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Weekend Wrap: Tasmania SuperSprint
July 16, 2016 March 29, 2015 by Jordan Mulach
Red Bull Racing Australia clean sweep the Tasmania SuperSprint
Billed as the return of the Launceston great, the build up to the Tasmania SuperSprint was overshadowed by Marcos Ambrose's shock decision not to race in his highly publicised homecoming race at Symmons Plains. However, all was forgotten after a great weekend of racing with the re-emergence of a champion team, a mixed bag of results and some unsavoury actions on track.
Picking up from where they left off at the Australian Grand Prix Prodrive Racing Australia led the way in Friday's two practice sessions. In a last-lap dash Chaz Mostert topped the water logged opening session, while team-mate Mark Winterbottom made the most of dry conditions to take out the day's second session. Much of the talk in the second session had centred on Craig Lowndes spinning or leaving the road seven times as he tested the limits of grip, but his excursions certainly paid off when he put his Red Bull Racing Australia Commodore on pole position for both of Saturday's races. Winterbottom lined up beside him on the grid with James Courtney and Will Davison on the second row for Race One, the Erebus Motorsport driver having topped the time sheet in final practice ahead of qualifying. Qualifying in second for the second race, it was a Red Bull front row lock-out with Jamie Whincup edging out Courtney and David Reynolds. Having impressed with an 11th place start in qualifying for the first race, young rookie Andre Heimgartner then put his newly re-shelled Super Black Racing Falcon FG-X in fifth for the second race, two places ahead of Winterbottom, and even more remarkable given this was the Kiwi's first ever outing at the small 2.4km Tasmanian circuit.
It didn't take long for things to fire up in the first race of the weekend when Davison's Erebus Mercedes was spun by Courtney's HRT entry at the Turn 4 hairpin. Davison was left fuming for the rest of the race, eventually finishing 17th. Scott McLaughlin's luck remained unchanged, failing to finish after yet another engine drama for the Volvo Polestar Racing team. Lowndes walked away from the rest of the pack, finishing 2.3s clear of Winterbottom closely followed by Courtney in third. After the race, Davison paid a visit to the Walkinshaw garage, remonstrating with Courtney that he had been hit on purpose by the Holden driver. Replays showed Courtney was nudged by Chaz Mostert into Davison, but Davison was having none of it, labelling Courtney arrogant and pathetic. However, V8 Supercars' Investigating Officer Jason Bargwanna saw nothing wrong with the move, declaring it a racing incident and choosing to not hand out any penalties.
In a repeat of Race One, Lowndes led the second 25-lap race, leading home team-mate Whincup for their first Red Bull one-two of the year. The pair put in a strong performance to dominate the race ahead of the consistent Courtney. Lowndes' back-to-back victory extended his record of V8 career wins to 99. The race's only safety car came out early on in the piece after Heimgartner locked his brakes into the hairpin, getting bogged in the Turn 4 gravel trap and needing a tow out. Reynolds looked set to grab the last spot on the podium for the Bottle-O Racing Team until Courtney found his rhythm and got past the Ford man. After an engine change between races, McLaughlin finished a strong ninth position, revealing post-race that his Volvo S60 was only making around 90% of its normal power.
Sunday began with Erebus's protest against the decision not to penalise James Courtney being dismissed by CAMS, putting the incident to rest. On track, it was again Lowndes who put his car on pole, clean sweeping the weekend. However, it was closer than he would have wanted with Reynolds only 0.0485 of a second behind him. Whincup and Davison completed the second row while all four PRA cars made the top 10. Just 0.6 seconds split Lowndes from 24th placed Michael Caruso.
Sunday's 200km race got off to a fiery start with Reynolds getting the jump over Lowndes off the line, only to be spun at the first turn by the Red Bull Holden. With the Prodrive entry relegated to the back of the pack, Lowndes was promptly slapped with a pit lane drive-through penalty. The incident also left Davison's Mercedes with a broken steering rack after Shane van Gisbergen turned into Davison to avoid Reynolds' Falcon. Whincup made the most of it leaping from fourth to run away at the front of the pack, taking van Gisbergen and Mostert with him. Taking on less fuel than Whincup, Mostert was expected to make the jump in the pits, but the six-time champion's out-laps were exceptional, and Whincup ended up ahead of Mostert on the road and with tyres that were ten laps fresher. Whincup crossed the line in first, racking up his ninety-first career victory with Mostert and van Gisbergen completing the podium. Lowndes stormed back through the pack, ending up in sixth place, while Reynolds recovered from his spin to finish 11th, while stablemate Andre Heimgartner proved a future contender, keeping a level head and finishing eighth. Todd Kelly finished as the highest placed Nissan driver in 13th place, but Nissan Motorsport had a double blow in one of its pit stops – expecting to receive Caruso for his scheduled stop, the team had to service James Moffat first after he made an unplanned stop for a deflating tyre, forcing them to double-stack and lose track position.
Symmons Plains always throws up something new and this weekend was no different. Soft and hard tyre strategies were jumbled throughout the grid with almost everyone doing something different with tyres of varying qualities. While there were some familiar faces at the front of the grid, some were also fresh and some normal front-runners were forced to star in the mid-pack. The series now takes a five-week break before heading west to Perth.
Tasmania SuperSprint Winners and Losers
Craig Lowndes showed that after 20 seasons, the fight and talent is still in him. The fact that he is 40 and can still not only pull together a hat-trick of poles but drive quickly and consistently is a sign that his time isn't up just quite yet. Many, myself included, were sure that Whincup would beat him to the century but given he only needs one more win to reach the milestone, things may have changed.
Jamie Whincup entered second in the all-time winners list and now only has his team-mate to beat. His excellent record of wins at Symmons Plains extended with 11 wins, accounting for around 12% of his overall victories. He raced fairly and put last year's incident with Lowndes behind him, proving once again why he is undoubtedly a modern great.
Chaz Mostert's career just keeps getting better and better. He has one-lap pace and can easily run up the front in the longer races, as well as putting his more experienced team-mate in his place. Mostert seems to be gelling well with the new FG-X like the other Ford drivers but is getting the most out of it when he has the opportunity. Without doubt, with more consistent results, he will be a front-runner for most of the year.
Losers:
Will Davison couldn't have had much of a worse weekend. The real tragedy is that none of the accidents that he was in were his own fault. James Courtney's tap left Davison to fight through the pack, not an easy task in only a 25 lap race. Contact with van Gisbergen in Race 3 left him in the garage and most likely feeling like giving up, contemplating if he could catch the next flight home. However, he can take two strong qualifying performances and practice pace out of Tasmania and will be looking to capitalise on his one lap pace at Barbagallo.
Garry Rogers Motorsport must be wondering just where all its gremlins are coming from in the Volvo power unit. McLaughlin's DNF in Race 1 and Wall's DNF in Race 3 raises questions as to why the year-old design still has the same problems as last season. When everything is going well, they have pace but if it's not going 100%, things really don't turn out the way the team wants it.
Nissan Motorsport really didn't appear on the radar all weekend apart from when its drivers were fighting each other for position. Mid-late pack results perhaps demonstrated that while the new aero package works on some of the street circuits, it isn't consistent or stable enough on a high speed track. Stability and power upgrades should be number one on the team's priority list before the cars hit the track again.
Honourable mentions:
Red Bull seems to do the same thing each year: go into the first round with mixed results, have a quiet weekend in Albert Park and then smash the competition in the first championship race after the Grand Prix. The fact that it has remained so dominant for such a long amount of time is nothing short of amazing and really shows the good mentality within the team.
Categories Features, Weekend Wrap Post navigation
The case for and against championship races at Albert Park
Sébastien Bourdais joins Lee Holdsworth for Enduros


