense data format. I haven't found a good service provider for sparse data sets yet. But for large scale sparse data sets, the common practice is to use SVM, Logistic regression and tree family, which I already have code in C/C++.
6. Math library. It is a pity that there's no stable, yet free math library in .Net. For data mining, a math library is really important. I use the matrix and vector implementation in F#'s PowerPack. The matrix type in PowerPack supports both dense and sparse matrix, however sparse vector is not implemented. So I implemented the sparse vector myself. PowerPack now deprecates its math provider, which I pick up and use as the linear algebra module. So actually, I made little effort to get matrix supported.
Other math functions are implemented on demand. Some gradient based optimization solvers are implemented to solve linear regression and logistic regression, e.g. conjugate gradient decedent and LBFGS, which are two state-of-the-art gradient based solvers. Currently I implemented them in F#, the performance is modest compared to my C++ implementation. Code tuning is yet to be done. Some probability distributions are implemented for EM and Naive Bayes. Some important statistical algorithms, e.g., various tests, are also considered to be implemented in the future.
I'd like to thank Haipeng Zhang for reviewing this article for me.
 S. Zhang, C. Zhang, and Q. Yang. Data preparation for data mining. Applied Artificial Intelligence, 2003, 17(5-6): 375-381.
Nice post! I'm starting a data mining master, and it's important to know the descriptions you made for the different languages.
BTW, our teacher told us the same you said, with a slight bigger percentage though. "90% of the data mining work is to preparing the data to get a dataset".
I seek for this project source code.
For the code, I haven't got time to work out a relatively stable code yet. In the meantime, you can have a look at my WekaSharp for a taste of such a library.
Hi thanks for the write up. Am still getting to come to grips with F#, still finding it a bit hard to read, a bit too short almost , compared to say using C# on collections with linq and Ienumerables.
I think it is important for F# code to not do too much in one line and supply the reader with comments and long meaningful names, like they are used in other .net languages.
Not at all like the limited fortran names( langauge limited it to 6 characters) or c code ( not sure what the limit was but when reading some c code form the 90s one would think it was 2 character max.. ).
Have you considered using MathNet.Numerics (on codeplex or github) as a library ? It has some examples and parts written in F# ..It supports Sparse and Dense Matrices/ Vectors with lots of matrix and math algorithms in it.
it is very use full blog and very important information about SAS.


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To help older adults preserve independence as long as possible, and provide cheer when assisted living is necessary.
About Ida
Ida Alice Reich was a community activist that spent the majority of her time on earth helping those in need.
Every year, Ida took her two granddaughters, Dina and Keri, to help deliver gifts to nursing homes. Those visits changed the lives of Dina and Keri. In honor of their grandmother, they started a nonprofit organization, Heart of Ida.
Founders and Staff
Founder/Executive Director:
Dina Berg
Founder/Volunteer:
Keri Reich
Garrett Brief
Becker Law Group
Garrett Brief is an associate in the firm's bankruptcy and civil litigation divisions.His bankruptcy experience includes representation of clients in all phases of the bankruptcy process. Mr. Brief's experience includes representation of clients in Chapters 7, 11 and 13. Mr. Brief also has experience representing clients in contract negotiations, including debt settlement; real estate; and marketing/advertising contracts. Additionally, Mr. Brief handles civil litigation cases both employment discrimination and personal injury.
Mr. Brief began his career after law school working in the mortgage and finance field. As a management executive of a mid-size national lender, Mr. Brief was responsible for on-line marketing; contract negotiations and RESPA related compliance.
Mr. Brief received his Juris Doctorate from Gonzaga University School of Law in 1995; graduating Magna Cum Laude. While attending law school, Mr. Brief worked for the Spokane Legal Clinic, assisting at risk women and children. Mr. Brief received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he graduated with honors.
Eric C. Berg
Gray Construction
Eric Berg's tenure with Gray began shortly after the purchase merger with I.C.E. Builders, Inc. in 2001. For the decade prior, Eric managed national accounts as a partner at a network technology company that served the retail and commercial industries. Since joining Gray, Eric's keen ability to develop and nurture customer relationships has resulted in rapid growth of Gray's retail customer base. Today, Eric serves as senior vice president for the West Region and is responsible for operational and day-to-day risk management, customer acquisition and market sector development and growth for the Western region.
