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Home » Characterization and Modeling of High Q Dielectric Resonators
Characterization and Modeling of High Q Dielectric Resonators
Edward C. Liang, MCV Microwave, San Diego, Calif.
This article addresses the practical issues using high Q dielectric resonator (DR) cavity designs for RF/microwave oscillators. DR materials and basic cavity structures are described, along with the characterization and measurement of cavity Q. The complex resonant modes and coupling structures are detailed, with special emphasis on the impact of coupling and tuning structures on various resonant modes. Electromagnetic (EM) simulation and the equivalent circuit of the resonator that can be incorporated into linear and nonlinear circuit simulations are discussed and demonstrated.
DR loaded cavities are important for RF/microwave filters and oscillators because of their high quality factor, Q and small size. They offer similar Q as the waveguide cavity in just an eighth to one twelfth the size. They provide excellent temperature stability when designed with a proper choice of dielectric material. However, the two common problems in dielectric resonator oscillator (DRO) design are degradation of the cavity Q from tuning and support structure and interference from higher order modes. Proper characterization of a DR loaded cavity can avoid these issues, allowing rapid prototyping with optimized DRO performance.
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Figure 1 Typical configuration of a dielectric loaded cavity.
The widespread use of ceramic DRs to replace metallic resonant cavities in RF and microwave circuits started in the 1970s, with the first low loss, temperature stable barium tetra-titanate ceramic materials.1-4 Further development of high dielectric constant ceramics with adjustable temperature coefficients enabled microwave engineers to use these materials in oscillator and narrowband filter designs for radar detectors, cellular phone and public safety base stations, satellite receivers and satellite broadcasting (TVRO/DBS).5-26
Figure 2 Mode chart showing the four resonant modes of a DR cavity at 10 GHz (εr = 30 and Qf = 150,000).
DR CAVITY CHARACTERISTICS
The most direct way to reduce the cost of microwave circuits is to reduce their size. At a given frequency, the size of a DR is considerably smaller than that of an air resonant cavity, because the relative dielectric constant of the material is substantially larger than unity, which is the dielectric constant of air. Ideally, the size reduction equals the square root of the resonator's dielectric constant, εr. Even though the dielectric resonator and its metal enclosure need to be separated by substantial distance, one can reasonably achieve volume miniaturization of 1/8 to 1/12 comparing a dielectric resonator to an air cavity with the same Q. Examples of commercially available high Q dielectric materials are shown in Table 1. In general, most dielectric materials can have their temperature coefficients adjusted, provided it does not affect the Q value. The product of dielectric Q and frequency (Qf) is pretty much a material constant in the usable frequency range.
A typical mechanical configuration of a DR loaded cavity is shown in Figure 1. It is well known in practical high Q DR cavity design that the ratio of cavity height (Cty_H) to dielectric resonator thickness (DR_t) should be around 3 and that of cavity diameter (Cty_D) to dielectric diameter (DR_OD) should be greater than 1.5. Also, two other parameters that are not as well published can affect the design drastically: the ratio between the dielectric resonator outer diameter (DR_OD) and thickness (DR_t), denoted as the aspect ratio, and the ratio between the dielectric resonator inner diameter (DR_ID) and outer diameter (DR_OD).
The advantage of DR loaded cavities over rectangular waveguide and regular air cavities is depicted in Table 2. Typically, the size of the air cavity is fairly large and may be impractical for many applications below 3 GHz. A DR with a dielectric constant of 45 and a Qf of 45,000 offers approximately 92 percent volume reduction while still maintaining very high Q. In the frequency range of 5 to 10 GHz, a DR with a dielectric constant of 30 and a Qf of 150,000 achieves better cavity Q than the rectangular waveguide and 86 percent volume reduction. The advantage is obvious; however, DR loaded cavities present some challenges: spurious and quite complicated resonant modes.
DR LOADED CAVITY MODES
The design of an RF/microwave oscillator using a DR loaded cavity must consider the cavity's resonant frequency, coupling to the source and load and high order spurious resonant modes. Although there are closed approximate solutions to calculate these parameters and EM numerical analysis can compute the results, a systematic study has not been published. The mode-matching technique in EM simulation has been used to calculate the resonant frequency, cavity Q and coupling in the cavity for a DR loaded cavity. The recent progress of commercially available 3D EM simulator techniques, increased computation speed and affordable large capacity memory enable engineers to perform DR cavity simulation and design in a reasonable time.
As an example, for a DR with εr =30, Figure 2 shows the HFSS computations for the various modes at 10 GHz, as the aspect ratio (denoted as AP) varies from 2.0 to 3.5. This is known as a mode chart. The numerical values are summarized in Table 3. Comparing the values in Table 3 and the unloaded Q of 15,000, the TE01 mode cavity retains around 60 to 70 percent of the Q (i.e., 1/tan(δ0l)) of the dielectric puck material. This is because the design employs the empirical rules that were noted earlier: 1) the ratio of the diameter of the metallic cavity to the outer diameter of the DR puck, denoted RR, is 1.5; and the ratio of the metallic cavity height to the thickness of the DR puck, denoted as HR, is 3. The Q of the TE01 mode cavity can be increased if larger RR and HR values are used, as shown in Table 4. However, while Q can be increased, the spurious ratio, defined as the ratio of the first higher mode frequency to the fundamental TE01 mode frequency, will become smaller, meaning the higher mode is closer in frequency.
