text:
Evelyn Wang joins leadership team in MechE
Mechanical engineering alumna and internationally recognized professor is the new associate head of the department.
Mary Beth O'Leary | Department of Mechanical Engineering
Mary Beth Gallagher
Email: olearymb@mit.edu
Professor Evelyn Wang, the director of MIT's Device Research Laboratory, has been appointed associate head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering.
Photo: Bryce Vickmark
Evelyn Wang, the Gail E. Kendall Professor and the director of MIT's Device Research Laboratory, has been named associate department head for operations in the Department of Mechanical Engineering (MechE).
Wang assumed her new role effective Sept. 1, taking over from Anette "Peko" Hosoi, who was recently appointed associate dean of the School of Engineering.
"I am very pleased to announce Evelyn's appointment as associate department head — she has provided outstanding service to MIT and her profession," says department head Gang Chen, the Carl Richard Soderberg Professor of Power Engineering.
The Institute is in Wang's blood. Her parents met at MIT while earning their PhDs. They married in MIT Chapel. Both of her older brothers earned degrees at the Institute. While much of Wang's own focus throughout high school was on music (particularly violin and piano), she ended up majoring in mechanical engineering as an MIT undergraduate. She was also a member of the Burton Third Bombers in Burton-Connor House.
After graduating from MechE in 2000, Wang moved back to her home state of California. She earned a PhD from Stanford University, which was also where she first started working on thermal management, and then accepted a postdoc position designing nanoengineered surfaces and materials for Bell Labs. But the pull of MIT was too strong, and one year later she relocated back to the East Coast to start a role as an assistant professor in MechE.
Since joining the faculty in 2007, Wang has become an internationally recognized leader in phase change heat transfer on nanostructure surfaces. As a researcher, one of her main focuses has been developing more efficient energy and water systems. Wang's work on solar cells that create cheap and continuous electricity by converting heat into focused beams of light was named as one of MIT Technology Review's 10 Breakthrough Technologies of 2017.
Her research on water harvesting has most recently led to the development of a device that can extract fresh water from the air, even in desert environments. This water harvesting technology was also selected as one of 2017's 10 promising emerging technologies by Scientific American and the World Economic Forum.
Wang's prolific and impactful work has not gone unnoticed. She has received a number of Young Investigator Awards, as well as the ASME Electronics Packaging Division Outstanding Women Engineer Award and the ASME Gustus L. Larson Memorial Award.
As a professor and director of the Device Research Laboratory, Wang has had a substantial impact on the many students she has taught and mentored. Ten of her former graduate students and postdocs currently serve as faculty members at various institutions. Her new role as associate head builds upon her experience spearheading change within the department, where she has served as co-chair for MechE's Strategic Planning Committee and the MechE Lincoln Laboratory Task Force.
"I'm excited to contribute to the department in a way that will hopefully have meaningful and lasting impact," says Wang. "I'm particularly interested in looking at new directions for our research, making things more efficient in terms of operations, and helping foster community culture in our department."
Wang's family of MIT alumni is also thrilled at her new appointment. "My parents are very happy that I'll be giving more back to the Institute that they so love," she says.
Evelyn Wang
Device Research Laboratory
Alumni/ae
Education, teaching, academics
A lifelong relationship with the Institute
Water, water everywhere … even in the air


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It all started in 2014 for me. A friend had reached out to me saying that my friend and Mike's sister Mary Kate had passed. I couldn't believe the news. Mary Kate and I hadn't seen each other in years. My mom and I went to her services and were deeply moved. She was an amazing woman who had done so much in a short time. During the gathering they had mentioned her work in Nepal and had asked attendees to send their donations to Nepal Orphans Home. I began to donate on a regular basis and that's how I began my relationship with Michael, the founder of NOH. Through emails with him and following the monthly newsletter I could see that it was a great organization. Then in 2017, with Michael's encouragement, I decided to make plans to volunteer in 2018.
Going into this I wasn't sure what to expect. I was scared, nervous, and excited all at one time! The first few days I got the chance to get acquainted with Kathmandu and the organization. Sunita, Himal, and Saroj took me through orientation. This gave me a background of Nepal. Topics of discussion included customs, beliefs, and history of the country while getting a chance to do some sightseeing with them. From there I had to plan where I would spend my time. Most volunteers typically stay longer than 2 weeks, so it made sense for me to stay in Kathmandu. This allowed me to work with the children of Nepal Orphans Home and to spend time with another organization within the city.
Days consisted of early mornings and evenings with the other volunteers and during the day with the kids. The time with the other volunteers was extremely valuable and enjoyable! Each volunteer had such a unique story and background. You could learn so much from each one. The fact that they were from all parts of the world gave you even more perspective. The kids provided just as much or even more. They were very welcoming and showed an eagerness to learn. I spent a good portion of the time helping students out with any challenges they were facing with school work or just spending time with them playing sports and other fun activities.
One question that I kept asking myself was: Would I be able to make a difference? The answer was yes! I believe it can be hard for volunteers sometimes because you're going into it thinking, "How do I make a big impact?" Walking away from this experience I can say it's just about being there, spending time, being present, open-minded, and patient. The kids are happy just with you being there and spending quality time with them. If I had any advice for a volunteer it would be to go with the flow and trust the process. It will all work out.
It's hard not to walk from this experience without some type of change in perspective. I feel humbled and blessed. I truly believe that you get more than you give when you volunteer and I would highly recommend this for everyone. Lastly, on a personal note I want to thank Mary Kate: Even after all these years your legacy still lives on in Nepal with the children you helped. Your courage and strength inspire us and all and I feel so lucky to have been touched by your presence.
Robert is pictured here with 7 of the "children" that Mary Kate helped to care for over a 5-month period of time back in 2007.


View of the LeSueur River from the trail.
Snowshoe and Ski Trail through trees.
Walking Under a Bridge on Frozen Seven Mile Creek.
Icy Lower Bridge at Minneopa Falls.
Afternoon sun over Red Jacket Quarry Lake.


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Q: ImportError: cannot import name normalize I tried to use djangos i18n and therefor had to install gettext. Now I'm getting this awkward error any time I try to start my application:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/var/www/mydjangoproject/manage.py", line 8, in <module>
    from django.core.management import execute_from_command_line
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/Django-1.4-py2.7.egg/django/core/management/__init__.py", line 4, in <module>
    from optparse import OptionParser, NO_DEFAULT
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/optparse.py", line 418, in <module>
    _builtin_cvt = { "int" : (_parse_int, _("integer")),
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/gettext.py", line 581, in gettext
    return dgettext(_current_domain, message)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/gettext.py", line 545, in dgettext
    codeset=_localecodesets.get(domain))
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/gettext.py", line 480, in translation
    mofiles = find(domain, localedir, languages, all=1)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/gettext.py", line 437, in find
    for nelang in _expand_lang(lang):
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/gettext.py", line 131, in _expand_lang
    from locale import normalize

  ImportError: cannot import name normalize

The library locale.py is present and I can import it. Django 1.4 is running under Python 2.7.2+. Any Ideas?

A: I guess you have somewhere inside your project a folder locale with an __init__.py file in it.
Delete this file (you don't need it for translation to work) and you should be good to go.

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text:
Q: How to find the longest consecutive chain of numbers in an array For example we have [0, 1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13] .
The result must be 7, 8, 9, 10 because they are adjacent to each other, index wise and are consecutive integers, and also this chain is longer than 0, 1.
English is not my first language, excuse me if the writing is a bit obscure.

A: Group the items into subsequences using itertools.groupby based on  constant differences from an increasing count (provided by an itertools.count object), and then take the longest subsequence using the built-in max on key parameter len:
from itertools import groupby, count

lst = [0, 1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13]
c = count()
val = max((list(g) for _, g in groupby(lst, lambda x: x-next(c))), key=len)
print(val)
# [7, 8, 9, 10]

You may include the group key in the result (suppressed as _) to further understand how this works.