Amy Opheim
For nearly 20 years, Amy has helped companies in a variety of industries increase sales by identifying and more clearly communicating their brand or product's unique features, benefits, and competitive advantages. Amy's years of strategic marketing experience has helped HOI tremendously.
Laura Doyle
City of Long Beach
Department of Public Works in the Business Operations Bureau
Laura Doyle is a resident of Long Beach and has both her undergraduate (B.A.) and graduate (M.B.A.) degrees from California State University, Long Beach. As a long time City of Long Beach employee, she has worked in various City Departments including the Long Beach Airport and the former Community Development. She currently works at the Department of Public Works in the Business Operations Bureau.
Laura has a passion for connecting people to resources in the Long Beach community and believes outreach is a key component. Being well versed in social media, she assists in building awareness about the Heart of Ida by implementing various communication activities. As a bicycle advocate, triathlete, and "bird nerd," she supports activities and programs that keep our older population physically active and healthy outdoors. Read more about her bicycle advocacy here.
In her spare time, she spends time with her family and volunteers regularly for various non-profit organizations like Leadership Long Beach (Class of 2013 alumni). She also has a fondness for all things vintage, particularly jewelry, and can be found perusing local flea markets and antique malls.
Contact Info: piodoyle@gmail.com


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Q: How can I setup notifications when someone connects to my server through SSH? Is it possible to setup a notifications, i.e. in the form of an email, when someone connects to my server via SSH?

A: You can use Fail2ban to do this.
Fail2ban is designed to scan log files (e.g. sshd logs and httpd logs) and then ban ip addresses that appear to be behaving maliciously. However, you can reconfigure it to detect successful logins and then e-mail you.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
In 'The Rise,' Chef Marcus Samuelsson Celebrates Black Culinary History "We've been programmed to say great stuff comes from Europe and not from Africa," Samuelsson says. The chef's new book, The Rise, is a celebration of Black excellence in the culinary world.
Marcus Samuelsson: Erasing Black Culinary History Ignores 'The Soul Of American Food'
Marcus Samuelsson: Erasing Black Culinary History Ignores 'The Soul Of American Food' 37:52
October 26, 20201:14 PM ET
Heard on Fresh Air
Chef Marcus Samuelsson's new book is called The Rise: Black Cooks and the Soul of American Food. "Dressing has always been part of an African identity, but also a sad journey in American history," Samuelsson says. "As Black men, we had to dress up. ... If we didn't look in a certain way ... police officers [could] round us up — and it still happens." Angie Mosier/Little, Brown hide caption
Angie Mosier/Little, Brown
Chef Marcus Samuelsson's new book is called The Rise: Black Cooks and the Soul of American Food. "Dressing has always been part of an African identity, but also a sad journey in American history," Samuelsson says. "As Black men, we had to dress up. ... If we didn't look in a certain way ... police officers [could] round us up — and it still happens."
When COVID-19 forced New York City into lockdown in March, Harlem chef and restaurateur Marcus Samuelsson had a choice: stay or go. Born in Ethiopia and raised by adoptive parents in Sweden, Samuelsson says leaving the city during the pandemic "would be the easier way out."
But he decided to stay.
"My father was a tribe leader in Ethiopia. You don't leave at the toughest time," he says. "You can't come in and take all the benefits and then, when it comes to your turn to chip in, leave."
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The James Beard award-winning chef says his flagship restaurant, Red Rooster, became his "haven" during the height of pandemic. Working with José Andrés' World Central Kitchen organization, Samuelsson converted the restaurant to a community kitchen. Over the course of six months, Red Rooster served more than 200,000 meals to first responders and others in need.
"It was a place for me when our world was so ripped apart and no one knew what to do," he says.
Samuelsson says feeding the community during the pandemic also changed the way he thought about his industry. "The word 'restaurant' actually means to restore your community. And in the worst of times, I think that the restaurant, the hospitality industry really stepped up," he says.
Marcus Samuelsson: On Becoming A Top Chef
Samuelsson currently hosts the PBS series No Passport Required. His new book, The Rise, is a celebration of Black excellence in the culinary world — and the many Black cooks who have influenced American food, often without credit.
"When I think about American food and the Black experience, it's almost like we were written out of the food history," he says. "Just like American history in general, it's very complex, and it's not written with people of color and Black people in mind."
On how race, class and equity all contribute to the American food landscape
The more we know about Blackness and food, we don't understand how complex it is. It's not monolithic and it's highly layered, and therefore, it's also uniquely American — not just for the Black population of America, for all of America. For me, I think the best parallel is with American music. When we think about American music, you cannot think about American music without the contribution of Black people, whether it's gospel, R&B, rock 'n' roll to today's hip-hop or funk.