Table 5 shows the effects of an alumina (Al2O3) standoff and Rogers RO3010 PCB, where RR = 1.5 and the ratio of the DR outside diameter to the insider diameter (DR_OD/DR_ID) is 2.5. All the design variations seem to be quite acceptable, namely with 5 percent degradation of cavity Q and maintaining a spurious ratio of at least 1.23. However, a significant degradation in Q occurs if the DR puck is placed too close to the PCB. Tuning can be achieved using either a metal or dielectric disc. Table 6 compares the tuning as a function of the distance to the cover using a 0.5 mm tuning disk (the distance to the cover is normalized to the height of the DR). In general, for the same amount of frequency tuning, a metallic tuning disk can degrade the Q more than a dielectric tuning disk. The field distribution is important in designing the excitation and coupling of a resonant cavity. Typical E and H fields are shown in Figure 3.
Figure 3 Typical E and H fields of the TE01 mode resonator.
DRO TOPOLOGIES
Three topologies are used for DRO designs: one with the DRO in series feedback and two with the DRO in parallel feedback (see Figure 4). The DR is either one-port or two-port coupled to the active device in the DRO. A 3D view of a one-port coupled DR cavity is shown in Figure 5, where the arrow indicates the possible shifting of the excitation plane to that location.
Figure 4 DRO topologies: parallel feedback (a), parallel feedback (b), series feedback (c).
Three examples of DRO designs are presented, each with a different length of the coupled microstrip line in the cavity. These represent the ratio of the loaded to unloaded Q (QL/QO) of 2/3, 1/2 and 1/3 and a coupling resistance of 0.5, 1.0 and 2.0 with respect to the equivalent series resonator of the DR cavity (RO). Figure 6a shows the equivalent circuit of the one-port coupled DR cavity with an ideal transformer and phase shifter (using a section of transmission line) to match EM simulation and measured results. The coupling can be extracted from the ideal coupled resonator circuits in Figure 6b. The coupling coefficient (β) can be obtained from the maximum return loss (RLO), either from measurement (see Figure 6c) or simulation, as follows:
Figure 5 One-port coupled DR cavity.
Figure 6 Equivalent circuit of a one-port coupled DR cavity with ideal transformer and section of transmission line for shifting the phase (a) circuit for coupling and resonator QO extraction (b) and return loss measurement used to calculate the coupling coefficient (β).
The Smith chart can be used to determine the case of under-coupled (β<1) or over-coupled (β>1). The following equations are used to obtain the unloaded Q (Q0):
For the first design example, the under-coupled condition where the coupled resistance (RA) equals 0.5R0, two sets of simulation results are shown: one without shifting the excited reference plane (see Figure 7a), the other shifted to make it almost identical to the ideal equivalent circuit (see Figure 7b). Similarly, Figure 8 shows the critical-coupled condition, where RA equals R0; Figure 9 shows the over-coupled case, where RA equals to 2R0.
A two-port coupled DR cavity has the two ports arranged either on the same side of the cavity or facing opposite directions (see Figure 10). A coupled cavity should yield a QL/Q0 ratio between 0.5 and 0.66 to optimiz the phase noise of the oscillator. The corresponding transmission loss of a coupled DR cavity should range from 6.5 to 9.5 dB, according to:
Figure 7 HFSS simulation and equivalent circuit of the under-coupled design with the excitation at the coaxial input plane (a) and the reference shifted 5.1 mm into the cavity (b).
Most relevant works regard the two topologies in Figure 10 to be electrically identical. However, the equivalent network of Figure 10c fits the EM simulation of Figure 10a fairly well, while Figure 10b only fits Figure 10d well. The difference is the phase of S21. Figure 11 substantiates the equivalent circuits for the two-port topologies, showing the HFSS simulations for the respective circuits.
Figure 8 HFSS simulation and equivalent circuit for the critical-coupled design, with the excitation reference shifted to emulate an ideal series resonator.
This article addressed the issues of dielectric resonator loaded cavities in RF/microwave oscillator design, discussing DR characterization and modeling. The major characteristics of DR loaded cavities were analyzed, including cavity Q, resonant frequency, high order modes and coupling structures. Data obtained by 3D EM simulation should help designers achieve high Q in the cavity and avoid high order spurious modes that can interfere with the fundamental mode. Equivalent networks were presented that match the EM simulation results in the narrow band of the oscillator frequency. This research should help advance RF/microwave DRO design and development.
Figure 9 HFSS simulation and equivalent circuit for the over-coupled design, with the excitation reference shifted to emulate an ideal series resonator.
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Figure 10 Two-port DR cavity with both ports on the same side of the cavity (a) and equivalent network (b). Two-port cavity with the ports on opposite sides (c) and equivalent network (d).
Figure 11 HFSS simulation for the two-port DR cavity with both ports on the same side, using the Figure 10b network (a). HFSS simulation for the two-port with ports on opposite sides, using the Figure 10d network (b).
An Overview of High Q TE Mode Dielectric Resonators and Applications
Design and Fabrication Procedure for High Q RF MEMS Resonators
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Davidson Wake Forest Baseball
Davidson Wildcats starting pitcher Josh Hudson (33) in action against the Wake Forest Demon Deacons at David F. Couch Ballpark on May 7, 2019 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The Demon Deacons defeated the Wildcats 11-8. (Brian Westerholt/Four Seam Images)
Filename: NCAA_050719_1078_BW.jpg
Copyright © 2019 - Brian Westerholt/Four Seam Images
NCAA, college, collegiate, men, amateur, baseball, DI, Division I, Winston-Salem, NC, North Carolina, Wake Forest University, Wake Forest Demon Deacons, WFU, WF, ACC, Atlantic Coast Conference, Davidson College, Davidson Wildcats, A-10, Atlantic 10 Conference, non-conference game, Joshua Hudson
05.07.2019 - NCAA Davidson vs Wake Forest