A: Alternative solution using numpy module:
import numpy as np

nums = np.array([0, 1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13])
longest_seq = max(np.split(nums, np.where(np.diff(nums) != 1)[0]+1), key=len).tolist()
print(longest_seq)

The output:
[7, 8, 9, 10]

*

*np.where(np.diff(nums) != 1)[0]+1 - gets the indices of elements on which the array should be split (if difference between 2 consequtive numbers is not equal to 1, e.g. 3 and 5)

*np.split(...) - split the array into sub-arrays
https://docs.scipy.org/doc/numpy-dev/reference/generated/numpy.diff.html#numpy.diff
https://docs.scipy.org/doc/numpy-dev/reference/generated/numpy.split.html

A: Code
Using itertools.groupby (similar to @Moses Koledoye's answer):
groups = [[y[1] for y in g] for k, g in itertools.groupby(enumerate(iterable), key=lambda x: x[0]-x[1])]
groups
# [[0, 1], [3], [5], [7, 8, 9, 10], [12, 13]]

max(groups, key=len)
# [7, 8, 9, 10]

Alternative
Consider the third-party tool more_itertools.consecutive_groups:
import more_itertools as mit

iterable = [0, 1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13]
max((list(g) for g in mit.consecutive_groups(iterable)), key=len)
# [7, 8, 9, 10]


The AMA has issued a strong response to yesterday's call from the Commercial Drone Alliance for repeal of Section 336, the law which protects model aircraft from FAA regulation.
"AMA's number one priority is the safety of our nation's skies. Through Section 336, AMA safely manages 200,000 members – as the organization has done for more than eighty years – freeing up scarce FAA resources to advance commercial drone regulations and other priorities. At the same time, AMA lends its safety expertise to the broader drone community through efforts such as Know Before You Fly.
"Even with AMA managing a portion of the recreational community and funding broader educational efforts, the FAA is still under-resourced to handle the growing surge in commercial drones, Part 107 waiver requests and future rulemakings. Eliminating Section 336 will exacerbate the demand on the agency's resources, which may have implications for the commercial drone industry and the safety of our skies. Public-private partnerships with experienced community-based organizations like AMA, which are facilitated by Section 336, can be helpful in alleviating strain on the FAA and enhance safety.
"Furthermore, model aviation enthusiasts have been the cradle of innovation for both the manned and unmanned communities for decades. Many mistakenly believe drones are a recent innovation. To the contrary – the AMA community has helped to develop and advance the platform since the 1930s. Even today, as drone technology continues to improve, modelers are dreaming up new ways to apply and use this technology every day. Imagine a world where a young Steve Jobs or Henry Ford were restricted from tinkering in their garage. A repeal of Section 336 would be a devastating blow to innovation.
"We recognize some tweaks to Section 336 may be needed to clarify who the provision does and does not cover. We also recognize that remote identification requirements make sense at an appropriate threshold of weight and capability, such as for more sophisticated drones. That's why we are actively working with Congress, the manned aviation community and the UAS industry on policy solutions to these challenges within the framework of Section 336.
The argument over Section 336 – the argument over recreational operators and commercial operators, categories which often overlap and blur – will continue as the newest FAA Authorization act is discussed in Congress. An FAA Reauthorization extension was scheduled to expire, but another extension was included in the recently passed spending bill signed by President Trump. Lawmakers now have until the end of September 2018 to pass a new FAA Authorization package.
Is FAA Drone Registration Coming Back?