On how Black people have been written out of food history
The history is written so wrong and ... it's so important to [correct] it. And I'll tell an example: If you want to send a box of chocolate to a friend, you say, "Hey, let me order some Belgian chocolate." There's no cocoa beans in Belgium — the cocoa beans are in Ghana. So anything that is great gets taken out of Africa and restored back into Europe. If you're going to say, "Hey, I want to have some great French coffee." Well, the French roast coffee, but the coffee comes from Kenya and Ethiopia. And that's happened for generations. We just say verbally, but ... if you take away the worth, you also take away aspiration and inspiration. And that is a very, very important part: So you don't have to colonize by being there anymore. You can own all the assets. So we've been programmed to say great stuff comes from Europe and not from Africa.
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On the value of the dining experience
We have such a troubled way of understanding the privilege of somebody cooking for you. It enters our country through a horrific long period of slavery and class. We start at a very, very complicated history that we now actually are trying to deal with in many different ways. But the privilege of actually somebody cooking for you — it's one of the highest gifts that you can get from another person, because it means that the other person, the chef, is really fully thinking about you. What's your history in terms of religion? What's your culture? You obviously don't serve a pork dish to someone who's [of] Jewish or Muslim faith. You obviously don't serve a big meat course for someone that is vegetarian. ...
So when somebody says, "I'm going to cook for you," that's such an incredible way of engaging. How can I learn something? How can I be part of someone's culture? And I can tell people who just eat to feed themselves versus people who are actually dining, and that's a whole other way of entering a conversation. ... Food can signal: We're cooking for you, we're talking to you and we have you in mind. That's what chefs do.
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On where home is for him
Home is definitely Harlem for me. ... The beautiful part about being American is that you can love many things. I love Harlem with everything it has: The beauty of the boulevards, the incredible nature, the brownstones, the music, the people. And Harlem has really embraced my family — through the Red Rooster, but beyond the Red Rooster. So that is where I consider home.
But there's another feeling of home and comfort when I go to Smögen, the village in Sweden, the seafood village, an island that my father comes from. When I'm there and I'm visiting my cousins, it's very simple. We live in a very simple home, but we have access to nature. Nature is everywhere. Water, wind, cold weather. So I realized that that's a very important part of the Samuelssons, of us, but also, so is Ethiopia. So to be able to draw from many cultural, geographical places is just what makes us the Samuelssons. And I need Ethiopia. I need Sweden and Harlem and New York to be whole.
On coming up in the era of hierarchical French-style kitchens and wanting to create a different working environment
Great food is in France, but [it's also] in the rest of the world. And the biggest contributors to great food are women in the world.
I realized that the way I was raised in my restaurant life through the great restaurants in France and Switzerland and all over the world, that's not the way to manage and get the best out of people in 2020, '21. Cooking is such an incredible craft, but you also have to be a true leader. Back in the day, because it was a very monolithic field — male, very often older male, white males — there was one way of communicating. All the authority came from one country — not only one part of the world, just one country. ... Nothing could be further from the truth. Great food is in France, but [it's also] in the rest of the world. And the biggest contributors to great food are women in the world.
So our industry evolved, my kitchens evolved, and there is no way that I could operate my restaurant the way people treated me. I came up in that era ... but that doesn't mean that I need to pass that on. I try to focus on the opposite. That's why I opened Red Rooster in Harlem. That's why we have an open kitchen [where guests can see directly into the kitchen]. Sixty percent of the chefs in my kitchen are women, most of the time women of color.
The Coronavirus Crisis
Table For None: Tom Colicchio Explains What Restaurants Need To Survive
On the challenges facing the restaurant industry
Closed All At Once: Restaurant Industry Faces Collapse
I think long-term, the future of American restaurants will be fantastic, because people are realizing that without restaurants — local restaurants — American neighborhoods and cities will look completely different. You look at the transformation that that local restaurant has done to communities in Brooklyn, communities in Harlem and so on. You can travel anywhere in this country today and there's great local restaurants with all different ethnic backgrounds. ... The restaurants are really the soul, the heartbeat, of that community. Because once you don't have a restaurant, you don't have a barbershop, you don't have a coffee shop, you don't have other sorts of retail. ...
