text:
Say Plastics works on tooling expertise to stand out
Frank Antosiewicz
Say Plastics Inc.
Say Plastics Inc. said an investment by Ben Franklin Technology Partners is allowing it to compete in new markets, such as parts for Chicago's Metra commuter rail system.
Say Plastics Inc. is taking steps to better utilize its tooling system in the transportation market, and is using funds from Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Central and Northern Pennsylvania to develop its abilities.
"We're thermoformers so we have to be innovative. We find a lot of our customers come in and want short runs," said Ron Staub, vice president and general manager of McSherrystown, Pa.-based Say Plastics.
Staub said that means the company works on the right design and approaches to find a cost-effective way to make the product.
He said that to win a contract that the company has to offer alternatives. One way is to work with composites instead of relying on aluminum tooling.
"We developed our tooling method — it's our own way of engineering and we will look at a program to see what we can do. If we can cut our own tools, it cuts down on time and cost for the customer," he said.
Staub said that part of the plan is to process materials carefully.
"We measure temperatures carefully with extra sensors," he said.
Staub said the transportation area provides a niche where the company sees a lot of potential. By re-engineering parts Say Plastics can help make trucks last longer, refurbish rail cars and buses.
Staub said that some railcars may have fiberglass parts that were made 25-30 years ago and their replacements may not be available. If Say Plastics can reverse engineer the part and do a short run to provide replacements, it has value for the customer.
He said that Say Plastics does have an engineer on staff, but will use a $125,000 loan from the Ben Franklin Technology Partners to add engineering expertise to handle even more reverse engineering projects.
Say Plastics currently has 14 employees, with five sheet-fed thermoformers and four routers. It expects to add three to four more employees.
Staub said sales were up about 20 percent last year and that they are hoping to do the same this year.
Ben Franklin Technology Partners is a state technology-based economic development program that supports start-up companies and established companies looking for ways to grow or diversify.


MOSCOW --- The first flight of the Ilyushin Il-112V aircraft was successful, the press service of the Ilyushin Aviation Complex informed TASS.
"An Il-112V light military transport aircraft performed its maiden flight successfully," the press service said.
This is the first military transport plane designed in Russia from scratch during the post-Soviet era. Work to create it has been in progress since 2014.
According to its specifications, the new plane will be capable of carrying of up to 5 tonnes of cargo. It is designed to transport troops, military equipment and weapons.
MOSCOW --- Russia's light military transport plane Ilyushin Il-112V successfully completed its maiden flight on Saturday, the aircraft's designer Ilyushin Aviation Complex said.
The plane took off from a runway at a test range in Voronezh, western Russia. During the 45-minute test flight, all systems of the plane were tested, and it conducted jogs on the airfield as well as partial detachment from the ground, according to a company statement.
Based on the performance, the aircraft was ready for more tests, the statement said.
The Il-112V plane is the first military transport aircraft that was designed by Russia from the scratch during the post-Soviet era, said General Director of Ilyushin Aviation Complex Alexey Rogozin.
It was manufactured using advanced digital technology and equipped with cutting-edge on-board systems, which are entirely domestically-produced, the company said.
The new plane is designed for transporting weapons, military equipment, cargo and personnel with a maximum capacity of 5 tons, according to the statement.


A trip to the store can be an adventure.
You don't know what you will find or if you can find it.
It reminds me of a Scavenger Hunt.
Do you remember going on one of those?
Among the aisles of cans, jars, fruits and veggies, I find friends.
Today, I briefly traveled down memory lane with two former co-workers. Thanks for the memories, Debbie and Mia.
There along the aisles, I make new friends. So often in searching for an item, I get assistance from a store employees.
Even strangers come to my aid.
Sometimes a brief thank you and you're welcome.
Other times, there is an exchange of conversation.
Recently a young man named Dillon, from the Snowshoe area, assisted me.
It is nice to be shown respect, and for a young person to take time to talk to you, when so many are too busy on their phones to look around.
A shopping trip to Lewisburg with the Senior Center is also an adventure. It is nice to have time to visit, coming and going. But I must admit, I sometimes doze off on the way home.
Walmart provides an employee to help me shop – which is again like a Scavenger Hunt.
Like the little boy in the TV commercial, they work in different departments.
If they haven't moved things, I can tell the employee where items were last month.
Our trips to Lewisburg always include lunch, and it's hard to say where you will find us.
Seniors like to get out and socialize.
I may be older, but I'm not elderly.
Live each day as an adventure.
Next time we meet, Dillon won't be a stranger.