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For a movie night under the stars, an outdoor projector is your best bet
Bydls
May 22, 2020 Consumer Tech, Cool Gadgets, Home, Mashable Shopping, Tech
When the weather's nice, you want to spend as much time outside as possible — whether that's spent gaming, catching up on shows, or on watching a movie with the family. These projectors let you take the watch party outside without a lot of finagling.
By Chloe Bryan2020-05-21 15:23:03 UTC
Gathering the family to watch a film everyone agrees on (Cats?) under the stars: Now that's a summer night. To turn your yard into a home theater, though, you'll need a projector — one that works just as well outside as it does in.
While the vast majority of projectors aren't marketed exclusively for outdoor use, there are plenty of options that will suit backyards, rooftops, and porches with no issues. You'll even be able to take super portable projectors on camping trips.
You'll just need to keep a few attributes in mind, including brightness, portability, throw distance, and sound. Whatever the particular needs of your outdoor space, there's likely a projector on this list for you.
What features to look for
It's pretty easy to control the light level indoors: If you want it to be darker, turn the lights off and close the blinds. Outdoors, brightness is largely out of your hands — all you can do is wait for the sun to set and hope there isn't too much ambient light for your picture to handle.
Keep your yard's brightness level in mind while choosing a projector. If you aren't worried about ambient light — like you live in a rural area with very little light pollution, for example, or your backyard is far away from your neighbors — brightness may not be your biggest concern. If you anticipate environmental light getting in the way, though, go for one of the brighter options on the list. (Here, brightness is recorded in lumens.)
Then, there's throw distance, which refers to the distance between the projector's lens and the screen. A projector with a long throw distance is able to project a high-quality image while sitting farther from the screen; a projector with a shorter throw distance should sit closer to the screen. If you're in a big backyard, you may want a longer throw distance. For a rooftop or tiny porch, a shorter throw distance will be ideal.
Choosing the right projector for your space's size can be tricky, so we've tried our best to specify the locations in which our picks will work best. If you'd like to read further, there are several informative guides out there. Our favorite is on the Epson blog and includes a useful throw distance calculator.
You can't store a projector outside, of course, so we've made sure to feature relatively lightweight options that are easy to lug out to the backyard. Each of our picks weighs under 10 pounds; still, If you want to travel with your projector, you'll probably want the lightest option possible.
What other supplies will I need?
The projector will do lots of the work for you, as well it should. But if you're building an outdoor theater from scratch, there are a few other supplies you'll need as well, including:
A screen on which to project. This could be anything from an an actual screen intended for outdoor use to a white sheet to a wall to the side of your garage. Just be sure you're projecting onto your own property!
A separate sound system, potentially. A lot of projectors — including and especially lightweight ones — don't have great built-in speakers. We suggest purchasing a separate set of external speakers in many cases, especially if the projector's built-in speakers provide less than 5 watts of sound.
A power strip and extension cords, if your projector doesn't run on battery. Extra batteries if it does!
Seating for guests, preferably unobtrusive options like pillows and low-to-the-ground folding chairs. You'll also want to keep a stash of blankets nearby in case it gets cold.
Snacks, obviously.
Here are our picks for the best outdoor projectors. Better start polling the fam about that movie. Or maybe everyone can just play Mario Kart.
Good brightness • Powerful speakers for its size • 3D compatible
Not Bluetooth compatible
This projector is a solid one-size-fits-all option for families who want to enjoy an outdoor theater without any fuss.
1. Epson Home Cinema 2100 1080p Projector
For outdoor viewing at home, this projector delivers the sound, picture, and features you need.
Projection size:
29.9″ – 300″
Throw distance:
3′ – 29′
For outdoor viewing at home, this projector will likely give you the most bang for your buck. (A note: It's frequently marked down close to $300 below its original list price.) With 2500 lumens of brightness, it'll fare well against mild ambient light, and its 10-watt speakers will do just fine for casual use. It can also project a screen size of up to 300 inches
Reviewers also report that it's a good option for gaming. "Games look amazing on a big screen, hard to go back to a 55 [inches] after playing on 110 [inches]. Hooked up to a PS4, no apparent lag to complain about," writes one Amazon reviewer. "Resolution looks crisp, kids love the big screen for games that do split-screen."
This projector isn't Bluetooth compatible. It does, however, have two HDMI ports, so you'll be able to hook up two devices at once.
Bonus: You'll be able to watch 3D movies with the Epson 2100, provided you already have the other equipment necessary. You know what that means: It's time to put on those fashionable glasses.
Very bright • Equipped with Enhanced Gaming Mode • Great specs for the price
Doesn't support 4K • Heavier than other options
The Optoma HD146X is a bright, reliable option that's ideal for console and PC gaming.
2. Optoma HD146X 1080p DLP Projector
This projector's "enhanced gaming mode" will help gamers play without pesky delays.
28″ – 301″
3.2′ – 35′
Want to play video games in your backyard? Consider the Optoma HD146X, which is bright enough to use in outdoor spaces where there's some ambient light. Yes, this means a sunset Animal Crossing session could be in your future. It's hard to imagine anything more pleasant than that.
The projector is equipped with a setting called Enhanced Gaming Mode, which cuts back on lags for an input response time of 16 milliseconds. (That means your actions will be reflected onscreen after 16 milliseconds.) There's also Game Display Mode, which makes shadows and dark scenes easier to see. "I use this projector for gaming on my PS4 and can compete against Call of Duty PC users with [a] monitor," one Amazon reviewer writes. "No noticeable lag at all!"
The Optoma HD146X is not just for games, though. It's also a really solid option for streaming movies and TV — especially medium-scale uses like backyard movie nights. You'll be able to project onto screens up to 300 inches, though keep in mind you'll need to do this from a distance of about 13-14 feet. So you'll need some space, but it'll pay off.
Wireless • Ultra-portable
Weak speakers • Small projection size
Don't want to worry about plugging in? Here's a portable option with some pretty impressive specs.
3. LG PF50 KA Wireless Portable Projector
Reviewers love this projector's portability, lightness, and ease of use.
Take this one to the rooftop movie night: You'll get 2.5 hours of use on a single battery charge. (That's not quite enough to make it through The Irishman, but maybe you don't mind.) Plus it's wireless, which means that as long as you have a good surface on which to project, it works pretty much anywhere. It also runs LG's smart TV platform, which renders the projector a streaming device all on its own.
Best Buy reviewer EagleCroft writes:
"I found each of the apps to perform perfectly well, with no lag or hesitation. I also plugged my FireStick in one of the two HDMI ports on the back, and it performed like a champ too. HD video content was awesome, with little to no banding noticeable.
The LG PF50's screen size maxes out at 100 inches, which is best for small to medium spaces. Its brightness isn't the best on this list — you'll certainly struggle to use it if there's lots of ambient light — but what it lacks in lumens in makes up for in portability.
This projector does have built-in speakers, but they're fairly weak. You'll probably want to find external sound for this one.
8-watt sound system • Very light and portable
Low brightness
The Anker Nebula II is ideal for camping, low-key travel, and casual nighttime use.
4. Anker Nebula II Capsule Projector
If you're looking for a light, portable projector with good built-in speakers, the Nebula II is for you.
This is quite a unique projector. Not only does it have a set of built-in 8W speakers that are extremely good for its mini size, but it also runs Android TV, Google's smart TV platform. This means setup — i.e., actually getting to the stuff you want to watch — should be a breeze. Additionally, it doubles as a smart speaker and voice assistant, so you really don't have to worry about it taking up space in your house. (It also weighs less than two pounds, so maybe you weren't worried anyway.)
Writes one reviewer:
"The Capsule II is quiet, runs smooth and fast, and overall is a joy to use. Setup is a breeze with the integrated Android TV and it seems to have plenty of processing power."
Where the Nebula II struggles the most is brightness. At 200 lumens, it's best for use in dark environments where there's little ambient light. Still, if you're looking for something super portable that doesn't require separate speakers and looks like a cute little soda can … here you go.
According to the company, the Nebula II can project a 100-foot image from about 10.5 feet away. That's as big as it can get, though, so look elsewhere if you want an enormous projection.
Ultra-portable • Includes a tripod • Affordable
Weaker speakers • Does best in very dark conditions
If you want to keep costs low, the AAXA P2-A is a great (and very cute) option for the price.
5. AAXA P2-A Smart Pico Wireless Projector
This cute pico projector is an affordable, reliable option for beginners.
854 x 480p
8″ – 100″
A "pico projector" refers to a tiny handheld projector; this one, fortunately, comes with a tripod included. At just over $200 (though it often goes on sale), it's the most affordable projector on the list, but that doesn't mean it can't deliver at least some of the goods in its (literally) palm-sized package.
This projector is fully portable, claims to be able to hold a charge for about 2.5 hours, and can deliver 130 lumens of brightness. For the price that's fine, but note that it's the lowest brightness on this list. It'll do best in very dark environments.
For casual nighttime use, though, the AAXA P2-A is an inarguably great value: It's incredibly light, features an easy-to-use touchpad, and is Bluetooth compatible. It's also a smart projector, and it runs Android 5.1. (Some reviewers have noted that the software can feel clunky to use.)
If you've got a small backyard or a porch that you want to watch movies on — but don't want to shell out $600 — this pico projector is a good bet.
You might need some extra speakers, but you already knew that.
Great brightness • Solid built-in audio • Good value for a 4K projector
Despite being the priciest option on this list, this 4K (!) projector is still a great value for its features.
6. ViewSonic PX747-4K 4K DLP Projector
This 4K projector will replicate a home theater experience effectively — for a price.
3840 x 2160p
3.2′ – 38.4′
Alright, so you've put the work in on your gorgeous backyard and you're ready to splurge. The ViewSonic PX747-4K has the features you need to recreate the home theater experience at home — provided you have the space to accommodate it. According to the company, this projector can project a 100-inch screen from just under 10 feet away, so you'll need a bit of yard to work with.
In terms of features, though, this option is hard to beat for the price. It's super bright — 3500 lumens — and has an impressive set of 10W speakers, so you can get away with not purchasing a separate set. 4K fanatics will also be pleased to know this is a true 4K projector, and a surprisingly affordable one at that.
According to reviewers, the projector does tend to take a while to turn on and off — up to 15 seconds in some cases. A few folks also noticed some distracting noise from the fan, which may or may not be a concern for you depending on how much ambient noise you anticipate around your setup.
Despite these relatively small issues, though, the ViewSonic PX7474-4K appears to be well worth the price.
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Self Assessment Helpline 0843 455 0044 for tax return advice & help.
Self Assessment Helpline 0843 455 0044.
Self-assessment involves taxpayers being responsible for calculating and paying their own tax contribution by an annual tax deadline set by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC). If you need to ask any questions call the contact number.
Who has to file a self-assessment tax return?
Everybody who does not use a PAYE tax system has to fill in a self-assessment tax return, including high rate taxpayers and those with income from any property they have.
When should I pay my tax?
Taxpayers usually pay their tax by instalments on the 31st January and 31st July. Any balance that is owed or tax overpaid is calculated at the end of the following January.
Can I pay my tax after the deadline?
If you are late paying your tax you will be fined and interest will be added. A £100 fine is applied if your return is late and another £100 fine is due if the balance is not paid within 6 months. A 5% charge could also be applied if the balance for the previous tax year is not paid by the 28th February and a further 5% charge if it still not paid by the end of July. This fine will never be greater than the amount of tax owed. If you need an extension on filing your tax return call the HMRC and ask the advisor.
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How do I prove my tax return is correct?
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text:
Q: Merge 2 arrays of objects in only 1 with a list Lets have a look an example:
var arr1 = new Array({name: "lang", value: "German", carId: 1}. {name: "lang", value: "German", carId: 3});

I need to merge this two arrays and convert that carId into a list with those values:
({name: "lang", value: "German", carId: [1,3]});

A: Here's the code
var arr1 = new Array({ name: "lang", value: "German", carId: 1 });
var arr2 = new Array({ name: "lang", value: "German", carId: 3 });

const result = arr1.map((o) => {
    let item

    arr2.forEach(
        (o2) => {
            if (o2.name === o.name && o2.value === o.value) {
                item = { name: o.name, value: o.value, carId: [o.carId, o2.carId] }
            }
        }
    )

    return item
}).filter(item => item)

Methods used (that may confuse):

*

*map

*filter

A:     var arr1 = new Array({name: "lang", value: "German", carId: 1});
    var arr2 = new Array({name: "lang", value: "German", carId: 3});

    var mergedArray = arr1.concat(arr2); //merged the two arrays
    var cardIds = {}; // to collect the cardsIds for same name and value

    // collect the cardsIds for same name and value
    mergedArray.map((item) => {
     var key = item.name + '_' + item.value
     cardIds[key] = cardIds[key]? {...cardIds[key], item.carId}: [item.carId]
    })

    // Get unique element from merged array by name and value
    var result = _.uniqBy(mergedArray, (o) => {return o.name && o.value});

    // get the result with name, value and their cards in the array.
    result = result.map((item) => {
     var key = item.name + '_' + item.value
     item.cardId = cardIds[key]
     return item
    })


South Korean artist Kim Jung Gi's unique interpretation of the Dark Knight is beautifully rendered as a 7-inch statue. Joining the Batman Black and White line, Gi's design brings stunning detail to Batman. With intricate crafting in black, white, and gray tones, this statue is one of the most unique additions to the DC Collectibles line.


text:
Greece Agrees to More EU Help With Migrants
EU members were pressuring Greece to better monitor the bloc's external border
Valentina Pop
BiographyValentina Pop
Updated Dec. 3, 2015 5:03 pm ET
BRUSSELS—Greece appeared to succumb to pressure from other governments as it agreed to accept more European Union help to control migrant flows.
Under pressure from EU governments, including a veiled suggestion that it could be suspended from the Schengen passport-free zone, Greece agreed to three steps to better handle incoming migrants, including assistance from the EU Border Agency, the European Commission said.