In a short-term way, I do think that we're going to go into the most challenging winter we've ever done as [the] restaurant/hospitality community. We're going to need our customers to support us more than ever, whether it's ordering takeout, whether that's us in the industry coming up with new entrepreneurship to meeting the customer where they're at. And we are also going to need help from the government. The government actually has to govern and navigate all people, not just the big companies.
Sam Briger and Kayla Lattimore produced and edited the audio of this interview. Bridget Bentz, Molly Seavy-Nesper and Beth Novey adapted it for the Web.


Trevor Fase, managing director, is responsible for the origination of multifamily loans through the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac lending platforms, with a primary emphasis on the Western region of the country. Over the past 15 years, he has originated over $5.6 billion in real estate financing.
Mr. Fase has over 21 years of experience in commercial real estate and is one of the industry's top originators of multifamily loans on the West Coast. Prior to joining Walker & Dunlop, Mr. Fase held the position of senior vice president at CWCapital LLC, where he originated agency loans out of the firm's Los Angeles office. Previously, Mr. Fase served as vice president for PNC ARCS, where he was ranked a top producer every year of his tenure. Mr. Fase has extensive experience in multifamily and commercial conduit underwriting as well as multifamily originations.
Mr. Fase holds a Bachelor of Science in real estate finance from California State University, Northridge.


Were you conscious the Salt Lake Limousines offers Salt Lake City, UT with the premier limo solution in the greater city. It's just terrific if you weren't, yet leave it to us to reveal you why.
You will certainly uncover our fleet to be amazing, sensational, contemporary, in addition to most importantly, economical!
The one special part of our solution originates from our Customer Treatment program.
This implies that if we are booked solid throughout the day as well as time you're trying to find, we will certainly invest the remainder of the day calling local competitors in order to help locate a reservation for you.
You could relax and also relax as we discover you a certified limousine or town-car good friend.
While our first top priority is to provide individuals of Salt Lake a wonderful limo service, we are additionally ecologically mindful along with act appropriately to shield out stunning world. We recycle our waste and use environmentally friendly cleaning products when brightening as well as cleaning the rigs.
Salt Lake City is among one of the most spectacular cities in the UNITED STATE, along with it is our objective in order to help it maintain that proud insurance claim.
Every one of our limos as well as buses are new as well as modernized. You will not situate any kind of kind of mid 90's area autos among our fleet. Full sound as well as visual enjoyment necessities get on deck for your enjoyment. We refuse to take any type of type of shortcuts when it refers to providing individuals of Salt Lake City with the premium limousine services.
At Salt Lake Limousines, the only factor we value higher than our beautiful group of limousines is the solution that we offer individuals of the neighborhood. We pride ourselves on being timely, kind, well-mannered along with expert to a mistake. Every one of our licensed operators are outright pro's, along with will certainly treat you like the celebrity you should need to be!
Every person deserves experiencing specifically what it looks like to be taken care of like a movie celeb, as well as with Salt Lake Limousines, you will definitely have that encounter and additional. Being cared for like a star is an experience you will absolutely not rapidly overlook. From the moment you enter our flight to the minute you leave, you will certainly understand specifically what it appears like to be a celebrity in your own Hollywood film.
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Amongst the greatest limousine services in Salt Lake, we give a substantial option of cars to choose from. We give executive neighborhood autos, full sized suv's, common limos, prolonged limos, really extended limos, prolonged sport utility vehicle's, and long term suv's. We likewise provide a party bus also!
Making use of a limousine can as well as will definitely restrict incidents caused by alcohol usage along with driving. The stats verify time after time, that on one-of-a-kind parties in an individuals life, alcohol plays an enthusiastic variable. Usually, this causes ill consequences like obtaining a DUI from having simply a little excessive fun. Let Salt Lake Limousines completely clean away that worry. We will certainly see to it that you as well as your group securely obtain from area to location.
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1.) Musicians are people just like you.
They might seem like rock stars when on stage, but the reality is that everyone puts their pants on the same way. Musicians are people just like you, and that means that they go through the same exact financial troubles as you and I. When you purchase a t-shirt or album, this helps them continue pursuing their musical passion, which in turn, benefits you because they are producing music for your entertainment.
2.) Local shows are cheaper.
When a town has a supportive musical environment, music has a chance to grow and expand. This is good for you, because you have a wide variety of music to choose from.
4.) Pride in your home town.
When we purchase and wear local merchandise, we are showing pride in our home town and our place within our community.