text:
Doktoranden >
M.A. Jennifer Pochodzalla
Jennifer Pochodzalla, M.A.
Assistant Professor (Global Art History)
PhD candidate (GPTS-6)
pochodzalla@hcts.uni-heidelberg.de
Über Jennifer Pochodzalla
Jennifer Pochodzalla is presently finalizing her PhD project which researches aspects of transculturality in context of the so-called Desert Castles of the Umayyads (working title: The Fertile Crescent as architectural playground for a new ruling elite. Reconsidering the Umayyad Desert Castles in a transcultural perspective, read the abstract here), supervised by Prof. Dr. Monica Juneja (Global Art History) and Prof. Dr. Stephan Westphalen (Byzantine Art History and Archaeology). With this project she was also a member of the Cluster's Graduate Program for Transcultural Studies (GPTS) from October 2014 to September 2017.
Currently, she works as the assistant to the chair of Global Art History, substituting for Dr. Franziska Koch during her maternity leave. She worked as a student assistant for the chair of Global Art History from October 2009 to May 2013 and replaced Franziska Koch during her maternity leave as assistant to the Chair of Global Art History from May 2013 until August 2014. More recently, she has worked as an editing assistant for several publication projects (M. Falser; A. Grasskamp/ M. Juneja) and as graduate student assistant for the second gathering of the "Salon for Slow Reading and Deep Looking", planned by Prof. Monica Juneja and Prof. Sumathi Ramaswamy (Duke University).
She studied European Art History, Byzantine Art History and Archaeology as well as Cultural Anthropology at Heidelberg University, receiving her Bachelor's degree in 2010. In 2012, she graduated in the field of European Art History and Byzantine Art History and Archeology with a Master's thesis on the Norman palaces of William II in Sicily entitled Umbilicus Mundi? Zur Transkulturalität der normannischen Paläste Wilhelms II. in Palermo which was supervised by Prof. Dr. Matthias Untermann and Prof. Dr. Stephan Westphalen.
Her research interests include artistic exchanges and transcultural processes in the medieval Mediterranean and Levant with a special focus on Norman Art in Sicily, Islamic Art in the Near East and Muslim Spain, as well as late Byzantine Art. Additionally she is interested in the disciplinary history of Art History and Archaeology.
2007-2010: Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg, Bachelor of Arts in European Art History (major) and Cultural Anthropology (minor).
2009-2013: Student assistant to the Chair of Global Art History at the Cluster of Excellence "Asia and Europe in a Global Context".
2010-2012: Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg, Master of Arts in European Art History (major) and Art History and Archaeology of the Byzantine Empire (minor).
2013-2014: Assistant to the Chair of Global Art History at the Cluster of Excellence "Asia and Europe in a Global Context" during the maternity leave of Franziska Koch.
2014-2015: Editing assistant to publication projects of PD Dr. Michael Falser (Cultural Heritage as Civilizing Mission. From Decay to Recovery. Proceedings of the 2nd International Workshop on Cultural Heritage and the Temples of Angkor and Eine Zukunft für unsere Vergangenheit. Zum 40. Jubiläum des Europäischen Denkmalschutzjahres (1975-2015)).
since 04/2013: Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg, start of a PhD project on The Fertile Crescent as architectural playground for a new ruling elite. Reconsidering the Umayyad Desert Castles in a transcultural perspective (working title). 2014-2017 within the Graduate Program of Transcultural Studies (GPTS-6).
since 06/2018: Assistant to the Chair of Global Art History at the Cluster of Excellence "Asia and Europe in a Global Context" during the maternity leave of Dr. Franziska Koch.
Teaching (see also here)
Tutorial, Europe and the Arts of Islam, tutorial accompanying the lecture Europe and the Arts of Islam by Prof. Dr. Monica Juneja, summer semester 2013.
Exercise course, Skills, Tools and Methods of Transcultural Studies (introductory course for the MATS), winter semester 2013/2014.
Advanced Seminar, The Aesthetic and the Material - How to integrate Art History with Material Culture, co-taught with Prof. Dr. Monica Juneja, summer semester 2014.
Exercise course, Essential Academic Skills for the MA Transcultural Studies (introductory course for the MATS), winter semester 2015/2016.
Tutorial, Basic Research Skills (mandatory introductory course for the MATS), winter semester 2016/2017.
Seminar, The Arts of the Islamicate World in a Transcultural Perspective: Methods of Global Art History (introductory seminar for VMC focus), winter semester 2018/2019.
Seminar, Curiosity Cabinets, World Art fairs, and Museums: Collecting and Displaying the Orient (VMC focus), summer semester 2019.
Heidelberger Didaktikzertifikat für Tutorinnen und Tutoren (Heidelberg Didactics Certificate for Tutors), 2014.
Additional Courses and Skills
Strategien für eine erfolgreiche Promotion - Projektmanagement, Zeitmanagement, Kommunikation, conducted by the Graduate Academy, Heidelberg University, 2013
Präsentieren und Wissenschaftliches Schreiben, conducted by the Career Service, Heidelberg University, 2013.
American Voice and Dialogue Coaching - Intensive Pronounciation Class, conducted by the Graduate Academy, Heidelberg University, 2015.
Academic Discussion Skills, conducted by the Graduate Academy, Heidelberg University, 2015.
Writing Grant Proposals, conducted by the Graduate Academy, Heidelberg University, 2016.
Mit Ihrer Stimme zum Erfolg - Authentisch und begeisternd präsentieren, conducted by the Graduate Academy, Heidelberg University, 2016.
Basiswissen BWL (online course), conducted by Haufe Akademie on behalf of the GRaduate Academy, Heidelberg University, 2019.
Projektmanagement, conducted by the Graduate Academy, Heidelberg University, 2019.
Historians of Islamic Art Association (HIAA)
Organized Workshops and Conferences
Symposium - The Pleasure of Challenging Representation: Writing Global (Art) History, co-organized with Franziska Koch, in cooperation with the Cluster of Excellence 'Asia and Europe' and the Heidelberg Institute for European Art History. Heidelberg, February 10, 2016. (event website)
Editorial Support
Falser, Michael S., and Monica Juneja, ed. 'Archaeologizing' Heritage? Transcultural Entanglements between Local Social Practices and Global Virtual Realities, Proceedings of the 1st International Workshop on Cultural Heritage and the Temples of Angkor, May 2-4, 2010, Heidelberg University. Heidelberg: Springer, 2013.
Falser, Michael S., and Monica Juneja, ed. Kulturerbe – Denkmalpflege: transkulturell. Grenzgänge zwischen Theorie und Praxis. Bielefeld: Transcript, 2013.
Schenk, Gerrit Jasper, Monica Juneja, Alfried Wieczorek, and Christoph Lind, ed. Mensch.Natur.Katastrophe: Von Atlantis bis heute, exhibition catalogue, Publikationen der Reiss-Engelhorn-Museen 62. Regensburg: Schnell & Steiner, 2014.
Falser, Michael S., and Wilfried Lipp, ed. Eine Zukunft für unsere Vergangenheit. Zum 40. Jubiläum des Europäischen Denkmalschutzjahres (1975-2015). A Future for Our Past. The 40th anniversary of European Architectural Heritage Year (1975-2015). Un Avenir pour Notre Passé. 40e Anniversaire de l'Année Européenne du Patrimoine Architectural (1975-2015), ICOMOS Österreich/ Austria/ Autriche. Berlin: Bäßler, 2015.
Falser, Michael S., ed. Cultural Heritage as Civilizing Mission: From Decay to Recovery. Proceedings of the 2nd International Workshop on Cultural Heritage and the Temples of Angkor, May 8-10, 2011, Heidelberg University. Heidelberg: Springer, 2015.
Grasskamp, Anna, and Monica Juneja, ed. EurAsian Matters: China, Europe, and the Transcultural Object, 1600-1800, Transcultural Studies - Heidelberg Studies on Asia and Europe in a Global Context. Heidelberg: Springer, 2018.
Temporalities of the Global: or How the Concept of the 'Global' Works within Islamic Art History. International Symposium - 2018 Global Asia/ Pacific Art Exchange (GAX): "Co-Constituting the Global," organized by Birgit Hopfener and Ming Tiampo on behalf of Haus der Kulturen der Welt Berlin (HKW), ICI Berlin, Carleton Centre for Transnational Cultural Analysis (Carleton University, Ottawa), and the Asian/Pacific/American Institute NYU. Berlin, June 21-22, 2018.
Rethinking Islamic Art (History)? The Potential of Global Art History and the Transcultural Approach. International Conference - "Islamic Art History and Archaeology in Crisis? Challenges and New Perspectives," organized by Francine Giese, Dirce Marzoli, and Fernando Valdés Fernández on behalf of Universität Zürich, Deutsches Archäologisches Institut at Madrid, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, and the Museo Arqueológico Nacional Madrid. Madrid, January 12-14, 2017.
The Mshattā Façade, Ottoman Heritage Politics and the Resistance of Osman Hamdi Bey. Annual Conference - "Making, Sustaining, Breaking: The Politics of Heritage and Culture," organized by the Cluster of Excellence 'Asia and Europe', Forum Transregionale Studien, and the Max Weber Stiftung, in cooperation with the Deutsches Archäologisches Institut. Heidelberg, October 12-14, 2016.
Elusive terminologies in an 'unwieldy' field: Islamic art history and terminologies. Workshop - "Art Histories and Terminologies II," organized by Forum Transregionale Studien 'Art Histories and Aesthetic Practices', Cluster of Excellence 'Asia and Europe' and the KHI Florence. Heidelberg, February 6-7, 2015.
In the Eye of the Beholder - Norman Sicily's Art Histories in a Transcultural Perspective. Workshop - "New Perspectives on the Research of Medieval Sicily: Prospects and Challenges," organized by Project A28 'Commerce in Sicily' of the Cluster of Excellence 'Asia and Europe'. Heidelberg, October 23, 2014.
Umayyadische Mosaike - byzantinische Künstler, islamische Bilder? Lecture Series - "Kulturtransfer zwischen Byzanz und der islamischen Welt," Institute for Byzantine Archaeology and Art History. Heidelberg, July 10, 2014.
Reconfiguration as Art Historical Concept. Workshop - "Art Histories and Terminologies I," organized by Forum Transregionale Studien 'Art Histories and Aesthetic Practices', Cluster of Excellence 'Asia and Europe' and the KHI Florence. Berlin, December 13-14, 2013.
Transkulturalität von Repräsentationsbauten. Die normannischen Paläste Wilhelms II. in Palermo. "1. Heidelberger Studierendenkolloquium zu Spätantike und Byzanz - Perspektiven auf Byzanz." Heidelberg, July 5-7, 2012.
Attended Conferences and Workshops
Chaired Panel "Religion and Art in Transculturation." Transcultural Studies Student Conference: The Theory and Practice of Transculturation, Heidelberg Center for Transcultural Studies (HCTS) in co-operation with the StudierendenRat of Heidelberg University. Heidelberg, April 27, 2018. Link to the Conference here.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Sad, sorry tale of Otukpo rice mill
in Agriculture, Business, Online Special
Building for milling rice in Otukpo rice.
AMOS ABBA writes on the dilapidating state of Benue's Otukpo rice mill; a once burgeoning enterprise now cast in despair and under productivity.
In the hot and humid sun of the Benue region, building number 2, located within the premises of the popular Otukpo rice mill looks undignified. Wearing a rusted corrugated roof which bears the insignia of old age, its deserted parking lot reflects the sorry state of a rice mill created over 50 years ago for commercial purposes.
The scanty flow of customers in and out of the building does not typify the flurry of activities that usually welcomes the peak of the harvest season when paddy rice was milled and processed at the mill in the past.
Valentine Egwa was working on a faulty rice huller, a machine that removes husk from paddy rice when the reporter met him. A graduate of psychology from the University of Jos, Egwa's failed attempt to clinch a white – collar job compelled him to get involved in the production process of rice at the mill since 1997. Ever since acquiring rice hullers some years ago, he has become an employer of labour at the mill. However, Egwa is quick to renounce the traditional practices involved in the trade.
He said: "The problem affecting Otukpo rice mill is the crude methods used to process rice locally. This makes the rice not to be stone free, making customers prefer imported rice to locally processed ones".
Records of observation at the mill confirmed Egwa's assertion. Many of the hullers used in processing the rice are aged and archaic, with many having been in existence as far back as 80 years ago. The poor facilities make it impossible for the mill to compete with marketers of foreign rice.
Otukpo rice mill with its sketchy history is arguably the first commercial rice milling plant in West Africa, set- up and managed by the defunct Idoma technical trading company (I.T.T.C). Located in Otukpo local government area of Benue state, the mill was created to provide gainful employment opportunities to the Idoma- speaking people of the middle belt and Benue state in particular.
At the time the mill was established, projections were set that Otukpo would be a commercial nerve center in the middle belt region of the country. The hope of the projection was hinged on the fact that the mill would attract traders from different parts of the country to Otukpo for the purchase of its locally processed rice. The rice mill once boasted of a staff strength of 3,000 people involved in the different stages of rice processing, working day and night, equipped with over 200 milling engines spanning over 20 hectares of land.
It was the largest employer of labour in its heyday in Otukpo and served as a veritable source of livelihood to many people. But those were the past glories; adversity weighed in on Otukpo rice mill in the late nineties.
Undermined by decrepit infrastructure, under-utilized labour force and under-performance; major customers from different states across the country no longer patronized the mill. The long distance involved in transportation of the rice products also contributes in no small measure to the dwindling fortunes of the mill.
Rice huller at Otukpo rice mill processing rice.
There is evidence to suggest that the now decrepit mill used to be a booming enterprise providing jobs for young people and women.
Samuel Ochigbo, a resident in the area reminisced about the mill when it was still booming.
"The rice mill provided jobs for people in the area. They were those selling fire wood to the millers and those providing water for pay. Everyone, both young and old had something to do. The rice chaff usually gathered was very high from the ground. It was a sight to behold until things began to decline steadily."
With the federal government's position on banning the importation of foreign rice; there appears to be prospects for local millers in the country as government's expenditure would be channeled to utilizing the production capacity of the various rice millers across the country.
However, some rice farmers are not optimistic as there appears to be virtually no plan to strengthen and boost local production.
"You cannot ban importation of rice by legislation and expect everything to be fine. If certain steps are not taken to position the local millers to bridge the demand-supply gap of local production of rice, then consumers will face the horror of skyrocket prices of local rice if there is a total ban," Valentine Egwa pointed out.
Millers in Otukpo rice mill face serious hurdles in meeting the basic requirements of local rice production because certain critical variables are not available. The mill does not generate its own power so when public power supply is interrupted, commercial activities in the mill grinds to a halt. Workers in the mill rely on water tankers sourced from neighbouring suburbs of Otukpo town like Otobi and Ochobo. The water does not come cheap; it is sold at exorbitant rates especially during the dry season.
James Iduh, a trader at the mill also highlighted some of the problems faced by workers. He urged government to provide more transformers to ensure access to electricity at full voltage as well as provide pipe borne water to help reduce the cost of the production of rice.
Furthering, he said: "We have been introduced to several co-operative societies to secure loans to improve our business but nothing is forthcoming. If government can assist us, it will go a long way in restoring the mill back to life."
Rice workers at risk
A worker at Otukpo rice mill washing paddy rice.
The physical demanding nature of the activities involved in the production of locally processed rice has affected workers productivity and exposed them to serious health risks.
Emmanuel Obute, a final year student of the University of Agriculture, Makurdi whose palms have turned coarse as a result of exposure to the fire involved in the process of cooking rice in the mill called on the government to come to their aid, saying there should be an endowment fund to cater for those injured in the course of working on the mill plant.
Also, other young people involved in the temporary casual works in the mill to aid their immediate financial needs see their job not only as underpaying but disdainful.
David Baba, who had worked intermittently for six years at the mill on a part-time basis while as a student disclosed that it is difficult to return to the mill to work, considering its present state at a
time when locally processed rice is no longer patronized.
"Government should provide modern rice milling engines that separate the rice from stones at subsidized rates to Otukpo rice millers to keep them gainfully employed. This will make young people interested in the business", he submitted.


