My daughter loves to climb right now, especially hillsides & rocks. These rocks were especially fun for her because they were fairly easy to scale. This is the beach we now call Toshi Beach for a favorite four-legged friend -- 26th Street Beach, Santa Cruz.
More climbing. This tree was recently introduced to us and I think we visited it three times this week! Schwan Lake, Santa Cruz.
(Not sure why that text is so small on this picture -- annoying!) Anyway, there are so many fun places a kid can bike ride. This is Arana Gulch, Santa Cruz. There are enough hills to make it fun without it being a lot of work. This week we also rode bikes on the wooden boardwalks at Neary Lagoon.
What adventures will you be up to this weekend?


text:
Revell a doubt, says Evans
Millers boss expects big striker to miss out...
Rotherham United Manager Steve Evans admits Alex Revell is a major doubt ahead of the Millers' trip to Reading tomorrow evening after being withdrawn during the defeat to Middlesbrough on Saturday.
"We think he'll miss Reading, but it will be a late decision," Evans told Millers Player. "It's his jaw that's the problem not his head or eyes or anything. He's never had the best looking jaw but it's a bit worse at the moment and very sore.
"It just means Revs might be doubtful and we'll have to see how he is."
Revell's game came to a premature end after getting on the wrong end of Daniel Ayala's boot during the first-half, a decision that Evans has since expressed his displeasure at, but fortunately for the Millers boss and the player himself, it's not as serious as first feared.
"The paramedics and the St. John's staff do a wonderful job up and down the country on a matchday at every football game but when we saw about 40 of them on the pitch we were worried. It looked a bit more serious than what it was but whether he'll be available we'll have to see."

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


The "space billionaires" of the world are racing to see who can get private citizens into — or at least very close to — space first.
Tickets have already been purchased for future flights aboard the Virgin Galactic shuttle, SpaceShipTwo — Richard Branson's way of launching the common-but-rich man about 62 miles into the sky. Nearly 700 tickets have been sold so far, Wired reported, for a cool $250,000 a seat, even though the company is still going through rounds of vehicle testing after a fatal crash in 2014. Branson's brand had a successful trial run on May 29 and if further tests continue to go well, he could be the first commercial flyer off the ground within the year, according to the tech magazine.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos announced at a NewSpace conference – where private space firms vie to out-genius one another — in Seattle just last month he's jumping into the space game with his own trademark, Blue Origin. Bezos said he hopes to begin selling spots on his rockets for about $200,000 to $300,000 as early as next year, Yahoo reported.
While both companies are offering basically the same experience, they'll likely need to tailor the trips to be as individual as possible for such sky-high prices that won't actually fly their customers into legitimate space. Instead, passengers will reach just the edge of space and cross the imaginary boundary called the Kármán line.
Each spaceship will have to meet safety standards set by the Federal Aviation Administration before it's legally allowed to take flight.
SpaceX CEO, founder and lead designer, Elon Musk, is taking it light years further but for far fewer people. The firm currently has a deal with NASA to fly astronauts aboard its Crew Dragon to the International Space Station and two contracts with unnamed private citizens. The undisclosed passengers — for an unknown price — will have the enviable experience of flying around the moon at some point this year.


The second iteration of G.O.O.D. Fridays came and, um, went after Kanye West's The Life of Pablo dropped in February. But as the saying goes, when one door closes another opens. So barging in that door left ajar is A$AP Mob with Wavy Wednesdays.
Now stretching past the two month mark with over 15 records to date, the Harlem collective's weekly offering has been firing a chockablock of booming bangers. This chock-full collection features collaborations with everyone from Drake to Danny Brown, Migos and Playboi Carti, among many others; including enough heat to make for the perfect self-arranged follow-up to Lord$ Never Worry.
Brimming with everything from pothole-rattling bangers ("Trap Anthem," "Thumbin'") to clever remixes ("Cut It," "Hella Hoes") and audible-caffeine bursts ("I Don't Care," "Again"), the Wavy Wednesdays collection is everything it should (and needs to) be. Beyond the music, the series stands strong because of the simple fact that it's a united crew coming together to drop new music week after week. What other crew is doing that?
More than series though, Wavy Wednesdays is a moment — one that we should all take a minute to soak up. So as we wait for Cozy Boyz, Vol. 1 and projects from A$AP Twelvyy, A$AP Nast, A$AP Ant, and yes, Ferg's own Always Strive and Prosper, let's take a look at the unofficial album the group has given fans through this very wavy collection.


text:
India students invent electrified lingerie in hopes to prevent rape attacks
April 2, 2013: In this photo, foreign tourists walk on a street near the railway station in New Delhi, India. Violence against women, and the huge publicity generated by recent attacks here, is threatening India's $17.7 billion tourism industry. A new study shows tourism has plunged, especially among women, since a 23-year-old Indian student was raped on a New Delhi bus and later died from her injuries, a case that garnered worldwide publicity.
A group of Indian engineering students have created electrified lingerie in hopes of protecting women from rape attacks inside the country.
The lingerie, called Society Harnessing Equipment, shocks anyone who touches the outside of the bra, while the women wearing it are protected by an inner polymer lining, The Daily Express reports.
"A person trying to molest a girl will get the shock of his life the moment pressure sensors get activated," said co-inventor Manisha Mohan, a student at SRM University.
The students who invented the lingerie say the bra is capable of sending out 3,800kV shock waves, and it can also alert police to the location that the victim is being attacked, The Daily Express reports.
Violence against women, and the huge publicity generated by recent attacks, is threatening India's $17.7 billion tourism industry.
A new study shows tourism has plunged, especially among women, since a 23-year-old Indian student was raped on a New Delhi bus and later died from her injuries — a case that garnered worldwide publicity. The government denies any fall off in tourism.
Concerns only grew after the reported gang rape of a Swiss woman in central India last month and after a British woman jumped out of her hotel room window fearing the manager was trying to break into her room to sexually assault her. That incident happened in Agra, home to the Taj Mahal, one of India's chief tourist attractions.
Foreign tourist arrivals have dropped 25 percent since the December gang rape in New Delhi, and the number of female travelers fell by 35 percent, according to the study by the New Delhi-based Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry. The study, which surveyed 1,200 tour operators across the country, indicated that "concerns about the safety of female travelers" have changed tourists' plans. Instead, they are going to countries perceived to be safer, including Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines.
Tourism Minister K. Chiranjeevi disputed the survey Wednesday, saying that foreign tourist arrivals into India in January and February grew by 2.1 percent.
Click for more from The Daily Express.


EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: One of the fundamental differences between corporations and partnership business entities is that the former faces "two tiers" of taxation – once at the corporation level, and again when profits are distributed as dividends to the shareholder – while the latter are only taxed once to their owners as "pass-through" entities. Of course, the reality is that there are a lot of factors that go into determining the right kind of business entity, beyond just the pass-through taxation treatment or not, though in practice it is often a material factor.
A hybrid mid-point between the two is an S corporation, which is recognized as a corporation for legal purposes – including for liability protection, and transferability of stock shares – but still taxed as a pass-through business, similar to a partnership.
However, in practice the pass-through tax treatment of an S corporation isn't exactly identical to a partnership, because with a partnership all pass-through income is subject to self-employment FICA taxes (as high as 15.3%), while an S corporation only pays FICA taxes on salary compensation to its owners, and not the remaining profits paid out as nontaxable dividend distributions.
To prevent everyone from just converting partnerships into S corporations that all pay their owners $0 in salary – to completely avoid FICA taxes – the IRS still requires that S corporation owner-employees be paid "reasonable compensation" for the services they render to the business.
Nonetheless, the reality is that for highly profitable businesses, especially with multiple owners and/or multiple employees, there is clearly a portion of profits, over and above just reasonable salary compensation, that can be distributed as a dividend to the S corporation owners, saving FICA self-employment taxes in the process. For profitable businesses, the tax savings can be thousands or even a few tens of thousands of dollars in savings.
Ultimately, not all small businesses can take advantage of these rules. Some don't meet the ownership requirements of an S corporation, and others are so small and dependent on their owners that realistically, "reasonable" compensation would be 100% of the business profits anyway. Nonetheless, there are many high-income partnerships (or LLCs taxed as such) that might benefit by switching to an S corporation (or making an election for the LLC to be taxed as an S corporation), specifically to split the business profits into FICA-taxable wages and FICA-exempt S corporation dividend distributions. At least, until or unless Congress shuts down this perceived "loophole" and reunifies the taxation of S corporation dividend distributions with the pass-through income of partnerships!
Pass-Through Tax Treatment Of S CorporationsThe traditional tax structure of a corporation entails two tiers of taxation. The business itself is a standalone entity that files a tax return and pays taxes on its income. And any of the corporation's accumulated income that is subsequently distributed as a dividend to shareholders is taxed again (albeit at favorable "qualified dividend" tax rates).
However, the reality is that many small businesses don't even have a separate entity; instead, they're simply a sole proprietorship, where the business owner is taxed directly on his/her income. Similarly, many partnerships are really just a combination of individual sole proprietors, and applying this kind of two-tier corporate entity tax structure would be unduly complex, and not representative of the reality (which is simply two individuals coming together in a joint venture).
To accommodate this reality, the tax code recognizes that partnerships can be taxed as a "pass-through entity", where even though there is legally a separate business entity, the income is not taxed to the partnership entity, and instead is simply passed through in relative shares to partners' own individual tax returns. In the process, the two-tier double-taxation of corporate income is avoided.
The challenge for some businesses, though, is that they don't want to structure the business as a partnership (or an LLC taxed as a partnership). In some cases, it's because of the liability exposure that can still attach to at least the general partners of a partnership. In other cases it's because there's a desire to make the business more easily transferrable, especially in small pieces (e.g., for succession planning), and it's much easier to transfer shares in a corporation than partial interests of a partnership or LLC.
However, to prevent potential abuse, the tax code limits the exact kinds of corporations that can make an S election, restricting both the number of shareholders (no more than 100), the types of shareholders (most types of trusts cannot own S corporations), and the classes of stock (S corps can only have one class of stock, albeit with voting and non-voting shares).
Notwithstanding the restrictions, though, for the typical small business owner who wants some of the structural benefits of a corporation, but the pass-through treatment similar to a partnership, the S corporation is an appealing midpoint.
S Corporation Dividends And FICA Self-Employment TaxesNotably, while S corporations are taxed as a pass-through entity similar to a partnership, the rules are not exactly the same.
When it comes to owners in particular, a key distinction is that with a partnership, any/all income allocable to an active partner in the business is automatically and fully treated as self-employment income, subject to FICA self-employment taxes (Social Security and Medicare employment taxes).
However, with an S corporation, the corporate roots – where payments to owners can occur either as salary compensation for employment, or as a dividend to ownership – is at least partially maintained.
Of course, it doesn't make sense to pay a traditional "taxable" dividend from an S corporation, because the whole point is that it's a pass-through entity, where the income of the S corporation is automatically and already taxed to the owners when the business earns it. As a result, taking money out of an S corporation is simply classified as a "distribution" – functionally it's a dividend, but a nontaxable one because the taxes were already paid when the income was earned by the business to begin with. This ensures that an S corporation is only subject to a single tier of taxation.
Similarly, when an owner-employee of an S corporation receives a salary payment (i.e., for services rendered to the business), the payment is deductible to the business, and taxable to the owner-employee. The net result is substantively the same as an S corporation dividend – the income is only taxed once, to the owner-employee.
An important distinction, however, is that while both the pass-through income of an S corporation, and a salary payment from an S corporation, are ultimately taxable to the owner-employee, at ordinary income rates, their treatment is not identical. Because as "corporate" income, an S corporation's pass-through income by default is not subject to employment taxes under Revenue Ruling 59-221, since it was not directly earned (even though it's otherwise treated as ordinary income). By contrast, a salary payment is fully subject to FICA taxes.
In other words, S corporation owners actually have control over whether they will receive their business income as salary, or as a dividend distribution (of previously-taxed pass-through income), where only one is subject to FICA taxes but not the other!
Potential Self-Employment Tax Savings From S Corporations And Reasonable Compensation RequirementsThe fact that wages from an S corporation are subject to FICA taxes, but dividend distributions are not, can be a non-trivial impact. FICA taxes include a 12.4% Social Security tax up to the Social Security wage base (which will be $127,200 in 2017), plus another 2.9% of Medicare taxes (for an unlimited amount of income). In addition, there's another 0.9% Medicare surtax on earned income above $200,000 for individuals (or $250,000 for married couples). In total, this leads to FICA tax rates of 15.3% initially, dropping to 2.9% beyond the Social Security wage base, and rising to 3.8% at higher levels of earned income.


You are the Cannon Man and you have to shoot the bouncing ball. When you hit the ball it will fall apart in two or three smaller balls and If you hit those smaller balls, they will also fall apart into two or three smaller balls. And if you hit the smallest balls again they will disappear. The gameplay is straightforward, you can only move from left to right and can shoot straight up. Don't get hit by the bouncing balls!
Hudson Soft would later refine this concept and release it as Pang and Buster Brothers on the arcade and multiple home and portable console systems.


text:
Reality Show is a 2004 documentary film directed by Colin Trevorrow. It was written by Daniel Klein and Trevorrow, who also acted as producers along with Peter J. Clark. The film documents the attempted production of an unaired pilot for a reality television show titled Rock the Party.

Synopsis
To achieve instant fame, eccentric millionaire Dan Sherbondy funds his own reality show. His Craigslist advertisements invite 10 women to compete for the title of "America's Craziest Party Girl". Sherbondy, his best friend, 10 women, a little person, and an inexperienced production crew travel to Baja, Mexico, but the millionaire's appalling treatment of the cast and crew causes them to rise up against him. The film is narrated by Dean Welsh.

Production
The project began production in 2003, as a self-produced pilot for a reality television show titled Rock the Party. The pilot was funded by entrepreneur Dan Sherbondy, who also hosted a late-night television show in Las Vegas, Nevada.

According to director Colin Trevorrow, "It's footage of a real thing that happened, which is this guy, who is kind of a lunatic, and really just the world's biggest asshole, took a crew off of Craigslist, and a bunch of women, and told them they were on a reality show. He took 'em down to Mexico, hired a bunch of guys for nothing to shoot it, and he was really just...I don't know what he was doing; he was really down there to sleep with all these women, essentially. And I was hired to direct that. It was my first thing, you know: "I'll pay you $500!" "Great! I'll do it!" And it turned into this absolute disaster."

Filming locations included a hotel in the Mexican city of Rosarito Beach. Trevorrow said, "The shoot at the hotel was the seediest, worst experience of our lives…we made the worst reality show in history." Sherbondy ultimately gave Trevorrow all the footage. The crew then filmed each other giving interviews about the troubled production. Trevorrow cut the interviews and footage together to form the documentary. Trevorrow said "I have interviews with the crew, where they discuss this preposterous bullshit that went on. It's a strange doc about how people use this reality show medium to take advantage of people."

Release
Sherbondy allowed the film to be released after securing an executive producer credit and any future profits. The film was first shown at the New York International Independent Film and Video Festival on November 21, 2004. In 2006, the film was shown at San Francisco's DocFest and the Milwaukee Film Festival.

In 2012, Trevorrow said the film was no longer available: "The guy it's about -- the movie is basically a documentary about how awful he is -- he actually lost a job or something over it, so he made us take it down everywhere and you can't find it anymore."