Talkie 1.1 is now available on the iPhone App Store, and it's better than ever.
The new version connects to other Talkies via Bluetooth completely automatically — start Talkie on your iPhone and within seconds you'll be connected to anyone nearby using Talkie on the same channel.
Also new are WiFi and Bluetooth connection indicators, and an audio meter for when you're transmitting or receiving.
For a limited time only, Talkie is available for $1.99. Grab it on the app store.
— And don't forget, Talkie for Mac is absolutely, 100% free for use with Talkie for iPhone.
A Tasty Pixel's new application has hit the App Store: Talkie!
This bad boy stands out from the crowd with an engine that works not only over Bluetooth, but also over WiFi networks. Talkie will broadcast over the network so that any other iPhones running the same app — or any Macs running Talkie for Mac — will pick up the signal. No setup needed, it just works.
Should be great for uni students, or folks in large offices, and Talkie for Mac should fill the gaps for those without iPhones.
Talkie for Mac will come in a free edition, which offers two-way communication with the paid versions of Talkie, and the 'pro' edition which works with everything. That means you only need to buy one copy, then set your friends up with the free version to talk away.
Over the next few weeks I'll be writing a little about Talkie's guts and development, so stay tuned.


At Advanced Auto Glass, Inc. we are proud of our service, expert craftsmanship, and the quality of our glass products. Whether you need auto glass replacement, windshield repair, or residential and commercial glass, don't risk getting less than you deserve. Call Advanced Auto Glass, Inc.
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Uh. How is it that the last post was in January?! I know time has been passing by really quickly, but it hits me hard when I visit my blog and realise that I've been MIA for the past three months. It's an ongoing struggle of trying to keep up with the necessities of adult life (e.g. job) and then trying to carve out a space for myself. I've been trying (not too hard), and yeah, failing.
Finally found enough discipline to sit down this morning to study Japanese. I'm going to re-take JLPT N2 again this coming July. Cos I'm not ready for N1 yet. hahaha. It also serves as a motivation for me to study and to do more. This morning, I (re)-learnt 4 grammar points. Realised that I had ticked them off my grammar dictionary, but I can't recall what they meant. Sigh.
Sometimes I think I don't really know how to study Japanese. Unlike Korean where there's a series of textbooks from level 1-6 published by major universities, I haven't come across something similar in Japanese. Does anyone has any recommendation for advanced Japanese textbooks? I'm mainly reading novels, and using JLPT preparatory grammar books to learn the grammar points. Which I don't find it efficient.
On a side note, I love quiet weekends.
Jumbled mess of thoughts. Losing the ability to blog and write in coherent paragraphs.
Does anyone remember that I have a set of modern Korean history books? The ones I bought in *ahem* Nov 2012?
After 6 long years, I've managed to finished reading it!
Book 1 I mean. hahaha out of a set of 4.
Hey. I still think that is a real accomplishment. While I read it on and off, 6 years is still indeed a long time to take to finish a book. It's funny though, because I am very very interested in the book and I didn't leave it aside for years. In fact, I take it out every now and then to read a few pages. So it's still baffles me how I can take 6 long years to read 309 pages, out of which I completed 60 odd pages in this month.
Reading a book for that long also meant that I could really see how much I've improved over the years. I remember having a lot of difficulty with it at the start. I was about a TOPIK level 5 back then. But I still remember how I would highlight many words in a page and struggled to read and re-read the sentences to make sure I understand what it meant. It was made more difficult because it was my first introduction to modern Korean history and I was not familiar with many of the events that had happened. I had to google/wikipedia the events and read up on them – sometimes I get so engrossed I would just keep on reading link after link (and forget about the book lol).
역사는 어제의 기록이 아니다. 바로 오늘이며, 내일을 향한 나침반이다. 우리가 한국의 현대사를 모른다는 것은 오늘의 한국사회를 모른다는 것이며, 그것은 곧 우리 자신을 모른다는 것이다….
History is not a record of yesterday. It's today, a compass for tomorrow. To not know the modern history of Korea is equivalent to not knowing about today's (Korean) society and is tantamount to know knowing ourselves (Koreans).
This struck a chord in me. I have always thought about history as a record of the past and distant from my life in the present. When I was a student, I dreaded history classes cos it meant a lot of memorising and it didn't seem very applicable. But as I grew older, I fully appreciate what the quote meant.
Just like how past experiences shape a person, history shapes the society.
Can't wait to read and learn more.
I've been writing for a couple of days so I'm actually on page 40 of book 2 now. Hopefully this momentum can continue over 2019 :).
If you are looking for a low-intermediate Japanese textbook that uses English explanations, furigana and also dedicates a section to teaching Kanji, you have found the one.
Personally, I find that Japan-published Japanese textbooks tend to focus on a certain area (e.g. speaking / reading / writing / listening / grammar / vocabulary / kanji) and I haven't quite found a book that does somewhat everything. I think this one quite hits that sweet spot of serving as an all-encompassing main textbook for low-intermediate Japanese learners.
I found it interesting how the same dialogue is presented in both comic strip and the usual prose form. The comic strip form comes first and it does not include the furigana, which serves as a good exercise for the learner to try to figure out how to pronounce the kanji, and can check it against the prose form dialogue (with furigana).
Basic but useful glossary as it comes with kanji, the parts of speech (e.g. noun / verb), and the English explanation or equivalent. The book comes with the CD, and this section also comes with audio. Thumbs up. But I have no idea why the audio does not follow the order of the glossary!! Weird.
This section is the reason why I would recommend this book to English speakers. I love how it teaches you the order of the strokes, the meaning and also trying to break up the word into parts and radicals and teaching you how to remember it.
The grammar section is not the most detailed, but does a decent job of introducing a few new grammar points per chapter. While this is touted as an intermediate book, I thought that it wasn't that challenging or fast-paced. Perhaps a low-intermediate level?
Designed for classroom activities, I don't find this section particularly helpful for self-learners. I usually will skip such sections – pair practice etc.
Good section to introduce some culture tidbits.
Extra reading in the form of emails from one character to another.
Quite a decent textbook, especially suitable for those who need more help with Kanji. The content is relatively interesting and the book is well-structured. Suitable for the self learners. Will recommend if you are looking for a main textbook for the low-intermediate. The only con? It's a heavy book – don't think you would want to bring it out to be read on the go.
It's been a long while since I did a Singapore Korean restaurant review. Mostly because I've been visiting the same few places for my k-food cravings. Now I have to add another one to the list!
Here's the other banchan I tried on my second visit (there's unpictured 김 and 김치). It didn't look that amazing, but it actually was great! I loved the beans, and I think the plus one liked the anchovies one. The bean sprouts were flavourful, unlike the bland ones you get most of the time in not-so-great places. But what was interesting was the 물김치 (I think so? ) with cabbage and cauliflower!!! CAULIFLOWER. I thought it was really weird, but once I took a bite, I was won over. Crunchy, refreshing and the slight sour taste of it is really 开胃 (appetising).
Sorry I don't know why I'm using 3 languages in a blog post -.-.
Sorry the photo's not great, but the food was. The plus one was using a spoon for that anchovies banchan!
So here's some of the main dishes I tried!
THE KIMBAB. Was good. yeah. There were a few choices and I had pork. The next visit I had ham. Both were good. yeah. I'm not a fan of 떡볶이 (ddeokbokki – rice cakes), so the dish didn't wow me, but it was still authentic and great. The rice cakes were the right kind of chewy, and there's also fish cake 어묵 and cabbage in the sauce. I loved dipping the kimbab into the sauce though.
Look at that steamed egg! This is steamed egg done right – looking like it's overflowing 🙂 My friends and I were gushing over the steamed egg. Seriously. While there are an increasing number of k-restaurants in Singapore offering the dish, most of them did not hit the right spot. This did. There's the slight "burnt" taste to it and you get to scrape off the slightly burnt bottom part. yums. This is how I like my Korean streamed egg.
The seafood beancurd stew was not that best I had, but it was good enough with ample ingredients inside.
The way I like it too. Crispy, light batter, generous serving of seafood inside. The sauce is also exactly how I like it – with loads of chopped spring onions and roasted sesame seeds. I would eat this all by myself.
I would definitely order this again.
Oh this was good. If you are into spicy stuff. Most 양념 chicken served here are more of the sweet sauce type, so this was surprisingly spicy. The deboned chicken was tender enough, and the skin was still crispy. There's also some sweet potato and rice cakes (I think) in there. I had the sweet potato and it adds flavour to the dish.
I would add this place into my list of go-to k-restaurants in Singapore. Food is more or less reasonably priced. If you sit near the window, you have a great view too. Can't wait to bring more friends to try!
여러분, 저 돌아왔습니다! Ushered the new year in (albeit a week late) with a new blog layout. It's been a long while since I actually have enough time + motivation to sit in front of the computer to spruce up the blog and to type an actual blog post.
I actually spent the new year in Osaka, Japan, for a long-awaited well-deserved break. I pretty much spent most of the time doing nothing, taking the same one-hour walk from Namba Subway Station to Umeda Subway Station in the winter cold. One highlight of the trip was to finally visit the Kyoto Aquarium to get my Salamander plushie. Yeah, after 5 years.
Back to language learning. Perhaps the idea of a new year does help in fuelling the motivation and desire for change, but so far I think I've done pretty well in trying to spend some time daily on languages. The focuses this year would still be Korean and Japanese. I try to read a couple of Korean articles and watch a few Japanese youtube videos daily. So far it has been working, mainly because I am soo motivated to watch Lucky Bags unboxing (search 2019 福袋開封). I am pretty much obsessed with those videos and yeah, you get to learn quite a few phrases along with the videos.
I'm also trying to learn … Cantonese! 🙂 I'm pretty interested in the tonal aspects of the language and guess what, I bought a Cantonese textbook in Japanese! One of the perks of knowing more languages – you get access to a wider source of learning materials.
For those who were wondering what happened to my so-called attempt to learn Russian last year, I think it was pretty much a failed attempt. I just didn't have the time, motivation and energy to keep it up. I don't even remember the Russian alphabet now. ): I would like to go back to it someday, but for 2019, I would focus on the above.
I'm starting to slowly get back to posting about my language learning journey, but I always make it a point to focus on the learning itself. As I start to ease myself back into that familiar (and long-lost) routine and passion of language learning, I would be ready to post more about it again.
The frequency of updating this space is getting really atrocious, but at least I'm still trying.
I see today as an end to 2018, because it's the start of my leave! 🙂 Finally. The long-awaited leave.
2018 was all about work. I was determined to find some life – signed up for Russian classes and determined to carve out time for language learning. Well, work overtook my life in no time. I'm not proud to say this, but I barely remembered anything from the classes, and I definitely won't be adding Russian to the list of languages I am proud to say I know / learn.
I will get back to doing textbook reviews soon.
Like meeting someone special who shares 3 common languages with me ☺.