Get ready for a thrilling Wilderness Jet Boat into the World Heritage area of Mt Aspiring National Park!
Explore the world heritage area of Mt Aspiring National Park on our Dart River Jet Boat Ride and Wilderness Safari. We offer a unique combination of breathtaking activities, including an exciting jet boat ride along glacier-fed rivers, an incredible scenic walk through ancient beech forest, and a beautiful drive through the rugged land used in many Middle Earth movie scenes. The diversity of what's on offer means you'll get to encounter a truly authentic New Zealand experience in an untouched world.
Our highly informative guides are what make the trip so unforgettable - they know everything there is to know about the area's history and the Maori heritage and legends.
Discover the beauty of Mt Aspiring National Park.
Departs from the Dart River Jet Safaris booking office inside Queenstown's Information Centre, on the corner of Camp and Shotover Streets.
Departs from the Dart Visitor Centre, Mull Street, Glenorchy.
Pick ups and drop offs are provided on a scheduled transport circuit and pick up from most accommodation. If you select your accommodation when booking online we will tell you the time and place to meet.
Allow 6 hours Queenstown return or 3 hours Glenorchy return.
SUMMER departs Queenstown at 8am and 12.30pm from 1 October to 30 April. Departs Glenorchy at 9am and 1.30pm.
WINTER departs Queenstown at 8am and 12 Noon from 1 May - 30 September. Departs Glenorchy at 9am and 1pm.
Year round: Please ensure you wear suitable supportive footwear. The guided walk is 30 minutes long on a rolling track through the forest.
Participation in all adventure activities carries a degree of inherent risk and by participating in the activity provided by the Operator you are expressly assuming those risks personally and are, to the maximum extent permitted by law, waiving and releasing the Operator and it's officers and employees and any subsidiary or related company from any liability, claims, losses, damages or expenses caused by any event including, but not limited to: a. Personal injury or death; b. Property loss of damage; c. Acts which may be construed as negligent or accidental; d. Any other loss, damage, suffering, emotional or nervous disorder.


text:
package com.microsoft.azure.management.apimanagement.v2019_01_01;

import com.fasterxml.jackson.annotation.JsonProperty;

/**
 * Defines headers for GetByProduct operation.
 */
public class TagGetByProductHeaders {
    /**
     * Current entity state version. Should be treated as opaque and used to
     * make conditional HTTP requests.
     */
    @JsonProperty(value = "ETag")
    private String eTag;

    /**
     * Get current entity state version. Should be treated as opaque and used to make conditional HTTP requests.
     *
     * @return the eTag value
     */
    public String eTag() {
        return this.eTag;
    }

    /**
     * Set current entity state version. Should be treated as opaque and used to make conditional HTTP requests.
     *
     * @param eTag the eTag value to set
     * @return the TagGetByProductHeaders object itself.
     */
    public TagGetByProductHeaders withETag(String eTag) {
        this.eTag = eTag;
        return this;
    }

}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Categories: Lincoln, Lincoln Early, Legal & Springfield Years, Campaigns, Elections, Inaugurations, Sculpture & Other Art. Tags: Leonard Volk, Lincoln bust.
Beautiful plaster bust of Abraham Lincoln; reproduction of a Leonard Volk creation. Commonly known as the "draped" or "Romanesque" rendering. It was the last variation Volk produced from his 1860 life mask.
Volk, Leonard (Sculptor; 1828-1895). In 1857, after studying sculpture in Rome, Volk opened a studio in Chicago. He met Lincoln during the 1858 debates and later persuaded him to sit for a life mask on March 31, 1860. In May, he produced Lincoln's hands. Both the mask and the hands provided models for many other Lincoln statues by many other sculptors.
In 1860, several months before Lincoln won the presidential election, Chicago sculptor Leonard Volk made the first bust of Abraham Lincoln from life, using his famous life mask of the Republican nominee.
From the mask, Volk made several different versions of busts: a traditional bust placed on a pedestal; the Hermes type (bare shoulders and upper chest, typically above a plain, usually squared lower plinth); and this present example, the Romanesque in neo-classical fashion, "draped" in a Roman robe.
Volk's other subjects include Stephen Douglas' tomb (his wife was his cousin) and the Soldiers and Sailors Monument in Rochester NY. He is buried in Chicago, at Rose Hill Cemetery along with many other Civil War and Lincoln-era personalities.
A powerful and stately piece. Though thoroughly 19th century, it translates as robust and forthright to the modern eye.
SUPERIOR REPRODUCTION OF: Volk, L. W. sculptor. ABRAHAM LINCOLN BUST. No place, no date, but early 20th century. [original Chicago: 1860.] Cast plaster. Signed "Lincoln from life / by L. W. Volk" in the rear. Approximately 28 inches high; 20 inches shoulder to shoulder.
Daniel Weinberg, owner and president of Abraham Lincoln Book Shop, discussed this bust on Facebook Live. Watch it now.


text:
英文版块 ENGLISH
Industrial Design(Product Design)
Industrial Design(Interactive Design)
设计与理论研究所
兼职博导
首页 > ENGLISH > International collaborations
•INTERNATIONAL NETWORKS
CUMULUS(International Association for Universities and Colleges of Art, Design and Media)
Cumulus is the only global association to serve art and design education and research. It is a forum for partnership and transfer of knowledge and best practices. Cumulus consists currently of 257 members from 54 countries.
The school joined CUMULUS in 2010 and since then has been an active member of CUMULUS. And the school is going to host the 2018 CUMULUS Conference.
http://www.cumulusassociation.org
DESIS(Design for Social Innovation towards Sustainability) is a network of design labs, based in design schools and design-oriented universities, actively involved in promoting and supporting sustainable change.
DESIS Lab of Jiangnan University is part of "Design for Social Innovation and Sustainability (DESIS)" network association (www.desis-network.org) and DESIS-China as a founding member. It's a design lab engaging in research, teaching, and social services focusing on strategic design for sustainability, multidisciplinary design and social innovation crossing the fields of food, mobility, active welfare, healthcare, and cultural heritages.
www.desis-network.org
•INTERNATIONAL PARTNERS
Auburn University, USA (http://www.auburn.edu/)
Birmingham City University, UK(www.bcu.ac.uk)
Chiba University, Japan(www.chiba-u.ac.jp)
Demark University of Technology(DTU), Demark ( http://www.dtu.dk/)
Eindhoven University of Technology, Netherlands (www.tue.nl)
ESAD Orleans, Ecole superieurs d'Art et de Design, France(www.esad-orleans.com)
Hoseo University, Korea (www.hoseo.ac.kr)
Lahti University of Applied Sciences, Finland (www.lamk.fi)
Politecnico Di Milano, Italy (www.polimi.it)
Plymouth University, UK (www.plymouth.ac.uk)
Strate School of Design, France (www.strate.education)
Southampton University, UK(www.southampton.ac.uk)
The Sustainable Design School, France(www.the-sds.com)
University of Cincinnati, USA(www.uc.edu)
University of Naples Federico II, Italy (www.international.unina.it)
University of London Queen Mary, UK (www.qmul.ac.uk)
Zurich University of the Arts, Swiss (www.zhdj.ch)
Partners from HK, Macau and Taiwan
Hong Kong Polytechnic University, HK(ww.polyu.edu.hk)
Macau University of Science and Technology, Macau (www.must.edu.mo)
Asia University, Taiwan (www.asia.edu.tw)
Cheng Kung University, Taiwan (www.ncku.edu.tw)
Ming Chi University of Technology, Taiwan (www.mcut.edu.tw)
Ming Chuan University, Taiwan (www.mcu.edu.tw)
Tatung University, Taiwan (www.ttu.edu.tw)
Yunlin University of Science and Technology, Taiwan (www.yuntech.edu.tw)