References

External links

2004 films
2004 documentary films
American documentary films
Documentary films about television
Films directed by Colin Trevorrow
Films with screenplays by Colin Trevorrow
2004 directorial debut films
2000s English-language films
2000s American films
English-language documentary films

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Norfolk day centre service to end
PUBLISHED: 16:29 19 April 2010 | UPDATED: 09:51 02 July 2010
Victoria Leggett
A day centre supporting adults with learning difficulties in Norfolk has become a casualty of a move towards personalised budgets.
Break, the charity behind the DayBreak centre, said the service would end in September following the end of its current contract with Norfolk County Council.
In the past Break has received a lump sum in funding from the authority to run the DayBreak service in Sheringham and has cluster groups across north Norfolk.
But the national personalisation agenda now gives individuals control over their own budgets and the type of care they receive - removing that direct county council funding for the day centre.
Break said traditional day services, like DayBreak, were not flexible enough to meet people's specific needs and convince them to use their individual payments at the centre.
It had therefore decided ending the service would be the best option - meaning taking it away from 50 adults with learning difficulties who currently use it, as well as putting the jobs of staff working in the centres at risk of redundancy.
In recent months day centre workers across the county have reacted angrily to the council's decision to withdraw funding and switch to individual payments.
But Don Evans, Break's director of corporate services, said: "It's bitter sweet for us. It is disappointing because this is a service we have run for a long time. But we are absolutely 100pc behind our service users being empowered to influence the service provided for them."


text:
Q: Reusing bundles in OSGi We are developing a web site with OSGi bundles (Adobe CQ/Apache Sling/Felix and Maven). There are 2 bundles: 1) Webapp 2) Commmon.
The Common bundle contains modules common to Webapp development like encryption, paging, sorting etc.
The bundles are deployed in CQ/OSGi container as follows:
OSGi parent class loader ---|--- Webapp
                            |--- Commmon

The Common bundle contains some functionalities which maintain configurations (similar to PropertyConfigurator in log4j), connection pool etc as static data.
Now another web site has come up and we want to 1) Re-use Commmon bundle 2) Deploy new web app in same CQ container.
The new deployment layout can be:
OSGi parent class loader ---|--- Webapp
                            |--- New web app
                            |--- Commmon

If we use above deployment strategy, the static data in Common bundle is shared between the 2 web apps and creates overlaps (because Common bundle is loaded in 1 class loader which is shared with class loaders of the 2 web apps).
What will be good architecture to re-use Common bundle? Should it be embedded inside Webapp and New web app (so each web app will have its own copy of Common bundle loaded in its class loader)? If yes, which Maven plug-in is suitable for this (I used "maven-bundle-plugin" with "wrap" goal; but the build log has a WARNING message which discourages it's use)?