Motegi wheels and Motegi rims at wholesale prices for your car or truck.
The Deal On Rims has been one of the largest distributor of Motegi wheels since Motegi wheels first began producing rims. All Motegi wheels carry the manufacturor's warranties against defects in workmanship. If you have a warranty issue on a set of Motegi wheels that we sold you, just give us a call and we will facilitate the warranty process. If you purchase a Motegi wheel and tire package from us, we can mount them and balance them with the recommended tire size for your vehicle and send the set to your door ready to be installed onto your vehicle. All of our wheellines are of the tested for quality and durability or we don't carry them. One thing that you can be sure of is that you have chosen one of the largest distirbutor of wholesale Motegi wheels in the nation!!
The addition to racing, custom rims on vehicles is probably one the most popular auto customizations today. Fitting racing rims to regular cars might seem a little unusual for the average driver, but for most car owners this is a good investment to go for, especially if you would like to improve the accuracy of your car's handling performance. Such customization has also been gaining a wide following among car enthusiasts and car show owners to heighten the visual appeal of their vehicles that could instantly win the attention of pedestrians.
Although it is not frequently said, integrating racing custom rims on your car have a significant impact on its overall value. Just like any other auto upgrades, procuring racing wheels for your ride can be initially expensive, but you don't have to worry at all as this customization will definitely give you a run for your money in the long term. This is because most custom racing wheels are very durable, lightweight and superior in quality, which in turn assures their longevity. Moreover, they are designed to complement a wide range of car models, giving you the opportunity to choose the set of wheel fitments that best represent your personality and would perfectly match the needs of your car.
One of the fastest-growing line of wheels today is the Motegi racing wheels. Getting these wheel fitments for your car is a worthy investment to make as they are generally designed to suite almost all kinds of vehicles. There are Motegi wheel models appropriated for high performance vehicles, making them a popular choice among race car drivers. There are also units that could instantly transform your vehicle into a moving work of art.
Motegi racing tires and rims are especially known for their superior performance, quality and durability that are sure to blaze the road. They are made from materials that could withstand even the roughest driving conditions. The rims are constructed from the combination of alloy and chrome, making them damage-resistant and they are lightweight in nature, thereby adding speed to vehicles. Meanwhile, the Motegi wheel-art varieties are also made from the same materials as that of their high performance units, but they are more stylish making them appropriate for car shows and attractions.
Other than their durability and superior performance, Motegi racing wheels are also known for their wide selections of designs and finishes that could suffice to the stylistic needs of car owners. For instance, their street-inspired FF7 Glossy Black with spokes could instantly turn a boring-looking vehicle into the center of attention on the road. Another stylish design is the DV5 chrome plate wheels, which could add a luster finish to your vehicle. This design has five bolts that could add a touch of classic appeal to your vehicle.
If you're looking for the best set of high performance and stylish wheels for you vehicle, then Motegi racing wheels are the best options to go for. Not only will they complement your stylistic needs, they would also help improve the handling performance of your vehicle regardless if you use it for everyday driving or racing. These wheels are also competitively priced compared to regular aftermarket wheels. Hence, not only do you have the opportunity to own premium quality and stylish wheels, you can also have them at a price that won't break your budget.


