task=user&id=388465 "who done it." Often an framer would create a detective who would intelligently clarify the puzzle. The done detective would be utilized in contrasting stories.
_k2&view=itemlist&task=user&id=304528 "who done it." Habitually an framer would create a detective who would intelligently disentangle the puzzle. The for all that detective would be acclimatized in contrasting stories.
user&id=47448 "who done it." On numerous occasions an author would originate a detective who would intelligently clarify the puzzle. The done detective would be familiar in different stories.
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mlist&task=user&id=316326 "who done it." On numerous occasions an inventor would contrive a detective who would intelligently solve the puzzle. The for all that detective would be familiar in different stories.
ser&id=140890 "who done it." Habitually an framer would originate a detective who would intelligently disentangle the puzzle. The yet detective would be acclimatized in contrasting stories.
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d=24644 "who done it." On numerous occasions an inventor would create a detective who would intelligently clarify the puzzle. The for all that detective would be used in contrastive stories.
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ask=user&id=37974 "who done it." On numerous occasions an prime mover would create a detective who would intelligently disentangle the puzzle. The done detective would be acclimatized in contrasting stories.
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&view=itemlist&task=user&id=11456 "who done it." On numerous occasions an author would contrive a detective who would intelligently disentangle the puzzle. The same detective would be used in contrasting stories.


text:
GAME INFORMER Top 10 List
The editors of Game Informer rank the Top 10 games for November 2013:
The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds (3DS, 2DS)
Grand Theft Auto V (PS3, Xbox 360)
XCOM: Enemy Within (PS3, Xbox 360 , PC)
Lego Marvel Super Heroes (PS4, Xbox One, Wii U, PS3, Xbox 360, Wii)
Battlefield 4 (PS4, PS3, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PC)
Batman: Arkham Origins (Wii U, PS3, Xbox 360, PC)
Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag (PS4, Xbox One, Wii U, PS3, Xbox 360, PC)
Pokémon X & Y (3DS)
Call of Duty: Ghosts (PS4, Xbox One, Wii U, PS3, Xbox 360, PC)
NBA 2k14 (PS3, Xbox 360)
Game Informer Top 10 is compiled weekly by the editors of Game Informer magazine, the largest computer and video game magazine worldwide. For up to the minute gaming news and information, visit Game Informer.
© Copyright 2019 Game Informer. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge Becomes a Live-In Video Game With Disney Parks App
Air Force 1st Lieutenant Beats 4-Star Dad in Livestreamed Dogfight Game
Score a win for the Viper pilot in the battle over which Air Force fourth-generation aircraft brings the heat.
'Super Mario Maker 2' Gives Aspiring Game Designers a Richer Canvas
It performs a delicate balancing act that gives players more tools without making the creation process overwhelming.
Anthony Davis, Dwyane Wade to Cover NBA 2K20 Video Game
Anthony Davis will be the cover athlete for the second time of a popular 2K Sports basketball video game.
Military Trivia Game
Apple TV's Upcoming Space Exploration Show is Aimed at Alternate History Fans
It's Been 35 Years Since Matthew Modine's Breakthrough Military Role in 'Birdy'
PBS Investigates How the USA Won the Space Race in 'Chasing the Moon'
U.S. Marine Rob Riggle's New Mini-Golf Show Is So Extra It's Perfect
Director John Herzfeld, Son of WWII Vet, Joins Stallone for 'Escape Plan' Sequel

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Q: Apple in app purchase verify receipt returning xml All of sudden https://buy.itunes.apple.com/verifyReceipt  is now returning an xml response intermittently.  Sandbox mode isn't doing this.  It looks like api docs a plist wsdl if you will.  Anyone else seeing responses like this:
HTTP/1.1 200 Apple WebObjects
Content-Length: 5782
x-apple-jingle-correlation-key: JI6NEX6V3DMRO
pod: 51
x-apple-orig-url-path: /verifyReceipt
x-apple-request-store-front: <null>
x-apple-translated-wo-url: /verifyReceipt
x-set-apple-store-front: 143441-1,8
x-apple-application-site: ST11
edge-control: no-store, cache-maxage=0
Set-Cookie: Pod=51; version="1"; expires=Fri, 19-Apr-2013 23:38:52 GMT; path=/;            domain=.apple.com, mzf_in=510546; version="1"; path=/WebObjects; domain=.apple.com; secure, mzf_odc=ST1; version="1"; expires=Wed, 20-Mar-2013 00:08:52 GMT; path=/WebObjects; domain=.apple.com, mzf_dr=0; version="1"; expires=Thu, 01-Jan-1970 00:00:00 GMT; path=/WebObjects; domain=.apple.com
 apple-timing-app: 5 ms
 Cache-Control: private, no-cache, no-store, no-transform, must-revalidate, max-age=0
 x-apple-asset-version: 0
 Expires: Tue, 19 Mar 2013 23:38:52 GMT
 Content-Type: text/xml; charset=UTF-8
 x-apple-lokamai-no-cache: true
 x-apple-date-generated: Tue, 19 Mar 2013 23:38:52 GMT
 x-apple-application-instance: 510546
 Pragma: no-cache
 x-webobjects-loadaverage: 30
 Date: Tue, 19 Mar 2013 23:38:52 GMT

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?>

<Document xmlns="http://www.apple.com/itms/">

<Protocol>
    <plist version="1.0">
        <dict>
            <key>jingleDocType</key><string>initiateSecureSessionSuccess</string>
            <key>jingleAction</key><string>initiateSecureSession</string>
            <key>urlBag</key>
            <dict>
                    <key>authenticateAccount</key><string>https://buy.itunes.apple.com/verifyReceipt/MZFinance.woa/wa/authenticate</string>
<key>iPhoneActivation</key><string>https://albert.apple.com/verifyReceipt/ALActivation.woa/wa/iPhoneRegistration</string>
<key>device-activation</key><string>https://albert.apple.com/verifyReceipt/ALActivation.woa/wa/deviceActivation</string>
<key>carrierDeviceInfo</key><string>https://albert.apple.com/verifyReceipt/ALActivation.woa/wa/carrierDeviceInfo</string>
<key>authorizeMachine</key><string>https://buy.itunes.apple.com/verifyReceipt/MZFinance.woa/wa/authorizeMachine</string>
<key>buyProduct</key><string>https://buy.itunes.apple.com/verifyReceipt/MZFinance.woa/wa/buyProduct</string>
<key>buyCart</key><string>https://buy.itunes.apple.com/verifyReceipt/MZFinance.woa/wa/buyCart</string>
<key>deauthorizeMachine</key><string>https://buy.itunes.apple.com/verifyReceipt/MZFinance.woa/wa/deauthorizeMachine</string>
<key>machineAuthorizationInfo</key><string>https://buy.itunes.apple.com/verifyReceipt/MZFastFinance.woa/wa/machineAuthorizationInfo</string>
<key>modifyAccount</key><string>https://buy.itunes.apple.com/verifyReceipt/MZFinance.woa/wa/accountSummary</string>
<key>pendingSongs</key><string>https://buy.itunes.apple.com/verifyReceipt/MZFinance.woa/wa/pendingSongs</string>
<key>signup</key><string>https://buy.itunes.apple.com/verifyReceipt/MZFinance.woa/wa/signupWizard</string>
<key>songDownloadDone</key><string>https://buy.itunes.apple.com/verifyReceipt/MZFastFinance.woa/wa/songDownloadDone</string>
<key>forgottenPassword</key><string>https://buy.itunes.apple.com/verifyReceipt/MZFinance.woa/wa/iForgot</string>
<key>myInfo</key><string>https://appleid.apple.com/</string>
<key>noAOLAccounts</key><false/>
<key>logout</key><string>https://buy.itunes.apple.com/verifyReceipt/MZFinance.woa/wa/logout</string>
<key>addToCart</key><string>https://buy.itunes.apple.com/verifyReceipt/MZFinance.woa/wa/addToCart</string>
<key>removeFromCart</key><string>https://buy.itunes.apple.com/verifyReceipt/MZFinance.woa/wa/removeFromCart</string>
<key>shoppingCart</key><string>https://buy.itunes.apple.com/verifyReceipt/MZFinance.woa/wa/shoppingCart</string>
<key>bcURLs</key><array><string>http://.phobos.apple.com</string><string>http://www.atdmt.com</string></array>
<key>reportPodcast</key><string>https://buy.itunes.apple.com/verifyReceipt/MZFinance.woa/wa/reportPodcast</string>
<key>check-download-queue</key><string>https://buy.itunes.apple.com/verifyReceipt/MZFinance.woa/wa/checkDownloadQueue</string>
<key>set-auto-download</key><string>https://buy.itunes.apple.com/verifyReceipt/MZFinance.woa/wa/setAutoDownload</string>
<key>new-ipod-user</key><string>https://buy.itunes.apple.com/verifyReceipt/MZFinance.woa/wa/iPodRegistration</string>
<key>new-tv-user</key><string>https://buy.itunes.apple.com/verifyReceipt/MZFinance.woa/wa/iTVRegistration</string>
<key>md5-mismatch</key><string>https://buy.itunes.apple.com/verifyReceipt/MZFinance.woa/wa/md5Mismatch</string>
<key>report-error</key><string>https://buy.itunes.apple.com/verifyReceipt/MZFinance.woa/wa/reportErrorFromClient</string>
<key>updateAsset</key><string>https://buy.itunes.apple.com/verifyReceipt/MZFinance.woa/wa/updateAsset</string>
<key>create-token</key><string>https://buy.itunes.apple.com/verifyReceipt/MZFinance.woa/wa/createToken</string>
<key>create-session</key><string>https://buy.itunes.apple.com/verifyReceipt/MZFinance.woa/wa/createSession</string>

    <key>digital-copy</key><string>https://buy.itunes.apple.com/verifyReceipt/MZFinance.woa/wa/digitalCopyWizard</string>