A: The best solution would be to remove the statics and continue to use the common lib as a bundle.
If this is not possible then you can use the maven bundle plugin with the webapp bundles. Simply define the common packages you want to embed as private in the maven bundle config of the webapp. These classes will then be embedded.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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blogger profile Lucinda K. Porter RN
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March 16, 2015 • By Lucinda K. Porter RN
An urgent matter is weighing on me. I need your help; we need your help; you need to help. I know that sounds audacious, but approximately two people die every hour in the U.S. from hepatitis C. If you don't help, who will?
Hepatitis C deaths are rising along with the incidence of new hepatitis C infections. However, we have an unprecedented opportunity. President Obama has asked for an increase in funding for services to address some of the issues related to viral hepatitis. Representatives Mike Honda, Hank Johnson, and Judy Chu are asking all House Representatives to sign an important letter supporting this funding. (The letter is below.)
What I am asking is very simple but must be done immediately. Ask your representative in Congress to fight against the hepatitis B and C epidemics. This will take you a couple of minutes, and if enough of us do it, it may change history and save lives. Here are the steps:
Call your Congressional Representative through the Congressional Switchboard at (202) 224-3121.
Ask to be connected to your Representative. Once you are connected to the office, ask to speak to the staff person who handles health care issues.
Whether you speak to that person live or leave a voicemail, tell them:
Where you live and that you are a constituent
That you would like the Representative to sign the "Dear Colleague" letter from Representatives Honda, Johnson, and Chu supporting increased funding for viral hepatitis
A brief message why this issue is important to you (You have it, someone you know has it, you are concerned about your community, or however you are touched by viral hepatitis)
Tell them they can sign the letter by contacting Helen Beaudreau in Representative Honda's office or Scott Goldstein in Representative Johnson's office.
The deadline to sign-on is the end of the day on March 19
Thank him/her
Please call your Congressional Representative immediately after reading this. If you are tempted to wait, think about the nearly 18,000 people who die every year from hepatitis C who might be alive if we had acted earlier.
Text of "Dear Colleague" letter:
The Honorable Tom Cole
Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services
United States House
The Honorable Rosa DeLauro
Ranking Member
Dear Chairman Cole and Ranking Member DeLauro:
As you begin deliberations on the Fiscal Year 2016 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations bill, we respectfully request that you allocate $62.8 million for the Division of Viral Hepatitis (DVH) at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), consistent with the President's FY2016 budget request and an increase of $31.5 million over the FY2015 level.
The CDC's 2010 professional judgment (PJ) budget recommended $90.8 million annually from FY2011-FY2013, $170.3 million annually from FY2014-FY2017, and $306.3 million annually from FY2018-FY2020 in order for DVH to comprehensively address the viral hepatitis epidemics. While past increases have been helpful, these have only been small steps toward building a more comprehensive response to viral hepatitis. Our recommendation of $62.8 million is in line with the needs determined by the PJ and the goals of the Viral Hepatitis Action Plan, but pales in comparison to the CDC's PJ. These increased funds would be used to:
Expand adoption of CDC/United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommendations for hepatitis B and hepatitis C testing and linkage to care by health systems and providers to prevent disease and premature death;
Develop monitoring systems and prevention strategies to stop the emerging hepatitis C epidemic among young persons and others at risk;
Enhance vaccination-based strategies to eliminate mother-to-child transmission of hepatitis B; and
Strengthen state and local capacity to detect new infections, coordinate prevention activities, provide feedback to providers for quality improvement, and track progress toward prevention goals.
The need to enhance and expand these prevention efforts is growing more urgent. The hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) are the leading causes of liver cancer - one of the most lethal, expensive and fastest growing cancers in America. As many as 5.3 million people in the U.S. are living with HBV and/or HCV and 65-75% of them are undiagnosed. Approximately 175,000 veterans are living with HCV, and at least 30,000 of them have liver cirrhosis (scarring of the liver); yet as many as 40,000 veterans may be infected with HCV and not know it. Without an adequate comprehensive surveillance system, these estimates are only the tip of the iceberg. There are at least 18,000 deaths annually attributed to hepatitis-related liver disease or liver cancer, and hepatitis is the leading non-AIDS cause of death in people living with HIV. In fact, nearly 25 percent of HIV-positive persons are also infected with HCV and nearly 10 percent with HBV.
These epidemics are particularly alarming because of the rising rates of new infections and high rates of chronic infection among disproportionately impacted racial and ethnic populations. They present a dramatic public health inequity. For example, Asian Americans comprise more than half of the known hepatitis B population in the United States and, consequently, maintain the highest rate of liver cancer among all ethnic groups. American Indian/Alaska Native communities have the highest incidence rates of HCV among all races and ethnicities. HCV is twice as prevalent among African Americans as among Caucasians. Additionally, African American and Latino patients are less likely to be tested for HCV in the presence of a known risk factor, less likely to be referred to treatment for subspecialty care and treatment, and less likely to receive antiviral treatment. Recent alarming epidemiologic reports indicate a rise in HCV infection among young people throughout the country. Some jurisdictions have noted that the number of people ages 15 to 29 being diagnosed with HCV infection now exceeds the number of people diagnosed in all other age groups combined. Alarmingly, 35 out of 41 responding states reported increases in persons newly infected with HCV from 2010-2012.
Further, the "baby boomer" population (those born between 1945 through 1965) currently accounts for three out of every four cases of chronic HCV. As these Americans continue to age, they are likely to develop complications from HCV and require costly medical interventions that can be avoided if they are tested earlier and provided with curative treatment options. It is estimated that this epidemic will increase costs to private insurers and public systems, such as Medicare and Medicaid, from $30 billion in 2009 to over $85 billion in 2024, and account for additional billions of lost productivity due to the millions of workers suffering from chronic HBV and HCV. Over the last three years, CDC and the USPSTF have worked to align their recommendations for hepatitis screening, recommending screening vulnerable groups for HCV and one-time testing of all baby boomers.
We appreciate the Committee's support for viral hepatitis prevention, in particular the increased support to prioritize the identification of people living with HBV and HCV who are unaware of their status. We strongly encourage you to sustain your commitment this year. We have the tools to prevent the major causes of liver disease and liver cancer - a hepatitis B vaccine and effective treatments that reduce disease progression, new diagnostics for HCV and treatments that increase cure rates to over 90%, and even more medical advances for HBV and HCV in the research pipeline. Making this relatively modest investment in the prevention and detection of viral hepatitis represents a key component in addressing a vital public health inequity and will ensure more Americans receive the appropriate health care, strengthen our public health infrastructure, and combat the devastating and expensive complications caused by viral hepatitis.
#hepatitis
#hepatitis C
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As promised in Part 2, in just a moment I'll jump straight into outlining and discussing the the second part of Taeyeon Kim's 2003 journal article "Neo-Confucian Body Techniques: Women's Bodies in Korea's Consumer Society." But before I do, I should mention that I've also started reading SeungSook Moon's book Militarized Modernity and Gendered Citizenship in South Korea (2005), and it's made me realize just how narrow a focus Kim's article has.
That's not really a criticism: in the 16 pages available to her, Kim does an excellent job of explaining how the 19th Century Joseon Dynasty's Neo-Confucianist views of the female body were warped by, adapted to, and ultimately cam to survive and proper in the 20th Century. And that endurance does go a long way towards explaining the question I first posted in Part 1 — namely, why are Koreans so conformist in their fashion choices?
But what Moon's book has also made me realize is that, however outlandish the connection sounds at first, today's Korean fashion can't be explained fully without mention of the postwar Korean state's anti-communist ideology too.
Let me run with this for a moment. In a nutshell, Moon's book gave me a more bottom-up perspective on life in postwar Korea than what I'm used to (decidedly top-down Troubled Tiger is one of my favorite books), and the more I read about it, the more I learned just how pervasive that ideology was in people's everyday lives, and how almost any form of legitimate dissent or creative difference was often regarded by the state as nothing short of "leftist" subversion. I could give you examples, like Korean men with long hair being publicly shaved in the 1970s, or the police checking that women's skirts were long enough (albeit more as an excuse to simply harass women), but you get the drift (source, right: theturninggate).
These attitudes didn't suddenly disappear upon democratization in 1987. In hindsight, it's incredibly naive for me (or anyone else) to account for conformity in modern Korean life without reference to it. Yes, even in something as innocuous-sounding as fashion.
"…became essential to Korea's postcolonial and post-war project for national reconstruction. Neo-Confucianism came to stand for essential 'Koreanness' and was quickly embraced as the authentic culture of Korea – so much so that challenges to Neo-Confucian principles were branded as threats to national integrity. Neo-Confucianism also maintained its gloss as part of the elite culture, and as more and more Koreans were becoming upwardly mobile, many strove to identify themselves with the former [elites], making what was originally an ideology and culture of the elite minority into the culture of all Koreans" (pp.102-103).
Some other consequences of that quest for self-identity include Korea's bloodline-based nationalism (although the origins of that were closer to 1900 than 1953), and military regimes deliberately nurturing the idea that Korea has suffered invasions more than most, both now counter-productive (to put it mildly). Ironically though, for women it also ultimately meant a reaffirmation of the ideals of taegyo (태교), despite women's entrance into the workforce for the first time and the nuclearization of the Korean family. There are two reasons for this, one speculative and one more concrete.
First, one increasingly under-appreciated aspect of postwar Korea was overcoming the psychological trauma of the physical dislocation and separation of Korean families due to the war, and until I started today's post I didn't realize that that may have affected Korean's women's postwar lives much more than men — remember that, under Neo-Confucianism, they weren't really thought of as of as individuals in the Joseon Dynasty, and thus their families had been the primary source of their identity. But then, not only were they suddenly and violently brought out of the inner, private sanctum of those families and homes by the war, and then into the public sphere of schools and factories for the first time, those families also moved from the farm to the cities, and nuclearized in the process. Given those circumstances, it is natural to suppose that women might yearn for the good old days of certainty, especially former upper-class women to whom Neo-Confucian tenets had been most vigorously applied.
Later, I feel that Kim exaggerates how "post-industrial" Korea is, but that doesn't detract from the basic point that women, once exhorted and educated to work in the factories, were once again extorted to stay at home upon marriage, and to then focus on producing and raising children. Seeing as a good third or so of the blog is about how the Korean economy and minimalist welfare system is predicated on that fact, then I don't feel the need to elaborate on and justify that here. Instead, of note is how they are also urged to consume as housewives and mothers, both for the sake of national development, and for the sake of obtaining the items necessary to secure and advance their family's social status, as explained in Part 2. Ergo, it's taegyo all over again, although I'll admit that it sounds neither particularly Korean or even Neo-Confucian at the moment.
But just like in Western countries after World War Two, you can't expose most women to working life and equal education and then expect them to meekly return to the home once the economy and/or national emergency no longer requires their economic services; the contradiction leads to the appearance of various social malaises, such as the "housewives' syndrome" that Betty Friedan so adroitly recognised in 1963. In Western countries, that recognition and the civil-rights movement led to Second-wave Feminism. But Korea has so far lacked the former, and is only just beginning to experience a form of latter, often more because of the signing and implementing of UN conventions on gender issues and so forth rather than domestic pressures. What unresolved social malaises then, have arisen in Korea?
Many young Korean women feel compelled to wear mini-skirts in winter. Think with your head for a moment, and realise its not a good thing.
Many Korean women have to wear make-up to work, upon fear of being fired.
And in Korea, it is statistically more likely for a women to become a prostitute than a doctor, a lawyer, or even a schoolteacher. The prostitution industry here is that big.
Hence taegyo is Korean and/or Neo-Confucian, because while plenty, if not most, Western women consider getting plastic surgery for the sake of bettering their chances in job interviews and marriage prospects so forth, very few do explicitly for the sake of their father's and or husband's families.
Finally, now for the how.
The biggest thing I've gained from these writing this series of posts (and I just so happen to think that it's quite an original point too), is that in that statement above you can replace "Korea" with China, Japan, and/or Taiwan, and that argument would still be just as valid. Arguing that their shared plastic surgery mania is because all four countries share a history of cultural colonization and have inferiority complexes towards the West is tenuous at best, and if even if true, surely it would mean that Korean men too, say, would aim to look more Western? But no, they don't, and not even with the huge size of the Korean male beauty industry today. But all four countries do share a history of Neo-Confucianism. On that basis, is it too much of a jump to argue that the Neo-Confucianist combination above is precisely why plastic surgery is so popular amongst women in this part of the world?
…(ah! breaking my promise….) as you mentioned in part one, their gender performances are essentially the same as anywhere, but the underlying motivation differs. Maybe confucianism just makes it more pervasive. Gender is more privileged as an identity than other aspects of being – specifically for a Korean/Taiwanese/chinese woman, due to their role in confucianism, but it's not responsible for the fact that their performance will never be adequate (hence the surgeries, etc.) ….no female will ever be good enough at being the ideal. But around here (korea) it's just more important as it's the central source of their identity.
p.s. i like your blog.
I'm from Malaysia, nice to meet you.
I'm little confused here… I hope u can help me…..
u said that the reason for Korean women having plastic surgery is mainly because their neo-confucianism idology… not because their desire to have Caucasian looks…..
but why the surgery they had make them look more and more like Caucasian women?
what are their physically "ideal beauty" definitions or catagories? is that "ideal beauty" soo important for them (it's shocking when I found out that more than 70% Korean women did plastic surgery)?And why????
and who, do you think, is responsible for all of this?
is it the west for bringing the technology there???
is it the the women themselves for lacking of self confidence???
or is it possibly because "the man" for making the construction of beauty? From my being influenced by some feminist thoughts…could it be, man being the source of all the problem and the one who have "power", construct the term beauty, to control woman, their subordinates?
thanks, and sorry I took so long to reply. I think it's a bit late to respond to Erikaat's comments though…but if he or she ever reads again, I do sincerely apologize. Somehow, I completely forgot about them.
Briefly, I don't think that the reason for Korean women having cosmetic surgery is mainly because of their Neo-confucianist ideology: the gist of the series of posts is that it engenders a philosophical concept of the body that is more amiable to transformation and alteration of the body than, say, that provided by Christianity, but by itself it doesn't provide an explanation of why Korean women have the numbers of cosmetic surgery operations that they do. For my own attempt at providing that, please see this post.
I was just wondering if you could perhaps give me some of the sources that talk about the inferiority complex of Korean women due to the colonization of the West. I would just like to read what they have to say and how they frame their argument, evidence, etc..
This blog entry has raised many questions and really helps me think critically about my current research as well!
Thanks and I will definitely be contacting you again in the future!
thanks for the compliments, and I'm very sorry about overlooking your comment for so long.
I"m afraid I don't really know what you mean by "the inferiority complex of Korean women due to the colonization of the West" though, seeing as Korea was colonized by Japan rather than a Western power. You could argue that Korea's postwar relationship with the US was colonial-like in many aspects I suppose…or are you talking about an inferiority complex towards the West in general? I really don't know.
Sorry then, but in order to help you find the sources you need, could you please explain a little more about what you're after exactly?
Look forwarding to hearing back from you, and sorry again about the delay!
1.1. Make-up and surgery : Korean women always wear make up (well in the big cities) and are always well-dressed-up. J was shocked that Americans were casually dressed because women have to care for their look not to lose their job in Korea! About surgery, it was pretty ironic : she met some Koreans who thought she was American (they thought she couldn't understand what they were saying) and suggested that she may have had surgery .
1.2. Weight : J said she had gained 22lbs in the US but she was like… normal for me?
2. Relationships and marriage : when I asked whether she would date a non Korean guy she said she would like to but her boyfriend said he would only marry a Korean woman.
In Korea, in the recent past (as is still often the case all over the world) it was considered unmanly to be overly concerned with physical appearance.
This is why men didn't get plastic surgery.
The mentality being that it is the woman's role to become aesthetically pleasing in order to attract a man; not the other way around.
That is now changing as androgyny and homosexuality are turning up more an more in Korean entertainment.
The younger male generation is more feminine than in past generations, they are okay with being more feminine and they are more likely to undergo plastic surgery procedures.
It doesn't hurt that Korean entertainers (male and female) often undergo blatant plastic surgery procedures in the middle of their career, or have have their pre-debut (pre-surgery) photos surface on the Internet, or even just flat-out admit to having had plastic surgery (sometimes even unashamedly).
Western entertainment and Korean entertainment (which is, for the most part, a mimicry of western entertainment) now play the largest role in determining how most Koreans think, and whether or not they'll go for plastic surgery.
I've been reading this blog for years, and I still find this blog to be refreshing when it comes to rebuttals of the "Westernization" argument regarding SKorea, especially regarding the cosmetic surgery debate. I find it astonishing how people keep stating so matter of factly that it just "has to be THE Western influence" – like the Asian countries never had their own circling ideologies before interaction with the West (and then that's silly if we look at ancient trade records, but this is a still developing train of thought). But seriously? I'm also really sick of seeing hysteria-related articles that "everyone just wants to look Western" and the unquestioning discourse that results from that. Thanks for your work!
Thanks very much, although to be frank I too have said stuff like that in the past, especially when I first started blogging nearly 5 years ago, and although I've deleted most of the offending posts there's still a few up here that I've haven't gotten around to.
Having said that, when it comes to motivations for cosmetic surgery specifically, I do still think that the West has had a huge influence, but more in the sense that suddenly having rich white people around in the 1950s easily grafted on to and reinforced preexisting Korean beauty ideals and beliefs about whiteness (Michael Hurt explains much better at The Scribblings of the Metropolitician somewhere, but I've been unable to find the link sorry). And it has to be said that cosmetic surgery clinics do indeed feature a disproportionate number of Caucasian models, although of course that doesn't mean that the people that go to them "want to look Western" per se.
But don't get me wrong. As it happens I'm currently working on a magazine article in which I stress that things like this have much more to do with inherent tendencies and prerogatives of capitalism and consumerism than anything Western, and are very much by and for Koreans, rather than being a case of Western cultural imperialism (see here for more on the last; will finish that series eventually!). Double eyelid-surgery is a good case in point – on the surface, it's all about wanting to look Caucasian, but the reality is that because appearance is such a crucial factor in a getting jobs in a country where employers are allowed to ask for photographs on resumes [the only other one in the OECD is Japan]), then many Korean women see it as something they simply must get done. And so in my experience, they should and invariably do(!) take great offense at being told they simply want to look White!