Perhaps you've noticed that things are pretty tough across the retail industry these days?
Competition has never been more fierce. Average unit retail prices are getting compressed, putting ever greater downward pressure on margins. Retailers and developers that overbuilt for years are at long last facing a reckoning. Radical transparency and ease of anytime, anywhere, anyway shopping are hammering those that have failed to innovate and differentiate.
Of course, not so long ago retail brands could get away peddling average products for average people. There was a time when retailers and the brands they sold held most of the cards. There was a time when rapid industry growth could smooth over patches of mediocrity. There was a time when being just a little bit interesting could win the customer's attention and give retailers a good shot at making the sale.
That time is over. Forever.
Now the customer is very much in charge. Now largely stagnant markets require brands to steal share to have any chance of material top line growth. Now much of retail is drowning in a sea of sameness. Now the consumer is overwhelmed by choices and the battle for share of attention is only won by the weird, the intensely relevant, the remarkable.
And yet when entrepreneurs chased force multiplication effectiveness, many legacy brands chose to focus on incremental efficiency gains. While innovative start-ups took risks, the big retailers mostly hunkered down. As a wave of profound change was rippling through the industry, many just decided to watch and study and analyze. But mostly watch. When venture capital was piling into the bold and interesting, much of mainstream retail remained decidedly dull.
There is no shortage of unique, impactful and useful innovations that have emerged from the new age of digital disruption. It's just that so little of it has come from traditional retailers. At precisely the time that so many retailers desperately need innovation, their cupboards are woefully bare. Confronted by me-too marketing, look-a-like stores, repetitive products and shoddy customer experiences, so many once-proud brands still have next to nothing new, differentiated and exciting to offer.
Today you can take the name off the door and Staples, Office Depot and Office Max are virtually indistinguishable. Same for Macy's and Dillard's, Lowe's and Home Depot. And on and on.
The danger of death by years of inaction, thousands of tiny compromises and clinging to the false notion that a company can shrink to prosperity is now very real. Half measures have availed them nothing. Taking so few risks has turned out to be the riskiest thing retailers could have possibly chosen.
In fact, it's hard to imagine a worse time to be so boring.
And, ironically, many of these retailers are about to experience a lot of excitement. Just not the fun kind.


When oil heated, saute the onions to soften (about 3 mins).
Add the blended chillies, garlic and ginger.
Fry until the oil floats.
Mix and stir all the ingredients.
Cook until the clams opens up.
By now there will be ample gravy inside.
To thicken, pour the diluted corn flour inside.
At the same time, add also the spring onions.
Mix and once the gravy has thicken, remove from heat.