<key>p2-redemption</key><string>https://buy.itunes.apple.com/verifyReceipt/MZFinance.woa/wa/p2RedeemCode</string>
<key>p2-redeem-service-terms-url</key><string>http://www.apple.com/legal/itunes/ww/</string>
<key>pendingApps</key><string>https://buy.itunes.apple.com/verifyReceipt/MZFinance.woa/wa/pendingApps</string>
<key>checkAppQueue</key><string>https://buy.itunes.apple.com/verifyReceipt/MZFinance.woa/wa/checkAppDownloadQueue</string>
<key>marketing-action</key><string>https://buy.itunes.apple.com/verifyReceipt/MZFinance.woa/wa/viewMarketingPage</string>

  <key>mint-offers</key><string>https://buy.itunes.apple.com/verifyReceipt/MZFinance.woa/wa/presentOffers</string>
  <key>mint-account</key><string>https://buy.itunes.apple.com/verifyReceipt/MZFinance.woa/wa/accountSummary</string>
  <key>mint-account-fragment</key><string>https://buy.itunes.apple.com/verifyReceipt/MZFinance.woa/wa/accountSummaryFragment</string>

<key>uploadPublishedPlaylist</key><string>https://buy.itunes.apple.com/verifyReceipt/MZFinance.woa/wa/uploadPublishedPlayList</string>
<key>giftPlaylist</key><string>https://buy.itunes.apple.com/verifyReceipt/MZFinance.woa/wa/giftSongsWizard</string>
<key>give-playlist</key><string>https://buy.itunes.apple.com/verifyReceipt/MZFinance.woa/wa/giftSongsWizard</string>

  <key>adopt-product</key><string>https://buy.itunes.apple.com/verifyReceipt/MZFinance.woa/wa/adoptProduct</string>

            </dict>
        </dict>
    </plist>
</Protocol>

</Document>

A: This is a problem with the production verifyReceipt service.
File a DTS ticket to let them know about the issue.  I'm certain they're working on it right now.
My server records show that the number of requests returning XML has gone down over the past hour.

A: Apple's official answer

A technical issue occurred that has now been resolved- we apologize for the inconvenience. Further details cannot be provided at this time.

Appears to be working fine today, must have been a bad deploy.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The pace of the euro zone's economic contraction slowed quarter-on-quarter in the first three months of this year, EU statistics showed on Wednesday, but retail sales in April pointed to continued weakness in household demand.
The European Union's statistics office confirmed its earlier estimates that gross domestic product in the 17 countries using the euro fell 0.2 percent quarter-on-quarter in the January-March period, for a 1.1 percent year-on-year contraction.
That came after a 0.6 percent decline in euro zone quarterly output in the previous three months.
"The euro zone remains stuck in recession, despite some signs that the recession is easing a bit," said Jonathan Loynes, chief European economist at Capital Economics.
The smaller fall in the first quarter of 2013 was mainly thanks to a stabilization of inventories and household demand, which, unlike in the previous three months, did not weigh down the overall result.
But retail sales data, a proxy for consumer demand, fell more than expected in April, pointing to continued weakness of private consumption at the start of the second quarter.
Economists said that was to be expected given record high unemployment of 12.2 percent.
"Consumers are still doing little to help the euro zone return to growth, which is little surprise given the pressure they are under in a number of countries from high and rising unemployment and limited purchasing power," said Howard Archer, economist at IHS Global Insight.
Retail sales in the euro zone fell 0.5 percent month-on-month in April for a 1.1 percent year-on-year decline. Economists polled by Reuters had expected only a 0.1 percent monthly fall and a 0.8 percent annual contraction.
Eurostat GDP data showed there was a 0.1 percentage point positive contribution to the overall result from euro zone net trade in the first three months of the year - but only because imports declined more than exports, another signal of very weak domestic demand.
The positive net trade was, however, more than offset by a sharp fall in investment, which subtracted 0.3 percentage points from the overall final figure, leaving it at -0.2 percent.
The contribution from government spending, constrained by fiscal consolidation to regain market confidence in euro zone public finances, was zero, for the third quarter running.
Economists noted that private investment, especially in southern Europe where the recession was the deepest, was constrained by expensive credit to companies, as banks there are reluctant to lend to firms despite record low ECB lending rates.
Such tight credit conditions in the south of the continent are now a top policy challenge for the euro zone.
The European Commission expects the euro zone to start growing again on a quarterly basis already from the second quarter, with a 0.1 percent quarterly expansion forecast.
And the European Central Bank also expects the euro zone to start growing later this year.
"The economic situation in the euro area remains challenging but there are a few signs of a possible stabilization, and our baseline scenario continues to be one of a very gradual recovery starting in the latter part of this year," ECB President Mario Draghi said on Monday.
But economists were less upbeat.
"We don't really think there will be a gradual recovery in the second half of the year. The ECB's view is optimistic, this is mainly based by expectation of external developments in the world," said Capital Economics' Loynes.
"The reality is that a large chunk of the euro zone is stuck in recession because of the combination of impacts of the fiscal consolidation combined with structural deficits in competitiveness," he added.


When I started working at the retirement resort I thought I would get a lot of reading done. Yep. It was a "transition" job, in between none and no prospects. It has ended up being one of the best learning experiences for me – and humbling as well. The swing shift has always been my favorite because I get several hours of talking with people – a good social time for a mother who hears the words "poo-poo" and "no!" way too often – and several hours of solitude where I can read and write. The idea's for my children's books took root in the wee hours of darkness when I got so bored I thought I would dredge my green writing skills from the depths of my "no way is that possible" files. While I was etching out these stories, a few real ones played out in the fire lit lobby.
Paul liked to talk about people and what screw-ups they were. All gossip was said with a grin – nothing was edited or glossed over for propriety's sake. His world was black and white, including his t-shirts that illustrated his sarcasm.
Cliff and Paul liked to chit chat at my reception desk, often competing with each other for attention. If they were 50 years younger, I'm sure they would have approached each other from opposite sides of the tracks with tires spinning and a date for a fight.
But since life had weighed their legs heavy and stride slow, they decided a standing contest was in order. Standing contest. Whoever could stand up the longest won.
They started with grins and square (ish) shoulders, insults and jokes were thrown back and forth. I could see the energy waning as Paul leaned a shoulder against the supply closet. Cliff rested half a green-encased gluteus maximous on my desk. Shoulders slouched and trembles took over until Cliff announced his need to check on his apartment. Paul gloated as he collapsed onto his walker. It's always the scrappy ones.
Donna and Odell taught me that passions never fade. They were best friends who always graced me with an evening of the latest gossip, dinner menu's and stories of their youth. Donna laughed about her hair turning white in her 20's and Odell told me about the wagon she traveled in as a child. They also loved to hang out in the lobby whenever the firefighters came to assist a paramedic team. Smiles as wide as the ambulance, eyes roaming over boots and logos. I'm sure I saw them drool over a tall mustached uniform more than once.
So despite my thoughts on having a job instead of a career, I learned that life flows with a force strong and lovely in the old as well as the young, in the healthy, in the sick, and with those who wear shorts that could be seen from the moon.
God doesn't abandon His people. He works with you in whatever season you're walking through. Bernita taught me that.
Learned something awesome when you thought you were stuck? Tell us in the comments.


text:
Blue Cross Michigan Hit With Flurry of ERISA Lawsuits
From Pension & Benefits Daily
Pension & Benefits Daily™ covers all major legislative, regulatory, legal, and industry developments in the area of employee benefits every business day, focusing on actions by Congress,…
By Jacklyn Wille
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan has been sued more than 30 times in the past week by employers that say the insurer skimmed unauthorized fees from their health plans.
The lawsuits, filed between Aug. 9 and 11 in federal court in Michigan, accuse Blue Cross of charging hidden and unauthorized fees to the employers' health plan assets as a means of improving its financial position without alienating customers. The lawsuits build from a 2014 appeals court decision holding Blue Cross liable for this conduct under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act and upholding a $6 million judgment against the insurer.
Since that 2014 decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, more than 200 ERISA cases have accused Blue Cross of charging hidden health plan fees. Two Michigan-based law firms are spearheading this recent flurry of lawsuits: Varnum LLP and Michigan Health Lawyers. The employers suing Blue Cross include a car dealer, a plastics manufacturer, an auto parts maker, and acollege, among others.
Also available on Bloomberg Law
Bloomberg Law®, an integrated legal research and business intelligence solution, combines trusted news and analysis with cutting-edge technology to provide legal professionals tools to be proactive advisors.
This recent spate of lawsuits is partly in response to a deadline identified by a district court, Aaron Phelps, a partner with Varnum LLP in Grand Rapids, Mich., who filed several of the recent lawsuits, told Bloomberg BNA. That court held that lawsuits based on this purported scheme would be timely "until at least" Aug. 12 of this year, Phelps said.
Even so, Phelps said he didn't believe the statute of limitations has expired on these claims. He said his firm, which has represented more than 200 businesses bringing claims against Blue Cross, would "continue to recover the fraudulent overcharges into the future."
Blue Cross' conduct affected "hundreds, if not thousands, of businesses," Phelps added.
Blue Cross didn't respond to Bloomberg BNA's request for comment.
Many of these newer lawsuits claim to be "nearly identical" to the allegations found to be valid by the Sixth Circuit and other courts. Specifically, the insurer is accused of adopting a scheme to improve its financial position by adding surcharges to the fees it charged health plans. When these surcharges proved unpopular and caused the insurer to lose customers in the late 1980s, Blue Cross in 1993 replaced the disclosed fees with hidden markups no longer visible to customers, the lawsuits claim.
In allowing lawsuits to proceed against Blue Cross many years after the fees were issued and capable of being discovered, the Sixth Circuit said that the insurer's acts of concealment warranted extending the relevant statute of limitations.
To contact the reporter on this story: Jacklyn Wille in Washington atjwille@bna.com
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jo-el J. Meyer atjmeyer@bna.com
Copyright © 2017 The Bureau of National Affairs, Inc. All Rights Reserved.