Oral and Craniofacial Sciences faculty who are members of the doctoral faculty.
Oral and Craniofacial Sciences is a discipline in the Interdisciplinary Ph.D. Program administered by the School of Graduate Studies.
Translational and clinical research involves results from clinical observations translating into basic research and incorporates basic research findings into clinical assessment and practice. The identification, characterization and synthesis of materials for clinical use requires the combined efforts and expertise of clinical scientists, materials scientists, biostatisticians, bioengineers, geneticists, chemists, physicists, and computer scientists.
The Interdisciplinary Ph.D. program is composed of a significant supervised research effort along with courses in areas such as biomaterials, research design and methodology, statistics, grantsmanship, biochemistry, proteomics, genomics, histology, and pathology. The primary didactic effort will be in oral and craniofacial sciences (biomaterials/bioengineering of biological tissues and replacements, mineralized tissue biology, or translational/clinical research) and the student will select a secondary area of concentration from other Interdisciplinary Ph.D. disciplines.
The length of the program is dependent on the academic background and abilities of the applicant and may vary from three to five years. The program culminates with an Interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Oral and Craniofacial sciences degree and the designated co-discipline or co-disciplines.
An applicant must meet the minimum general requirements for admission to Interdisciplinary Ph.D. study at UMKC and must satisfy grade point average requirements as stated in the admission requirements section of the Academic Regulations and Information of Doctor of Philosophy Studies at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. To advance to candidate status, the student must successfully complete written and oral comprehensive examinations relevant to their primary and co-discipline(s).
In addition to the general minimum requirements for admission to interdisciplinary Ph.D. study, an applicant must hold either (1) a baccalaureate degree, (2) an M.S degree, or (3) a D.D.S. or equivalent degree. In general, an applicant will be expected to have a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.0 based on a 4.0 scale for previous education programs, including dental school (if applicable).
The TOEFL is required for all international applicants, who must have a score of at least 80. An IELTS score of 6.0 or above may be accepted in place of the TOEFL.
Transcripts. Analysis of transcripts from all prior institutions is required.
Letters of recommendation. Three letters of recommendation are required from current or former teachers who are familiar with the applicant's past achievements and research ability.
Personal statement from applicant. The applicant must submit a letter describing why he or she is interested in pursuing an Interdisciplinary Ph.D. study in oral and craniofacial sciences, how the experience of the program may be used by the candidate in the future, and a list of potential research interests.
Interviews. Interviews are not required; however, interviews are preferred and will be arranged upon the candidate's request. Successful interviews may enhance the candidate's chance of acceptance.
Biomedical and Health Informatics, Cell biology and biophysics, entrepreneurship and innovation, molecular biology and biochemistry, pharmacology, chemistry, physics, engineering, computer science, electrical and computer engineering, telecommunication and computer networking, and public affairs and administration (public health emphasis).
The required minimum core curriculum for students with oral and craniofacial sciences as a discipline will consist of a minimum of nine credit hours in oral and craniofacial sciences. See minimum course requirements below. The student's supervisory committee may require additional courses for an Interdisciplinary Ph.D. program which includes the department of oral and craniofacial sciences as the primary discipline or as a co-discipline. Ph.D. students with oral and craniofacial sciences as their primary unit must either complete these courses at UMKC or must have completed equivalent coursework at approved institutions at the time of their admission to the Interdisciplinary Ph.D. program. Students are referred to other sections of the current UMKC general catalog for listings of appropriate graduate-level courses. The curriculum requirements also include a minimum of 3 credit hours of ethics training.
The Discipline Coordinator/OCS Program Director will serve as the student's academic advisor for oral & craniofacial sciences Interdisciplinary Ph.D. students. In accordance with the general requirements for the Interdisciplinary Ph.D. program, a Ph.D. student must prepare a coursework plan of study in conjunction with the discipline coordinator/program director and co-discipline coordinator. A student's plan of study must include coursework in oral and craniofacial sciences as well as in at least one other discipline.
Interdisciplinary Ph.D. students will select and rotate through a minimum of four laboratories in the Department of Oral and Craniofacial Sciences conducting a short research project in each. At the end of the semester, a report is required reviewing the research project and instrumentation in each laboratory. Students are also required to attend the weekly Department of Oral and Craniofacial Sciences Seminar Series and the monthly Professional Development Seminar Series. Research presentations cover a variety of biological, engineering and behavioral science disciplines relevant to oral science education and the oral health care profession. Presentations will be by faculty, students, and invited guest lecturers.
As the student identifies a research focus for the dissertation project, they will begin reviewing the literature and relevant instrumentation in conjunction with a selected research advisor.
In accordance with general Interdisciplinary Ph.D. program requirements, each student with oral and craniofacial sciences as the primary discipline must submit a dissertation proposal, prepared in consultation with the student's dissertation chair, which describes an interdisciplinary program of original research on a significant problem in oral and craniofacial sciences. The proposal will be reviewed by the student's Ph.D. supervisory committee. The student may be required to revise and resubmit the proposal to the supervisory committee. A copy of the accepted proposal will then be forwarded to the dean of the School of Graduate Studies.
The student must provide evidence that a substantial portion of the dissertation will be submitted for publication to refereed journals. Such proof may be in the form of a manuscript in preparation for submission or a submitted manuscript. The student must submit the complete dissertation, in electronic form, to his or her faculty advisor for review and preliminary approval at least eight weeks before the expected date of graduation.
A 3.0 or better grade-point average is required of all work applicable to the Interdisciplinary Ph.D. program. A Ph.D. student with oral and craniofacial sciences as a discipline is subject to termination from the Interdisciplinary Ph.D. program if: (1) his or her grade-point average falls below 3.0; (2) more than four hours of C (2.0) grades are received; or (3) any grade of D or F is received.
A recommendation for termination from the program will be made by the student's dissertation chair to the program director. The next level of review would be the department chair, associate dean for research and graduate programs, and then the Interdisciplinary Ph.D. executive committee and the dean of the School of Graduate Studies.
A comprehensive examination will be administered to all students enrolled in the Interdisciplinary Ph.D. program whose subject emphasis area is oral and craniofacial sciences. The examination includes both written and oral components. Content of the comprehensive examination will be tailored to the student's field of research interest and prepared with input from all members of the student's supervisory committee.
The Department of Oral and Craniofacial Sciences Graduate Program Director will serve as the interim advisor to co-discipline Interdisciplinary Ph.D. students.
Students will select courses applicable to their program from the following list with guidance from the Department of Oral and Craniofacial Sciences Director of Graduate Research Programs.