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
:Description: This model is used in the reference(s) here below.
    The network was generated manually from the paper.
:Model: The model is available in SIF format (**PKN-ToyPCB.sif**) and SBML-qual format
    (**PKN-ToyPCB.xml**) available from **cnodata**. See code below.
:Data: The data in MIDAS format is **MD-ToyPCB.csv**.
    The data was generated manually.

.. image:: https://github.com/cellnopt/cellnopt/blob/master/cno/datasets/ToyPCB/ToyPCB.png
   :alt: ToyPCB figure

.. code-block:: python

    from cno import cnodata, CNOGraph
    c = cnograph.CNOGraph(cnodata("PKN-ToyPCB.sif"), cnodata("MD-ToyPCB.csv"))
    c.plot()

References
-------------

.. [1] **Morris, Melody K and Saez-Rodriguez, Julio and Clarke, David C and Sorger, Peter K and Lauffenburger, Douglas a**,
   *Training signaling pathway maps to biochemical data with constrained fuzzy logic: quantitative analysis of liver cell responses to inflammatory stimuli.*
   PLoS computational biology, 7, 3, 2011
   `Citation <http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=3048376>`_

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


A combination of a "snickerdoodle" cookie with a "snooker" game.
I know nut allergies aren't a laughing matter, but I searched Google for lunchboxes and this came up, and was surprisingly fitting. Not sure where I got the source image from.. Somewhere on Google.


The LGBT community is diverse. While L,G,B, and T are usually tied together as an acronym that suggests homogeneity, each letter represents a wide range of people of different races, ethnicities, ages, socioeconomic status and identities. What binds them together as social and gender minorities are common experiences of stigma and discrimination, the struggle of living at the intersection of many cultural backgrounds and trying to be a part of each, and specifically with respect to health care, a long history of discrimination and lack of awareness of health needs by health professional. As a result, LGBT people face a common set of challenges in accessing culturally-competent health services and achieving the highest possible level of health.
Brigham and Women's Hospital; and Harvard Medical School, Boston MA.


Following on from Living Legends; Living Legacies – Part 1, here's a bit of video footage of Gary Crosby and Nat Facey jamming on the jazz standard There Is No Great Love by Isham Jones on 6 August 2012 when they went to celebrate Jamaican Independence with Coleridge Goode and Peter Ind over at Coleridge's house.
Massive apologies for the portrait format and the occasional wobble. It was just such a magical experience being in the room with Coleridge, Peter, Gary and Nat, and beautiful to see these two living legends casting an approving eye over the comparative 'freshers', that all thoughts as to which way round to hold the iPhone went completely out of the window! Hopefully the lack of cinematography skills won't detract from the wonderful music and vibe!
This entry was posted in Artists 2012, Blog, Lively Up 2012, Programmes 2012 and tagged Coleridge Goode, Gary Crosby, iPhone, Jamaica 50, Joe Harriott, Lively Up Festival, Nathaniel Facey, Peter Ind on Sun 16 Sep 2012 by tomorrowswarriors.


Our firm sticks to the basic principle of "Quality is the life of your company, and status will be the soul of it" for Marine Air Handling Unit, Industrial Screw Water Chiller , Commercial Rooftop Air Conditioner , 50hp Scroll Chiller , We welcome new and old shoppers to make contact with us by telephone or mail us inquiries by mail for foreseeable future company associations and attaining mutual achievements. We always believe that one's character decides products' quality, the details decides products' quality ,with the REALISTIC,EFFICIENT AND INNOVATIVE team spirit for Marine Air Handling Unit, During the 10 years of operating, our company always try our best to bring consumption satisfaction for user, built a brand name for ourselves and a solid position in the international market with major partners come from many countries such as Germany, Israel, Ukraine, United Kingdom, Italy, Argentina, France, Brazil, and so on. Last but not least, price of our products are very suitable and have fairly high competition with other companies.