text:
PHP Internals News: Episode 53: Constructor Property Promotion
Thursday, May 14th 2020, 09:16 BST
In this episode of "PHP Internals News" I chat with Nikita Popov (Twitter, GitHub, Website) about the Constructor Property Promotion RFC.
The RSS feed for this podcast is https://derickrethans.nl/feed-phpinternalsnews.xml, you can download this episode's MP3 file, and it's available on Spotify and iTunes. There is a dedicated website: https://phpinternals.news
Derick Rethans 0:16
Hi, I'm Derick. And this is PHP internals news, a weekly podcast dedicated to demystifying the development of the PHP language. This is Episode 53. Today I'm talking with Nikita Popov about a few RFCs that he's made in the last few weeks. Let's start with the constructor property promotion RFC.
Nikita Popov 0:36
Hello Nikita, would you please introduce yourself? Hi, Derick. I am Nikita and I am doing PHP internals work at JetBrains and the constructor promotion, constructor property promotion RFC is the result of some discussion about how we can improve object ergonomics in PHP.
Object economics. It's something that I spoke with Larry Garfield about two episodes ago, where we discuss Larry's proposal or overview of what can be improved with object ergonomics in PHP. And I think we mentioned that you just landed this RFC that we're now talking about. What is the part of the object ergonomics proposal that this RFC is trying to solve?
I mean, the basic problem we have right now is that it's a bit more inconvenient than it really should be to use simple value objects in PHP. And there is two sides to that problem. One is on the side of writing the class declaration, and the other part is on the side of instantiating the object. This RFC tries to make the class declaration simpler, and shorter, and less redundant.
At the moment, how would a typical class instantiation constructor look like?
Right now, if we take simple examples from the RFC, we have a class Point, which has three properties, x, y, and Zed. And each of those has a float type. And that's really all the class is. Ideally, this is all we would have to write. But of course, to make this object actually usable, we also have to provide a constructor. And the constructor is going to repeat that. Yes, we want to accept three floating point numbers x, y, and Zed as parameters. And then in the body, we have to again repeat that, okay, each of those parameters needs to be assigned to a property. So we have to write this x equals x, this y equals y, this z equals z. I think for the Point class this is still not a particularly large burden. Because we have like only three properties. The names are nice and short. The types are really short. We don't have to write a lot of code, but if you have larger classes with more properties, with more constructor arguments, with larger and more descriptive names, and also larger and more descriptive type names, then this makes up for quite a bit of boilerplate code.
Because you're pretty much having the properties' names in there three times.
Four times even. One is the property name and the declaration, one in the parameter, and then you have to the assignment has to repeat it twice.
You're repeating the property names four times, and the types twice.
What is the syntax that you're proposing to improve this?
The syntax is to merge the constructor and the property declarations. So you only declare the constructor and you add an extra visibility keyword in front of the normal parameter name. So instead of accepting float x in the constructor, you accept public float x. And what this shorthand syntax does is to also generate the corresponding property. So you're declaring a property public float x. And to also implicitly perform this assignment in the constructor body. So to assign this x equals x, and this is really all it does. So it's just syntax sugar. It's a simple syntactic transformation that we're doing. But that reduces the amount of boilerplate code you have to write for value objects in particular, because for those commonly, you don't really need much more than your properties and the constructor.
Besides public, I suppose you can also use protected and private there as well.
That's right. So you can use all the visibility modifiers. Well, public protected private, static does not really make sense. But if we add other modifiers in the future, then those could be used there as well for example, if we add support for read only properties, then of course, you could also write public readonly float x or something.
The RFC talks about desugaring. How's this implemented? Is this transformation on in the AST, or in another way?
This is not an AST transform, but I would say close enough. So we just generate the corresponding property declarations and assignments in the compiler. If you inspect the AST with an extension like PHP AST, you will see the code as written. So with the public in front of the parameter name, but if you inspect the code in reflection, then it will look as if you declared the property explicitly.
So the RFC talks about a few constraints and what you can and cannot do with those promoted properties. One of the things it talks about is nullability.
Well, we have two different nullability semantics in PHP for historical reasons. One is in parameters, where we say, if you use a type that is not explicitly nullable, but you have a null default value, then we make the type implicitly nullable. While for property types, which are newer, we no longer have this implicit behaviour. So if you want to have a nullable property, you do need to explicitly mark it as nullable. Just using a null default value on will result in an error. And the handling is the same here. So if you want to have a nullable promoted property, you have to mark it as nullable
And you cannot just rely on setting the default to null?
Exactly, but I think it's like detail. And really this could go either way. I just prefer the explicit nullability because this seems like the direction we are going to in the future. I don't know if we will ever remove this implicit behaviour. Maybe not. But I think nowadays explicit one is preferred.
Less magic is better.
Less magic, exactly.
The RFC also has like constraints in there. You can also define a constructor in traits and abstract classes. Can you also use a constructor property promotion there as well?.
In traits? Yes, I mean in traits, using it will be a little bit weird. But there is no reason why it can't work. After all traits can have a constructor that will be used in the using class. And traits can also have properties that get imported. So the same mechanism works there as well. It does not work for abstract constructors or constructors in interfaces. The syntax also implies that you have some assignments inside the body of the constructor, and if we have an abstract constructor, then we could not emit these assignments anywhere. We could support it as a special case, like saying that it only declares the properties but skips those assignments. But I know how often you've used abstract constructors, I probably used them like maybe once or twice in all my time working with PHP. So either they really need extra support in that area.
It would also then introduce an inconsistency were promoted properties in abstract classes or abstract class constructors if that's the thing, would be different from normal class constructor property promotion. How does the inheritance work? Is the working in the same way or is there no specific difference in it?
Based on like discussion feedback, I think inheritance is the largest point of confusion with this syntax. The thing is that does not really have any special interaction with inheritance. So you can just follow this like syntactical transformation it does, which does not have any impact on inheritance. But the thing is, if you just look at the code, and you see you have the parent class defining the constructor, and the child class defining the constructor, and then you're wondering, well, is there some kind of connection between the parameters? The promoted parameters declared in one constructor and the other one? And the answer is simply: No, there isn't. Those have nothing to do with each other. And even more generally, constructors are a bit of a special case where inheritance is concerned. So usually, we say that methods always have to be compatible with the parent method. So the signature has to be compatible, the return type has to be well not match, but be contravariant. And similar for the argument types, but this rule does not apply for the constructor. So the constructor really belongs to a single class, and constructors between parent and child class do not have to be compatible in any way.
Derick Rethans 10:09
Are there any types that you can't use for constructor property promotion?
Nikita Popov 10:14
Just callable. Because callable is not a valid property type. Well, there is one more thing that you can't use a variadic argument. Well, if you write a variadic argument, you write something like int, dot, dot, dot, whatever. But the type you're actually writing is int, because that's the type of each individual argument. But all of that gets collected into an array. So the type of the corresponding property would have to be array. So we would have to do an extra transform that's maybe not super obvious. And so I've left this part out.
And also PHP's type system doesn't support defining an array of integers. It only supports describing an array. At a time we're talking about is, at the end of April, this hasn't gone up for a vote yet. When do you think this will happen?
The RFC will need one small adjustment because the attributes RFC is currently in voting and it very much looks like it's going to be accepted. We will need to also consider support for attributes on the promoted properties. I think the only small question there is, what does the attributes apply to? Because this could apply to the parameter or to the property, or both.
How would you actually set these attributes because from what I understand docblocks, you can only use in front of a method name or a property declaration. How would you define a different attribute for each of the promoted properties?
I believe that the attributes RFC already supports attributes on parameters, so that shouldn't be a problem.
So it allows for setting a specific attribute for each of the arguments coming into the constructor. But that didn't quite answer the question. When do you think we'll be voting on this?
Maybe in a week or so.
By the time this podcast comes out?
Well, we have had a lot of activity recently in PHP internals. So I guess we are one of the few places that benefit from the Coronavirus, because people now have time to work on PHP.
Yeah, I mean, I'm looking at so much extra code now. Interestingly, when going to the RFC, and as a side note, it mentioned somewhere that when defining more properties, the line length goes too long, because you now have this extra keyword in there. And that could benefit from then separating the constructor arguments over multiple lines. And that that raises the point is that you can use a trailing comma in arrays when you call functions, but not in argument lists. And I saw that you've also made another RFC for adding the trailing commas in the parameter lists.
So there's like a super simple RFC, just allow that extra comma. This has actually already been discussed a couple of times in the past, and has not, has been declined that point.
I'm just having a quick look at it. Because this RFC is already voting to see what the current votes are, and it's 58 for and one against.
I think like the main counter argument people have against this kind of trailing comma stuff is, well, doesn't that mean that it encourages writing methods with a lot of parameters, which is a bad style. I don't think it does. And I think that even if you don't have a lot of parameters, it's fairly easy to run into line length limitations, because nowadays like to use expressive long parameter names, and expressive long type names, so even without adding an extra protected in front of all of that, you can really easily get signatures that split across multiple lines. In which case having the trailing comma is nice, mainly because we already write it everywhere else.
Except for in arguments to methods, because you can't.
Well, there are also a couple of other places where you can't. For example, like if you have a class implements, and then implements many interfaces, then you can't put a trailing comma after the last interface. And this is something we could also allow. But I think the relevant distinction there is that this is kind of a freestanding list. Um, it's not wrapped inside brackets, or parentheses. So it kind of looks a little bit weird if you have a trailing comma there, which is possibly also why previous RFC on that simply allowed trailing comma everywhere did not pass.
As I said, it looks likely that will pass.
Yes, I think it's unlikely that we're going to get 13 new no votes.
What I also find interesting is that an RFC that you've mentioned earlier in the episode is that attributes are going to pass as well. At the moment, there's only one no votes there as well, which surprised me because the last time attributes was discussed was very much not going to pass whatsoever.
Yeah, this is an interesting effect. It's hard to say why it happens. Probably, well, part of the reason is just that issues that were raised on previous proposals have been addressed. For example, the last one by Dmitri had the very controversial aspects where it's exposed the AST. The abstract syntax tree representation of the attributes, which has gone from this one, and thus removes one of the contentious issues. But I think another part is just that sometimes it takes multiple proposals to really get an idea through internals. We have this situation pretty commonly that though the first RFC fails, second RFC fails, and then the third one does pass.
It's also it's taken five years or so. And people's opinions might just change about these things.
Exactly. The previous proposals might just have been before their time.
I saw you had made one other tiny RFC, which is the stricter type checks for arithmetic slash bitwise operators. What is that about?
Very simple. So if you're write, well, x minus y, and x is an array. And y is a resource, like what do you expect the outcome to be? There is really no reasonable way that can work. So this RFC proposes to make the arithmetic and the bitwise operators, when working on arrays, when working on objects, and working on resources, simply throw an exception. And the motivation for that was the operator overloading RFC, which has in the meantime been declined. But still, this was a concern raised there that while you can overload operators for objects, but you still get pretty weird behaviour if an overloaded operator is missing, because we currently handle that with just a otice and assuming that the object is equal to one, which is usually not a useful or desired behaviour.
There is of course, one exception where you can still use an arithmetic operator, which is the plus between arrays.
That's right, yeah. So array plus array is similar to an array merge operation. And that one is of course, well defined and remains supported
Whereas things like true divided by 17, although not sensible, it'll continue to work.
Right, that also. Yeah, so because this is simply a much more contentious issue whether, like implicitly treating true as one is a good idea or not. Personally, I know I have written code where I, for example, add up booleans. Just as a count of how often something is true. This is like maybe maybe, style wise it would be better to write an explicit integer cast. But the code is also not really wrong. This may be as a discussion for another time.
As we've said before, the smaller the RFCs, the easier it is to get them passed as well. Alright, Nikita, thanks for taking the time this morning to talk to me about constructor property promotion RFC, and a few others. We'll see whether they get passed for PHP eight.
Thanks for having me Derick, once again.
Thanks for listening to this instalment of PHP internals news, the weekly podcast dedicated to demystifying the development of the PHP language. I maintain a Patreon account for supporters of this podcast, as well as the Xdebug debugging tool. You can sign up for Patreon at https://drck.me/patreon. If you have comments or suggestions, feel free to email them to derick@phpinternals.news. Thank you for listening, and I'll see you next week.
Constructor Property Promotion
Allow trailing comma in parameter list
Stricter type checks for arithmetic/bitwise operators
Music: Chipper Doodle v2 — Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) — Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0