Mecanoo's Studio 3 in Soongsil University was completed with success.
During the period of one semester the class lead by Nuno Fontarra, associate architect at Mecanoo has explored the "power of the context" within the University campus of Soongsil.
The students have studied and developed projects and ideas that establish direct relations between building and public space.


When you're preparing to have your passport photo taken, the colors that you wear are largely insignificant. The important part of the process is that you are facing the camera squarely, that your head is the correct size in the photo and that you meet other requirements as set by the government.
Officially, no rules about the colors you wear for your passport photo exist. The U.S. government will not reject a passport application because of your color of clothing in the photo. Some photographers request that you avoid wearing white, as it can blend in with the background and cause your head to appear as though it is floating.
The color of clothing you wear while having a passport photo taken is insignificant because very little of the clothing is visible in the photo, provided the photographer shoots it correctly. Because your head and face are the main focal points of the photo, only a slight portion of your collar is likely to be visible.
When having your passport photo taken, you are not allowed to wear a hat or other head covering unless it worn for religious beliefs, or sunglasses. If you wear prescription glasses, some photographers will request that you remove them because of the glare on the lenses. If a glare blocks or distorts your eyes in the photo, your photo will be rejected when you apply for a passport.
Valid photos must be in color and printed on photo paper measuring 2 by 2 inches. Your head must measure between 1 inch and 1 3/8 inches from the top of your head to the bottom of your chin, with your face pointed straight at the camera. If any of these regulations are not met, you will have to have the photo taken again.


At a time when a Hastings man was sentenced for endangering lives by throwing furniture on the railway line figures show that trespass on the railway is at its highest level since records began.
More than 8,000 people trespassed on railways across the UK in 2016 - the highest number since records began.
Network Rail and British Transport Police figures show an 11% rise in incidents to 8,265, compared with 2015.
Some 115 people have been killed on rail tracks over the past five years, with almost half of them aged under 25.
Network Rail and the police said taking a short cut was the most common reason given for trespassing, followed by thrill-seeking.
Trespassing incidents involving young people double during spring and summer compared with winter.
Network Rail's head of public and passenger safety, Allan Spence, said: "Every year we see a huge rise in the number of people taking a risk on the rail network and it's worrying that these numbers seem to be going up.
"Britain has the safest railway in Europe but still too many people lose their lives on the tracks.


text:
Q: How to upload photo on facebook wall? hi friends i'm trying in this way to post photos on facebook wall
here my control code:
public class test
        {
        public FacebookMediaObject mediaObject { get; set; }
    }

public ActionResult Profile(FacebookOAuthResult facebookoAuthResult)
{
    DisplayAppropriatemessage(facebookoAuthResult);

    // redirect back to the index action to show the form once again
    return RedirectToAction("Profile");
}

private void DisplayAppropriatemessage(FacebookOAuthResult facebookoAuthResult)
{
    if (facebookoAuthResult != null)
    {
        if (facebookoAuthResult.IsSuccess)
        {
            var mediaObject = new FacebookMediaObject
            {
                ContentType = "image/jpeg",
                FileName = Path.GetFileName(path)
            }
            .SetValue(System.IO.File.ReadAllBytes(path));

            var fb = new FacebookClient(facebookoAuthResult.AccessToken);

            fb.PostAsync("https://graph.facebook.com/me/photos", new Dictionary<string, object> { { "source", mediaObject } });
        }
    }
    throw new NotImplementedException();
}

and here my profile.cshtml code:
@using (Html.BeginForm("Profile", "Home", FormMethod.Post, new { enctype = "multipart/form-data" }))
{
    <input type="file" name="file" id="file" /><br />
    <input type="submit" value="Upload" />
}

while i'm run this code and when i click post button it give following error
Server Error in '/' Application.
No parameterless constructor defined for this object.
Description: An unhandled exception occurred during the execution of the current web request. Please review the stack trace for more information about the error and where it originated in the code.
Exception Details: System.MissingMethodException: No parameterless constructor defined for this object.
Source Error:

An unhandled exception was generated during the execution of the current web request. Information regarding the origin and location of the exception can be identified using the exception stack trace below.

i'm trying so many ways  but everytime i'm fail

A: somewhere you are trying to access a constructor and pass in no parameters, all of those constructors you have shown us require a certain parameter, though i can't see anywhere in your code where you do this, so the problem might lie within another part of the application,
Please debug and step through, find the exact line it breaks on and check that you definately pass along a parameter to the constructor.

A: One guess is you've defined a constructor for your controller that takes a parameter.
Whenever a class has no constructors, then by default there exists a hidden parameterless(has no parameters) constructor.
Whenever you create a constructor that takes a parameter, then you no longer get that automatic default constructor.  MVC will expect that your controller have a parameterless constructor.


Grantsville Reservoir is a small lake in the west desert west of the Oquirrh Mountains in Salt Lake County. The lake is primarily used for irrigation water for area farmers, and can suffer large drawdowns in late summer especially during drought years. Grantsville is stocked by the DWR with Rainbow Trout.
Fishing is usually best very early in the morning or very late in the evening, when the water cools just a bit, and the bright sun is off the water. Grantsville doesn't have much cover for fish to hide in, so they tend to be a bit shy in the middle of the day during the summer months.
Grantsville has some very large Browns and Rainbows that feed heavily on carp minnows when they are still small enough to be targeted. This means that summer through late fall you can catch some monster trout by fishing with carp minnows. You can catch the minnows right at the reservoir using dipnets or cast nets.