Quentin Tarantino is an increasingly rare breed in the modern Hollywood landscape. He's a true auteur director who makes the movies that he wants to make and they wind up being financially successful and award-worthy. Yet, somehow, he's never been coaxed by a big studio to direct a franchise entry of any kind. So what franchise might be able to change that? Star Trek, as it turns out, could possibly make Tarantino boldly go where he's never gone before.
TMZ caught up with Quentin Tarantino very briefly recently on his way to catch a flight. When asked if he would actually want to direct a Star Trek movie, he wouldn't totally rule it out. Here's what he had to say about it.
"It'd be worth taking a meeting about."
That isn't all that definitive, but the fact that Quentin Tarantino would take any of his time to even have a meeting about doing a Star Trek movie is noteworthy. Granted, he tossed this answer to TMZ very quickly while walking by their camera as quickly as possible, but he did take a second to consider his answer. This whole idea of Tarantino directing a Star Trek movie only came up because the director was recently asked whether or not he would be interested in doing a Star Wars movie. He revealed that he would be more interested in the world of Gene Roddenberry. Not that he's considering doing either of those things, nor has he actually been approached, but given the choice, he'd prefer Star Trek.
TMZ also pressed Quentin Tarantino about his promise to retire after making two more movies. In response, the director simply held up two fingers, indicating that he is indeed planning to stop directing movies after two more. Considering that it has already been announced that he is going to make a movie that tackles the Manson murders, that means he is only going to make one more movie after that. So if he's ever going to do a franchise movie, like Star Trek, it would have to happen relatively soon. And if he really is going to retire after two more movies, why not do a franchise movie? It's territory that Tarantino has never ventured into and he could go out on something new.
For what it's worth, no director has been officially hired for the in-the-works Star Trek 4, which will reportedly feature Chris Hemsworth return as George Kirk, starring alongside Chris Pine's James Kirk. How exactly that is going to be made possible hasn't been made clear yet, but J.J. Abrams is too busy with Star Wars: Episode IX to figure that out right now. Odds are, Justin Lin will come back following his work on Star Trek Beyond, but maybe Paramount will at least have a meeting with Tarantino about it. But probably not.


The idea of the "smallest" loft was created by our Belgian partner. This design is of a size that legally requires no building permission in Belgium.
A loft with a net floor space of 30 sqm can be installed in a park zone if it is intended for business purposes only. The same applies to a hotel suite.
A LC34 is ideal if you would just like to add a minimal high-end home office, a nice hotel suite, a little shop or something special you might have in mind as our Belgian partner did - a lovecube.


A hugely important part of the recovery process is taking the time to reflect on our treatment. We want to give some thought to how effective our program was for us, whether we feel we benefited from it, whether or not we were able to take full advantage of it. It can help us in our recovery work to think about whether our treatment center was a good fit for us, whether our needs were met, whether we had the support we needed, whether we received everything we were looking for. This reflection is important because it helps us learn more about ourselves and our unique recovery story. It helps us connect with ourselves on a deeper level, by teaching us more about our strengths, weaknesses, coping skills, triggers and stressors. We do ourselves a great service by taking inventory of each step of the process in our recovery work, and by checking in with ourselves about what things were successful and what things could have used improvement.
An important part of moving forward is reflecting on the past. For many of us, our time in treatment was a pivotal and formative time in our recovery journeys. It was often the catalyst for our deeper transformation. We may have been able to get sober before on our own, but our time in treatment provided an even stronger foundation for us to be successful. We became more equipped to handle all of the challenges that naturally arise during recovery – the temptation and addictive urges, the overwhelming stresses of our daily lives, the self-doubt and fear that have a way of creeping in. We gain an extra confidence that comes from doing the work. We've increased our mindfulness, developed our self-awareness and strengthened our intuition. We feel more connected to ourselves, and more in tune with our emotions. We feel better able to control our chaotic thoughts. We feel we have a better handle on our mental health issues. Treatment center help with all of these things because they offer more than just a sober living environment. They provide the stability and security of professional help in dealing with our medical detoxification process and the accompanying withdrawal symptoms. They provide comprehensive therapy programs, including family therapy to help us work through the family issues contributing to our unwellness, and trauma therapy to address our unhealed trauma. They teach us mindfulness practices and other self-help skills. When we take the time to reflect on all the work we did during treatment, we absorb the lessons even more effectively and holistically. We're reminded of all the things we've learned, and our reflection can help us reinforce and support the education we've already received.
For many of us, treatment was the solution we needed to our addiction problem. For others of us, though, treatment wasn't enough. Sometimes we didn't receive the support we needed. We may not have found the right treatment program for us and our particular addictions and mental health issues. We might not have chosen the right center for us and our unique needs. We may not have been placed with the best fit for a therapist for us. We may feel as though our needs weren't met sufficiently. When we're able to reflect on our treatment experience, we're addressing the things we want and need for ourselves, rather than suppressing or ignoring them. We're shedding the habits of avoidance that we often grew accustomed to during our addictive cycles. We're facing ourselves and our needs, and we're prioritizing making sure our needs are met, rather than demeaning ourselves as we so often did as active addicts. Reflecting on our treatment means we're empowering ourselves and believing in ourselves. We're telling ourselves that we deserve to have the best treatment experience possible.
Reflection is an important part of the process of understanding ourselves and of coming to terms with ourselves. Very often we were confused about where our addictions originated, or why they formed in the first place. We weren't necessarily aware of the emotional issues we were dealing with. We had low levels of awareness and mindfulness when it came to our internal issues. Our emotional intelligence was often relatively low. We were so overwhelmed trying to cope with the everyday challenges of our addictions and mental health issues that we never got to the root causes of our emotional difficulties. We were detached from our inner selves, and this disconnection was often a huge contributing factor to the development of our addictions. When we're able to reflect on ourselves and our experiences with treatment, we learn about our individual challenges and our core issues. We learn more about all the things we were doing in our daily lives that were exacerbating our mental health issues and perpetuating our addictions. Our unhealthy self-destructive tendencies and misguided coping mechanisms, for example, are some of the things we uncover when we reflect on our time in treatment. We're able to see the ways in which we've grown and progressed. We're able to see our huge development, from the addict who entered treatment still actively using, to the person in recovery who is thriving and flourishing in sobriety.
If we try to move too far ahead too quickly and skip the step of self-reflection, we actually put ourselves at more risk of relapsing, because we haven't taken the time to process where we are, what we've accomplished, and what work we still need to do to keep ourselves on track.