Each Box contains Two Autographs, Two Memorabilia Cards, and Four Leather Rookie Cards!
Look for Leather Rookie Cards and Micro-Etch Rookie Cards!
2015/16 Threads Basketball features a 200-card base set and 45 Leather Rookies.


text:
drugcartels
J&J ceases opioid business following $230 million settlement and the deaths of 500,000 Americans
Drug giant Johnson & Johnson (J&J) has agreed to stop selling opioid drugs in the United States following a $230 million settlement with the state of New York.
In a statement, New York Attorney General Letitia James' office said the agreement prohibits J&J from promoting opioids through any means. J&J is also now barred from lobbying the products at the federal, state or local level.
J&J stopped marketing its opioid products in the U.S. back in 2015, and as of 2020 has fully discontinued its business of selling them at all here in America.
Part of the settlement also forces J&J to resolve all opioids-related legal claims with allocated payments over the next nine years. The company could also be forced to pay $30 million more in the first year if the state's executive chamber signs into law new legislation establishing an opioid settlement fund.
Opioid pharmaceuticals have killed at least 500,000 people in the United States over the past several decades. The settlement follows many years of lawsuits filed by states, cities and counties against opioid manufacturers like J&J.
Flagrant overprescribing of the drugs caused millions of Americans to become addicted. Many others became seriously injured or are now dead because of that addiction.
"The opioid epidemic has wreaked havoc on countless communities across New York state and the rest of the nation, leaving millions still addicted to dangerous and deadly opioids," James indicated in a statement.
"Johnson & Johnson helped fuel this fire, but today they're committing to leaving the opioid business – not only in New York, but across the entire country. Opioids will no longer be manufactured or sold in the United States by J&J."
J&J claims no "wrongdoing" despite settlement payout
In addition to J&J, drug giants Purdue Pharma, Mallinckrodt LLC, Endo Health Solutions, Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, and Allergan Finance LLC are all scheduled to have their day in court as well.
Each of these companies is accused of doing the same thing as J&J in terms of their marketing and distribution of opioids.
In a statement, J&J clarified that it "is not an admission of liability or wrongdoing by the company" and is "consistent with the terms of the previously announced $5 billion all-in settlement agreement in principle for the resolution of opioid lawsuits and claims by states, cities, counties and tribal governments."
J&J has been in hot water before, having been charged with illegally pushing deadly pharmaceuticals on sick and elderly nursing home residents.
The company was found to have paid kickbacks to Omnicare to promote drugs like Floxin, Levaquin, Risperdal, Ultram, Duragesic, Procrit, and Aciphex when they were not needed, all to enhance its "performance" goals.
Now, J&J is pushing injections for the Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) that are known to cause deadly blood clots. This is simply the latest iteration of J&J's illicit drug and vaccine racket, which always pays out more in profits than the measly costs of later settlements for injuries and deaths.
Concerning its Chinese Virus injection, J&J made the news after one man's skin started peeling off not long after getting the jab.
The company also became a target of the Catholic lobby after it was determined that its Wuhan Flu shots contain ingredients derived from aborted baby body parts, which violate the religion's tenets regarding the sanctity of life.
"Johnson & Johnson is 100% guilty, as are their bankster and Wall Street backers," wrote one of our own in response to another case involving J&J's talc baby powder causing cancer.
Big Pharma corruption and greed has cost untold billions of people their lives. To keep up with the latest, visit Corruption.news.
Tagged Under: coronavirus, COVID, deaths, injuries, J&J, Johnson & Johnson, Opioids, settlement, vaccination, vaccines
San Francisco drug overdose epidemic killed nearly three times more people in 2020 than COVID
NYC opens heroin injection sites for drug addicts
Federal jury finds drugstore chains responsible for Ohio opioid crisis
Ohio jury finds Walmart, Walgreens and CVS all guilty of fueling opioid epidemic
Drug overdose deaths top 100K in a year, breaking previous records
"Dopesick" mini-series on HULU reveals how the opioid crisis was engineered using insidious lies, fake studies, warped charts, and made-up medical terms
If people being killed by spike protein vaccines in the name of "science" is deemed GOOD, then why is there so much opposition to prescription opioid deaths?
Sandra Whitten reveals Joe Biden is working with drug cartels – Brighteon.TV
Major U.S. cities are becoming fentanyl-infested cesspools as millions plunge into hopelessness and despair
Florida mother warns of drug addiction during the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic
Sickening: Billionaire Sackler opioid dynasty granted immunity from lawsuits
"Safe injection room" for addicts in Melbourne opposed by local businesses
Study: Trout can become addicted to methamphetamines
Johnson & Johnson agrees to pay $263 million in New York opioid settlement
Many U.S. cities are already starting to resemble post-apocalyptic cesspools as America's collapse accelerates
Mexican cartels now using weaponized DRONES to fight law enforcement in escalating drug war
'PILLBILLIES': Big pharma exec BUSTED mocking working class Americans
More people died from fentanyl overdose than coronavirus in San Francisco last year
Washington Supreme Court declares felony drug possession laws unconstitutional
COPYRIGHT © 2017 OPIOIDS NEWS


There are a lot of environmental, health and safety auditors looking for audit tools to make their job easier. iPads and iPhones should rightfully be part of their solution; however, the differences between an iPad software and a desktop or web based software are rarely well understood. Many software vendors – eager to make a sale – who have offered a web based solution for years, try to convince potential clients that since their software works through a web browser, it can be used on a mobile device.
While this is technically true, it is practically false. A web browser on a desktop with a large screen and stable internet connection is completely different from a 10 inch or 4 inch screen on a 3G mobile connection. It is akin to saying a Hummer and a Mini are the same thing because they are both cars. To see an example of this narrative, take a look at this thread on LinkedIn.
A software designed for iPad is completely different than one that is web based or for desktop computers – as it should be. Vendors who claim that their service "is web based, so it can be accessed from an iPad" do not understand the potential benefits and the constraints of an iPad or iPhone (or any touch based device). Software vendors and EHS&Q inspectors looking for both a desktop and mobile solution need to understand why an iPad is not simply a mobile web browsing machine. iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch software must be built specifically for it.
Because an iPad uses your fingers and not a keyboard and mouse, the entire experience for a user is different. Your fingers are a lot bigger than a mouse and your perceptual relationship to a mouse is not the same as your fingers (I hope!). With a mouse, your hand controls a device that makes a pointer on a screen move. With your fingers you are directly manipulating something on a screen and you see and feel the reaction immediately; this is much closer to how you interact with real world objects. This great video explains these concepts in more detail.
Additionally, the screen size is quite different (smaller) and the angle you view the screen at not the same as you have when sitting at a desk. The great iPad software out there – from EHS to games to newspapers – are always designed with these constraints in mind. Making a great iPad app based on these realities is really, really hard, we have been at it for one and a half years and we are still not fully satisfied with the results.
To better meet their audit needs, I suggest EHS auditors and inspectors first determine if they are looking for an iPad solution first or a web based solution first, that will really change their selection priorities.
These major differences between the two devices are why we chose to invest a lot of time, effort and resources into two distinct products for environment, health, safety and quality audits: one for iPad and one web based. While the two integrate together with the click of a button, they are very different beasts.
We designed EHSQ Reporter for iPad to help auditors gather data in the field (notes, photos, videos, audio) and perform audits and inspections as efficiently as possible. The app is fundamentally a data collection and organization tool.
We then designed our web based WikiChecklists site to manage audit templates, modify audit results (collected on iPad), work in teams, track changes by colleagues, issue corrective actions and compare site performance – not to gather data.
I have not spoken of whether a well designed mobile web app (def. website designed for mobile devices) can replace a native app (def. a piece of software that runs on the device) – that is a more nuanced argument. But, if you want to take full advantage of a device's speed, video, audio, photo and GPS capabilities – native apps are still leagues ahead. This might change in the near future (possibly 2014), but for now we feel native iPad, iPhone and iPod touch apps offer a better experience to auditors who need reliability and efficiency in the field. Of course, your comments and counter-arguments are welcome!
So, when choosing your next EHS software, please take care to determine where you will be using it most – at a desk or in the field.