Summary: Inconsistent gestures, invisible commands, overlooked warnings, awkward dialog confirmations. But fun to play.
Kinect is a new video game system that is fully controlled by bodily movements. It's vaguely similar to the Wii, but doesn't use a controller (and doesn't have the associated risk of banging up your living room if you lose your grip on the Wii wand during an aggressive tennis swing).
Kinect observes users through a video camera and recognizes gestures they make with different body parts, including hands, arms, legs, and general posture. The fitness program, for example, is fond of telling me to "do deeper squats," which it can do because it knows how my entire body is moving. Analyzing body movements in such detail far exceeds the Wii's capabilities, though it's still not going to put my trainer down at the gym out of work.
Kinect presents a far more advanced gesture-based user experience than any previous system seen outside the fancy research labs. Yes, I saw similar interfaces as long ago as 1985 at cutting-edge academic conferences – most notably Myron Krueger's Videoplace. But there's a big difference between a million-dollar research system and a $150 Xbox add-on.
On the one hand, Kinect is an amazing advance, especially considering its low price. On the other hand, the 25-year time lag between research and practice for gesture UIs is slightly worse than the usual fate of HCI research advances. For example, 20 years lapsed between Doug Engelbart's invention of the mouse (1964) and the first commercially feasible mouse-based computer (the Mac in 1984).
For example, how do you know to jump up to make a long jump in Kinect Sports , even though it's a completely illogical move (and would make more sense for a high jump)? By remembering what you read before your avatar entered the stadium, of course.
Kinect exhibits another type of visibility problem: on-screen alerts are easily overlooked because the user's attention is focused elsewhere. This rarely happens with mobile touch-UIs: because of their small size, you see anything that pops up on the screen. In contrast, it's common for users to overlook error messages on cluttered Web pages.
On Kinect, users don't overlook messages because of clutter, but because of engaging action. For example, in observing users play Kinect Adventures , I frequently saw a warning message in the upper left telling users to move to a different part of the floor. Yes, as the usability observer I saw this – but the game-playing users didn't. They were too focused on the compelling movements in the middle of the screen. They watched their avatar and the gamespace, and didn't notice the appearance of UI chrome in the corner.
How can users miss the huge "Move Forward" warning?
They miss it because they're fully engaged in steering their raft down the river.
A similar, but less serious problem occurs in Your Shape: Fitness Evolved when you're trying to complete a hard cardio program. The number of reps left in the set counts down in the corner, but you tend to focus on your trainer and keeping up with her movements.
It'll be a design challenge to increase users' awareness of system messages without detracting from their engagement in the game's primary activity.
Related to the lack of visibility, it is hard to know why certain actions have specific effects because there is little direct feedback. In the table tennis game, making a smacking movement with your hand mimics hitting the ball with a paddle and you do get immediate feedback showing whether or not you "hit" the ball. But it's difficult to figure out why you sometimes succeed in making a hard smash. For sure, it's not dictated solely by hand-movement speed.
That there are no universal standards for gestural interactions yet is a problem in its own right, because the UI cannot rely on learned behavior. The Kinect has a few system-wide standards, however, which do help users.
For example, there is a standard way to pause a game to bring up the menu: stand with your right arm straight down and your left arm held at a 45-degree angle. Definitely not a natural stance- indeed, it was probably chosen because it will never occur in normal gameplay.
The pause gesture becomes the user's lifeline, but there are no standards for other, commonly desired generic commands, such as "back." This makes it harder for users to navigate the UI, because they need to figure out these basic operations every time. Less learning takes place when the same thing is done differently in different games.
As the following two screenshots show, there's not even consistency as to which hand is used for "back," let alone which gesture to use or how the feature is presented visually.
"Back" in upper right; activated by holding hand still over button.
"Back" in lower left; activated by swiping left hand rightwards.
At least you can tell that the designers have done their usability testing: they've applied a Band-Aid to the UI in the form of a note saying "left hand" next to Dance Central 's inconsistent "Back" command. Whenever you have to explain a GUI widget, it's probably wrong.
Within Kinect Sports , different movements are used to throw a bowling ball, a discus, and a javelin, and still different moves are used to smack a table-tennis ball and kick a soccer ball. However, this across-game inconsistency is less of a problem, because the design embodies external consistency: the game gestures are similar to those used to deal with these objects in the real world.
Kinect generally does a good job of protecting against the accidental activation we see so often when testing mobile devices. If your finger brushes against something on your phone or iPad, off you go – often without knowing what happened (because you don't know what you touched).
instead, this gesture brings up another button as a confirmation step.
Kinect has many great design elements that clearly show that the team (a) knows usability, (b) did user testing, and (c) had management support to prioritize usability improvements, even when they required extra development work.
Good usability examples include the above mentioned on-screen hint in the exact spot of a command that would have been otherwise difficult to activate. How do the designers know where users need hints? From having watched real people play games and taken note of where they got stuck.
The most compelling usability advance is the way Kinect automatically signs in users after recognizing their faces. Step in front of the sensor, and "Jakob recognized" appears on the screen, after which the current game starts using my customized avatar. This is the type of interaction technique I called a "non-command user interface" in 1993: You don't feel that you're issuing commands to a computer; you simply go about your business the way you normally would, and the computer does what's needed to complete its part of the task.
We know from researching enterprise portals that single sign-on is one of the most wanted (but least-delivered) intranet features. But automated sign-on is even better and eliminates an entire class of interaction steps.
People had great fun and were able to play the games after only a short demo.
As was clear in this situation, the same type usability issues that cause substantial problems in iPad user testing are brushed off by Kinect users. So how come Kinect's overall user experience works, despite its many user interface deficiencies?
The explanation lies in the difference in user tasks between the two systems. Usability is defined relative to two points: the users and their tasks. Comparing iPad and Kinect, even if the users are the same, usability will differ if people are trying to do two very different things.
Sure, people play games on iPad – indeed I have whiled away many hours in airports with Solitaire City and We Rule , and other members of Nielsen Norman Group swear by Angry Birds . However, whacky interaction styles in games rarely pose problems. What we really care about in tablet design are business-oriented user interfaces for things like e-commerce, stock trading, and information access. That's when inconsistencies and weird design reduce usage, and thus cost you business.
Also, Kinect users don't jump from one context to another every minute or two the way mobile users do. When you play a Kinect game, you're immersed in that game (often for half an hour or more) and don't see any of the other games. In fact, switching games is done not through on-screen navigation, but by swapping DVDs, thus reducing the load on the on-screen UI.
Finally, different games often have wildly different activities and goals, so it's okay to have varying user interfaces. Whitewater rafting and dancing to Lady Gaga's latest creation are no more similar than chalk and cheese.
On the iPad, whether you're shopping for one thing or another, you expect to be treated to best practices for e-commerce user experience as defined by the countless websites you've already used. Similarly, whether you're reading a magazine or a newspaper, you expect similarities in the UI for navigating among articles and for moving through an individual story's content. And whether you're researching investments in your brokerage account, checking the weather forecast, or modifying an airline reservation, you expect similar interaction techniques for operations like filtering long lists or changing measurement units.
Purposeful use of iPad or gesture interfaces on other tablets and phones is comprised of fairly similar tasks, with strong user expectations and frequent context switches that penalize inconsistent design. Also, users have to manipulate large data sets with feature-rich commands and spend a fairly large percentage of their total time operating the UI. User experience quality is mainly determined by UI usability and whether the content easily satisfies users' information needs.
Playing with Kinect involves highly distinctive activities, where users focus on one game at a time and thus are better able to overcome inconsistencies. Here, users navigate a fairly small data space and spend most of their time playing with only the occasional detour outside the gameworld to operate the command-oriented part of the UI. User experience quality is mainly determined by gameplay.
A final difference is that mobile devices are the ultimate in individual use: your phone is yours and it's usually a solitary activity to interact with the device. Even when connecting to a social network, the on-screen actual user interface is being operated by you alone. In contrast, gaming consoles are often used in a group setting where new users get a gentle introduction to the new user interface by the more experienced users in the group.
This difference in usage circumstances means that consoles can rely less on having a self-explanatory UI, whereas a mobile UI must have extremely high learnability.
Kinect is an exciting advance in user interface technology, but many of the user experience characteristics that make it so also mean that it's not the road ahead for the practical user interfaces that businesses, government agencies, and non-profit organizations need for their everyday websites, intranets, and applications. Design ideas that make Kinect fun could cost you millions.
I still want one! But for now I will stick with my Wii and its limited (really, are we calling it limited already) capabilities.


Everyday people pack their bags and get ready to travel to a different destination. It is like having breakfast in one country and dinner in another. Many travel plans are budgeted and are not possible if the airfare is too high. Booking Air ticket is a concern for all the customers because most airline ticket prices fluctuates from time to time.You would have heard the phrase �The early bird catches the worm� so booking flights with Flywidus will ease you on this matter as here booking on the specific day of the week will help you save good money on airfare.
The main motto of Flywidus is to relieve their customer from tension and the below given tips will surely help you to pick the best day of the week to book a flight.
Log on our website shortly after 12am on Tuesday or Wednesday because this is a time when airlines release new low cost fares. Tuesday being the week day there are less of travelers leading to get a good deal. Airlines usually increase the price compare its prices with other airlines. If the prices are not matched the fare is again lowered on Monday, and it continues till Wednesday, so it is the best time grab the opportunity on Tuesday midnight or Wednesday.
Maximum people travel on a weekend, be it the for office work or for pleasure. If you are planning for a weekend then book your ticket on Thursday night as Flywidus release its weekend specials on Thursday evening.
Most airline instigate sales on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, therefore booking tickets early in the week with Flywidusgives customers a chance to find cheap deals.
Flywidus send alerts to you about the best deals. All you have to do is register for free alerts on e-mail by registering on our website http://www.flywidus.com with your email id and number and you will be updated you with all new offers and discounts.
It is also beneficial to book on specific times which are off-peak like late night around 11 or 12 pm and early morning around 3 or 4 pm. This will help to grab some lower airfare deals. At about midnight, most airlines usually reload their computers with the latest low-cost fares.
If you are planning a holiday to an exotic place during peak season do book your tickets well in advance because there are chances you won't get tickets if it gets too late, or you may end up paying a huge amount. Most airfare goes up in the last 2 weeks of flying, so it is advisable to book it's at least 6 weeks in advance.
So plan you trip with Flywidus and enjoy your travel.