text:
Aninut: The period between the death and burial
Aron: The Hebrew word for casket
Arrangement Conference: A meeting where the funeral director gathers with the family of the deceased to make funeral arrangements
Cantor: A religious singer who may take part in ceremonies such as a funeral
Casket: Container in which the body of the person who died is placed and buried
Chapel: A large room in the funeral home in which the funeral or memorial service is held
Chesed shel emet: An act of kindness done with pure intent, since one cannot be thanked by the recipient; often used in conjunction with the rituals of the chevra kadisha
Chevra Kadisha: A "Holy Society" of men or women who care for people who have died
Committal Service: Service conducted at the place of interment/disposition
Cortege: Vehicle procession from the place of funeral to the place of interment
Cremation: A regulated process using intense heat in a special chamber to burn human remains
Death Certificate: Legal document containing vital statistical information about the deceased. It is signed by a physician, medical examiner, coroner, or other medical health professional certifying the death of an individual. It is used for many legal processes pertaining to death, from arrangement for burial or cremation to the settlement of estate assets. Sinai will procure death certificates for next of kin.
Death Notice: Paid classified notice publicizing a death, giving details of a funeral and shiva arrangements as well as memorial donations
Disposition: Any manner in which the body of the deceased will be treated at death, including burial and cremations
El Malei Rachamin: A memorial prayer read during a funeral
Embalming: A process by which the body of the person who died is chemically preserved and restored to a life-like appearance
Eulogy: A speech praising and remembering a person who has died
Funeral: A service typically held before burial at which prayers are read and family and friends eulogize the deceased
Funeral Arrangements: Completion of funeral service details
Funeral Counselor: Someone who performs the same services as a Funeral Director (see below) but who has not yet received his or her state license
Funeral Director: A licensed professional who works with the surviving family to make all the arrangements for the funeral or memorial service and burial or cremation. He or she ensures these events occur smoothly and according to the family's wishes.
Funeral Home: A licensed, regulated business that provides for the care, planning, and preparation of a deceased person for their final disposition. Funeral and memorial services are frequently held at a funeral home.
Funeral Service: Ceremony, religious or secular, in which the bereaved say goodbye to the deceased
Grave: The place where the body is buried
Grave Liner: A structure usually made of concrete or wood covering the sides and top of the casket to support the weight of the earth and activity above ground
Grave Marker or Memorial Marker: Sometimes called a "headstone," these are memorials or monuments that are made of stone or bronze that include such information as the name of the individual, date of birth and death, and symbols and words of tribute
"Green Burial": Also called "environmentally friendly" or "natural" burial, this is the process of burying a body without the use of chemical preservation in a simple biodegradable container in grounds that are pesticide- and herbicide-free
Hakamat Matzevah: Unveiling of the grave marker or memorial marker
Hesped: The Hebrew word meaning eulogy
Interment: The burial
Kaddish: Jewish prayer recited by the mourners in memory of the deceased
K'vod hamet: Respect for the dead
Kever: The Hebrew word meaning grave
Kever Avot: The custom of visiting the graveside of parents or close relatives to honor their memory
Kevurah: The Hebrew word meaning burial
Kriah: The practice of rending or cutting a garment, or symbolically wearing a cut black ribbon over the heart, to indicate that one is in mourning. Those observing keriah are generally adult children, father/mother, brother/sister, or spouse of the person who died.
Levayah: The funeral procession ending at the gravesite
Ma'ariv: The daily evening prayer service in Judaism, one of the three times there is prayer each day
Matzevah: Stone, marker, or headstone
Mausoleum: An above-ground structure or building, often on cemetery grounds, that holds casketed remains
Memorial Service: An alternative to a funeral. A memorial service can be held at any time after a death and can include elements of a traditional funeral. They are often less formal than a traditional funeral.
Met (m) /Meta (f): The body and soul of a person under the care of the chevra kadisha
Mincha: The daily afternoon prayer service in Judaism, one of the three times there is prayer each day
Minyan: The group of ten Jewish men (13 years old or older) who make up the minimum number for communal worship. Among non-Orthodox Jews, women can also be considered part of a minyan.
Nichum aveilim: Consoling the mourners
Obituary: A news item concerning the death of a person, containing a biographical sketch of the deceased and his/her achievements
Pallbearers: Individuals who are asked to carry the casket. Traditionally, this is an honor for those closest to the deceased, but not the immediate mourners.
Pre-arranged Funeral: Arrangements that have been completed prior to a death
Rabbi: A teacher or ordained leader in the Jewish faith. A rabbi often officiates at a funeral and burial.
Register Book: A book for those attending the service to sign
Remains: A euphemism for the body of a person who has died, or the resulting product of cremation
Shacharit: The daily morning prayer service in Judaism, one of the three times there is prayer each day
Shanah: The mourning period lasting 11 months (following sheloshim) observed by mourners when a parent has died
Shiva: The Hebrew word referring to a period of mourning lasting seven days
Sheloshim: The Hebrew word referring to a period of mourning lasting 30 days. Mourning is considered to end at this time, except when someone is mourning the loss of a parent.
Shmirah: Commonly translated as "watching," the name given to the practice of guarding the deceased prior to burial. The person performing this mitzvah is called a shomer.
Shomer: The Hebrew word meaning a "guard," one who sits with the body of a person who has died from the time of death until the time of the funeral
Tachrichim: A Hebrew word referring to the special white burial garment/shroud, which symbolizes purity and equality. It has no pockets.
Taharah: The ceremony of ritual washing the deceased by the Chevra Kadisha. Women may wash men, but men cannot wash women.
Tallit or Tallis: The Hebrew word meaning prayer shawl. Some people choose to be buried in a tallit. Before it is placed on the body, one of the fringes is cut.
Tsayin Adar: A traditional day of honoring those involved in the rituals of chevra kadisha, to reflect on their responsibilities to honor the dead and to ask for forgiveness if have inadvertently shown any dishonor to them
Tzedakah: The Hebrew word literally meaning "justice" or "righteousness" but commonly used to signify charity
Tziduk Hadin: The prayer recited after the grave is completely filled with earth and a simple marker is placed on the grave with the name of the deceased and date of passing. This prayer declares the mourners' acceptance of G-d's decree and is a prayer to G-d to have mercy upon those who are living.
Vault: A lined, sealed burial receptacle—often referred to a the outer burial chamber
Yahrzeit: The anniversary date of death according to the Hebrew calendar. This is a Yiddish term for "time of year." In the Jewish tradition, a yahrzeit candle is lit on the evening that begins the anniversary of the death of a loved one. It burns for 24 hours and signifies the soul and spirit of the deceased.
Yarmulke: The skullcap worn by the men at synagogue/temple services and funeral services
Yizkor: Memorial service recited four times a year at Yom Kippur and on each of the last days of Sukkot, Passover, and Shavuot


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FOX 13 News - Tampa Bay онлайн - тв на жив
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Категория: Местната тв
FOX 13 News - Tampa Bay 5 от 5
Gateway to Tampa Bay area news, weather, radar, sports, traffic, and more. From WTVT-TV/DT FOX 13, the most powerful name in local news.
13WMAZ
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13WMAZ is a television station in Central Georgia. The station signed on for the first time on September 27, 1953. It is the fourth-oldest station in
16 WAPT
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With its first broadcast in October 1970, WAPT became Jackson's first ABC affiliate. Today, the station features four daily newscasts and boasts
KUSA, virtual and VHF digital channel 9, is an NBC-affiliated television station licensed to Denver, Colorado, United States. The station is owned by
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ABC News is the news division of the American Broadcasting Company, owned by the Disney Media Networks division of The Walt Disney Company.
3BTV is broadcast by i2i Technology Ltd. 3BTV combines cutting edge Internet skills and technology with the highest quality production values.
Съединените американски щати - Новини
Cable News Network (CNN) is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour


The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently released a draft of its long-awaited study about fracking's impacts on our drinking water—and ultimately our health. Despite finding several cases of water contamination, the EPA's misleading publicity about the study trivialized its own findings.
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The EPA will finalize this study after scientific review and a public comment period ending on August 28.
Tell the EPA to stop protecting the fracking industry and start protecting public health by telling the truth about what's in its study on fracking and drinking water.