text:
By Bugcrowd
Bug Bytes for December 21: Nation State Attacks, Cybersecurity Legislation and Bug Bounty News
That's all for this week's edition of Bug Bytes. Tune in next week for another recap of the week's cyber security news.
On Thursday, Reuters reported that hackers working on behalf of China's Ministry of State Security had breached the networks of several large tech companies, then used the access to hack into their clients' computers, according to five sources familiar with the attacks.the United States and Britain officials said the Cloudhopper campaign infected technology service providers in order to steal secrets from their clients. Speculation about Chinese attacks has been building in the last few weeks after news of the Marriott breach broke.
This week, Engadget covered a breach at NASA. Discovered on October 23, the breach included the personal data of current and former employees. Bugcround founder Casey Ellis told the Journal of Cyber Policy: "While it appears critical mission data was not breached, employee data in the wrong hands could be just as dangerous. Adversaries could easily connect the exposed NASA data to exposed passwords of the NASA employees and attempt to hack into their work accounts to access sensitive data." Casey also alluded to more sinister possibilities:
"Like the OPM, Anthem, Dulles and Marriott breaches, the incident at NASA is just another in a long string of attacks targeting US officials. Think about it, officials from the NSA, CIA, FBI, DoD all mostly commute in and out of Dulles Airport, millions of people stay at Marriott/Starwood hotels, including possibly diplomats, business people or intelligence officials as they moved around the globe. Interestingly enough, the data stolen in the breaches haven't been correlated to any type of identity theft, suggesting that nation state actors have other plans."
In other nation state cybersecurity news, on Wednesday Forbes reported that government hackers had attacked hundreds of supposedly secure Google, Yahoo, Protonmail and Tutanota accounts over the past two years. According the the article, the automated phishing attacks appear to have been ordered by a nation state in the Gulf region.
Responding to the growing number of attacks, congress is making cybersecurity a top priority, Newsy reports with lawmakers in both parties putting forward ideas that could ramp up the federal government's response to cyber threats.
Bugcrowd founder, Casey Ellis told the publication, "The two big problems that the federal government [has] when it comes to cybersecurity is the same as corporate and private industry," Ellis said. "It's the fact that they're up against an army of adversaries and trying to defend this like very big attack surface where there's lots of possibilities for things to go wrong."
Meanwhile, McAfee released their McAfee Labs Threat Report this week. The December 2018 report specifically explores the cybercriminal underground and its impact on the threat landscape in Q3 of 2018. Covering the report, Solutions Review wrote "IoT device malware increased 203% over the past year. This constitutes a dramatic increase, as hackers take notice of lax IoT security."
Finally, on Tuesday the Cointelegraph reported that blockchain network ARK had partnered with Bugcrowd to protect the ARK ecosystem. Bugcrowd will provide ARK with "access to a global community of over 100,000 expert researchers. Using different techniques, they monitor and identify critical issues quickly and effectively," the publication reported.
Cybersecurity News