If you are looking for a unique place to celebrate a special occasion, this is it! Small weddings, anniversaries, birthdays, graduations or any special event is more fun at Molly's Manor. We can accommodate up to 24 guests for a sit-down meal. Enjoy a meal prepared specifically for your event and dietary restrictions of any guests. Menu choices include appetizers, soups/salads, main entrées, desserts and non-alcoholic beverages. Relax, have fun and leave the clean-up to us!
Need a facility to host your own party, but don't want a sit-down meal? No problem - let us know if you want to keep it simple. We can prepare appetizers and hors d'oeuvers, or if you wish, you may bring in your own food and beverages. We can also provide the kitchenware and utensils, or you bring in your own.
Content copyright . Molly's Manor B&B. All rights reserved. 605-337-2294.


If the amount of sweat my pores have been pouring lately is any indication, summer is here with a vengeance. HEYO. Welcome to TMI. And now that summer is here, I want to harken back to summer 2014 (yikes) when I was but a humble junior-to-be, and I started reading American Gods by Neil Gaiman as a part of a book club/competition with a friend. I fell in love with this book and how grown-up it made me feel. Though it was exciting and fresh and full of magic, it wasn't Harry Potter, Harry Potter fanfic, or Percy Jackson. This was a book written for REAL LIVE adults, and I was reading it and loving it! How exciting is that! I felt great about reading and about being an adult reader in that moment (I mean, I read it in my very first apartment that wasn't a dorm or my parent's spare bedroom!), and I'll never forget how excited I was to be excited about reading again. It's a feeling that comes back every summer, and so welcome to the American Gods re-readers club.
The other thing that comes back literally as soon as I can swing it and still be socially accepted is this no-fail, no-churn, no-effort recipe for ice cream. IT IS SO EASY. IT IS CRAZY HOW EASY IT IS. So go nab the recipe for my favorite flavor, blackberry and cookies and cream.
So easy you might have to make it twice.
This ice cream is a summer staple in our house, and it's hard to tell who likes it better, Colin or Daily.
In a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment or a hand mixer , whip the heavy whipping cream for about five minutes until you have stiff, stiff peaks. If you whip too hard and somewhat curdle the cream, never fear. You can fix this by being a bit rougher on step two to take some air out of the cream.
Slowly add the sweetened condensed milk, folding in gently with the spatula. Keeping as much of the fluff in the cream as possible does wonders for making this taste like you churned it for hours. I don't know why! It's a texture thing!
Add the vanilla next, and fold it in gently per above.
Finally, fold in the blackberries and Oreos. Or whatever your chocolate sandwich cookie of choice is. Mine was Whole Foods's knockoff, because that's where I was when I decided I wanted ice cream.
Freeze for about five hours, then just go crazy.
Plot: This book is an epic story of an ex-con, Shadow, who is released from prison just as his wife dies (spoiler). As he tries to make sense of his grief, he's hired as the bodyguard of a man who turns out to be a god in the midst of a war between the Old Gods and the New. Don't you hate it when that happens?
Thoughts: I read this book the year after my freshman year of college on the Kindle app on my phone and I loved it. Then I re-read it the next summer on the Kindle app on my phone. Then I tried to watch the show and hated it, so I re-read it on the Kindle — okay, you get the picture.
I love this book. A lot. When I read it the first time, it struck me as the first grown-up feeling book that I really, genuinely devoured the same way I did a lot of young adult fiction, and I was proud of that. Percy Jackson is great, but Percy Jackson written for adults is better. When I read it again, it continues to strike me as just a really good fantastical adventure story. I say read in the present tense because this is about to be the book I finish on a flight, just for the record.
I love this book because I'm a sucker for Neil Gaiman, because I will never grow out of loving a really good adventure story, and because this book, above most others, allowed my imagination to run wild in an exciting world that excited me about reading when I was feeling a little lost in the process of growing up.
Verdict: Highly recommend. DO NOT WATCH THE SHOW. Read the book.
Pst! This post contains Amazon affiliate links. Thanks for your support!


St. Paul's International School is working under the aegis of Anchal Educational Society and Gyanmanthan Educational Services Pvt. Ltd. Gyanmanthan is an educational consulting and management company that provides transformational educational services to schools and other places of learning in North India, including the start-up of new schools and the continuous improvement of existing schools.
As St. Paul's International School, our practice is to open the world of knowledge to students is such a way that it's not just engaging and interesting but easy to grasp and encouraging. Through a friendly environment, we always attempt to develop keenness in our students that inclines them to discover, explore and experience, an unending desire to learn.
A classroom is not merely a space created with benches and boards, with children and teachers indulging into a bookish session, rather it's learning environment full of enthusiasm children own in their hearts, a place where lessons of education are delivered along with life's existence.
While the Primary student graduates to Middle level the teachers engage them in stimulating projects and exchange, which weave them together with one another through technology. Our virtual classrooms are always abuzz with activities, as teachers and students together undertake enterprising and intrepid journeys of explorations and discovery.