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I really like running simulation models before sporting events because they can give you a much greater depth of understanding of team performance compared to the 'raw' odds that you might get from the media or bookmakers, or the often varied opinions of different sports pundits.
Yes, Ireland usually get knocked out in the Quarter Finals, and this is what many people are saying is most likely to happen again this year – but does the data show this? Pool C is the 'pool of death', right? With England, France and Argentina vying for qualification in the top two spots. Or, does Pool D hold that title, with Wales, Australia and Fiji battling it out? Oh, and we know Italy is having a tough time right now, but if we could have 10,000 world cups, would they win it even once?
That's where a simulation can provide a lot of extra oompf for a little extra effort. If we can take the 'raw' odds but then add in some volatility then we can understand the distribution of outcomes.
That being said, with the Rugby World Cup 2019 officially starting in just over two weeks on 20 September, I thought I'd best run a simulation model. The model is relatively simple, but nevertheless I hope it can provide some insight into both the tournament and also more generally how to simulate a sporting competition!
Venues of the RWC 2019 Japan
Structure of the tournament. Source: RWC2019
Rating Data – How good is a team? Given that, how likely is team A to beat team B?
I used two different data sources:
World Rugby, the global governing body of rugby union, publishes official world rankings weekly. These have some shortcomings, although they're widely followed by the media and have been around for many years.
Rugby Pass, a rugby broadcaster from New Zealand, publishes its Rugby Pass Index. It's a bit of a black-box as they don't publish their methodology, and it has only been around for a year, but they claim to use machine learning and it appears to work at player-granularity.
When plotted for each team, there is a fairly linear relationship between the two ratings systems, although the World Rugby rankings make a smaller gap between the lower and the higher teams.
I could write another post comparing the two ratings systems, but in a nutshell I believe Rugby Pass Index more accurately represents the current form of teams, although it doesn't track the lower tier nations so well which the World Rugby rankings cover.
A source of recent volatility in the ratings has been the summer friendly matches, which are counted as full fixtures by both systems, although which may have been regarded by some teams as experimental/warm-up matches.
So I decided to take a consensus, using the mean of both ratings for each team, for before and after the summer friendly matches. To allow pathways for teams with performance improvement/drop between now and tournament start, a rand(-5,5) adjustment was made to each rating per simulation. Finally, Japan was given a 1.5pt home advantage adjustment as host.
The favourite team doesn't always win – how much leeway for luck is there? We need a Distribution for Points Scored in a Rugby Match.
For those less familiar with rugby, these are examples of scorelines, from RWC 2015.
In a game like soccer, you get a lot of draws because goals don't happen very often, at least compared to rugby where it's not unusual to see 60pts or more scored per team. What does a distribution of points look like?
If we can define this then combined with the 'raw' probability of winning we can take random samples of it during multiple simulations to understand the distribution and volatility of outcomes.
For the general probability distribution of occurrence of tries scored, conversions given a try has been scored, and penalties scored, I have recycled a distribution I calculated previously based on a season of the European club Pro 14 competition. Perhaps in another post I will look at how this compares to the distribution in international/RWC matches but for an initial model this is sufficient.
Now that we have the probability of winning, and can randomly sample from the distribution of points scored, we can build our Monte Carlo model!
For each match simulation, a random sample of the probability distribution on tries, conversions, and tries scored was taken and essentially multiplied by the probability of winning for each team. For each tournament simulation, the results were recorded and the tournament was simulated again, until we got 10,000 simulated tournament results.
Finally, let's look at some results – the pool stages.
Pool A: Ireland and Scotland most likely to qualify, although it's plausible that Japan in particular could humble one of them and qualify instead.
Pool B: this is far more clear-cut! New Zealand and South Africa are very likely to qualify, unless Italy causes an upset. Although Italy are unlikely to be upset by Namibia and Canada who will battle it out for fourth place.
Pool C: England are fairly likely to qualify, but Argentina and France would have to battle it out for runner-up. USA has a fair chance then of causing an upset. Although it would have to be an upset against the winner of Argentina v France which would seem unlikely. I hope to build this feature in by dynamically changing the ratings as the tournament simulation progresses, for a future version.
Pool D: a similar picture to Pool A with Australia and Wales being favourites to qualify, unless Fiji manage to force an upset. Equally, Georgia are looking like a strong fourth team, who could themselves upset Fiji by taking third place. All whilst Uruguay look the most certain of any team to finish bottom of their group.
I'm calling out Pool D now as a good pool to watch for the neutral fan!
Won't you tell me, who's going to win the World Cup?
Results of the knock-out stages. Click to enlarge. Probabilities are cumulative, i.e. shows how often a team played in a quarterfinal, semifinal, etc.
It's perhaps no surprise that the New Zealand All Blacks, current World Cup holders with the strongest legacy in world rugby are favourites to win (28% chance), with close to double the odds of their nearest rivals (16% chance). However these four rivals: Ireland, England, Wales, South Africa all share roughly the same odds (as a bloc accounting for 60% of the chance). The remaining chance is taken up by Australia (5% chance), Argentina, Scotland and France (1-2% chance each) with remaining teams having less than 1% chance. So, unlike at the FIFA soccer World Cup last year, which saw relative outsider Croatia make the final, it's very unlikely a team from outside these top nine teams will win the tournament.
This story cascades down when we look back to the semi-final and quarter finals. With effectively six very strong teams and three fairly strong teams that makes in most cases only nine teams vying for eight places to get into the knock-out stages which means there is not much volatility in this regard.
Fiji, Japan, USA, Georgia, Samoa, Italy all have a plausible chance of causing an upset in the pool stages and making it to the quarter-finals.
Barring a near-miracle, Russia, Tonga, Uruguay, Canada and Namibia are unlikely to reach the finals, although I look forward to some good pool stage matches from these teams who successfully battled qualification to make it to Japan.
Are Ireland going to go out in the quarter-finals?
The subject of much debate given Ireland's recent volatile performance, with the notable statistic that Ireland has been knocked-out in the quarter finals in six out of the past eight world cups. As an Ireland fan, it pains me to say that Ireland (45% absolute chance) are the team most likely to exit at the quarter finals! It doesn't make it any better, but they are followed by Scotland (41% chance) and Australia (36% chance).
Most likely to exit at the semi-finals are Wales (28% chance), Engalnd (27% chance), South Africa (24% chance).
Well, I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did. The code, as ever, is available via Git here. I'll hopefully follow-up soon with a post about a Sankey plot to visualise the stats more effectively.
Posted on 6th September 2019 Tags Japan, Monte Carlo Simulation, R, RStats, rugby, Rugby World Cup, Rugby World Cup 2019, RWC, RWC20194 Comments on Simulating the Rugby World Cup 2019 Japan in R
With the Rugby World Cup 2019 Japan starting on 20th September, I thought I'd take a look at the tournament from a few different statistical angles. For this post I'll be looking at the problem: given a rugby score, how can we decompose it into possible combinations of tries, conversions, penalties and dropped goals?
I have a dataframe of results for almost all professional and international rugby union scores since the 2012/13 season, more than 10,000 matches. This is nice in terms of 'breadth' of the sample – however in terms of depth it's a bit lacking! For each result I only have home/away team and home/away score, for example:
27/07/2019  New Zealand  South Africa  16  16
I was curious: is it possible to decompose the results into valid combinations of scoring methods? Then, perhaps as a second stage, estimate the probability of occurrence of each combination for a given score? The first question I will be looking at in this post, and the second will be next up in the series!
I've never seen a match of rugby before! What are the scoring methods you're referring to?
TRY (5 points): awarded when an attacking player grounds the ball in the area at the end of the pitch ("in-goal area").
CONVERSION (2 points): the team who has scored a try immediately gets to kick at goal for another 2 points before kick-off restart.
PENALTY GOAL (3 points): when an infringement is made, a penalty may be awarded to the other team who may then choose to take a penalty kick at goal.
DROP GOAL (3 points): a player may, at any time in play, drop-kick the ball over and between the posts.
PENALTY TRY (7 points): if a foul has stopped the attacking team from scoring then a penalty try is awarded, worth a full 7 points. Note: these happen fairly rarely so I include this just for completeness but don't refer to penalty tries hereon.
I took the videos above from World Rugby Laws of the Game which is a great resource if you want to learn more about the laws of the game.
Grouping the Elementary Scoring Methods
3 points: penalty goal or drop goal.
5 points: unconverted try (i.e. a try has been scored, but the conversion did not score the extra 2 points)
7 points: converted try (i.e. a try has been scored, and the conversion succeeded in scoring the extra 2 points).
Starting Off the Analysis: Scores 0-7
Penalties or
drop goals (3pt ea)
Unconverted
tries (5pt ea)
0 is obviously a valid score.
3, 5, 7 are obtained from elementary scores only.
6 is obtained only from two penalties.
1, 2 and 4 are not valid scores as they cannot be sums of
Onwards! Scores 8-10
The only way forward is to score 3, 5, or 7 points! So new valid scores/combinations are {previous scores} + {3,5,7}. In the table above:
8 is the row for 5 points but plus 1 penalty/drop goal.
10 is either a converted try plus 1 penalty/drop goal OR an unconverted try plus another unconverted try (hence two rows).
With the general rule established, it is fairly easy to script it:
for each i in 8:150
if i - 3 in validscores, copy row(s) of i - 3, increment pen/dg field by 1 and set score to i
if i - 5 in validscores...  "
I wrote a script in R, which can be found on my github repo along with the results for scores up to 150 points.
What about the New Zealand vs South Africa match mentioned at the start?
sc pd ut ct
Both teams scored 16 points. Both teams got there through one converted try and three penalties, corresponding to the first row of two possible ways to reach 16 points.
Are all scoring combinations equally likely?
No, for a given score, not all scoring combinations are equally likely because even if all scoring methods were of equal probability (1/3 probability each), they contribute different amounts of points and so this would make the likelihood uneven!
The table below shows all of the possible scoring combinations relating to the score of 48 points.
It's pretty unlikely that a team would 'rack up' so many points through 16 penalties/drop goals without scoring any tries! Equally, it's unlikely a team would get there through just scoring tries alone. Intuitively, it would seem that it would be through a mixture that a team would be most likely to get there.
If we know the relative likelihood of occurrence of the three scoring methods to each other then we can calculate the probability of scoring combinations for a given score. That's what we'll be looking at in the next post!
Posted on 10th August 2019 9th August 2019 Tags R, RStats, rugbyLeave a comment on Road to Rugby World Cup 2019: Rugby scores decomposition
I analysed Transport for London Santander bike rentals for 2018 and put together a map which shows which stations are used the most and how the network flows.
http://statsonthe.cloud/2018bikes/
More to come soon, including details of how to make the map and the R code!
Posted on 13th May 2019 21st May 2019 Tags RLeave a comment on TfL Santander Bikes London 2018
In an earlier post I blogged how I had made a Monte Carlo simulation model of the Six Nations Rugby Tournament. With the final round of the tournament approaching this Saturday, I decided to do a quick update.
Who can win at this stage?
Wales, England, or Ireland can still win. Scotland, France and Italy do not have enough points at this stage to win. Quite a good article from the London Evening Standard explains the detail. The current league table is below.
Actual standings after round 4 out of 5
Who is playing who in the final round?
What is the simulation model based upon?
A random sample from a probability mass function for tries, conversions and penalties, which is combined with a pwin for each team, calculated based on the RugbyPass Index for both home and away teams. If you want to know more, feel free to look at my previous post (linked above) or the R script (linked at the bottom).
What does the simulated league table look after the final round?
Running a simulation for the final three games, and adding these results on to the actual points each team has achieved after round 4, we get the distribution of league points shown below.
Apologies: a box plot can be a bit odd for discrete data such as this. Please forgive me! If I had the time I would reform this into something like a stacked histogram which would be more accurate 🙂
It should be noted that, whilst the 'standard' scoring scheme applies for these final matches, i.e.
4pt for a win, 2pt for a draw, 0pt for a loss.
plus 1 bonus pt for scoring 4 tries or more, regardless of win/lose/draw.
plus 1 bonus pt if a team has lost but by 7 game points or less.
…there are also 3 additional points awarded if a team wins the 'Grand Slam' (wins all of their matches). The candidate for this is Wales only. They have so far won every match, and if they win their final match they get these extra points to ensure they win the tournament.
This rule avoids the situations where a team could lose one match but obtain maximum bonus points in the other, finishing up with more points overall than a team that has won every match but never obtained any bonus points.
So then, what are the final standings likely to look like?
After having run a simulation of the final round, the results are below.
Wales are "firm favourites" to win the tournament. England have a "reasonable chance". Ireland retain an "outside chance".
How does all of this compare to expectations before the start of the tournament?
Ireland, England, and Wales were predicted to be in close contention. Wales have outperformed the prediction (mainly due to beating England). England have outperformed the prediction (mainly due to beating Ireland, and due to amassing a lot of bonus points). Ireland have under performed against the prediction (mainly due to losing to England, and then narrowly missing out on bonus points: scored only 3 tries against Scotland; lost to England by only 12 game pt).
Scotland beat Italy with a bonus point victory, but they have only managed to pick up one bonus point in their other games. Picking up points against England in their final match will be tough. So they will be likely to under perform. France will likely beat Italy and perform roughly as expected. Italy are looking firm against the prediction of finishing bottom again this year (however imho they could be a team to watch in their final match, as they'll be playing a presently disorientated France, at home in Rome).
It has been an interesting journey for me simulating sports tournaments over the past few months. Monte Carlo approaches can help you see the wood from the trees in complex situations, which has applications not just in sport but in industry as well.
Maybe this has inspired you to have a go yourself? If so, the code for this blog post is available via Git here. Although if you wish to have a play or to adopt the code, the original version is much cleaner, available here. Good luck!
Posted on 14th March 2019 14th March 2019 Tags monte-carlo, R, RStats, rugby, simulation, statistics1 Comment on Simulating the Six Nations 2019 Rugby Tournament in R: Final Round Update
I really like running simulation models before sporting events because they can give you so much more depth of understanding compared to the 'raw' odds that you get from the media or bookmakers, etc. Yes, a team might have a "30% chance of winning a tournament we might hear". But there might be another strong team in the tournament might be 25% likely to win. Then there's that plucky underdog team who are only 2% likely to win the tournament, but have a fair chance of causing at least one team an upset. Not to mention home/away advantage, competition points, and structure, etc.
That being said, with the Six Nations 2019 officially starting this weekend with France playing Wales on Friday, I thought I'd best run a simulation model. I do apologise in advance as it's a little bit hastily put together as I have not had a huge amount of time and wanted to complete a simulation before the competition starts in a few hours time. But nevertheless I hope it can provide some insight into both the tournament and also more generally how to simulate a sporting competition!
I used rating data from the Rugby Pass Index to calculate the probability of team A beating team B for every fixture in the Six Nations. This was done using a formula that considers the difference in ratings between the two teams and also gives a home advantage boost to the home team.
The favourite team doesn't always win – how much leeway for luck is there?We need a Distribution for Points Scored in a Rugby Match.
For those less familiar with rugby, a random selection of the most recent Pro 14 results, giving a feel for the volatility in score
In a game like soccer, you get a lot of draws because goals don't happen very often, at least compared to rugby where it's not unusual to see 60pts or more scored per team. What does a distribution of points look like? Therefore how much leeway is there for a 'better' team to 'choke' and not score the tries, conversions and penalties needed to get the winning score, and how much leeway is there for the 'underdog' team to 'get lucky' and nail their tries, conversion and penalties needed to get the winning score?
For the general probability distribution of occurrence of tries scored, conversions given a try has been scored, and penalties scored, a fitted distribution from the 2017/18 season of the Pro 14 league has been used because I already had it to hand (and I hope to document this in another post). Given more time, I would use Six Nations data as the distribution might be slightly different in high-pressure international matches compared to the Pro 14 league. Nevertheless, I think it the Pro 14 data is worthy for use for a quick model.
Now that we have the probability of winning, and can randomly sample from the distribution of points scored, we are in business.
For each match simulation, a random sample of the probability distribution on tries, conversions, and tries scored was taken and essentially multiplied by the probability of winning for each team. The competition points (win 4pt, draw 2pt, lose 0pt; 4 tries or more bonus point; losing by 7pt or less bonus point) were then calculated for each team in that match. For each tournament simulation, the results were recorded and the tournament was simulated again, until we got 10,000 simulated tournament results.
Finally, we can plot and analyse the results.
No surprise really that Ireland had the most tournament wins. The order follows the Rugby Pass Index rating. For a competition like the Six Nations where the most major factor is who are you playing at home (and hence gaining that all important home advantage), this is to be expected. For something like a World Cup where group stages are involved, this would be a lot less straightforward.
In the Six Nations, winning all of your matches get you the Grand Slam in addition to the Six Nations tournament victory, thus bringing further glory to your nation! It looks like it's a fairly large ask this year. For Ireland who are clear tournament favourites, their odds of a Grand Slam victory are somewhat reduced due to the probability of being beaten by any one of the other five nations in the process – in particular England or Wales.
Before we look at the box plots from the simulation – I've included this summary of what a box plot is from Wikipedia. The box is showing 25th-75th percentile outcomes, and the thick line the 50% percentile (aka median). The whiskers either side of the box usually end up somewhere in the ballpark of the 10th and 90th percentiles. Circles are then used to show occurrences outside the whiskers.
The order remains when we look at the distribution of points – again no surprise. We can now see that Italy are clear contenders for the wooden spoon.
Italy, by far the worst team, don't really ever seem to get less than 5 points. This could point to a deficiency in the model, perhaps in the distributions – which I will look to address at a later date.
Finally, what does the distribution of standings look like? Based on the simulation results, Ireland will reliably be in the top 3. Although you might be tempted to think that according to this, they also have a fair chance of finishing bottom – this is incorrect and is due to the Inter-Quartile Range spanning 2pt – this behaviour is also observed for Wales and Scotland – I'll may revise the visualisation in an update later. England reliably ought to finish 2nd or 3rd but with a fair possibility of winning or finishing 4th. Wales, a similar story but likely to be one place lower. Scotland and France are likely to battle it out for 4th/5th. Poor Italy once again are very much expected to win the 'wooden spoon'.
Well, I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did. The simulation code is available via Git here.
Posted on 2nd February 2019 Tags RLeave a comment on Simulating the Six Nations 2019 Rugby Tournament in R
Insey Winsey Spider Game Monte-Carlo Simulation
Time is such a precious commodity especially with a family. So when your daughter asks to play a board game… you think 'how long will this take'. With most board games, one is able to roughly estimate how long the game will take… the Shopping Game, well that can be expected to take 10 minutes with 2 players. The Memory Game, well that can be expected to take 15 minutes with 2 players. Whilst there is of course some variation, I have found most (age 4-6) games to have a fairly symmetrical and tight distribution of time taken to complete the game.
One exception though, has been the Insey Winsey Spider Game… where saying yes to a game has derailed many's a schedule or upset a child because it can very frequently take much longer than expected… one time it's all over in 3 moves, next time it takes 20 moves. So, let's try out some Monte-Carlo simulation modelling in R to understand the distribution of moves better!
As a player in the game, you are provided with a waterspout and a spider. The spider starts at the bottom of the drain spout. Each turn:
you roll the six-sided die and progress your spider upwards by the number of squares awarded by the die.
you spin a spinner to determine the weather: sunshine or rain. Rain takes up approx 30% of the spinner's space and when it does happen, your spider gets washed out back to the bottom of the waterspout.
The winner is the first to exit the top of the spout. We're interested in how many turns this can take!
In terms of doing some Monte-Carlo simulation modelling in R, our strategy will be to model a turn (the roll of the six-sided die and the spin of the spinner); then model an entire game – keeping on going until our spider has reached more than 10 squares from the start; and record the number of moves taken – as that's what we're curious about!
#RETURNS RESULT OF ROLL OF A 6 SIDED DIE
six_sided_number_die_roll <- function()
return(sample(x=c(1:6),size = 1,replace = TRUE))
Using the sample function in R, we are able to take a random sample of the sequence 1:6 with replacement.
#RETURNS RESULT OF SPIN OF SPECIAL WEATHER SPINNER
weather_spin <- function()
return(sample(x=c('raining','sunshine'),size=1,replace = TRUE, prob = c(0.3,0.7)))
For the spinner, we wish to table a random sample of 'raining' and 'sunshine', again with replacement, but this time specifying uneven odds of 30% and 70% respectively through the prob argument.
Now that we have created two functions that enable us to model a turn, let's bring these together in a full game simulation.
#SIMULATES ONE FULL GAME OF 'INSEY WINSEY SPIDER', NUMBER VERSION
spider_game_number_run <- function() {
spider_position = 0
while (spider_position <= 10)
spider_position <- spider_position +six_sided_number_die_roll()
if(weather_spin() == 'raining') spider_position <- 0
return(i)
We set up two counters: spider_position which is going to count how many squares up the waterspout the spider is; and i which is the number of turns taken. With both of these counters set to zero, we are then ready to start our while loop which will continue while the spider's position is less than or equal to 10 squares. During that time, the spider's position is incremented by one die roll, and one weather spin is made. If the weather spin value is raining then the spider's position is reset to 0. Once this while loop completes, the value returned is i, the number of turns taken to reach completion for that simulated game.
Now we can simulate an entire game by calling the function spider_game_number_run() and it will return the number of turns taken to complete. What we need to do now is run this simulation many times to understand the distribution of turns needed to complete a game.
#SIMULATES k FULL GAMES OF 'INSEY WINSEY SPIDER'
spider_game_number_sim <- function(k) {
agg <- NULL
while(j < k + 1)
{agg[j] <- spider_game_number_run()
j = j + 1}
#return the number of turns it took to finish
return(agg)
Our function takes the argument k and will run the game simulation k-times, each time adding the number of turns taken to the agg object which it returns. With this in hand, finally we want to simulate the game a good number of times and display the results.
n=200000
start_time <- Sys.time()
a <- spider_game_number_sim(n)
elapsed_time <- Sys.time() - start_time
a_mode <- getmode(a)
a_mean <- mean(a)
hist(a, freq = FALSE, breaks = seq(1:max(a)),
main = paste("Insey Winsey Spider Game (number version),\n", format(n,scientific = FALSE, big.mark = ","),"simulation results"),
xlab = paste("x, number of turns to complete game\nE(x)=",round(a_mean,2)," Mode=",a_mode))
All of this code (plus a little bit more) can be found on the Github repository for this blog, https://github.com/statsonthecloud/blog The code above completed in around 50s on a modest low-powered Intel laptop. The output was the following histogram.
So time for a sense check: the waterspout is 10 squares tall, and if one is particularly lucky, the spider can progress 10 in two goes (6+6,5+6,6+5, and two sunshine spins). The minimum is two goes to complete the game – this is accurately represented on our graph.
The mode number of turns is 3. OK, but perhaps this is not so helpful given the large spread of possible turns. More meaningful perhaps is the expected number of turns, which is 8.15. 50% of the time, we expect games to take up to 8 turns; 50% of the time we expect it will take longer than 8 turns. But what fate are we likely to face (in terms of parental time management) if we end up taking more than 8 turns. Well, the distribution has a long tail, so it could well end up taking many more turns. That long tail was what I felt was happening, and through a quick'n'dirty Monte-Carlo simulation in R, I was able to thoroughly explore and visualise this behaviour!
The beauty of the simulation approach is that you can arrive at answers quickly. However it would also probably be possible to do this mathematically and to propose a distribution deterministically – maybe that can be a part II to this post one day in the future. For now, I think I have to go as I'm being called to play a game…
Posted on 28th August 2018 28th August 2018 Tags board game simulation, monte-carlo, RLeave a comment on Insey Winsey Spider Game Monte-Carlo Simulation