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Залі́зний пісо́́к (), також залізистий пісок, магнітний пісок (), магнетитовий розсип — пісок із високим вмістом заліза. Різновид чорного рудного піску, чорного або сіруватого кольору. Зазвичай містить магнетит, а також незначну кількість титану, марганцю, кальцію.

Легко нагрівається на сонці й самозаймається. Поширений на берегах водойм — озер, річок, морів тощо. Використовувався для видобутку заліза у примітивній металургії китайців, японців та сусідніх народів. Його також називають — піщаним залізом.

Джерела
 Обручев В.А. История геологического исследования Сибири. 1931.
 Крашенинников С. Описание земли Камчатки. 2017
 Wagner D. Dabieshan: Traditional Chinese Iron-production Techniques Practised in Southern Henan in the Twentieth Century. Curzon Press 1985.

Посилання
 Chemical composition of ironsands

Залізо
Чорна металургія

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


No demolition needed: Keep your cabinets and update your backsplash, pulls, and countertop for a mind-blowing reno that saves thousands.
Which Room Should You Renovate?
Kitchen Makeover: Befores and Afters!
Prepare for your mind to be blown.
My kitchen is outdated. The house was built in 1940, and if the kitchen were original, perhaps I wouldn't mind.


Last Tuesday, Israeli forces arrested 17-year-old Ahed al-Tamimi in an overnight raid carried out in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh.
Speaking to Anadolu Agency, Mohamed Safa, head of the Khiam Rehabilitation Center for Victims of Torture, a Beirut-based NGO, said the Israeli authorities had detained 350 Palestinians -- including 48 minors -- since U.S. President Donald Trump announced his decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital early this month.
According to Safa, the arrest -- and frequent abuse -- of children under 18 "not only violates the rights of the child, but is tantamount to a crime against humanity".
Israel, Safa asserted, is "carrying out a policy of collective punishment against the Palestinian people".
He went on to urge the ICRC to condemn Israel's policy of detaining minors and demand the release of all detained Palestinian children, including al-Tamimi.
On Dec. 6, the U.S. president recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital, sparking angry protests -- and numerous clashes -- across the Palestinian territories.
In the three weeks since, at least 15 Palestinians have been martyred -- and thousands more injured -- in clashes with Israeli security forces in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza Strip.


What a great point about using the ribbon for your color scheme instead of searching for that just right ribbon AFTER the colors are already on the paper! That is beautiful ric rac and I love the darling row of cupcakes. Cute cute card.


As a child in the late 1970s and early 80s I enjoyed a golden age in which learning to program was part and parcel of everyday use of computers. Now as a parent in the Noughties I see my primary school-age sons with instant access to untold online information and computing power, yet they never encounter a line of code.
On our home computer they use Google Images, Amazon, Flash games and Paint. At school and in after-school groups they learn how to use word processors, how to search for info and crtically appraise the role of IT in society.
The one thing they don't do is write programs. Should I be concerned?
When I micro-blogged about this a couple of weeks ago, some friends replied that it didn't really matter. As one – an accomplished developer and tech author – put it: "I would say yes, except I drive a car and don't know how to build an engine".
But I still had my doubts. After all, the car in question isn't just a single vehicle regularly subject to an MOT test. Software underpins almost every aspect of our daily lives, our financial system, and even the way we see the world. It's not so much a Terminator or Matrix-style robot takover that worries me – more that we're heading towards HG Wells' Time Machine world of innocent Eloi who live in fear of grunting Morlocks straight out of The IT Crowd.
In Britain, the situation is similar. Our National Curriculum focuses on "digital literacy" and research skills using ready-made tools, rather than on creating code anew. Out of school, the Scouts' badges for IT have a similar content.
I want my children to be more than passive consumers of information technology. They should not feel like GUI tourists gesturing towards the goods in a shop where they don't speak the language. They should be confident to "boss the computer around," as one of them put it in describing his experience with Logo, the one piece of programming with which he has engaged.
The journalist in me loves the way these projects put storytelling at the heart of programming, with coding as a highly creative, not just mechanical, process. One of Carnegie Mellon's researchers found that this angle is especially powerful in getting girls involved with programming.
On reflection, much of my presentation was unnecessary. I was preaching to the converted.
The older Barcampers shared my nostalgia for the bygone age of Dragons (remember them?) and Beebugs.
I think it's fair to say that more recent graduates were generally dissatisfied with the quality and quantity of computer science (as opposed to digital literacy) education in their schooling.
Tim Dobson told us about DFEY-NW which he co-founded to provide a social space, and a supportive, stimulating atmosphere for young people interested in issues of computer freedom.
Children's lack of engagement with programming reflects a wider suspicion of science and technology in general.
… but either way, it's unreasonable to expect schools and colleges to teach this stuff by themselves. Parents, peers and out-of-school activities like computer clubs can play a big role.
Gaming, hacking existing code, and even using basic HTML to personalise Myspace pages can be great training. And those students who go deeper can always earn beer money modifying WordPress templates!
Handheld and physical computing could provide today's children with the challenges that my generation got from PCs.
Update 8/6/2009: Tim Dobson posted video of Alex Wolf's follow-up session (which I missed) on Barcamp Day 2.
See also, my notes on some other Barcamp Leeds 2009 sessions.