Have you ever been in a situation where you've prayed and prayed (maybe even for years) wondering if God is ever going to show up? Or have you ever prayed for something and your prayer was answered but after all was said and done it wasn't what you expected?
I've been known to come home from a day of shopping and say to my husband "God really wanted me to have those shoes! They were the very last pair in my size!" Every time he shakes his head and says "I'm pretty sure God isn't involved in your shoe purchases." Ha, how does he know? How do we know that God actually hears our prayers?
I believe that God hears our prayers both big and small and he answers them in the way that fits into his long term plan for our lives on earth and our lives in eternity. I believe that even unanswered prayers are answered, maybe just not in the way we were hoping for.
A while back, I was feeling restless in my job. I felt sure that God was calling me to do something different. I diligently prayed while doing the leg work required, preparing for a new path. Lo and behold, God put the PERFECT job in my path! It was exactly what I was hoping for. I interviewed for and got the job. I couldn't believe it! I was overjoyed! I lasted in that job exactly three months before I quit. In the words of Sponge Bob Squarepants "what the barnacles?" It's the shortest amount of time I've ever been at a job, besides my one day at Kmart (whole other story there). I was so discouraged. I was faithful, God was faithful and yet I was unhappy. It wasn't the ending I expected. However, here's what happened next. When I left my old company for the not so PERFECT job, my best friend interviewed for and got my old job. She's still working there! And there's more…I went back to my old company and took a new job, that meant getting to work with my bestie. Wait…there's more…the job at my old company led to my current job that I love. Hold on…there's more…At my current job I get to work virtually, this has taken a huge stressor off of my work life balance. Yep…you guessed it…there's more…a few years ago (the year before I got my current job) my health took a dipper and my neurological illness got so bad that I couldn't go out in the cold. God blessed me with a virtual job so I can do rewarding work from home. You have no idea how huge this is. If I was at an in-person job I most likely would have had to go out on disability over the winter months.
How about our prayers during the really hard stuff? Serious illness, terminal illness (even worse pediatric terminal illness), divorce, estrangement, broken families, broken hearts, death, accidents, unemployment, physical/sexual/emotional abuse, addiction, abandonment. What about the stuff that might never be resolved during our time on this earth? Should we continue to pray about them?
I've been battling a chronic neurological illness since 2001 for which there is currently no cure, yet I still pray for a cure because God=hope. I may never see a cure in my lifetime. Most with my illness get worse as they age. In 2010 I went to a support meeting in Philly and found myself surrounded by people who were living in misery, they were suffering. Many were disabled and could not work anymore. Many were heavily medicated. Some were just crying in absolute despair. A few had tried the option of brain surgery, experienced temporary relief and then felt pain again. After the meeting my husband and I got in the car, looked at each other and were like "well, that sure was depressing." It's no wonder they call it the suicide disease. I never went back.
I don't want to see my future through others eyes, I want to see my future through God's eyes. I want to remain faithful in my belief that he wants the best for me.
Steve Harvey says "your setback is a set up for your comeback." I may never understand some things that happen to me in this life, especially the really hard stuff. Yet I trust God with my life, in sacrificing his son he set us up for the ultimate comeback.
What battle are you fighting today? Will you allow God to be your sun and shield? Will you trust his direction for your comeback story?
I needed this Tara and am so thankful for both your words and your humor. I am in that "what do I pray for stage" after having some things that I thought were answers not be the answers at all. Again, thank you. And yes, sometimes God drops shoes or whirligigs or other things in our path or even better just uses those things to remind us we are being watched over.
I'll be praying for your journey friend.
Loved today's K-Love verse, thought you might too.
That tunnel can be so long and so dark and desperate. So thankful to know that God fills me with his light from within, mercifully leading me forward step by step, even when I can't see or am not sure of the right path.
There's freedom though You've captured me.
I've got joy instead of mourning.
Tara, this is so powerful, and really the gist of what it means to be a believer, in my eyes. Trust and faithful obedience. We do the work that He has for us to do, remaining as faithful as we can to abide in Him, and yeah, ask for His wisdom for HIS eyes to see, ears to hear, for the Holy Spirit to give us His heart. Thank you for sharing your testimony of His provision.
What I have learned, sometimes quite painfully, is that sometimes His provision and protection looks very much like a "no" to the prayers for which I have so diligently sought His help. That's when I have to tell myself that I'm only seeing a bit of the underside of the tapestry, and He everything in His mind's eye.
Love, this, Tara. I ask to see other's through God's eyes, but I've never asked to see me through his eyes.


text:
Efficient civil service crucial for national development –Osinbajo
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, has said that an efficient civil service is vital for national development and governance.
Osinbajo stated this on Monday at the commissioning of the new civil service secretariat complex in Asaba, Delta State capital, which was named after the Asagba of Asaba, Prof. Chike Edozien.
The Vice President, who was received at the Asaba airport by the Delta State Governor, Ifeanyi Okowa, noted at the secretariat that the commissioning was historic "because the seat of the civil service of any arm of government anywhere in the world is usually one of the major monuments enshrining not just the power, but also the splendour of the authority of government."
"This imposing complex clearly meets this requirement. In due course, such buildings become historical monuments," he said, according to a statement by his spokesman, Laolu Akande.
It was titled, 'An Efficient Civil Service Crucial For National Development, Governance – Osinbajo'.
The VP was quoted as saying, "Such a public service requires training, and capacity building but also workspaces that are well equipped, conducive, and inspirational. We have heard already how inspired the public servants today are and they are even spending long hours in the office. This is very commendable indeed. Public servants require environments that bring out the best in them. This secretariat complex will provide such an environment," he stated.
The VP, who described the new secretariat as a state-of-the-art, functional, and befitting secretariat complex, said it was befitting that the state decided to immortalize the name of one of Delta State's and Nigeria's most illustrious sons.
Democracy remains best system of establishing govts - Osinbajo
Osinbajo inaugurates fourth shared facility for MSMEs in Imo
Police celebrate as Head of Chamber becomes Senior Advocate of Nigeria
He also observed that the recognition the Delta State government has accorded Edozien would serve as an inspiration and a pointer to the kind of excellence required in public service.
"In naming this building after His Royal Majesty, you are not just celebrating a highly respected and deserving son of Delta State and Nigeria, you are also signalling the sort of excellence in public service that we wish to see incubated within this complex.
"But perhaps more importantly, you are saying to a generation, not old enough to be employed in the civil service today, that integrity, diligence, and service to community and country still pay. It is my hope that this place will, like the eminent personage after whom it is named, be a symbol of unity and distinction," the VP added,
He said the governor deserved commendation for being able to provide the funding for the laudable project "despite dwindling revenue receipts and severe resource constraints across all levels of government in our country."
Earlier, the Vice President had also commissioned an 8.5MW Power Plant with a 25km distribution network in Asaba right behind the new secretariat.
The Independent Power Project, which was jointly facilitated by the Delta State government and Bastanchury Power Solutions, is now providing 24/7 electricity supply to the State Government House and the Secretariat in Asaba.
Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo


The purpose of this qualitative, narrative study was to examine the stories of public elementary school teachers who hold doctorates and to discover what these stories tell about their understanding of education within the context of public schools. Specifically, investigation centered on reasons teachers in this group pursued doctorates. This study also examined the ways in which they describe their role as educators within the public school system; the ways in which they view their relationships with public school colleagues; and the ways in which the doctoral experience has influenced their beliefs about teaching, public schooling, and education. Participants included seven California elementary public school teachers who took part in two tape recorded interviews and contributed one story from their professional experience and/or a personal reflection on the interview process. Analysis of the data involved restorying the participants' stories, identifying segments of information, labeling the segments with codes that describe their meaning, grouping the codes into themes, and identifying examples from the data that supported the themes. Six themes emerged from the collected data: learning, connection and collaboration, conflict, leadership, satisfaction, and respect . The participants described their various learning experiences, how they connect and collaborate with others, the ways in which they experience conflict, the contexts in which they exhibit leadership skills, the circumstances that have brought about personal satisfaction, and the ways in which they have observed and experienced respect. Results revealed that the teachers pursued a doctorate in order to broaden their knowledge base and educational experience and that the doctoral experience has given them a broader perspective of education. They have assumed a leadership role within the public school system, and although they acknowledged that they have a different viewpoint of education and schooling than their colleagues, they see those with whom they work as valuable members of the school community. Implications from the results focused on the importance of change within the learning process and the responsibility of leadership that comes with advanced knowledge and experience.