5.) Helps the local economy.
Musicians are a healthy part of local economies. When we support them, we are supporting a countless number of business owners and employees: the local bars and venues, the screen printing companies, the record labels, the record stores, etc.
Every band starts out small.
7.) Local shows are more personal.
Would you rather be within ten feet of your favorite local musical act, or half a mile away from them at an amphitheater? With local acts, you can usually socialize with the artists before or after their performance absolutely free. With bigger names, you usually have to spend hundreds of dollars to get backstage.
8.) Local musicians are there for you.
Why would a band play in front of others, if not to entertain them? Those people are working for your pleasure. The least you can do is show up and have a good time.
Do it for the musicians.


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text:
Hi all- it's Lee, Senior Account Supervisor, checking in:
Conan O'Brien is the latest Californian to lose his job. He joins the 12.4 percent of Californians out of work. A hand-full of my friends have been looking for jobs for fifteen-plus months. I've been there, too, before — out of work, applying online, tweaking the resume, making connections, gabbing with head hunters and going in for interview after interview with a hundred other perfectly qualified candidates. Back in 2001, I couldn't even get a job selling coffee.
Thus, I was happy to announce two weeks ago that Landis Communications Inc. would be hiring for a Senior Account Executive position. This meant we would be able to do something unique in these trying times: offer someone a job. As the hiring manager in this case, I was proud to post the job description on Craigslist, Facebook, LinkedIn and numerous PR social networks. I was also excited to introduce new blood to the high-level team of PR experts we have, while at the same time happy to extend a bit of job relief to the right candidate.
Ya, I've heard about the slowing job market. I've seen the unemployment numbers here in California jump. But not until I began the interviewing process did I really meet the real faces of the economic crisis. Resumes flooded my in-box. At first, I simply disregarded all of the resumes that clearly had no business being in the pool — resumes that contained not a stitch of writing, pitching, media acumen or PR experience. It was shocking to see just how many people had seemingly submitted blindly to the job posting. If we had been hiring for a full-time cook, these same resumes would have appeared.
But after a while, I couldn't disregard them anymore. The fact was these were not the resumes of the inexperienced. They were the resumes of people desperate for employment.
Being out of work is disheartening. It's stressful. It strips you of purpose. Your world slows down to a crawl. Desperation is a horrible feeling, and you begin to suspect that every conversation you have with a potential hiring manager just smacks of it. Plus, there's only so much daytime TV you can watch before you've seen every episode of Law & Order. I've spoken to candidates for this job from as diverse locations as Texas and Hawaii, all willing to move to San Francisco if it meant employment. I've met with candidates that are well overqualified for the position. I've met with people who had little experience in PR but figured it was time for a career change, as opportunities in their current fields had dried up.
The truth is I wish I could give everyone who took the time to apply for LCI's SAE position a job. Alas, we're a mid-sized agency, and mid-size is how we will stay….for now. In the meantime, consider this a thank you to everyone who applied to join the LCI team. And take it from one who's been there: there's light at the end of the tunnel.
Buzzworthy mentions:
Best job site for PR positions: www.mediabistro.com.
Best show to watch while searching for a job: Lost, Season 6 begins February 14th, 2010.
Best new restaurant to visit to celebrate snagging that new job: Baker & Banker, 1701 Octavia St., SF, 415-351-2500, www.bakerandbanker.com.
2 thoughts on "We're Hiring!"
Lee – it's always good to remember that there is a human being behind every resume. And when folks are looking for a job, even if they're not appropriate, they deserve respect and help. It's the way I like to think we work here at LCI – or at least strive to do! Cheers, David
Anne Buchanan says:
Lee —
Thanks for this thoughtful reminder of the faces and personal stories behind every resume. How lucky that some of these applicants had the opportunity to meet you in the midst of what can be a discouraging journey.
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The Ideal Introduction to Coding!!
All my kiddies have enjoyed learning to code online, starting with the 'drag and drop' boxes. Over the past year DS6 has mastered this method. Today, however, we have taken coding to another level! They got to see their code in action through the movement of Botley, the coding robot. It gave the younger ones a basic understanding of coding, utilising step coding and logic.
Aimed at ages 5-9 years old, Botley encouraged DS6 and DS9 to use their critical thinking and problem solving skills whilst programming and having fun making it chase a ball, knock down their Lego and spin around in circles! DD3 even got involved and enjoyed creating simple sequences inputting them into the little programmer and transmitted it to Botley which carried out her commands as it rolled around the room making different sounds. Even DS12 couldn't resist a go!