text:
India Revisited
by Dr. Neria H. Hebbar
During Christmas holidays (2003), my family and I went to India for a short vacation. Apart from our hometown Mangalore, we also visited New Delhi and Agra as well as Calicut in Kerala.
I found India a resurgent country. This was not the country I left decades ago nor was it the one I used to visit regularly. There seemed to be a distinct change since I visited here only three years ago. People for the most part are happier and one can see progress everywhere. The economic tide is rising and all the boats are lifted. Gone are the days of failed experiments in socialism. Indians have embraced capitalism with open arms. They have also become extremely competitive in the world markets. The label 'Made in India' is proudly displayed. This is not to say the problems of crumbling infrastructure are all gone but there is an awareness and determination to make improvements. People also realize that this will take time but the trend is in the right direction.
I spent three weeks in India, mostly as a tourist. This is an account my trip, with some anecdotes, and my observations and impressions of India in general.
The Cricketers Dared, a Despot Snared
As expected it was a long and arduous journey. The way to combat fatigue and boredom in a long flight is to be resigned to its inevitability. If one is mentally prepared to the tediousness of it before one steps on the plane, the ordeal becomes more tolerable. The only thrill during the flight was to read in a BBC newsflash that the despot Saddam Hussein was ferreted out of his hole in the ground. My co-passengers took the news in stride and if they had any emotions no one bothered to show it. Incidentally, the capture of Saddam Hussein took place as our plane was flying over the Middle Eastern air (perhaps over Baghdad).
India seemed to beckon with open arms, in all her glory - and shortcomings. My first foot on the soil of India gave me a feeling of thrill and rush. I had to spend a lot of time in the wee hours of the morning in Mumbai airport. Like the old name of Bombay it has shed, the city has made an attempt to improve facilities in the waiting lounges of the airport. The second test cricket match between India and Australia was projected on a large television, which was being watched by everyone in the airport. India was chasing a mammoth first innings total of 556 runs by the Aussies and Rahul Dravid was playing a gallant innings with a knock of a double century. (India eventually won the match, a crowning achievement ' I was told).
The efficiency of Indian authorities in the airport struck me as something different from my previous experiences. The processing in the immigration and customs was definitely a breeze, compared to yesteryears. I was also amazed at the ability of the people to spot the NRI's (a prefix to my name since I left India). However much I tried to blend in, I could not shed this image of being an outsider (foreign-returned is the term used), in my own country. My attempts to be an Indian were always shattered when the baggage handlers or the hotel boys or the guides treated me differently (always expecting a fatter tip.) Even the attendants of the Jet Airways coach (a courtesy service that takes one from the domestic airport to the international airport), expected money from the NRI's. This asking for tips was despite the fact that they had shirts displaying, in bold letters, 'Courtesy Service ' NO TIPS PLEASE'. When I questioned the attendant he brushed it aside and said that the words printed on his shirt were meant for people who could not read!
To Manipal or Bust
After flying out of Mumbai to Mangalore, one of the objectives of my trip was to attend the golden jubilee celebrations in Manipal, Karnataka. This is my old medical school, which has quickly become an educational institution of repute. Every subset of professional education is available here. Apart from the usual courses in medicine, engineering, nursing, pharmacy etc., there are many rare opportunities for students to pursue training in hotel management, catering school and even poultry farming. The campus originally built on a barren hill three miles from Udipi, has now been transformed into a lush green mega university complex, comparable to any in the world.
I got a little carried away and let my guard down during lunch and dinner on that eventful day. As an occasional visitor to India, I had learned long ago that my stoic stomach had lost its immunity against that bug that makes the stomach queasy. Sure enough I spent the next two days in bed with frequent trips to the adjacent bathroom. I quickly started myself on antibiotics, hydration and 'bowel binders.' The result was as swift and I was back on my feet in two days. The fever abated and the Montezuma's curse lifted. However, I was unable to attend the final two days of the meeting in Manipal, a disappointment indeed. But such are the vicissitudes of life!
On to the Capital
My schedule was very tight. Our children were to join us in Delhi, as the two boys and a friend were to come a week after I had landed. Delhi is reputed to be densely foggy in the winter months and the flights were routinely delayed or even diverted. As we had only two weeks in India to do a month' worth of traveling, you perhaps can sense my unease.
We reached Delhi in a flight from Mangalore to Mumbai without a hitch. And it was not fog or nature's wrath that delayed our sons and their friend. Unbelievably it was an incident far more embarrassing and ludicrous. The Virgin Atlantic Airlines never left Washington D. C. that evening as the pilot was inebriated and was in no position to fly. There were no spare pilots and while the incidence made a big flash in the evening news, the passengers had to spend a night in Washington D.C. and board another flight next morning. Fortunately, there was no fog in Delhi when they landed safely. Whether Virgin Atlantic had to wait till next morning so that the pilot had to be sober enough to fly again is a question I never found an answer to!
We mixed sightseeing with shopping in Delhi. An early morning walk through the Lodi gardens was a first for me. The air was crisp and the light that filtered through a thin layer of fog was heavenly. Above all, it was clean and refreshing.
The garden was built by Sikander Lodi and Ibrahim Lodi in the 15th century.
Lodi was the last dynasty before the Mughal rule in India was established by Babar. The garden is sprinkled with tombs, mostly built with slabs of red stones, with unmarked graves. The interior mosaic of tiles and rich red, blue and gold paint on the ceiling and walls are in disrepair but the glory of the rulers of Delhi, even before the Mughals is evident, as seen in the cupolas of the Qutb Minar.
We confined our sightseeing in Delhi to only the Qutb Minar and Humayun's tomb due to constraints of time. Qutb Minar, built late 12th century, by the slave king Qutb ud din Aibak, in the wake of the assault of Muhammad of Ghor on North India. (He was a slave warrior in the Ghor army from Afghanistan, and had fought beside Muhammad. To him Muhammad bequeathed the conquered lands of North India. Qutb Minar is one of the earliest Muslim architectures in India. It also exemplifies the intolerance of Islam towards the idolatry of Hinduism as the surrounding buildings show pillars with defaced carvings of Hindu gods. Temple destruction, which was a sport for many rulers of Delhi, was especially true of Qutb ud din Aibak. The stone pillars pillaged from surrounding temples were put to good use here, in a colonnaded hall on one side of Qutb Minar.
This checkered history of its construction does not take anything away from the glory of the minar with its five tiered balconies. Various repairs of the tower had been done by subsequent sultans of Delhi (it was even hit and damaged by lightning strike and later repaired, and the top most cupola fell during an earthquake as late as the early nineteenth century).
A doorway here with rich, fine architecture built by the notorious Alauddin Khilji brought back memories of the sword-wielding sultan of early fourteenth century.
Humayun's tomb (father of Akbar) has been cleaned up since I had seen it last. The gardens are well groomed and this precursor to the Taj Mahal is well preserved. Gone are the bats and their stench. (During my last visit - about ten years ago – I remember my feeling of sadness, seeing the state of negligence of this glorious building). Akbar's mother had personally supervised the construction of the tomb that lasted several years. The tomb is an architectural triumph and first of its kind built with the help of Persian architects. The surrounding grounds are vast and well preserved now. There are so many gravesites here that the building is called the 'gathering place of the dead'. There is even a gravesite with a building for the barber, who must have served the Mughals well during his lifetime!
It was interesting to see the graves of the three sons of Shah Jahan, who were murdered by their brother, Aurangzeb. These unmarked graves, built of ordinary limestone are on the periphery of the platform on which Humayun's tomb is built They lie there naked without a shelter, and exposed to the elements. An inglorious end, particularly to the oldest son of Shah Jahan, called Dara Shikoh. He had shown traits and demeanor of his great grandfather, Emperor Akbar. Like Akbar, Dara Shikoh had an affinity and tolerance to other religions and was a follower of Sufi saints (as compared to his intolerant brother Aurangzeb, who was a strict orthodox Muslim). He had even studied the Upanishads and translated them to Persian language. If Dara Shikoh had prevailed over the fanatical Aurangzeb, the history of India could have taken a different path. It was sad to see this favored son of Shah Jahan buried here in an insignificant grave, whereas most Muslims of any stature (including the lowly barber) are buried in peaceful resting places with at least a roof over their graves. Two other brothers, Shuja and Murad are buried next to Dara in equally irreverent graves.
Via Agra
We decided to go to Agra by road. A Toyota Qualis has now replaced the ubiquitous Ambassador car in India for any road trip with a large party. The disadvantage however is that it will only take ten passengers (including the driver). I have traveled in the Ambassador with more than fifteen people, packed like sardines. I missed the feeling of nostalgia for the stifling ride of my student days, when I used be packed and sent to Manipal from Mangalore in an Ambassador!
The road is in good condition but the scenery in Uttar Pradesh has changed little despite the economic boom India has been enjoying. The poverty and the squalor, the masses of humanity in disarray, the beggars, and the animal trainers with their pathetic monkeys, and bears on chains, jolted me back to the reality of India. On the contrary, so far I had been seeing parts of India that was very different than here. Mangalore is a quaint city and the affluence of the people living there is obvious and in plain sight. The part of Delhi I was traveling was well kempt and clean with flowers and shrubs planted on the roadside with large roundabouts with lush green lawn. But Uttar Pradesh was another story. I could not help but feel sorry for the downtrodden people, and the de-fanged cobras in the basket of the charmers, looking pitiful while raising their hoods and flicking their tongues or the pathetic dirty black bear restrained on a chain.
It takes more than four hours to ride from Delhi to Agra. One could travel by train but a car comes in handy for going about sightseeing as tourists. On the way we stopped at Sikandra, where Akbar is buried. The site has been cleaned and groomed but not many visitors could be seen. The grave is in a dark crypt under a large dome. A man with an oil lamp stands next to it and will coo to demonstrate an effective echo in the chamber (for a small donation). The path to the burial chamber is sloping down. I am not sure why but the urban legend is that when people walk inside they will be forced to bow their heads as if in respect (though they will actually look down so that they may not miss a step). I cannot imagine Akbar being so vain, but then the tomb was built later by his successors. However, the construction of the tomb had been started by Akbar himself while he was still alive, but after his death, son Jahangir had changed the plans in a major way. The monument is a tribute to Akbar's idea of inclusiveness, as it is an amalgam of both Hindu and Persian architecture. The multiple terrace-like architecture is reminiscent of Akbar's capital Fatepur Sikri, near Agra.
The Agra Taj Hotel where we stayed had a nice view of Taj Mahal but fog that day made visibility rather poor. However, we could not wait to see it from close quarters, and the decision to go to the Taj was made easy because we saw the sun struggling to come out from behind the clouds and fog. Knowing that tomorrow could be worse we headed straight to see the monument after lunch. The car can take you up to a parking lot and then for a fee, you ride in a battery operated (and battered) rickshaw-like vehicle to the gates of the Taj. After paying the discriminatory price for having the prefix NRI to our names, we proceeded directly to the gates of the most graceful building built by human beings.
The Taj Mahal
A few words of caution about the guides in these historical sites. It is difficult to find an English speaking guide, who is well versed in history and who does not try to squeeze money from you. If one is cautious about such matters, especially in Agra, one will forgo all the fun. My advice: be resigned to the fact that you are going to be fleeced, as they will smell and spot a NRI from miles away. Hopefully you don't look and feel like a naked sheep with its entire fleece sheared at the end of the trip.
Now we were facing the breathtaking view of Taj Mahal through the framework of the main entrance. The guide was blabbering some history in broken English, but none of us was paying any attention to him. The Taj looked like a fragile structure, delicately placed on an open platform that you perhaps would have preferred to keep safely in your curio cabinet at home. As one approaches the Taj it seems to grow larger, until finally at close quarters the sheer size of it staggers you. The perfect symmetry of this magnificent building is only broken by the later addition of Shah Jahan's tomb, lying next to Mumtaz. He had dreamed of a mausoleum built of black marble across River Yamuna for himself, across from the Taj, but its prohibitive cost and his failing health prevented Shah Jahan from going through with the plan. The asymmetry of his tombstone next to Mumtaz in the Taj looks odd, but the sight of the two lovers side by side in their final resting place adds heartwarming romanticism to Taj. This was my fourth visit to the Taj and it still did not fail to amaze me. Now I can claim that I have seen it in all shades of light and in all types of weather.
The following day was the dreariest day of all with fog and poor visibility. We scrapped the idea of going to Fatepur Sikri - Akbar's abandoned capital, and proceeded to the Agra Fort. Built within the confines of walls large enough to enclose a small town, the fort is impressive. Vast expanses of open spaces with gardens, palaces, Diwan-i-Am where the emperor held court (ensconced on the gorgeous peacock throne) and the living quarters, kindled our imaginations about the opulence and the grandeur of the great Mughal dynasty. One could almost hear the two daughters of Shah Jahan, Jahanara and Roshanara fussing about in their rooms with dozens of maids attending to them. Their rooms though small had a spectacular view from the open windows. They were also located in the highest part of the palace with a deep precipice outside the windows. No intruder dare pay a visit here. The architects had even made provisions for inclement weather that the plains of North India was bound to endure. The walls have receptacles were either cold or hot water could be filled depending on the season. (As our guide said, "During the cold weather they fulfilled the wall with hot water and during the summer they fulfilled them with cold water!") The Diwan-i-Am, where the Emperor meted out justice to common folks reverberated with imaginary voices of people pleading their cases ("unjustified peoples came here to get justice", according to our guide) in front of the Emperor seated on his throne.
In 1558, at the age of 16, Akbar shifted his government from Delhi to Agra, where he made improvements to the city, giving it water supply and drainage systems. In 1565, he began to build the Agra Fort on the site of an earlier walled fort. The new Agra Fort Complex contained a palatial-city complex, and served as the seat of imperial power for Akbar, his son and successor Jahangir, and his grandson Shah Jahan. Even after Shah Jahan shifted the capital back to Delhi in 1648, Agra continued to be an important administrative and palatial center.
In the confines of his palace Emperor Shah Jahan spent his final years, under house arrest, staring at Taj Mahal, the mausoleum of his beloved Arjuman Banu (later known as Mumtaz), at a distance on the banks of the River Yamuna. The place where Shah Jahan was imprisoned (by son Aurangzeb) is now off limits to visitors, but the loneliness of the Emperor, sitting in his room, staring at the distant Taj Mahal that he had built, is vividly imaginable A narrow stairwell leads to a small roofless terrace where the Emperor went to pray everyday. When his eyesight failed him, mirrors showing the reflection of Taj Mahal were installed in his bedroom, so the Emperor could still see the image of Taj at a closer range.
The Poignant Emperor
He spent a lifetime building a masterpiece,
The Taj Mahal became one of world's wonders.
Yet, in his waning years the Emperor found no peace,
Imprisoned by his own son, alas, what were his blunders?
A feature of Delhi and Agra monuments that struck me is that they are not ornate and gaudy, as some of the later Indian architectures tend to be. The buildings are aesthetically pleasing, symmetrical and subdued in their colors and designs, ostentatious only in their scales. Though the basic design is Persian, the Indian-ness in them is unmistakable. Renovations of these monuments are well done and the good taste is maintained throughout.
Having taken in the splendor (and given our guide a lesson or two about history), we drove back to Delhi. Mercifully, we did not see the monkey tricksters or the snake charmers on this drive, as we did not have to stop anywhere on the way back.
That night in Delhi we saw a little commotion on the roadside. When we enquired, we were told that a cow had given birth to a calf on the roadside and no one knew as to who owned the cow was. There was great concern that the calf may not survive the night without shelter as it was going to be very cold (seven degree Celsius). The guards of the nearby apartment complexes had wrapped the calf in gunny sacks and blankets but the cow was refusing to suckle the calf. We slept with a heavy heart that night but were told the next morning that both the cow and the calf had survived the night and were claimed by the owner.
We spent Christmas Eve in Delhi. We had a sumptuous dinner in a private clubhouse. It was a member's only club with a live singer (singing nostalgic Talat Mehmood ballads) and the food was unique and well presented. A small Christmas tree with weak lights stood in a lonely corner. Before long our America-born children started singing Christmas carols and infused some Christmas spirit but the crowd did not sing along. Either they felt inhibited or did not know the words for the carols (I suspect the latter). The singer unfortunately could not sing anything other than glum old Hindi songs that night. We made a quick exit before the management threw us out for causing a ruckus!
There was a good chance that we could be stranded in Delhi because of dense fog. All the flights were being delayed and since we had to connect in Mumbai to go to Mangalore, I was resigned to the fact that my itinerary was going to be turned upside down. But miraculously the fog lifted on that day and we flew out of Delhi at seven in the morning and were back in Mangalore by noon! We fared better than Mr. Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the PM of India, who was stranded in Jaipur the previous day and could not return to Delhi by air. I also read that Delhi was blanketed with fog a day later that lasted for another week. I counted my blessings.
We had safely reached Mangalore, against all odds, without any delays. A day later, we were on our way (yes, in another Toyota Qualis) to Neria, which is exactly 52 miles (you do the math in kilometers) from Mangalore. It is my ancestral village and the history of Hebbars in Neria goes back to the year 1130 A. D. The house there has seen many changes but has stood in its current location for more than 250 years. It is the only house of my growing years that I have grown attached to. During all our visits to India, the trip to Neria always is a highlight for all of us.
The rustic village setting with its rain forest, verdant valleys, the neat rows of trees of the rubber estates, and the mountains with dancing streams offer tranquil, soothing surroundings. For a city-worn tired ailing mind, the December air is remarkably salubrious. We always keep half a day for a dip in the river and nudge our heads against small waterfalls, which form as the water rushes over rocks and small boulders. The frothy water pouring over the rocks create a constant buzz in the silence of the forest.
A visit to the family temple gives me the inner peace that I cannot find anywhere else. Though we would have liked to hike the mountains, which certainly would have taken more time, we had to resort to a jeep ride to the top to see the view as well as the coffee estates. The view one gets from the top is as good as any I have seen in Western India, of rolling hills and large valleys. When we leave Neria, we always feel we have not spent enough time there. I used to get this feeling even when I used to spend my summer vacations there. With a heavy heart, we tore ourselves away from Neria and returned to Mangalore. The following poem will give you a better understanding about my feeling about Neria.
My vacations were spent in the quaint Neria village,
Surrounded by the mountains and hills of rain forest,
Where the farmers battle monsoon rains with courage,
Here I came to be rejuvenated, to relax, unwind and rest.
Hot summer days were spent cooling off in the stream,
Cooler days called for a peaceful stroll or a brisk hike,
Listening to the stillness of the forest, and its gleam,
Watching the flowers and birds, and the poses they strike.
Days well spent with introspection and forethought,
At nights, noisy crickets chirping, in my peaceful slumber.
At the crack of dawn, as the dew drops in the sunlight caught,
Came the glory of sun; the azure skies with shades of amber.
With all my worries, fears and trepidations resolved,
I reluctantly departed with my emotions churned,
To the city I went, with all my wits preserved,
Yet when seeking peace, to Neria I always returned.
However, I must say that we had a surprise entrance to Neria, when we had first arrived. A centuries-old custom of sweeping the yard with cow dung mixed in water was being carried out in full earnest. This is done in villages to control the dust rising from the yard. Once the initial smell dies down, it is an effective method of resurfacing mud yards. The America-born children of ours had cringed noses for a while till the strong aroma abated.
Our ride back to Mangalore took less than two hours on quite a bumpy road.
Back To Mangalore
Here is where we had our encounter with Rahul. A little tyke, Rahul stole our hearts in Mangalore. He is the four-year-old son of Sandhya and Kishore (My wife's sister and brother-in-law). It cannot be explained how two calm, gentle people could have given birth to this riot of a child! Rahul did not speak much but he was one continuous action-packed kid. Capricious and unpredictable, he did not sit quietly for one moment. He was into everything, vying for attention all the time. Like a flitting honeybee, impulsively he moved nimbly from one activity to another. When his mischief went a little awry or if he broke some valuable item, he simply gave his charming smile and no one would have the heart to reprimand him. He has the most innocent, angelic face with a captivating smile. The best part is that this four year old knows his asset, and makes the best use of his looks, to soften and melt adults' hearts.
Rahul, the Cool
He flits, he fleets and he flies through the air,
Not an article, not a thing he will spare.
He will walk on furniture, without a care,
And always fight for his lion's share,
Until, for you, it's difficult to bear.
With his cherubic face he can win hearts, he's aware,
And when he gets in trouble, Rahul doesn't despair.
You may scorn or scold him, if you dare;
And sternly stare or try to scare,
Thinking of the rod you shall not spare.
Aha! But be forewarned and beware,
A twinkle in his eyes, a coy smile with teeth bare,
Enough to break your resolve; and a kiss he will share,
One charming look and you're hopelessly in his snare!
I have to mention about a trip we made to a training center for the mentally handicapped children while we stayed in Mangalore. It is very rare to find centers like them in India and they exist only because of the largesse of few philanthropists who not only donate money but also volunteer and spend countless hours patiently teaching and training the handicapped children. It is a noble deed and takes a special quality to be able to dedicate oneself to such honorable duties.
More and more people are now aware of its existence and send their handicapped children for help to the school. It was an emotional tour for us as we saw some determined children doing feats they had practiced with dedication and perseverance. A girl with cerebral palsy particularly impressed me with her skill of being able to thread beads with her toes. She had no use of her hands and her neck was fixed in an extended position and she could barely see the ground in front of her. Yet, she never seemed to have any doubts about her abilities. Proudly, with a smile, she showed off her skills. Many of the retarded and handicapped children (it is not a school for physically handicapped children with normal intelligence) were so happy to see us and could not contain their glee. Yet they seemed to be much disciplined and showed a lot of interest in wanting to learn the basic skills they were being taught. It was heartwarming to see the love and kindness being so openly dispensed in this school for the less fortunate segment of our society.
Disabled and neglected, yet with a brave countenance,
She stares with imploring eyes: begging for love, and sustenance.
Her purity and beauty are transparent,
Yet to most, the encumbrance is repugnant,
No crimes are committed by these innocent children,
Still, why does society treat them as its burden?
Shortcut to Calicut
After attending some of the family get together affairs in Mangalore we drove to Calicut, a city in the Malabar Coast of Kerala. (Yes, we did hire a Toyota Qualis, again.) The drive took between five and six hours, certainly not a short drive. There are train services to Calicut from Mangalore that also take five hours but we were warned that the train was infested with cockroaches. I know my wife and daughter would rather die (or kill someone) than have an encounter with a roach. To avoid this potential criminal act, I decided to go by road. It was a good decision as the car came in handy for our transportation within the city of Calicut.
On the first evening we went to the beach where the Portuguese adventurer Vasco da Gama had first landed in India in 1498. The people seemed to be ignorant of the history of the beach or of the erstwhile adventurer called Vasco da Gama. There is not a single write up or monument at this site. It is not a very clean beach, much polluted with plastic and Styrofoam. People fully clothed in saris, salwar-kameez or long pants and shirts, were everywhere, enjoying the cool breeze. We were similarly dressed (a common garb of beach goers in India), as if we were going to a dinner party. Some of us braved to dip our ankles in water but the two kids in our group made sure their little rumps got wet. The sunset was spectacular, with the fishing boats silhouetted against the amber sky. Flocks of birds speckled the sky in perfect formation returning to their nests.
The next day we drove to the top of the mountains of Wayanad. Kerala is a beautiful green state with mountain ranges and rain forests reminiscent of Neria. We feasted on the expansive scenery and cooled off with cold beer and wine. After lunch, some of us got into paddleboats in a peaceful lake with sprinkled lotus flowers and fresh scented air. That night we had a nice New Year's Party with some Western music and dancing,.
We took the Toyota Qualis back to Mangalore in a death defying drive. I sat with my eyes closed, not merely to shield them from the blinding headlights. I was not going to be an eye witness to any poor soul getting crushed under our car.
We spent a day packing in Mangalore (no small task, I assure you). We watched some more shenanigans of Rahul, and watched the beginning of the fourth cricket test match. Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman played glorious innings (India would eventually amass a massive total of 705 for 7 before declaring and the match would end in a tame draw.) A day later we boarded the plane to go to Mumbai with heavy hearts (and suitcases), after saying tearful goodbyes. We had an uneventful return to the U.S.
More by : Dr. Neria H. Hebbar