Applicants should either be (a) a degree holder or (b) a health care professional holding relevant qualifications in his/her discipline with 5 years of continued experience in diabetes care or research.
Confidential Recommendation is required for those who do not hold a university degree.
Graduates of Basic Course in Diabetes Management and Education 2015-16 and 2017-18 are eligible to apply for exemption of Module 1 with a lower programme fee.
separate crossed cheques for application, programme and exemptions fees (if applicable) made payable to "The Chinese University of Hong Kong"


text:
Man on a Mission To Eat a KFC Zinger Box Everyday for 100 Days
by Emily Gobbett
One KFC aficionado has taken to TikTok to share his mission. He plans to eat a KFC Zinger Box every single day for 100 days…
And the surprising reason behind it is so wholesome…
KFC truly tops the ranks.
The combination of crunchy texture and tender, juicy meat, plus the delicious blend of herbs and spices make fried chicken really hard to beat.
Yep, if there's one thing that pretty much everyone can agree on, it has to be fried chicken. It's the world's great unifier.
It was founded in Kentucky (where else?) in 1930, as the Sanders Court & Cafe. The KFC re-brand happened in 1952.
KFC is really responsible for the prevalence of fried chicken in the fast-food culture of today – so we have a lot to thank them for!
via : Shutterstock
Everyone's got their own favorite when it comes to KFC.
via : Tiktok
An Australian tradesman who's been given the name "the colonel" is currently nearly half the way through his mission to eat a Zinger Box every day for 100 days.
Amassing over 146,000 likes since he started. And people have a lot to say about it, keep scrolling to watch his TikTok video for yourself…
via : Facebook
On average a fully grown adult needs 8,700 kilojoules every day, and a single Zinger Box is 4,865 kilojoules, meaning you get more than half your recommended food intake in one meal. Wow.
Murphy sometimes orders large meals, even adding bacon and cheese to his Zinger Burgers, meaning his intake is way above that.
"Everyone's saying my arteries are going to clog up. Don't worry about it! She'll be right. My heart's been through a fair bit. In the last 10 years, I've been training for this," he said.
Although he often gets sponsored by his friends, who pay for his meals in exchange for a TikTok shoutout.
He also duets with other TikTokers.
"No f***ing fake s**t here, mate! If you want to pretend to make a Zinger Burger, just get one, yeah?" he said in the video.
When people started to donate to his Zinger Box meals, Murphy suggested they should donate to the Black Dog Institute instead, which is Australias mental health researching center.
"I don't want people sending me money for food when there's people out there that need money for food more than I do," he said. "My good mate Dools has a Black Dog Institute page set up for his mullet he's growing. If you donate to there, take a screenshot, send me a private message with whatever you want. "F***ing shove a drumstick up your a**e, whatever your f***ing request is, we'll go through it. If it's appropriate, I'll do it. If not, f**k it, you donated to a good cause."
He's now up to day 45, let's just hope he manages to finish the challenge. Keep scrolling to see why a baby girl has been cruelly fat-shamed by trolls…