text:
2007 National Golf Croquet Doubles
[<<] [>>]
Ivor Brand & Richard Thompson - one of them looks sure! (Photo: Tim King)
by Timothy King at Surbiton
4-5 August 2007 (GC)
Just ask Lewis Hamilton; he will tell you the trials and tribulations of teaming with a partner. The real drama of sport is the human dimension rather than the seconds per lap or the number of hoops run. So what was to be the story of the 2007 National Golf Croquet Doubles?
Would the 2005 winners rediscover how to gel? No: King and Ware, 8th.
Would the milkman and his "mum" show how well they know each other's game? No: Gaitley and Hamilton (Mark not Lewis!), 7th.
Would the first-time partnering evergreens bring out the best in each other? No: Hopkins and Strover (Dick), 6th. Would the veterans teach the young "whipper snappers" a thing or two? No: Arliss and Old (Derek), 5th.
Would family ties be strongest from the father and the son who first played last Tuesday (well, on a proper court anyway)? No: 3rd equal but an incredibly impressive debut from Ed, helped along by father Chris in yet another variation on the pairing Sheen and Sheen.
Would the double female touch take a grip of the competition? No: Jackson (Carole) and Vitty, 3rd equal. Would the deciding factor be the benefit of local experience as the Surbiton lawns played fast in the recently unfamiliar decent weather? No: Beck & Moonie, 2nd.
Wrong on all counts; the story was actually that the first trick is to send a twin brother on holiday to distant shores and then pair up as a last-minute partnership. Ivor Brand and Richard Thompson showed all the strengths of careful thought and determined precision in only losing one game all weekend (one block of all play all, semi finals and then a final). Don Beck lost his shooting form in the final, which made the job less difficult for Brand and Thompson but they played with admirable consistency and deserved success. Richard Brand now has to discover whether he can break up a winning team or perhaps there will be a Spanish bloke looking for a new partner next year (although he has more experience in a fast car than with a mallet)?
Congratulations to Chris Sheen for managing through various alterations to the expected cast of players. Surbiton was the usual excellent host venue (as always, thank you to George Noble for hoop setting and cooking!). And the only other thing to add is that there is plenty of space in the tournament and pairs of any standard are more than welcome to join the fun; whether winning or learning is your primary objective.


text:
Q: Java/Postgres: Deadlock with Flyway clean I have a scheduled task working (including writing!) on my PostgreSQL database:
@Transactional
@Scheduled(fixedDelay = SCHEDULE_DELAY_IN_SECONDS * MILLISECONDS_PER_SECOND)
public synchronized void doStuff() {
    // snip
}

And I do have a service to Flyway.clean() my database:
@Service
public class MyService {

    @Transactional
    public void deleteDatabase() {
        flyway.clean();
        flyway.migrate();