text:
Daqing Refinery Reduces Annual Energy Consumption by 41%
With the installation of the PowerFlex 7000, China's top-grossing petrochemical refinery saves in power consumption and maintenance costs
Allen-Bradley® PowerFlex® 7000 6kV medium voltage variable frequency drive
Reduced energy consumption 30% to 41% depending on production output
$15,000 reduced annual maintenance costs
Decreased downtime
2.5 years return on investment
As one of the top 10 oil refineries in China, the Daqing Refinery Plant, located in Daqing city, Heilongjiang Province, has a gross-annual revenue of over $10 million.
Established in 1963, the refinery is a part of the Daqing Petrochemical Corporation, a subsidiary of the biggest petroleum production provider in China; PetroChina Group, with a substantial market share of 50%.
In terms of volume, the Daqing Refinery produces 600,000 tons per year in gasoline, diesel oil, kerosene, paraffin, and other petroleum products sold throughout China.
Since China entered the World Trade Organization in 2001, the drive to compete with less expensive imported products has propelled the country's industrial sector to meet new challenges in cost-effectiveness and production efficiency. More than ever, reduced cost production is a critical factor in offering a low selling price to keep a healthy market share.
At the Daqing Petrochemical Refinery plant, the crude oil pump from a 3,500-ton pressure reduction process line maintains a steady flow rate of 8,000 to 10,600 tons per day of crude oil. The crude oil pump, however, consumed a large amount of electrical energy in the process.
Finding a more efficient pump control method to reduce wasteful energy consumption was a key value driver at the plant in order to stay competitive and to lower prices.
Other issues facing the Daqing plant were maintenance costs and downtime. The existing pump required regular maintenance every 8,000 hours, which led to 2 days of downtime per year with an average economic loss of $16,438 for each lost day. Such continuous maintenance was largely due to the fact that the pump motor ran at full speed regardless of production output levels.
Previously, engineers at Daqing employed a valve throttle control method to manage the nonstop high speed of the pump motor. With this method, a throttling valve, located at the output of the pump, would be adjusted periodically to meet changing load demands in oil flow rate.
This system, however, proved to be inefficient as problems of high energy consumption, even at low load demand, as well as wear and tear from the high running speed of the pump, persisted. In addition, the throttling control method created increased pipe pressure, which caused oil to leak and the need to frequently replace seals.
To cut back on excessive electric power consumption, a reliable true Medium Voltage (MV) drive solution was essential for the oil pump motor application at the Daqing Refinery.
Using an Allen-Bradley® PowerFlex® 7000 MV drive with a 6 kV rectifier and a 6 kV inverter that can be easily fabricated with fewer 6.5 kV power devices without output transformer, the Daqing plant had found a simple and reliable solution.
The PowerFlex 7000 uses Current Source Inverter-Pulse Width Modulation (CSI-PWM) technology to provide a simplified power structure with a lower power device count. The PowerFlex 7000 drive makes this efficiency possible with strong overcurrent protection capabilities that do not require fuses and electronic fusing circuits to protect the power devices, thus, simplifying the complexity of the drives.
Depending on the market requirements, the Daqing Refinery production output varies between three levels (9,000 tons per day, 9,600 tons per day, and 10,500 tons per day). With the Rockwell Automation solution place, the plant has gone a long way to maintain such significant production numbers while saving money with more efficient energy consumption.
For a 9,000 ton production output, 426 KW/h were required for oil pump motor operation compared to after the PowerFlex 7000 retrofit power consumption at 250 KW/h. The Daqing Refinery saves 1,533,312 KW/h per year, which reduces their annual energy consumption by 41%.
For a 9,600 ton production output, 527 KW/h were required for oil pump motor operation compared to after the Powerflex 7000 retrofit power consumption at 370 KW/h, the Daqing Refinery saves 1,370,397 Kwh per year, which reduces their annual energy consumption by 30%.
For a 10,500 ton production output, 584.8 KW/h were required for oil pump motor operation compared to after the PowerFlex 7000 retrofit power consumption at 400 KW/h, the Daqing Refinery saves 1,609,977 Kwh per year, which reduces their annual energy consumption by 32%.
In addition, the new solution safeguards the pump motors against over-currents and simplifies the drive systems by eliminating fuses and electronic fusing circuits. $15,000 per year is saved in reduced maintenance costs and decreased downtime.
The total savings at the Daqing Refinery have resulted in a project return on investment ROI) of 2.5 years. The project was so successful at the Daqing Refinery that after one year of operation, a meeting was held at the site to introduce the PowerFlex 7000 retrofit to all sister plants in Daqing Petrochemical.
Hangying Wu, the plant's chief engineer, notes that his faith in the Rockwell Automation solution was right on the money.
"System reliability is the main criteria for us when selecting products," says Wu, "Allen-Bradley CSIPWM has a wonderful power structure design, which uses module structure, few device components, and strong overcurrent protection capability."
"After careful technical comparison and analysis, we decided to select the Rockwell Automation solution. The good performance of the drive has proven that our decision was correct."

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


What a lot of beauty. I love the texture of the couch and chairs and the bed is for royalty!!
What gorgeous pieces. Love them all, however, I especially love the lamp on the zinc top table, the greige chest of drawers, the spectacular barstools with nail head trim and the tear drop chandelier... how exciting! Thanks for sharing.
Lucky you! I would LOVE to go to Martha's Vineyard some day. What a great shop, Amy! I love the setee and chair with the grain sack look fabric... gorgeous. And look at that great sale price on the bed! Thanks for sharing this with us.
I want those bar stool! How awesome are they with the burlap! Love the chandelier! YUMMY!
I love that chandelier, it would be perfect in a powder room.
What an amazing shopping trip! I'm with Cynthia - I want those bar stools! The legs along with the nailhead trim is fantastic!
Looks like my kinda shop! Ooh la la! I love that bed too, makes me want to take a looonng nap!
Luv the settee and that mercury chandelier. But like you, the french bed is my fave. I see that it has a 30% off sign...so how much was it, just curious?
Tamara is a really good friend of mine! After Mary Emmerling introduced us, I shot her house for Country Home years ago. I should pull out those photos for a post, but they're on film!
She works so hard to find the coolest things! You'll be seeing some Dunes and Duchess candelabras there this spring!
omg such beautiful things!!!!!!!!! I absolutely adore that chair with the burlap stencil....sigh.