text:
Sacramento City Council District 1: Who's running in the November 2022 election
Kristin Lam
Monday, October 10, 2022 | Sacramento, CA
Marissa Espiritu / CapRadio
Preview your ballot and get information on registering to vote, and voting by mail or in-person with CapRadio's Sacramento 2022 election voter guide.
Angelique Ashby has served as District 1's City Council member since 2010. But the Vice Mayor isn't running for reelection because she's vying for the state Senate District 8 seat.
District 1 includes North Natomas, Sundance Lake, Regency Park and Glenwood Meadows.
It used to encompass more of Natomas, which was one of the region's fastest growing neighborhoods, increasing nearly 26% in population from 2010 to 2020. Redistricting moved the Natomas Crossing neighborhood into District 3 with the rest of South Natomas.
As the representative for District 1, the council member votes on city policies, ordinances and land uses. The member also weighs in on Sacramento's budget and contracts.
The council member serves on committees covering topics like transportation and additionally gets a say in hiring the city manager, city attorney, city treasurer and city clerk. The term lasts for four years.
Voters can choose from two candidates who advanced from the June primary:
Alyssa Lozano
A realtor who is currently the president of the Natomas Chamber of Commerce. Lozano, 43, has not held elected office before.
A lifelong Natomas resident, Lozano and her husband bought their first home in the area when she was 19 years old.
Lisa Kaplan
An attorney who has served on the Natomas Unified School District Board for 20 years. Kaplan, 47, was first elected to the board in 2002.
She runs Kaplan Law Group, which deals with school construction, and previously worked as a legislative director for state Assembly members.
More about Election 2022
Election 2022: Latest updates and results
See all of CapRadio's coverage of the 2022 Election, including our guide to voting in the Sacramento region.
A Sacramento voter guide for the November 2022 election
Here's what you need to know to register, learn about the candidates and cast your ballot in Sacramento County before the Nov. 8 midterm election.
Sacramento Government Reporter
As CapRadio's Sacramento Government Reporter, I focus on covering Sacramento City Hall and connecting policy decisions to people's daily lives. Read Full Bio
@kristinslam Email Kristin Lam


I've been celebrating my birthday since last Friday. My Mom took the girls for an overnight stay, so Greg and I got to go out on a date (I had a gift card to a restaurant) and it was so nice to just get out and not have to stress about the girls.
On Saturday, I left Greg behind and went to hang out with my Mom and girls. My Mom picked up one of my favorite steaks, a T-bone!, and made her best meatballs and sauce (for me to take home for lunches), and I got to cook dinner on the grill. Then, the girls made me a pistachio pudding pie!
On Sunday, my girlfriend, Michele, drove down and took me out to lunch and drinks at Cheesecake Factory. Then, we wondered (Read: Walked off the drinks and cheesecake) around the mall. After walking off our meal, we went to get our eyebrows waxed, and wondered around Target. We did a lot of wondering. She kept me busy for nearly 6 hours. It was a good visit, though. We always have a great time catching up.
Today, I took the day off from work. I had scheduled an appointment for Amelia (and us, really) with a child psychiatrist. Greg and I feel we need help with some things. It was a good visit, and we have a plan in action and I think we'll do some family therapy. After the appointment, we took Amelia to school and came home. I took an epic nap with Sofia (it was awesome), then once Amelia was home and all of her homework was done (and checked), we went out to dinner to… Chuck E Cheese! This was a surprise for the girls, since we were planning on doing this for Amelia on her birthday, but that's when Greg injured his ankle.
The girls had a great time, and that's all that I wanted for my birthday.
We've all seen that auto insurance commercial where the old(er) lady states "That's not how it works", right? Well, that's pretty much how today went.
The day started off well. Amelia woke up excited that, as of 7:59am, she is officially a 9 year old girl. Her final year in a single digit age.
I went off to work, made it on time, and left at 11:30am. Greg went to the gym, stopped at the store to pick up cupcakes for me to take to Amelia's school. I took the cupcakes to the school, had lunch with Amelia's class (everyone was excited to see cupcakes; one classmate even gave me a hug). After Amelia's lunch, I came home, ran the dishwasher, and took a small nap. Well, I started to take a nap. Greg was on his way out the door to get some balloons for Amelia while Sofia was napping, but Sofia ended up waking up earlier than expected.
Greg took his time getting balloons 'cause he ended up going to Target to get Amelia an additional gift. See, we bought Amelia her first laptop. Costco had a good price, and since my MacBook isn't working at the moment (it's actually the keyboard that isn't working), we decided it was time. Additionally, Amelia has been asking to play Minecraft for months, so we figured, again, it was time. Well, we got the laptop this past Saturday and she played with it on Sunday and loves it. So, Greg went to buy some Minecraft books for her today.
We had a surprise planned. Amelia didn't know I took the afternoon off, so we were going to surprise her at the bus stop, and then take her to Chuck E Cheese for dinner. Well, that didn't happen. Greg, Sofia, and I were heading to the car to meet Amelia at the bus stop when Greg fell and hurt his ankle/foot. I was afraid he broke it. Greg was in so much pain he was shaking. So, I help Greg up and into the car. We pick up Amelia from the bus stop and head to the E.R. at North Arundel Hospital Baltimore-Washington Medical Center (still not the best hospital, but better than urgent care). Nearly four hours later we leave with Greg in a support boot and crutches. Greg was advised that he cannot drive for a few days, to try an not walk too much on the foot, and to follow-up with an orthopedic doctor.
Greg is bummed. Amelia was a bit upset that the rest of her birthday was spent at the hospital; she understood it was an accident and all, but still… it's you're birthday! I get it, kid. I do.
So, when we finally made it home. I helped get Greg comfy, get the girls bathed and dressed for bed, and let Amelia play Minecraft. Then, I ran out to Walgreens to fill Greg's pain medicine. I also informed my boss that I won't be in tomorrow due to Greg's accident, and allow him to at least get on day of rest. Plus, since it's Greg's right foot and he can't drive with the boot on, I will probably be taking Amelia to the bus stop all week.
For now, Greg is playing Minecraft while passing the time until his next pain pill. I keep telling him that he doesn't want to feel pain, so he has to stay on schedule with the medicine.