text:
Video AnalizRuşen ÇakırEnglishYayın Metinleri
The Turkish Republic is 96 years old: Do we have freedom, equality and fraternity?
Translated by Melissa Clissold
We must ponder upon the 96th year of the Republic; why we are so far away from goals of freedom, equality and fraternity and how we can get out of this?
Hello, good day, good celebrations to all. Happy 29th of October Republic Day. What are they saying? "It is not a holiday, it is a festival." This is true, and for us too. We are working today. But we must seriously see October 29 as a festival, not a holiday, and celebrate the republic. We each have our own republic story and generally the republic is always commemorated in a good manner. Even if there are those who speak against the republic, the majority always speaks of it positively. But this does not mean that we always think all that is happening in the country is right, or that we adopt everything going on. For me, the three fundamental principles of the French Revolution evoke the republic.
They are liberty, equality and fraternity. When we look at these, when we look at Turkey's republican history, we can see that the main issue, that these main three concepts, have always been debatable. And we know that the closer we get to these, the more we get closer to the ideal of the republic, and the further we get away from it, we get further away from the idea. Openly speaking, I believe that today we are very far from these values. And the sad thing is, I actually thought that, up till recently that we had gotten quite close to these values. I was hopeful and excited. This is my own personal view. But especially that which has been experienced in Turkey in the last five to six years shows us that we are moving further and further away from the concepts of liberty, equality and fraternity.
It is not very meaningful to do this: They usually say "What aboutism" to this, meaning: "They say this, what do you say to this?" When you criticise something today, they try to neutralise your criticisms by giving certain examples from the past. This is ridiculous. When we look at things today and towards the future, past negative references do not legitimise today's problems, they do not excuse them. Therefore, if there is indeed a problem of liberty in Turkey currently – and there is -, this does not excuse or make right the hitches during the past one-man party management or later periods or the periods of the military coup or that which took place on February 28. Today, Turkey is a country is far from the liberty it deserves.
People are afraid to speak their mind, something happens to them and in the recent periods, even though there have been some positive stirrings, Turkey is further distancing itself from being a state of law. This is where we are. And, things that took place in the past, unjust occurrences that took place in differing periods for certain reasons, does not excuse the need for a state of law, the need for a "just system" as Erbakan used to say. Turkey desperately needs liberty right now. People need to be free.
Freedom of expression especially needs to be exercised. The freedom to organise and protest is needed. And Turkey is far behind when it comes to this. But like I said, up until recently there had been certain positive developments. Turkey, especially within the European Process, had carried out very serious democratic initiatives, reforms; its area of freedom, rights and freedoms were expanding. But after a certain moment, we started counting backwards again. And perhaps Gezi could be given as a milestone. It was something that started before, but the important milestone was Gezi. And the demands of the prime minister of the time, Erdoğan, the public requests were chosen to be suppressed with security forces, and Turkey entered a brand-new route.
Of course, within this, there were the Gülenists, the conspiracies, coup attempts etc. that they planned. But these were all used one by one for Erdoğan to achieve his one-man regime. Of course, there had to be a struggle against them, but under the guise of fighting against them, rights and freedoms were restricted, people were thrown in jail, there are many still "thought-criminals" who are still in prison.
The second concept is equality. It is clear that Turkey is very backward when it comes to equality. Of course, there is a clear inequality when it comes to classes. It is always present, always has been present in a capitalist system. And the gap is widening. There are the new rich that have emerged. Those who have been made rich through the help of the government or those whose riches have doubled through the state. During a certain period, there were certain services and assistance provided by the AKP towards the lower classes within the field of a social state. These have been cut off immensely especially with the economic crisis that has been taking place. And in this respect, class inequality has grown and can be seen even clearer.
Other than that, when the concept of equality is talked about, there are the opportunities provided by the state – and when we say opportunities provided by the state, the state does not actually own these opportunities, it collects from the citizen and returns some of them back to the citizens through services. There is no such structure as a state that is producing its own fund or capital. The state of course transfers the taxes it receives from citizens to certain areas. And we can see that there is huge inequality in the distribution of these services. Favouritism and nepotism have increased incredibly. And there is of course squandering. We were able to see this a lot more openly following the March 31 local elections and change of municipalities.
These were displayed – vehicles etc. Or the expenditure of municipalities, especially of the trustees in the Southeast. All these have shown us that partisanship and favouritism, that have existed for a long time in Turkey has increased. Loyalty is at the forefront, as opposed to competence. Under the claim of fighting against Gülenism, interviews are a lot more determinant in the interviews for state jobs. And we of course know that to a large extent those who are close to the administration are preferred. And at this point we can also say that discrimination against minorities, especially the Kurds and Alevi's has increased.
Of course, in addition to this, discrimination against women has also increased in this period – and gender equality was actually one of the greatest achievements of the republic. It was never completely achieved, we know that, but this was the goal. And we can see that this aim has been pushed to the side-lines, women are talked about but the state and those supporting the state have pushed this to the side. And in this respect we can see a very serious problem of inequality, or the deepening of an already inequality.
We said discrimination; therefore, we must mention fraternity. Turkey is a polarised country and those running the country like this polarisation. Because, there are no longer that many opportunities to present bright perspectives regarding the country; meaning that, there is a very serious deadlock because President Erdoğan and those running the country are going through a serious ideological and political crisis. And in order to overcome this deadlock, they are playing with certain fragilities existing in society, and certain policies supporting the majority and excluding the minorities are in place.
We can see this. There is very serious polarisation in Turkey. There are several levels of polarisation. Certain steps were taken to prevent this with Alevi's and Kurds at different periods, but they were all cancelled one way or another. Those minorities in society – and the fundamentals of democracy actually mean that the rights of minorities should be respected by majorities – there are very serious problems regarding this issue and we know that there is vast polarisation. We have also seen this with the latest operation in Syria too. And with many other incidents that have taken place.
We saw this with the Kobani incidents. We are very far from being a country where people from one part of the society supports another when they are sad or happy. Therefore, right now, on the 96. Anniversary of the republic, we are very far away from the fundamental principles of a republic. But I hope and predict that Turkey can overcome this, that not only can it overcome it, but that it is the only choice, that it will fix these problems through adorning the principles of the republic with democracy. Why do I think this? This is more than just wishful thinking, as Westerners usually think. We see this because of our own stories.
Each one of us have different stories. I personally have seen where I have come from and where I can go. Of course, my family, environment, myself, my friends have a share in this. But of course, there is a serious share of the will that constructed the republic. In some ways, this country, no matter which region or fraction, no matter what past, religion, belief or non-belief, has a foundation that wants to open the way for people. This wants to be blocked. In different periods, this mobility, this movement wants to be prevented by those running the country.
But I believe that the foundations were built incredibly strong. And this foundation, despite everything, despite all the shocks will manage to salvage itself and stand on its feet. I think that we are going through one of Turkey's worst periods. Whilst it could have been so much better, Turkey unnecessarily spent its energy in wrong places, and continues to do so. There is a very unnecessary polarisation taking place. Instead of resolving its problems, it is worsening them.
But these are resolvable issues. And Turkey, I believe, will be able to resolve them. When we look at things in this respect, and I am going to stress this one more time – and certain viewers will get angry at me once again, I am saying this so they get angry: Turkey cannot do anything if it does not resolve the Kurdish problem. I am not Kurdish. But because I am not Kurdish I want the Kurdish problem to be resolved as soon as possible in a permanent manner. Because for people who aren't Kurdish to live happily, Kurds also need to be happy. Yes, I want to say once more, happy Republic Day. This is all I have to say, good day.
Turkish republic
Önceki İçerikToplumsal sorunlar karşısında İslami cemaatler ve Diyanet – Hayri Kırbaşoğlu: "Türkiye'deki mevcut dindarlık, patolojik bir dindarlıktır"
Sonraki İçerikABD'nin Suriye sahasındaki üst düzey diplomatı Roebuck'un, Suriye operasyonunda Trump ve Türkiye'yi eleştiren iç yazışması ortaya çıktı
Canan Kaftancıoğlu: "CHP olarak kurultay süreçlerimizi demokratik bir şekilde yürütüyoruz ama kimi zaman bu durum dışarıdan sorun varmış gibi algılanabiliyor"
Ruşen Çakır - 17 Ocak 2020
Yayına hazırlayanlar: Sercan Öztürk & Gamze Elvan Söyleşinin tamamını izlemek için tıklayınız https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eobc-d799Rc&feature=youtu.be
Ruşen Çakır: "İktidar, İmamoğlu ile CHP'nin yumuşak karnı olarak Demirtaş ve HDP'yi görüyor ama zayıf sandıkları yerden vurdukça orayı daha da güçlendiriyorlar"
Yayına hazırlayan: Uğur Gümüşkaya Yayının tamamını izlemek için tıklayınız https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTr2iJU-0Js&feature=youtu.be
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=estQzaeKByI https://soundcloud.com/medyascopetv/rusen-cakir-yorumluyor-alevi-kimliginin-inkari-nereye-kadar
Ruşen Çakır: "İmamoğlu'na yönelik saldırıların asıl amacı CHP'nin yerel seçimlerde başarılı olan ittifak stratejisini akamete uğratmak"
Yayına hazırlayan: Uğur Gümüşkaya Yayının tamamını izlemek için tıklayınız https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ba8ED2kfQpg&feature=youtu.be