The Activity Guide was very handy to get us started. Not only does it give you all the usual information, such as introducing Botley and how to insert the batteries etc, but it also explains how to use and code in a very basic way. It even taught the kiddies how to code some hidden features which were fun, and it provides a web link for more tips, tricks and hidden features!
The younger ones enjoyed programming simple sequences, whilst the older ones planned more complex ones, programming up to 80 steps in just one sequence!
Check out Botley in action over on our Instagram page and Insta Story here.
The Action Challenge Accessory set was a lovely addition to our coding fun. It consists of falling dominoes, swinging hammers, rolling balls and more physics-inspired accessories. I am sure Botley enjoyed his new toys as much as the kiddies enjoyed setting up his obstacle courses. The kiddies found its words and sounds very amusing, especially when Botley sneezed!
The set also comes with a guide challenge which the kiddies used to set up a course for Botley. They also planned and set up their own chain reactions which Botley navigated through. This set comes with a different pair of detachable arms in order for him to 'push' and 'knock' the different toys he came into contact with.
There are many great things about Botley, not only is it a child-friendly, durable robot but it's 100% screen free! No smartphones or tablets are required! All it requires is 3 x AAA batteries and the programmer also needs 2 x AAA batteries. Inserting the batteries before set up was super simple and quick, so make sure you have these to hand as well as a small cross-head screwdriver!
DS6 thought up his own coding sequence, laid out the coding cards and then programmed his sequence before transmitting it to Botley, in order to see it in action. This helped him plan as well as visualise the path Botley would take.
With our action packed Sunday afternoon playing with Botley, taking him on a never ending obstacle course adventure, we also discovered that he features LED lights on the top which show the direction of each step and a special sensor underneath! Just draw a black line and he will follow it!
The kiddies couldn't wait to try this out and drew a thick black line on white paper so see if it would sense and follow it.
These 40 coding cards are great to have on hand for the little ones to lay out their desired coding sequence!
DS6 enjoyed getting to grips with Botley and all the fun he could have with it. He easily learnt how to program it to move things around as well as using the 'detect object' function. Using the If/Then function is a way to teach robots how to behave in certain conditions. He programmed Botley to turn right if he detected an object. DS6 had lots of fun watching Botley dodge all the fruit he laid out!
We think Botley is an amazing coding companion for younger children to learn their basic programming skills by learning through play and watching Botley follow the instructions they give him. Older siblings can join in the fun and make longer, more complex sequences for Botley. Each time they use Botley they discover something new he can do! There are many different tasks which he can carry out from detecting objects, following lines and terrific tricks! He is very funny too with his silly sounds and words, certainly an 'attention grabber' for the younger ones!
The only downside now is that the kiddies need to learn to share it, as they all want to play with Botley!
For more information or to place an order please check Botley out here!
Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. We were sent this educational product in order to review and all opinions are my own.


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Dwell Magazine included Rammed Earth Works (as well as Watershed Materials) in their recent Special Issue - Materials Sourcebook 2016. We're so honored!
This feature is a reissue of a larger Dwell Magazine story on Rammed Earth Works originally published in April, 2009.
We're thrilled to hear the news that the rammed earth Windhover Contemplative Center was just awarded the Best of Competition in the 2015 International Interior Design Association's Interior Design Competition. The award was given at the annual Award Gala in Chicago.
Read the article on designboom.
Read the article on Next City.
Read the article on Dwell.
"David Easton, a pioneer in the field of rammed-earth construction, developed sturdy blocks made from recycled and waste material and then used them to build a house for himself and his wife, Cynthia Wright, in collaboration with designer Juliet Hsu.
Read the article in Modern Luxury Interiors.
"David Easton became interested in rammed earth in the 1970s after graduating from Stanford. 'I never intended to be a building contractor,' he say. 'I'm more of a product design guy.' He developed the PISE (Pneumatically Impacted Stabilized Earth) system as a way to facilitate the labor intensive process of construction.
Read the article on The Wall Street Journal.
"It's a blistering 90-degree day in the arid valley north of San Francisco, so entering Suzanne Brangham's lavish hillside home is a welcome relief. It's cool in the living room under the 19-foot Douglas-fir beamed ceiling, cool in the kitchen beside the antique pine wine cask from England, cool in the main bathroom behind the 100-year-old mesquite doors from Mexico.