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Home Saltwater Clownfish Essentials
Clownfish Essentials
In the wake of the Nemo phenomenon, the clownfish has become the poster child for the saltwater aquarium hobby. Most are great, but here's what you need to know.
Clownfishes, also called anemonefishes, are the most popular fishes in the marine aquarium hobby. They have bold coloration, demonstrate interesting behavior, and they are amongst the hardiest saltwater fish (especially tank-raised ones). With many more clownfishes available to today's aquarium enthusiast than ever before, this group of fishes truly represents everything from a beginning aquarist's gateway species to an advanced aquarist's collectable. This article will break down some of your choices when it comes to selecting a clownfish.
Beginner Clownfishes
While most clownfishes are quite hardy, the following ones from the genus Amphiprion are all under $20 and are great starter clowns:
Cinnamon Clownfish (Amphiprion melanopus)
A somewhat aggressive clown, this five inch fish is a good choice for the beginner, although it is smaller than the:
Clarkii Clownfish (Amphiprion clarkia)
The Clarkii, sometimes called the Sebae Clownfish, grows to six inches and is semi-aggressive, but still a great starter fish. Having said that, no clownfish compares to the:
Ocellaris Clownfish (Amphiprion ocellaris)
You'll see these guys later in the article, but it's hard to say too many good things about this most recognizable saltwater fish!
Tomato Clownfish (Amphiprion frenatus)
Both the Ocellaris Clownfish and this guy are commonly available as tank-raised fish, making them two of the hardiest clowns for the beginning aquarist.
Most Peaceful Clownfish
While most clowns are at least semi-aggressive, there are a few peaceful clowns like the:
White Bonnet Anemonefish (Amphiprion leucokranos)
This diminutive (to three and one half inches) little beauty is, in many aquarists' minds, the most peaceful of all clownfish. Unfortunately, its price tag (up to $200) makes it out of most aquarists' reach. Luckily there are a few other peaceable clowns out there such as the:
A great peaceful beginner fish, it's hard to go wrong with these affordable characters (from a little over $10 to about $60 for a mated pair). If you're a clownfish snob, however, (and who isn't, after all), you may want to go for this next beautiful, but difficult to keep specimen:
Maldives Anemonefish (Amphiprion nigripes)
While quite peaceful, this little guy is generally considered an expert-only species from Sri Lanka and the Maldives. The Maldives Anemonefish comes with a more aggressive price tag of between $25 and $50.
Most Aggressive Clownfishes
You want to take a walk on the wild side, eh? Well, consider these aggressive clownfishes then:
Not a true bully by any stretch of the imagination, this hefty clown can reach six inches and is considered semi-aggressive, although it pales in comparison to the aptly named:
Fire Clownfish (Amphiprion ephippium)
While smaller than the Clarkii (the Fire Clownfish seldom gets to five and one half inches), the Fire Clownfish can be a little terror. Who says clowns aren't scary?!
Coming in at about the same size as the Fire Clownfish, don't let the cheery tomato nom de plume fool you. This guy is sometimes called the Red Clownfish, and it sure can see red!
Gold Striped Maroon Clownfish (Premnas biaculeatus)
To a whopping seven inches, this clownfish has a more sinister name—the Spinecheek Clownfish—and is both pugnacious and industrious when it comes to rearranging your aquarium. This is the biggest clownfish you are likely to see, and, owing to the fact that it must like being top dog (or clown), it is not unheard of for the White Stripe Maroon Clownfish to kill any other clown with which it comes in contact. Yep—it's aggressive.
There you have it—the good, the bad and the ugly (actually the hardiest, the most peaceful and the aggressive) of clownfishes. Choose wisely.