text:
Violin and Guitar
Londonderry Air
(Violin and Guitar)
"Danny Boy"
The title of the air comes from the name of the county located in Northern Ireland. The air was collected by Jane Ross of Limavady, County Londonderry, who heard it played by an itinerant piper or fiddler. The descendants of blind fiddler Jimmy McCurry assert that he is the musician from whom she transcribed the tune but there is no historical evidence to support this speculation.
Also by Traditional:
The Holly & the Ivy Fantasia (Flute & Guitar)
A La Nanita Nana (Flute & Guitar)
Shenandoah/The Water is Wide (Flute & Guitar)
Planxty Brown - A Major (Flute & Guitar)
A Christmas Offering (Guitar Trio)
Also from the Traditional period:
Romanza (Guitar Solo)
Bring a Torch, Jeanette, Isabella (Guitar Quartet)
Folk Songs & Dances (Guitar Solo)
A Christmas Primer (Oboe & Guitar)
Greensleeves Variations (Flute & Guitar)
The Huron Carol (Guitar Solo)
Skye Boat Song (Violin & Guitar)
Christmas Joy (Guitar Quintet)
Scarborough Fair (Flute, Oboe & Guitar)
Adagio, Easy Guitar (Cello & Guitar)
Trio No. 9, Op. 36 (Guitar Trio)
Capricho Arabe (Flute & Guitar)
Fiesta (Guitar Quartet)
Romance (Guitar Trio)
Arioso from Cantata No. 156 (Recorder & Guitar)
Songs of Spring: Sunlight (Flute & Guitar)
Chanson de Matin, Op. 15, No. 2 (Cello & Guitar)
Valse / Waltz Op 34 (Piano & Guitar)
Karob-Bean Dance (Guitar Trio)
O Holy Night (Violin & Guitar)
Cadiz Op. 47 D Major (Violin & Guitar)
Chocolate (Violin & Guitar)
El Choclo (Violin & Guitar - D Minor)
Marche Militaire (Violin & Guitar, C Major)
Arioso from Cantata 156, G Major (Violin & Guitar)
Traumerei (Violin & Guitar)
Valses poéticos, Op. 10 - Finale (Violin & Guitar)
Rule, Britannia! - Easy Guitar (Violin & Guitar)
Columbine Polka Mazurka (Violin & Guitar)
Bist du bei mir (Voice & Guitar)
The Whistler & His Dog (Flute & Guitar)
Sevilla Op. 47 (Violin & Guitar)
Valses poéticos, Op. 10 - Complete (Guitar Duo)
Fjäriln vingad syns på Haga (Guitar Quartet)
Greensleeves (Violin & Guitar)
Fruhlingsstimmen (Flute & Guitar)
L'Encouragement, Op. 34 (Violin & Guitar)
L'Encouragement, Op. 34 (Guitar Duo)
Bridal Chorus from Lohengrin (Recorder & Guitar)


text:
Q: DSolveValue and Laplace-Beltrami diffusion equation I started using Mathematica very recently and I am considering a 2D diffusion process, involving a Laplace-Beltrami potential term Pot[x,y]. My code is given just below
ClearAll["Global`*"];
Pot[x_, y_] := 1;
heqn = D[u[x, y, t], t] ==  Pot[x, y]*(D[u[x, y, t], {x, 2}] + D[u[x, y, t], {y, 2}]);
ic = u[x, y, 0] == E^(-x^2 - y^2);
sol = DSolveValue[{heqn, ic}, u[x, y, t], {x, y, t}]; Plot3D[ Evaluate[Table[sol, {t, 0, 4}]], {x, -5, 5}, {y, -5, 5}, PlotRange -> All, Filling -> Axis]
ListAnimate[Table[Plot3D[sol, {x, -5, 5}, {y, -5, 5}, PlotTheme -> {"Scientific", "SolidGrid"}, AxesLabel -> {"\!\(\*StyleBox[\"x\", \"SO\"]\) (m)", " \!\(\*
StyleBox[\"y\", \"SO\"]\) (m)", "\!\(\*StyleBox[\"u\", \"SO\"]\) (\!\(\*SuperscriptBox[\(K\), \(-2\)]\))"}, ImageSize -> Medium, PlotRange -> {0, 1.1}], {t, 0, 4, .01}]]

This is a copy/paste from a basic 1D program and hence it can only work fine. But when I am changing the potential Pot[x,y] for a non-trivial function of x and y (such as  Pot[x_,y_]:=(((x+0.5)^2+y^2)^{1/6})*(((x-0.5)^2+y^2)^{1/6})), Mathematica cannot provide me with any result (only a message pointing out the problem DSolveValue::nolist: There should be no lists on either side of the equations). Does anyone know how to fix my mistake please ? Thanks for your help.

A:
I am trying numerical solutions (by replacing DSolveValue by
NDSolve), but this still does not worK.

May be you did not do something right. Hard to know since you did not show the code ;)

I made up some boundary conditions and some arbitrary range. You can change all that ofcourse.
ClearAll["Global`*"];
Pot[x_, y_] := (((x + 1/2)^2 + y^2)^(1/6)*(((x - 1/2)^2 + y^2)^(1/6)))
heqn = D[u[x, y, t], t] ==
   Pot[x, y]*(D[u[x, y, t], {x, 2}] + D[u[x, y, t], {y, 2}]);
ic = u[x, y, 0] == E^(-x^2 - y^2);
bc = {u[0, y, t] == 0, u[1, y, t] == 0, u[x, 0, t] == 0,
   u[x, 1, t] == 1};
sol = NDSolveValue[{heqn, ic, bc}, u, {x, 0, 1}, {y, 0, 1}, {t, 0, 2}]

And now
Animate[Plot3D[sol[x, y, t0], {x, 0, 1}, {y, 0, 1},
  PerformanceGoal -> "Quality",
  PlotRange -> {Automatic, Automatic, {0, 1}}], {t0, 0, 2}]