text:
Home Health & Fitness MLB rules don't protect catchers from bats and balls
MLB rules don't protect catchers from bats and balls
Theresa Taboada/Press releases
Major league baseball recently changed its rules to protect catchers from collisions at the plate, but foul tips and errant bats pose a bigger danger, a new study suggests.
The research, led by doctors at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and involving Baltimore Orioles trainers Brian Ebel and Richie Bancells, involved analysis of all catcher injuries during major league games over a 10-year period.
"Our results indicate that, while well-intended, the [major leagues'] current efforts to reduce contact injuries among catchers may be overlooking other types of trauma among this subgroup that tend to inflict more physical harm and lead to more loss of game time," says senior investigator Edward McFarland, professor of orthopedic surgery at Johns Hopkins.
Collision injuries aren't that common
In 2014, baseball changed the rules, requiring major league catchers to allow base runners a clear path to home plate. The new rules also prohibit runners headed for the plate from veering to deliberately collide with a catcher.
The new findings, however, do not support the notion that collision injuries before the rule change were either common or catastrophic. The study is published online by the American Journal of Sports Medicine. The results came from analysis of reports from Major League Baseball's database of all catcher injuries between 2001 and 2010. Of 134 injuries reported, 114–just over 85 percent–occurred without collision with a base runner.
The "contact" injuries that did occur, the investigators report, were neither season-ending nor career-ending serious traumas, and generally required shorter recovery than other kinds of injuries.
The investigators say the perception that home-plate collisions occurred often and with disastrous results was fueled by news coverage of a handful of high-profile incidents rather than hard data. In addition, the authors say, because catchers have a "risk profile" very different from players in other positions, prevention strategies must reflect such differences.
"While recent rule changes were implemented to prevent catcher injuries, the focus of these changes is not supported by the findings of our study," says first author Kelly Kilcoyne, an orthopedic surgeon at William Beaumont Army Medical Center in El Paso, Texas. "Further investigation and in-depth analysis can inform optimal strategies to mitigate and prevent injuries among this particular category of players."
The researchers report that the average time spent on MLB's disabled list was 50 days overall, but noncollision injuries led to longer recovery time. The average "out" time for noncollision injuries was 53 days, compared with 39 days for collision injuries. Nineteen injuries, none stemming from collision with another player, required recovery times longer than 100 days.
The most common cause of noncollision catcher injury was a foul-tip or a bat to the head on the batter's follow-through.
The most frequent catcher injuries overall were to the leg (28 percent), followed by the knee and shoulder (23 percent each). The most common collision injuries were to the knee (40 percent) and the ankle (30 percent). And although leg injuries occurred more often than shoulder injuries, the former resulted in fewer missed game days—21 on average, compared with 52 days for shoulder traumas.
Of the 11 catcher concussions that occurred between 2001 and 2010, two were the result of collision. Concussions stemming from noncollision injuries required longer recovery—54 days on average—compared with 16 days for noncollision concussions.
This text is published here under a Creative Commons License.
Author: Ekaterina Pesheva-Johns Hopkins University
Check here the article's original source with the exact terms of the license to reproduce it in your own website
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text:
Publish Date: 12:12 - 24 November 2015
Iran and Russia's Cooperation in the Construction of Maritime Terminals
The Russian President announced that the construction of 25 high priority projects in the fields of energy, maritime terminals and communications would be carried out between the two countries by the allocation of a 5-billion-Dollar credit fund.
In a press conference with President Hassan Rouhani last night, MANA reported, President Vladimir Putin stated that holding GECF Gas Summit paved the way for us to both discuss the gas-related issues with the participating countries, and to discuss diverse affairs with our Iranian friends.
The Russian President added that we conduction promising key negotiations at the presence of secretaries and the head of different organizations.
He added that the mentioned negotiations were follow-up negotiations that we carried out with the IRISL leader.
With reference to his negotiations with senior Iranian officials, Putin remarked that various aspects of Iran and Russia's mutual ties – namely economic issues and fighting against terrorism – were discussed in these meetings.
He added that we witnessed the signing of some documents between the two countries, which could help the promotion of their ties.
Emphasizing his intention to accelerate the promotion of Iran and Russia's economic ties, Putin remarked that the two countries have in mind to devise a list of the demanded goods in both countries and utilize national currencies in their financial transactions.
Putin stressed that the feasibility of creating a commercial zone between Iran and Russia was one of the issues discussed in his meeting with President Rouhani, and added that negotiations in this regard would continue in the future.
Counting allocating credit funds as one of the negotiation topics between the two countries, Putin asserted that Russia intends to devote a 5-billion-Dollar credit fund to Iran. He also added that 25 high priority projects in various fields, particularly in the fields of energy, maritime terminals and the communications, will be initiated between the two countries.
Emphasizing that his country would continue its cooperation with Iran in the peaceful use of nuclear energy, the Russian President stressed that currently, in this framework, the construction of Bushehr nuclear power plant would be completed, and we intend to continue our cooperation in the second and third phases.