text:
What's the long German word for shame?
September 22, 2015 by Eugene Wei
The scrubbing chemistry is also what gave away Volkswagen's alleged cover-up. In 2013, a small non-profit group decided to compare diesel emissions from European cars, which are notoriously high, with the US versions of the same vehicles. A team led by Drew Kodjak, executive director of the International Council on Clean Transportation, worked with emissions researchers at West Virginia University to test three four-cylinder 2.0-liter diesel cars in the Los Angeles area: a Jetta, a Passat, and a BMW. Only the BMW passed.
"We felt that it would be possible to get low emissions for diesels," Kodjak said. "You can imagine our surprise when we found two of the three vehicles had significant emissions."
The ICCT reported its findings to the EPA and the California Air Resources Board. Regulators met with VW officials in 2014 and the automaker agreed to fix the problem with a voluntary recall. But in July 2015, CARB did some follow up testing and again the cars failed—the scrubber technology was present, but off most of the time.
How this happened is pretty neat. Michigan's Stefanopolou says computer sensors monitored the steering column. Under normal driving conditions, the column oscillates as the driver negotiates turns. But during emissions testing, the wheels of the car move, but the steering wheel doesn't. That seems to have have been the signal for the "defeat device" to turn the catalytic scrubber up to full power, allowing the car to pass the test.
Clever detective work catching Volkswagen in this nefarious scheme. The Guardian does the math on the potential damage:
The rigging of emissions tests may have added nearly a million tonnes of air pollution by VW cars annually – roughly the same as the UK's combined emissions for all power stations, vehicles, industry and agriculture. According to a Guardian analysis, the 482,000 non-compliant US vehicles would have released between 10,392 and 41,571 tonnes of NOx annually at an average US mileage, rather than the 1,039 tonnes the EPA standards would imply. Scaled to the 11m global vehicles, that would mean up to 948,691 tonnes of NOx emissions annually. Western Europe's biggest power station, Drax in the UK, emits 39,000 tonnes of NOx each year.
Now some expert should translate that into a rough number of deaths or years of human life expunged. It's tantamount to indirect murder, and it's laughable that CEO Martin Winterkorn refuses to resign. It will be fascinating to see who concocted the scheme and how it was agreed upon.
At the very least, Winterkorn and others responsible should be forced to walk naked through the streets while people shout, "Shame! Shame! Shame!" and throw fruit at them.
UPDATE: Just a few hours after I posted this Winterkorn resigned. He maintains he had no idea of this scheme, and it's quite possible that's true. It will still be interesting to see just how the scheme was concocted and how it was approved and carried out without Winterkorn's knowledge. Breakdowns are often more revealing than successes.
September 22, 2015 /Eugene Wei
cars, automobiles
Ludicrous
July 20, 2015 by Eugene Wei
A few days ago Tesla Motors announced a new Ludicrous Mode for the Model S.
While working on our goal of making the power train last a million miles, we came up with the idea for an advanced smart fuse for the battery. Instead of a standard fuse that just melts past a certain amperage, requiring a big gap between the normal operating current and max current, we developed a fuse with its own electronics and a tiny lithium-ion battery. It constantly monitors current at the millisecond level and is pyro-actuated to cut power with extreme precision and certainty.
That was combined with upgrading the main pack contactor to use inconel (a high temperature space-grade superalloy) instead of steel, so that it remains springy under the heat of heavy current. The net result is that we can safely increase the max pack output from 1300 to 1500 Amps.
What this results in is a 10% improvement in the 0 to 60 mph time to 2.8 secs and a quarter mile time of 10.9 secs. Time to 155 mph is improved even more, resulting in a 20% reduction.
This option will cost $10k for new buyers. In appreciation of our existing P85D owners, the pack electronics upgrade needed for Ludicrous Mode will be offered for the next six months at only $5k plus installation labor.
You might wonder why Tesla would even bother releasing a $10,000 upgrade that buys you 0.3 seconds in your 0-60 time. Ludicrous indeed, right? I supposed it could be justified as just a publicity stunt, and it did garner more press than the other announcements they made, but I believe it just emphasizes just how critical it is to Tesla's success to show that going electric does not mean any sacrifice in performance. In many cases they now tout electric cars as a superior experience to ICE cars.
I don't think Tesla would have succeeded any other way except by starting with a high end performance car and then moving down market. At the time their first model the Roadster was released, electric cars were almost all hybrids, and the pure electric cars that were on the market had really low range, in the neighborhood of 80 miles on a full charge, so they were of necessity second or third cars for people with short commutes. The cars were very underpowered; it wasn't a stretch to say electric cars were like glorified go-carts.
There were very few public chargers, if any, and installing a charger at home was a costly upgrade from the electric company, if it was even available in your area. Electric cars were toys for a sliver of the wealthy.
The Roadster, but more the Model S, was the first electric car to credibly stand in as both a practical and sexy alternative to ICE cars. When it was first announced, there were still very few public chargers, and even today the public charging situation is meager when compared to the number of gas stations. Going electric would still be a sacrifice for many drivers today.
That is why the performance of the Model S in other respects was so critical. The battery life for high end models, around 260 miles on a full charge, was finally enough for more than just a short daily commute (it's not surprising to me at all that most of the sales of the Model S have been for the largest battery, to the point where they dropped the low end model). Battery life was critical to the first iPhone's appeal, and it's even more critical to electric cars because of the limited charging infrastructure.
The styling of the car was a fine balance between conservative and overly aggressive. No matter what you think of it, though, it didn't scream economy car like most compact electric cars before it. The designer came from a background designing European luxury cars, and the lines of the car evoked those more than boxy economy cars.
The 0-60 performance was a thrill then, and it's absurd now. Ludicrous, you might say. I test drove a P85D with insane mode turned on and the acceleration from a standing stop to 60 miles per hour was so extreme I felt dizzy and had to pull over for a few seconds to regain my equilibrium. It's like nothing you've ever felt before unless you're the circus clown they shoot out of a cannon. That so many YouTube videos showed the Model S dusting BMW's, Audi's, Porsches, Ferraris, and Lamborghinis on race tracks underlined the fact that you were sacrificing no performance whatsoever in going electric. In fact, you could now be the fastest kid on the block.
Add all of that up to other talking points like the giant touchscreen and ample storage space and what the Model S did was unlock the ability for relatively wealthy people to signal their concern for the environment without sacrificing anything in driving performance or personal style. It's an expensive signal, but as any knowledgeable sociologist or economist might tell you, the more extreme the signal, the clearer the signal. Driving a Ferrari down the street is a clearer signal than a BMW. The giant tail feathers of a peacock? Ludicrous, perhaps, but a very efficient signal.
Before the Tesla, owning an electric car marked you as an eccentric, a hippie even. Tesla singlehandedly changed the signaling potential of the entire electric car category.
Given the unfriendly car charging context into which Tesla had to launch its electric cars, this is not a market where low end disruption would have worked. The cost of batteries just didn't put that type of price/performance strategy in play. Tesla shook up the market by attacking the high end, luxury car market, just as they had to, and to compete in that segment, sometimes you have to pull up along side the ICE sports car at the stoplight and blow it off the line. Sometimes, the way to achieve escape velocity is by achieving a lot of velocity.
July 20, 2015 /Eugene Wei
tesla, automobiles, cars, signaling
Robots taking all the jobs, cont.
February 16, 2015 by Eugene Wei
By studying the brains of drivers when they were negotiating a race-track, the scientists were intrigued to find that during the most complex tasks, the experts used less brain power. They appeared to be acting on instinct and muscle memory rather than using judgement as a computer programme would.
"It looks as if the skilled race car drivers are able to control their cars with very little cognitive load," said Prof Gerdes.
Mr Vodden agreed saying in difficult manouvres experience kicked in. "If you're thinking you're going too slow."
You'd think from that excerpt that the human driver remains superior, but it turns out the driverless car beat the track champion by 0.4 seconds on a track in Northern California.
One race track, the worlds' greatest driver (whoever is the Michael Schumacher of the moment) versus the best computer driver. I don't enjoy watching auto racing on TV, but I'd watch one that pits man and machine against machine and machine.
One more wrinkle for AI to learn: how and when to cheat.
In the race between Shelley and Mr Vodden, the racing driver left the track at a sharp corner, rejoining the race ahead of the robot car.
"What we're doing as humans we're weighting a number of different things," added Prof Gerdes.
"We're not driving within the lines, we're balancing our desire to follow the law with other things such as our desire for mobility and safety.
"If we really want to get to the point where we can have a car that will drive as well as the very best drivers with the car control skills and also the judgment it seems to me that we really need to have a societal discussion about what are the different priorities we place on mobility and safety on judgement and following the law."
February 16, 2015 /Eugene Wei
robots, AI, cars
Adventures in teaching self-driving cars
December 07, 2013 by Eugene Wei
For complicated moves like that, Thrun's team often started with machine learning, then reinforced it with rule-based programming—a superego to control the id. They had the car teach itself to read street signs, for instance, but they underscored that knowledge with specific instructions: "stop" means stop. If the car still had trouble, they'd download the sensor data, replay it on the computer, and fine-tune the response. Other times, they'd run simulations based on accidents documented by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. A mattress falls from the back of a truck. Should the car swerve to avoid it or plow ahead? How much advance warning does it need? What if a cat runs into the road? A deer? A child? These were moral questions as well as mechanical ones, and engineers had never had to answer them before. The darpa cars didn't even bother to distinguish between road signs and pedestrians—or "organics," as engineers sometimes call them. They still thought like machines.
Four-way stops were a good example. Most drivers don't just sit and wait their turn. They nose into the intersection, nudging ahead while the previous car is still passing through. The Google car didn't do that. Being a law-abiding robot, it waited until the crossing was completely clear—and promptly lost its place in line. "The nudging is a kind of communication," Thrun told me. "It tells people that it's your turn. The same thing with lane changes: if you start to pull into a gap and the driver in that lane moves forward, he's giving you a clear no. If he pulls back, it's a yes. The car has to learn that language."
From Burkhard Bilger's New Yorker piece on Google's self-driving car. The engineering issues they've had to deal with are fascinating.
As many have noted, legal or regulatory risk may be the largest obstacle to seeing self-driving cars on our roads in volume. To counter that, I hypothesize that all self-driving will ship with a black box, like airplanes, and that all the cameras will record a continuous feed of video, that keeps overwriting itself, maybe a loop of the most recent 30 minutes of driving at all times, along with key sensor readings. That way if someone sees the self-driving sensor on a car they can't just back into the self-driving car or hurtle themselves across a windshield just to get a big settlement from Google.
In fact, as sensors and video recording devices come down in cost, it may become law that all cars come with such accessories, self-driving or not, making it much easier to determine fault in car accidents. The same cost/weight improvements in video tech may make it so Amazon drones are also equipped with a continuously recording video camera, the better for determining who may have brought it down with a rock to steal its payload.
Perhaps Google will take the continuous video feeds as a crowd-sourced way to update its street maps. That leads, of course, to the obvious drawback to such a scenario, the privacy concerns over how Google would use the data and video from the cars. That's a cultural issue and seems more tenable than the legal one, however.
December 07, 2013 /Eugene Wei
google, cars, selfdrivingcars, law
The cost of commuting
There is a clear connection between social deficit and the shape of cities. A Swedish study found that people who endure more than a 45-minute commute were 40% more likely to divorce. People who live in monofunctional, car‑dependent neighbourhoods outside urban centres are much less trusting of other people than people who live in walkable neighbourhoods where housing is mixed with shops, services and places to work.
A couple of University of Zurich economists, Bruno Frey and Alois Stutzer, compared German commuters' estimation of the time it took them to get to work with their answers to the standard wellbeing question, "How satisfied are you with your life, all things considered?"
Their finding was seemingly straightforward: the longer the drive, the less happy people were. Before you dismiss this as numbingly obvious, keep in mind that they were testing not for drive satisfaction, but for life satisfaction. People were choosing commutes that made their entire lives worse. Stutzer and Frey found that a person with a one-hour commute has to earn 40% more money to be as satisfied with life as someone who walks to the office. On the other hand, for a single person, exchanging a long commute for a short walk to work has the same effect on happiness as finding a new love.
Daniel Gilbert, Harvard psychologist and author of Stumbling On Happiness, explained the commuting paradox this way: "Most good and bad things become less good and bad over time as we adapt to them. However, it is much easier to adapt to things that stay constant than to things that change. So we adapt quickly to the joy of a larger house, because the house is exactly the same size every time. But we find it difficult to adapt to commuting by car, because every day is a slightly new form of misery."
Much more here. The irony of my move from Los Angeles to San Francisco has been an enormous lengthening of my commute, it's the longest of my life, and I feel that pain acutely. LA is legendary for its bad traffic, yet the overall lower cost of living in that region makes it far easier to live closer to where you work which is ultimately what matters the most. The quest to get from the West Side to downtown during rush hour in Los Angeles is actually much less painful and long than having to drive up the 101 to San Francisco from the Peninsula during rush hour.
Most days I take the Caltrain, but again, it's the variability of the service that drives me crazy, to Daniel Gilbert's point. At least once or twice a month, something catastrophic causes train service to just dry up for several hours, leaving you stranded. Often it's because of a suicide, at other times it's a car that gets hit, or a power line that falls, or something else you would think would be a rare black swan event. And then your evening is shot, your dinner date left to make alternative plans, unless you pony up for a $90 to $100 taxi or Uber up to the city, but oh wait, the traffic on the 101 means you won't make it on time anyway.
It's difficult to judge what it's like to live in a city just by visiting as a tourist. It wasn't until I'd lived in NYC for a year that I realized it's a far better city to live in than to visit, contrary to popular wisdom. The same is true of Los Angeles, where most natives know when to avoid certain highways at certain times, spending more time in their neighborhood.
For all the good that cities have brought to the U.S., they fail miserably, with the exception of New York, on the quality of public transportation. At least 30% of my pleasure in visiting cities in Europe is being in an environment that makes me, as a pedestrian, first among citizens. American cities were built up in the age of the automobile, and that metallic beast has taken control of our cities in a way that may not be overturned in our lifetime.
It may be that China is where we see some of the greatest innovation on this urban planning dilemma. For one thing, their hand may be forced by the shockingly high levels of pollution in their largest cities. They also face a huge migration of people from rural to urban areas, probably the largest in human history. Combine that with a form of government that has much more freedom to impose its will in matters great and small and you have the potential for a new type of city to be erected, one that is built around direct human mobility rather than transportation by automobile.
urbanplanning, sf, la, cities, cars
Baby steps towards self-driving cars
January 02, 2013 by Eugene Wei
My brother has a new Mercedes GL that I rode in over the holiday break. One feature I thought was very clever was a triangular light on either side mirror that would light up if another car was in the blind spot. If you don't look over your shoulders and only glance at your side mirrors when changing lanes, it's a useful, if not life-saving feature.
That's among several innovative safety features available for the GL like auto braking and lane integrity maintenance, though many come only as paid add-ons. None of these will approach Google's self-driving cars in terms of impact on the world, but it's good to see car manufacturers innovating on safety by assisting humans with active disaster avoidance technology.
Incidentally, I saw my first Google self-driving car today as I came out of lunch. It was parked at the curb just outside Marlowe in SOMA. I have no idea if it drove itself there. It had a camera mounted on its roof that was spinning rapidly, perhaps serving as one of its eyes. Some are intrigued by Google Glasses, but I find self-driving cars to be Google's most compelling project. The global impact of self-driving cars will be many times greater.
January 02, 2013 /Eugene Wei
technology, safety, cars, driving
October 24, 2012 by Eugene Wei
Certainly, moving the emissions from the vehicle's exhaust pipe to the power station makes it easier to control the pollution. So, the question becomes whether there is a more efficient way of packaging electricity for use in vehicles, other than charging batteries or making hydrogen by electrolysis of water?
A growing body of opinion seems to think liquid air is the answer (or, more specifically, the nitrogen component that makes up 78% of air).
Overview of a potentially viable alternative to batteries or hydrogen to power emission-free vehicles. As a bonus, liquid nitrogen can be used to make some crazy modern dishes in the kitchen.
October 24, 2012 /Eugene Wei
environment, cars