        // snip
    }
}

Now every once in a while when deleting the database a deadlock occurs:
26-Jan-2017 17:15:57.174 SEVERE [https-jsse-nio-8443-exec-4] org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve.invoke Servlet.service() for servlet [dispatcher] in context with path [/foo] threw exception [Request processing failed; nested exception is org.flywaydb.core.api.FlywayException: Unable to drop "public"."bar"] with root cause
 org.postgresql.util.PSQLException: ERROR: deadlock detected
  Detail: Process 122 waits for AccessExclusiveLock on relation 69572 of database 16388; blocked by process 97.
Process 97 waits for AccessShareLock on relation 69575 of database 16388; blocked by process 122.
  Hint: See server log for query details.
    at org.postgresql.core.v3.QueryExecutorImpl.receiveErrorResponse(QueryExecutorImpl.java:2284)
    at org.postgresql.core.v3.QueryExecutorImpl.processResults(QueryExecutorImpl.java:2003)
    at org.postgresql.core.v3.QueryExecutorImpl.execute(QueryExecutorImpl.java:200)
    at org.postgresql.jdbc.PgStatement.execute(PgStatement.java:424)
    at org.postgresql.jdbc.PgPreparedStatement.executeWithFlags(PgPreparedStatement.java:161)
    at org.postgresql.jdbc.PgPreparedStatement.execute(PgPreparedStatement.java:155)
    at org.apache.commons.dbcp2.DelegatingPreparedStatement.execute(DelegatingPreparedStatement.java:198)
    at org.apache.commons.dbcp2.DelegatingPreparedStatement.execute(DelegatingPreparedStatement.java:198)
    at org.flywaydb.core.internal.dbsupport.JdbcTemplate.execute(JdbcTemplate.java:219)
    at org.flywaydb.core.internal.dbsupport.postgresql.PostgreSQLTable.doDrop(PostgreSQLTable.java:43)
    at org.flywaydb.core.internal.dbsupport.SchemaObject.drop(SchemaObject.java:80)
    at org.flywaydb.core.internal.dbsupport.postgresql.PostgreSQLSchema.doClean(PostgreSQLSchema.java:84)
    at org.flywaydb.core.internal.dbsupport.Schema.clean(Schema.java:148)
    at org.flywaydb.core.internal.command.DbClean$4.doInTransaction(DbClean.java:182)
    at org.flywaydb.core.internal.command.DbClean$4.doInTransaction(DbClean.java:180)
    at org.flywaydb.core.internal.util.jdbc.TransactionTemplate.execute(TransactionTemplate.java:72)
    at org.flywaydb.core.internal.command.DbClean.cleanSchema(DbClean.java:180)
    at org.flywaydb.core.internal.command.DbClean.clean(DbClean.java:130)
    at org.flywaydb.core.Flyway$3.execute(Flyway.java:1017)
    at org.flywaydb.core.Flyway$3.execute(Flyway.java:1013)
    at org.flywaydb.core.Flyway.execute(Flyway.java:1361)
    at org.flywaydb.core.Flyway.clean(Flyway.java:1013)
    at com.acme.MyService.deleteDatabase(MyService.java:54)
    // ...

And I suspect the scheduler to be this other process. Now what? I'd say Flyway - as the more invasive operator, plus the one throwing the error - has to wait for exclusive access, but how do I achieve this in the most efficient way? Especially as both methods are @Transactional already... Will
@Transactional(isolation = SERIALIZABLE)

help? This isolation level seems to be the most restrictive... Or is it just the missing synchronized of deleteDatabase()? This dead lock is kind of hard to reproduce, so any hint is appreciated.


This Child Deluxe Knight Costume includes the armor-like pants and shirt with decorative shield front, the armor-look attached shoulder straps, the boot covers and soft helmet head piece.
PLEASE NOTE: The color of the shirt is not blue, it is RED.
100% polyester, exclusive of trim. Machine wash cold, gentle cycle;; hang to dry.
Size Large fits sizes 12-14.


Nowadays, despite the fact that many entrepreneurs and small brands have their own website, several of them still think that this is enough to increment their sales. Yes, great website development is important and a key role for your brand as long as it is effective.
For example, if you open a new restaurant on an empty street, even though your food is amazing, no one will go to your restaurant because they do not know it exists.
On the other hand, what would happen if you open another restaurant on a busy street with sub-par food? Between the two restaurants, which would get more customers?
Easy answer right? Even when the food is not as good, there will still be more customers in the restaurant on the busy street because it has a better location.
This same situation can be applied to a website, but instead of a location, a website would need to be positioned well on a SERP. This is where SEO would step in.
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, and it is a discipline that consists of the application of a series of techniques on both inside (On-Page) and outside (Off-Page) a certain website. The goal is optimizing its visibility in the organic results of the different search engines.
It is a set of actions focused on improving the position of the website in the search results with the final purpose of increasing the traffic.
Keep in mind that, the higher the position of a website in the SERP (Search Engine Results Page) the higher the number of visitors that will inevitably land on that website.
For Example, When a user types the keyword "Italian food in California" into Google, the search engine will offer the user a list of results that talk about Italian food in California organized hierarchically.
The three words the user typed (Italian, food, California) are the words that Google used to find the indexed pages in the database, that best respond to this characteristics.
Web development is the direct complement of SEO, and vice versa. They cannot live without each other.
The better design, the more time users will spend on the website and the higher chance they will come back.
A responsive website refers to the design of a website and if it is compatible with multiple devices and platforms. An optimized website design is essential to user experience, and a good user experience is key for SEO.
Today, more than 60% of searches are done on mobile devices. With this amount of traffic, Google rewards websites designed for multiple devices through Google's ranking algorithm with a higher ranking in the search results. A responsive design is more usable and more natural to read.
Now you understand the importance of web design in SEO, and we have seen that both go hand in hand. If you lack in either web design or SEO, you will either have visits and no sales or you will simply be investing in a very appealing landing page with no traffic driven to it.


I presume this is the stuff that paper xmas decorations are made of, but I hadn't realised you could buy it in sheets for crafty shenanigans. Good old Pinterest enlightened me and the microbe and I have had a go at using it today for a trio of children's 'pop-up' birthday cards.
If you're in the UK and fancy giving it a try, you can get honeycomb paper on Amazon and Ebay. (Mine came from a seller called Lyndie's Craft).
The sheets are a bit smaller than A4 and it seems as though you can cut out pretty much any shape in cross-section in order to get a 3d effect. I expect you could use it to make a garland of paper spheres too.
Well... that's it. A fly-by as promised. Toodle pip.