text:
NOWCAST Chronicle
Nets edge Celtics in first meeting since trade
Nets 82, Celtics 80
Updated: 10:32 PM EDT Oct 15, 2013
Celtics logo
Paul Pierce made just one basket in his first game against his former team, but grabbed 10 rebounds and added five assists to help the Brooklyn Nets beat the Boston Celtics 82-80 on Tuesday night.Brook Lopez scored 20 points and Andrey Blatche had 14 starting in place of Kevin Garnett for the Nets, who won it when Chris Johnson made two free throws with 7.0 seconds left after the game was tied at 80.Pierce finished 1 of 6, his only basket a driving layup with 6.2 seconds left in the first half in the first meeting between the teams since their blockbuster trade on draft night that sent Pierce and Garnett to Brooklyn.Courtney Lee led the Celtics with 14 points but missed a potential tying jumper in the final seconds.
Paul Pierce made just one basket in his first game against his former team, but grabbed 10 rebounds and added five assists to help the Brooklyn Nets beat the Boston Celtics 82-80 on Tuesday night.
Brook Lopez scored 20 points and Andrey Blatche had 14 starting in place of Kevin Garnett for the Nets, who won it when Chris Johnson made two free throws with 7.0 seconds left after the game was tied at 80.
Pierce finished 1 of 6, his only basket a driving layup with 6.2 seconds left in the first half in the first meeting between the teams since their blockbuster trade on draft night that sent Pierce and Garnett to Brooklyn.
Courtney Lee led the Celtics with 14 points but missed a potential tying jumper in the final seconds.


Heat-circulating louvered fireplace delivers a customized appearance with an abundance of cozy warmth.
Large firebox openings offer attractive viewing areas for captivating fires.
Brick patterned interior adds a touch of custom masonry realism.
Hidden screen pockets allow you to retract screens when they are not in use, for a clean and elegant look.
Heat-circulating operation helps provide a steady flow of comfortable heat to the home.
Optional fan system increases warm air distribution.
Fully insulated firebox retains heat.
Heavy-duty fuel grate for no-hassle loading.
Easy-access outside air mechanism improves performance.
Choose bi-fold or twin-pane glass doors with a variety of finishes and brick-patterned interiors to suit your tastes.
Choice of optional Brass finish or Brushed Stainless finish louver grills.


Pet Shop Boys announce 'Catalogue: 1985-2012', a landmark series of reissues of their Parlophone studio albums. Each album from the duo's Parlophone discography will be remastered and accompanied by 'Further listening' albums of master quality bonus tracks and demos created in the same time period as each album, as well as Pet Shop Boys own remixes of their tracks. Many tracks are being released for the first time.
The first three of the 'Catalogue' albums to be released on July 28th, 2017, are 'Nightlife/Further listening: 1996-2000', 'Release/Further listening: 2001-2004' and 'Fundamental/Further listening: 2005-2007'.


text:
Q: Select Nodes using key() based on Condition I have a situation where I need to select the nodes based on certain conditions and then apply Muenchian grouping to get unique values. I am on XSLT 1.0
<Parent>
    <Child>

        <C></C>
    </Child>
    <Child>

        <C></C>
    </Child>
    <Child>

        <C></C>
    </Child>
</Parent>

The Condition that I have for use attribute is:
If A is not blank, use A. Otherwise use B.
I had thought of a solution that would work for Fixed Width values for Node A and B. So If A and B are of length n, I can do something like this:
<xsl:key name="groupKey" match="/Parent/Child" use="substring(concat(A,B),1,n)">

So, If A is not present, I can use B. But I haven't been able to figure out how to use string-length() to derive the expression for variable lengths for A and B. Any Ideas?

A: In case you want to use the concat() function:
use="concat(A, B[not(string(../A)])"

And if by blank you mean empty or whitespace-only, then use:
use="concat(A, B[not(normalize-space(../A)])"

Finally, if you really want to use both concat() and substring() (and this is really tricky, so I don't recommend it):
concat(substring(A, 1 div string(A) or 0),
       substring(B, 1 div not(string(A)))
      )

Here is a complete example for the last case, showing what the call to concat() returns:
XML document:
<t>

        xxx
        yyy

        zzz

</t>

Transformation (just outputs the results of the evaluated expressions):
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
 <xsl:output method="text"/>

  <xsl:template match="p">
    <xsl:value-of select=
    "concat(substring(A, 1 div string(A) or 0),
            substring(B, 1 div not(string(A)))
            )"/>
  </xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

Wanted (correct) result produced:
xxx
zzz

A: How about:
use="A | B[not(string(../A))]"

A: Here's another option that uses a different use.
Example...
XML Input
<Parent>
    <Child>
        both
        both
        <C>c</C>
    </Child>
    <Child>
        a

        <C>c</C>
    </Child>
    <Child>

        b
        <C>c</C>
    </Child>
</Parent>

XSLT 1.0
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
  <xsl:output indent="yes"/>
  <xsl:strip-space elements="*"/>

  <xsl:key name="child" match="Child" use="(A[string()]|B[string()])[1]"/>

  <xsl:template match="@*|node()">
    <xsl:copy>
      <xsl:apply-templates select="@*|node()"/>
    </xsl:copy>
  </xsl:template>

  <xsl:template match="/*">
    <xsl:copy>
      <xsl:for-each select="Child[count(.|key('child',(A[string()]|B[string()])[1])[1])=1]">
        <group key="{(A[string()]|B[string()])[1]}">
          <xsl:apply-templates select="key('child',(A[string()]|B[string()])[1])"/>
        </group>
      </xsl:for-each>
    </xsl:copy>
  </xsl:template>

</xsl:stylesheet>

XML Output
<Parent>
   <group key="both">
      <Child>
         both
         both
         <C>c</C>
      </Child>
   </group>
   <group key="a">
      <Child>
         a

         <C>c</C>
      </Child>
   </group>
   <group key="b">
      <Child>

         b
         <C>c</C>
      </Child>
   </group>
</Parent>

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Tip: To see translations of this article…
When there are translations of the current article, you will see a flag/pennant icon next to the title, like this: For example:
Click on it and you will see a bibliographic list of papers that are published translations of the current article. Note that when no published translations are available, you can also translate an article on the fly using Google translate.
Ejve, B. (1999). Bengt Naumann 1922-1998. Scand. Psychoanal. Rev., 22(1):145-146.
(1999). Scandinavian Psychoanalytic Review, 22(1):145-146
Bengt Naumann 1922-1998
Birgitta Ejve
Bengt Naumann, friend and colleague of the Swedish Psychoanalytic Society, psychoanalyst and neurologist with an unusually wide field of activity, has died, 1 December 1998 in Stockholm at the age of 76.
He was born in Stora Tuna, Dalarna, and grew up in Örnsköldsvik in the north of Sweden. He did his medical training at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, and took his medical degree in 1948. During the fifties, he specialized at different medical clinics in neurology, internal medicine and psychiatry and at the legendary Mentalvårdsbyrån (present name Psykoterapiinstitutet), and obtained his speciality as a neurologist.
In the early fifties, Bengt went into psychoanalysis with Lajos Székely and later Nils Haak. This was a decisive experience in his life, which resulted in his decision to go into psychoanalytic training. There we met in the seminars. It was a time of an analytic pioneering spirit, one that we shared with our Finnish comrades making their long training in our country: during the years Nousiainen, Ikonen, Tähkä, Lesche, Rechardt, Enckell, and others.
In a charming article in the Bulletin (2/1995) of the Swedish Society, Bengt described his later seminar group, where all the other members happened to be psychologists. He very much enjoyed being confronted with their humanistic frame of mind and way of studying. With his typical humour, he referred to their writings in different psychoanalytic subjects as distinct from his own, that he found less impressive: "I myself made an investigation for Parliament into 'Injurious effects of the sport of boxing'." (It should be mentioned that this investigation contributed to the banning of professional boxing in Sweden, despite extremely strong protests.) Sadly, he wrote that at that time, 1995, nearly all of these friends had passed away.


text:
Shane Howard - Well Runs Dry
(HQ digital stereo remaster) Shane Howard's fourth solo single, and a great track it is too, released in 1990 as the second single from his second album "The River". This clip was filmed between Mt Isa and the Cape York Peninsula, interspersed with shots from Sydney's CBD and Chatswood, and was directed by Pat O'Neill and Shane Howard. This is the only high resolution, widescreen copy of this clip on YouTube.
Shane Michael Howard AM (born 26 January 1955) is an Australian singer-songwriter and guitarist, he was the mainstay of folk rock group Goanna (1977–85, 1998) which had hit singles with ""Solid Rock"" (September 1982, No. 3) and "Let the Franklin Flow" (May 1983, No. 12) on the Kent Music Report and their album, Spirit of Place (November 1982, No. 2). After their disbandment he pursued a solo career.
1990 90s Shane Howard Rock & Alternative
Artist: Shane Howard
Video title: Well Runs Dry