Imagine a violinist who can "draw a sumptuous tone" from her instrument, "with a sound reminiscent of Perlman." A violinist whose playing "rises to considerable technical challenges" and communicates "heartfelt declamation." These quotes are statements made in print by music critics about violinist Tami Lee Hughes, whose innovative program The Legacy Show comes to UTC on Feb. 8, 2018, at 7:30 p.m. in Roland Hayes Concert Hall.
The Legacy Show pairs music with poetry and visual images, touching on various styles, from spirituals and gospel to jazz, blues, hip-hop, and classical. Composers and arrangers include Duke Ellington and Francis "Frank" Johnson—who was the most popular dance band leader and cornetist in Philadelphia in the early-mid-1800s—as well as living composers who draw on various popular music genres. Poets include James Weldon Johnson, Langston Hughes, Maya Angelou, and others. All of the performing and creative artists included in the program are African-American.
Ms. Hughes' solo album Legacy: Violin Music of African-American Composers was named one of the top ten albums of 2011 by "All Music Guide," and has been broadcast via radio around the world. Her musical influences include artists such as Ella Fitzgerald, Mahalia Jackson, and Lena Horne, as well as major figures in Classical music. She has performed at Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center with the celebrated Sphinx Virtuosi Chamber Ensemble. Additionally, she has credits in popular music, film, and television.
Tami Lee Hughes will be joined by pianist Byron Burford-Phearse, who has performed across the USA and internationally, including in Paris as part of the European American Musical Alliance. He has collaborated with several critically acclaimed singers and many instrumentalists. Both Ms. Hughes and Mr. Burford-Phearse have impeccable educational credentials.
The Legacy Show at UTC is sponsored by Dr. Jonathan McNair, The Ruth S. Holmberg Professor of American Music, in cooperation with the UTC Dept. of English and the UTC Honors College.


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