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Special coverage of the Senate impeachment trial of President Donald Trump.
School spending requests in New Jersey got a mixed reception on Tuesday
John Mooney, NJ Spotlight
While not capturing the attention of congressional elections, more than 500 school districts in New Jersey also saw voters go to the polls on Tuesday, including more than a dozen with additional spending on the ballot.
And although it hardly qualifies as a statewide referendum, the results of the spending votes were a mixed bag. The vast majority seeking additional spending above the tax cap were rejected, while voters were more supportive of separate construction projects.
The rest were voting on their school boards. Races continued to be lightly contested, with barely four candidates running for every three open seats.
The head of the NJ School Boards Association, which compiled the results, said it was difficult to read too much of a statewide message into the spending votes this fall.
"Each of these questions are individual, put forth by different communities, so it is difficult to cast a net for an overall explanation of why any would be approved or defeated," said Lawrence Feinsod, the NJSBA's executive director.
"The boards put forth the proposals that they determined are in the best interest of children," he said. "We are delighted that all five construction proposals in the state were approved. That will have a dramatically positive impact on students."
In all, 11 districts went to the voters to ask for specific spending above the 2 percent cap, the only way that the public votes on the school budget since elections were moved to November.
Most were for fairly standard items — both instructional and extracurricular — that have proved harder to fund after the state's steep aid cuts in 2010 and the ensuing tax cap.
Eight of those were rejected, including two in Andover that would have added a guidance counselor and elementary school teacher, as well as security devices at the outside doors to its schools.
Lopatcong was rejected on its bid to expand its kindergarten to full day, and the priciest proposal rejected was more than $1 million for Manalapan-Englishtown's purchase of 10 new school buses.
Of the three approved, the largest — $360,000 — was in Neptune City to fund field trips, extracurricular activities and athletics, as well as restore full-time Spanish instruction.
Separate school construction referendums fared better, with all five on the ballot approved.
Included were two large ones in Salem County, including $20.1 million in renovations and improvements to five schools in Penns Grove-Carneys Point Regional, and $19.8 million for renovations to two schools in the Woodstown-Pilesgrove Regional district.
The school construction approvals continue a good run for districts, following 17 of 21 proposals winning approval in October votes.
Two other ballot questions were not for specific funding, but addressed governance.
In Lower Cape May Regional School district, voters rejected a bid to change the funding formula from one based on property tax valuation to one based solely on student enrollment.
In Hudson County, Bayonne voters approved changing the local school board from an appointed membership to an elected one.
NJ Spotlight, an independent online news service on issues critical to New Jersey, makes its in-depth reporting available to NewsWorks.
The lawsuit trying to desegregate N.J. schools
New Jersey has some of the most segregated schools in the U.S. A landmark lawsuit is trying to change that and could bring major changes to education in the Garden State.
Listen 13:06
Down the Shore
4 years ago, the Jersey Shore was dealing with a blizzard, tidal flooding
A massive blizzard began impacting the region four years ago Wednesday.
NJ Spotlight
Gov. Murphy signs 151 new bills
The bills signed yesterday run the gamut of just about every issue that has been of concern to Murphy or Democratic lawmakers over the governor's first two years in office.
About John Mooney, NJ Spotlight
@njspotlight jmooney@njspotlight.com


NEW YORK - 22 March 2018: Concerned by the persistent allegations of chemical weapon use in Syria, United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the use of chemical weapons, under any circumstances, is unjustifiable and abhorrent.
In a statement by the spokesman for the secretary-general on Wednesday, Guterres added equally unjustifiable is a lack of response to such use, if and when it occurs and impunity cannot prevail with respect to such serious crimes.
He reiterated his call for the Security Council to demonstrate unity and resolve on this matter, added the statement.
These remarks came during Guterres's meeting with the Director General of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), expressing his support for its work in investigating allegations of the use of chemical weapons in Syria.


Jacob Bellevois was a prolific marine painter from Rotterdam, who has lived there and in Gouda; he also made a trip to Hamburg.
Here we see two English ships sailing in stormy conditions off the coast.
His rough seas were influenced by Simon de Vliegher.
His father came from Ghent in Flanders.
Jacob Bellevois married in 1643 in Rotterdam; the couple had 4 children, but they lost them all. His wife died in 1652.
Bellevois remarried in Rotterdam in 1656. The new couple was recorded the same year as living in Gouda. They had 2 boys. His second wife died in 1670.
Bellevois was recorded in Gouda again in 1671.
He visited Hamburg in 1673–74.
Nothing is known about Bellevois' training but his monochrome paintings of vessels in a calm sea indicate the influence of Jan Porcellis (Ghent 1583/85 – 1632 Zoeterwoude), the local artist from Rotterdam of great repute, and of his son Julius Porcellis (Rotterdam 1610/19 – 1645 Leiden).
Bellevois' stormy seas are influenced by Simon de Vliegher (Rotterdam 1600/01 – 1653 Weesp), De Vliegher is documented in Rotterdam between 1642 and 1644. He died already in 1653.
The main ships both fly the English flag, that is the Cross of St George: a red cross on a white field.
That flag should not be mistaken with the Spanish flag, the Burgundy cross ("Batons de Bourgogne"): an x-shaped red cross on a white field. That was based on the wooden cross where St. Andrew was crucified on: two crossed, roughly knotted, red branches on a white field. At the origin that had been the flag of Burgundy (including Flanders). Following the marriage of Mary of Burgundy with Maximilian of Austria in Ghent in 1477 it became a Spanish Habsburg flag up till 1785.
In 1785 King Charles III of Spain decided to change this flag due to similarities with the English Cross of Saint George. Imagine English and Spanish enemy ships sailing in stormy waters: shooting at a compatriot's ship would have been an easy mistake … .
Because it is an excellent example of the mastery of Dutch 17th century sea painters in rendering the atmospheric conditions in a gale: a dramatic sky over foamy waves that are battering the ships.