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Q: Summation explanation I'm wondering how the following summation could be explained:
$\sum_{1 \leq i < j \leq K} (X_{i} - X_{j})^3$
Is this equivalent to
$\sum_{1 \leq i \leq K} \sum_{i < j \leq K}(X_{i} - X_{j})^3$
Any help would be appreciated.

A: I always break these into sets to work better with them to see what's going on.
Observe \begin{equation}\sum_{1 \leq i < j \leq K} (X_{i} - X_{j})^3=\sum_{(i,j)\in\{(i,j)|1 \leq i < j \leq K\}} (X_{i} - X_{j})^3. \tag{1}
\end{equation}
Also, \begin{equation}\sum_{1 \leq i \leq K} \sum_{i < j \leq K}(X_{i} - X_{j})^3=\sum_{(i,j)\in \{(i,j)|1\leq i \leq K \text{ and } i < j \leq K\} } (X_{i} - X_{j})^3. \tag{2}\end{equation}
So, it suffices to show $\{(i,j)|1 \leq i < j \leq K\}=\{(i,j)|1\leq i \leq K \text{ and } i < j \leq K\}$ where the expression on the left is given by $(1)$ and the expression on the right is given by $(2)$. It should be clear that these two sets are indeed equal. Thus, the summations are indeed equal.

A: $\sum_{1\le i < j\le K}A_{i,j}$ means add up all the $A_{i,j}$ where $i< j$ and $i \ge 1$ and $j\le K$.
To visualize this this is to add up all the:
$A_{1,2}$
$A_{1,3},A_{2,3}$
$A_{1,4},A_{2,4},A_{3,4}$
$...$
$A_{1,K},A_{2,K}, A_{3,K},.... A_{K-1, K}$.
As it is a finite sum it doesn't really matter what order you add them in and so it doesn't actually tell you what order to list these $(i,j)$ pairs in, it is very specific and clear that $\{A_{i,j}| i\ge 1; i < j; j\le K\}$ is well defined whatever order you list them in.
You could list them a:
$A_{1,2},A_{1,3},......., A_{1,K}$
$A_{2,3},A_{2,4},......., A_{2,K}$
$....$
$A_{K-1,K}$.
$\sum_{1\le i \le K} (\sum_{i<j\le K}A_{i,m})$ means to add up
$A_{1,2}, A_{1,3}, ....., A_{1,K}$
And then add up
$A_{2,3}, A_{2,4},......., A_{2,K}$
And so on.
Can you convince yourself that the sets $\{(i,j)| i\ge 1; i<j; j\le K\}$ and the set $\{(1,j)| 1<j; j\le K\} \cup \{(2,j)| 2<j; j\le K\} \cup \{(3,j)| 3<j; j\le K\}....\cup \{(K-1,K)\}$ are both the same set?


Brown County Public Works Director Paul Fontecchio wants "rumble strips" at 11 rural intersections. Some Hobart and Morrison residents oppose that.
HOBART - Roundabouts aren't the only traffic feature to spawn heated debate in Brown County.
A move by the county to install "rumble strips" to reduce serious crashes at 11 rural intersections is angering people who live near those crossroads.
It has placed a town at odds with the county's public works director. And it has a local police chief saying the approach isn't the best way to prevent distracted drivers from killing or seriously injuring someone at a high-speed intersection.
The people who say they'll be most affected by the changes, particularly by the noise from vehicles, insist the county can use measures that are more effective and won't affect local residents' ability to sleep.
"It will affect us — the noise, obviously," said Becky Oudenhoven, whose house on County U in Hobart is near an intersection where rumble strips would be added. She said the area has heavy truck traffic late into the night, and rumble strips "would make it twice as bad."
Concerns about impacts on people living near the intersections prompted officials in two local governments to take unusual steps this past week, as they try to balance the needs of their communities with those of the people directly affected by the issue.
On Tuesday, Hobart trustees voted 4-0 to demand the county halt plans to install the strips at County U and County EE until village and county officials could meet and explore alternatives. A day later, five of the county's 26 supervisors — Hobart's Dave Landwehr and colleagues representing Green Bay, Morrison, Suamico and Wrightstown — introduced resolutions designed to slow or stop the county's installation of the strips.
"We need alternatives," said Steve Deslauriers, one of the five. "There are far more sober, far more effective countermeasures we can use. But (public works) wants to go with the nuclear option."
His district includes the Morrison intersection where a crash this summer killed a motorcyclist and another driver.
A county committee will discuss the issue Monday night. Nothing will be installed until county supervisors decide if rumble strips are the appropriate measure to take.
The debate is similar to arguments that played out in various Brown County communities where roundabouts were installed in the past decade. Highway officials cite increased convenience and reduced numbers of serious crashes, while drivers complain that they're confusing and dangerous.
Rumble strips had been in place at the Morrison intersection where the death occurred, but the county removed them in 2015 at the Town Board's request, said county Public Works Director Paul Fontecchio.
He decided after the Morrison crash that rumble strips would reduce the number of serious crashes at a number of rural intersections, writing in a nine-page memo to supervisors that "the 'Stop Ahead' sign as well as the 'Stop' sign are clearly visible and installed correctly. Somehow the driver did not see these signs."
Fontecchio said federal highway data show "stop-condition rumble strips" — rows of pavement grooves, or rows of raised pavement markers designed to produce noise and vibration alerting drivers of the need to stop — reduce crashes involving deaths or serious injury 39 percent.
Crashes have killed 15 people on county roads since January 2015, statistics show. The EE-U intersection was the scene of a fatal crash in 2013, Fontecchio said, and two people were killed there in a 2016 crash.
Not every proposal to install rumble strips in the county has prompted opposition, Fontecchio said.
"I called the town chairmen in Scott, Eaton, Glenmore, Holland and Rockland," he said Friday. "One said 'I got about four calls, and they were all along the lines of, it's about time, or how fast are you gonna get 'em in.'"
In a Sept. 12 letter to people living near the 11 intersections, Fontecchio said nearby residents would likely hear noise from the strips for a total of less than three minutes on an average night.
"With the recent deaths on the county highway system and the steady increase in distracted driving, rumble strips are necessary at certain intersections to fight distracted driving and help save lives," he wrote.
Some of the people living near intersections where fatalities have occurred, however, say the county can improve safety in ways that are more effective than rumble strips, with less impact on neighbors.
"There are plenty of other options available," Fred Heitl, who lives off Dickinson Road near the Morrison crash site, told county supervisors Wednesday. He said lighted stop signs don't make annoying noises, and "are 54 percent more effective and cheaper."
People living near the Hobart intersection, meanwhile, suggested lighted stop signs, stop signs with reflective tape or a four-way stop as alternatives.
One cited Minnesota data that said lighted stops signs reduced crashes 42 percent. Another said almost anything would be more effective than rumble strips at preventing crashes.
"I would think the county would be more interested in trying other solutions than making a hard time for the residents who live here," said Jeff Ambrosius, who lives just east of the intersection.
Hobart residents also accused the county of providing little notice of the proposed changes. Several said communication from the county arrived just last week.
Rumble strips cost $2,000 to $3,000 to install, Fontecchio said, whereas a roundabout would cost $750,000 to $1 million. But while the cost for rumble strips is considerably lower, authorities disagree over how effective they are at preventing distracted driving that causes serious crashes.
Hobart-Lawrence Police Chief Randy Bani said of the county can easily address safety concerns by making stop signs larger and more visible.
"My opinion," he said, "would be they don't need rumble strips."
These are the intersections at which Brown County announced it would install rumble strips this fall. Most would also have additional stop signs installed.