Olugbemiga Oluwole Sr. – "Olu" – enters the room, a stocky man in a charcoal-gray suit. Olu is a career counselor, but the demands of the job require he function more as a case manager. The barriers to re-entry – housing, work, literacy, support services, internal obstacles – come knotted together.
The room heats up as the morning wears on and the people here shift through flyers and instruction sheets. For two hours, "Olu" will woo, badger, prod them to think like entrepreneurs. Yes, they want jobs. But they have to be realistic. Times are tough.
Alameda County has put together a comprehensive re-entry program to help ex-offenders surmount common hurdles. Whether realignment – the process by which low-level offenders remain close to home in county jails rather than incarcerated in overcrowded state prisons – will funnel the necessary money to enact it is not a certainty at this point.
Some barriers to reentry for ex-offenders are obvious: housing is costly, employment hard to find. There are others.
Building a stable life can involve a painful internal odyssey and a tedious exterior odyssey to acquire everything from a lifetime of paperwork to literacy. Contradictory regulations can confound the most logical plans. And for some, reentry requires adjustment to a shifting social landscape that bears little resemblance to the world one left behind.
"How many need to expunge a record?" Hands go up (That task, it turns out, costs $150 and must be requested in the county where the crime was committed). "How many are looking for work?" All hands fly up. "How many are ready to work today?" Most hands fly up (They quickly find out they need to get a California ID and a Social Security card first). "How many don't have a high school diploma?" Only two — and he's not buying it.
They can get the ball rolling here at the Private Industry Council. Once enrolled, they can gain computer literacy, assemble a resume, and access vocational training, life skills and support services, like suitable clothes and transportation, courtesy of the Workforce Investment Act.
Their questions reveal the tedium and endless stumbling blocks involved in becoming legal for adults who in many cases don't have a copy of their birth certificate.
"You have to wait for 90 days?" asks an aspiring community college student who wants to apply for student aid. Ah, yes. Those males born after 1959 have to register with the Selective Service. Another bus ride, another office, another line, another delay.
The group finds out what the limits are by hitting one wall after another. One man was sent here by a vocational program to nail down financial aid for a $6,000 certificate program at Golden Gate Locksmithing. He finds out the maximum in training money is $2,500 and that he would be expected to raise the rest himself.
Truck driving school is out: The firms won't insure an ex-offender for long hauls and local treks are not lucrative, to say the least.
Olu polls the participants about their talents. One woman tends bar. A man is a musician, another a plumber, another an aviation mechanic.
"Look inside yourself," Olu says. "How many of you are familiar with Mary Kay?" Amazingly, most hands go up. The story of the Texas entrepreneur with her fleet of pink Cadillacs is a familiar one.
He lights on a tattoo artist.
Olu: "Come on, bro. Start with your family, your friends. You go to church, speak to a pastor. 'This is what I can do. I need support.'" He advises the bartender, who has struck out making the rounds of neighborhood bar, to sign on with a catering company.
This agency is not entrusted with securing housing, but housing factors in hugely in whether these parolees and probationers will get — and, more importantly, keep — a job. Those who say they've been couch surfing complain of sleepless nights, stress and exhaustion.
The newly paroled will get a similar pep talk at the CDC Wednesday morning orientation, where representatives of helping agencies offer to help them shed the skins of their past lives.
Several programs including Allied Fellowship Services have a housing component. VOA of the Bay Area has a 72-bed facility around the corner from the Private Industry Council and another in East Oakland with room for 48 beds. But most of these programs involve regular drug testing. That doesn't appeal to some, including, understandably, those who are not battling substance abuse. And stays last for 90 to 365 days. The support may be invaluable, but at the end of the stint, the client is still facing a tight rental housing market.
Numbers matter. In addition to shelter, programs provide tutoring for those with literacy and learning problems, teach ex-offenders to use computers, help heal ruptured relationships with family. But there are 4,500 to 5,000 parolees in Alameda County – half that number in Oakland. Low-level offenders swell Santa Rita, already the nation's fifth largest jail. Will realignment have moved enough money to the county to meet the need both when its residents are released?
"There will still be a stumbling block because they're poor," said Elizabeth Marlowe, co-founder and executive director of the Gamble Institute – a reintegration program that offers a myriad supports for parolees.
Ex-offenders are game to rent rooms and share rooms, but "mention a shelter and you hear a universal 'hell, no.'" Rather, 'I'll find a fat girlfriend.' These guys absolutely want to work," Marlowe says.
Matt Erickson is in the employment business; his nonprofit organization, AmericaWorks, has placed 400 parolees in jobs. But Erickson says housing tops the list of things parolees need to make it.
"If you don't have housing everything else is difficult," he says. "No. 2 is employment and No. 3 is food, clothing – you can't get employment without those things.
Statewide, the recidivism rate is 70 percent. Working this program, getting a job and keeping a job decreases the odds to 6 percent, he said.
"By getting a job you decrease all the other barriers," Erickson says. But again, the hundreds of clients seeking services outnumber the slots available in programs like AmericaWorks.
There are rubs: The Richmond refinery does background checks. An ex-offender cannot get on board as an employee, but can subcontract, which means no security, and no benefits.
There is some good news: The unemployment rate in Alameda County was 8.9 percent as of May 18, down from 11.8 percent a year ago. But 2,100 jobs dried up in Alameda and Contra Costa counties combined.
Numbers tell a story that parolees understand: Nationwide, unemployment overall stood at 8.1 percent – and 13 percent for black Americans, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Among whites, unemployment was 7.4 percent.
While black men make up 13 percent of the population, they comprise more than 40 percent of the prison population.
One thing is certain: "These guys absolutely want to work." And his clients are making up to $30 an hour, Erickson says.
More than 30 cities and counties – including Oakland and Alameda County – have scrapped the question about conviction history from their initial state employment application. Oakland's policy has reduced the number of jobs requiring background checks to jobs requiring unsupervised contact with finances, or with populations deemed vulnerable – children, the elderly, disabled people. If a job requires a background check, it takes place only after a conditional job offer has been made to the applicant.
A bill that has just cleared the Assembly would prohibit cities and counties from making any inquiry about conviction history on their employment applications until an applicant has been screened for minimum qualifications and found qualified – except for any job category associated with law enforcement.
The reach of the so-called "Ban the Box" campaign extends beyond employment to many areas that determine whether an ex-offender can survive in re-entry: public or low-cost housing, food stamps, welfare assistance or student loans.
Senate Bill 1060 would end the lifetime ban on benefits and services provided through the California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids, or CalWORKs, program for people who have a past drug-related felony conviction as long as they are participating in or have successfully completed an approved treatment program.
CalWORKs provides modest monthly grants and work-related services that support the basic needs of Californians with extremely low incomes. Despite the program's positive impacts and its benefits for children and communities, current state law bars all parents who have a past drug-related felony conviction from participating.
As it stands, the system is rife with contradictory practices. For instance, one of the most common training programs in prisons and jails is in gardening. But an ex-offender is prohibited from obtaining a license as a master gardener.
And there is no minimizing the competitiveness of the job market today, even without barriers. At a fast food eatery, an ex-offender is vying for a job with college students who want to make their way into management.
While the crimes may not be serious or violent, low-level offenders can be in and out of the system for 25 years, said the Gamble Institute's Elizabeth Marlowe.
"They're not going to go 'Oh, yay! I'm going to make changes.' They will still do what they know how to do," she said.
And nothing shakes a parolee's confidence like finding a world that barely resembles the one they left behind when they began serving time.
When William Grajeda got out of prison, he thought the world had gone crazy. People were walking down the street talking into invisible headsets. Drive-ins were a thing of the past. No one dared hitchhike. His neighborhood had become ethnically diverse.
Typically, an ex-offender counts on his ability to flip an "on-off switch," Grajeda said – flip that inmate switch off and suddenly fit right in. After all, he is anxious to see his family, to go home. But as much as he missed grandma and grandpa, he feels out of sync. And he finds he is still a man who eats jealously with his bowl to his mouth, reacts violently to perceived slights, asks permission to use the restroom.
Grajeda's parents shared marijuana with him when he was 5. By the time he was a father, he was bringing his son along to collect money for drug deals, beating those who failed to come through.
He became a pastor while still in prison and now works with ex-offenders in the Gamble Institute.
Through nonviolent communication, basic skills courses and other supports, Gamble helps its clients overcome internal as well as external barriers.
And they can be formidable. A new parolee, now 45, was a babe in arms when his mother asked a stranger to hold him while she went to the bathroom at the Greyhound Bus Station. She never came back.
"That man's got issues under issues under issues," Grajeda said, and there's no way those issues won't interfere with other interactions, whether in housing, work or school.
Eighteen percent of the Gamble Institute's clientele read at roughly the sixth grade level. As with other nonprofits – Centerforce, the CDC, the Private Industry Council, church-related programs – parolees can acquire basic skills.
"They're sick and tired of being sick and tired," said Angela Taylor, who teaches a CDC-sponsored class of 12. Students work at their own level. For some, that is basic literacy; others are formatting resumes and cover letters on the computer.
At this point, she knows when a student is covering for a learning disability or a lack of literacy. It's "I forgot my reading glasses, would you mind telling me what this says?" Or a student will say he "just wasn't good at school," dropping out in the eighth grade.
Fifty-three percent of her students graduate – the highest rate in the state for programs like this one. More attention needs to be paid to the correlation between learning disabilities and crime, she said.
Prison realignment promises to succeed where prison has failed – involving an offender's community in his transition, said Dan Simmons, Reentry Services Manager at Oakland Department of Human Services.
Given the high rates they are charged, inmates go broke talking to their families on the telephone. And families pay a high cost visiting distant prisons where their loved one may have been moved to serve time.