text:
FOCUS AREAS |XML-DEV |XML.org DAILY NEWSLINK |REGISTRY |RESOURCES |ABOUT
[Date Prev] | [Thread Prev] | [Thread Next] | [Date Next] -- [Date Index] | [Thread Index]
Re: [xml-dev] SGML default attributes.
From: Eliot Kimber <ekimber@contrext.com>
To: Steve Newcomb <srn@coolheads.com>, <xml-dev@lists.xml.org>
I should clarify: it's not just that entities don't have identity but that
they are not *objects* in the way that elements are. That is, they do not
have identity in the parsed result, certainly not in any commonly-used XML
processing environment (e.g., XSLT, XQuery, DOM 1 or 2, etc.).
Entities are string macros.
Eliot Kimber, Owner
Contrext, LLC
http://contrext.com
On 5/4/16, 3:15 PM, "Eliot Kimber" <ekimber@contrext.com> wrote:
>General entities are evil because they offer a false solution that leads
>to failure and pain.
>Note that in XML the 5 special escapes are defined as escapes, not as
>more-general text entities. They are built into the language. They are
>necessary, as you say, to be able to escape literal markup characters
>without resorting to numeric character references.
>In the context of general text entities there are two classes: internal
>general entities and external general entities. Internal entities are less
>bad only because their declaration must be part of the DOCTYPE declaration
>and thus it's more obvious that they are string macros and their value is
>clearer to the author. External general entities are the more insidious
>feature because they look and feel like real re-use when in fact they are
>not.
>The issue is entirely one of identity: In normal SGML and XML processing
>contexts (that is, any processor that reflects the results of parsing and
>that does not go to extremes to preserve in some way knowledge of the
>original entity boundaries), then not only do entities not have identity,
>they do not have existence at all.
>Parameter entities have the same problem: they do not have identity. The
>difference is the processing context: parameter entities are only of
>interest to the parser itself for task of composing the grammar used to
>validate the instance. [And I'll observe that efforts to add more
>application-level reuse features to XSD and, to a lesser degree, RELAX NG,
>have led to serious problems, such as the hideous redefine feature in XSD
>1.0. So to the degree that DTDs avoided those problems by limiting
>themselves to simple string macros with a basic positional configuration
>mechanism, it did the right thing.]
>That is, from the point of view of the processor operating on the parsed
>documents, the entities *never existed*. That means the processor has no
>opportunity to do the things that are always necessary when implementing
>re-use, such as validating the correctness of the reference, rewriting IDs
>and addresses to reflect the re-use, etc.
>The problem with things like public IDs and URNs for grammars is that we
>*want* them to have some meaning but in fact they do not have any reliable
>meaning because they are, fundamentally, just pointers to storage objects
>("files"). As I showed in my response to Roger Costello, with DTDs you can
>completely lie. With a catalog file you can completely lie. With a
>modified copy of a file you can completely lie. With a parameter entity
>redefined in the internal subset you can completely lie. Of course the lie
>can be detected by doing other validation but the point is that the
>ability to lie is inherent in the mechanism and cannot be detected by DTD
>validation itself.
>The solution is to decouple the identifier of the abstract document type
>from any references to any implementation expressions of the document
>type.
>DITA does this decoupling by saying "There is a (potentially unbounded but
>finite) set of uniquely-named vocabulary modules that are, for a given
>version in time, invariant. For any given DITA document there is a set of
>modules that constitute that document's 'DITA document type'. By
>definition any two documents with the same set of modules have the same
>DITA document type."
>Because the DITA document type is defined in terms of the module *names*,
>which are simply names for the modules *as abstractions*, the definition
>is entirely in terms of the abstract document type.
>The modules must be defined somewhere--there has to be some
>definition--prose, DTD, XSD, Schematron, RNG, running code, whatever--but
>it doesn't matter *for conformance* what form it takes. The practical
>requirement is that the agents operating on the documents be able to make
>sense of the module definition *as needed*. But since every DITA element
>ultimately  maps back to a base type defined in the DITA standard, it's
>not even necessary to understand anything about the modules. Even when
>there is no formal grammar defined for a module (and thus nothing
>available to validate instances that use that module), the document can
>still be validated against the grammars for the base types, because those
>are known (provided as part of the DITA standard). So you can always know,
>for any DITA document, that it at least conforms to the grammar rules for
>the base element types. Because relaxation of constraint is not allow you
>also know that any specializations don't add anything you didn't expect
>(because addition is not allowed).
>Note the constraint: specializations must not relax constraints. This is
>the big DITA constraint, but it's necessary to make the mechanism work,
>because otherwise you'd unconstrained madness (that is, you'd have
>DocBook, JATS, TEI, every other standard XML application that allows
>unconstrained extension). The solution is to ensure that the base types
>allow all reasonable options. One of the things you can see in the
>evolution of the DITA standard is the removal of inappropriate constraints
>in the base types. It's certainly  not perfect but it's close enough for
>DITA 1.x. XML applications in other domains could, of course, choose
>different sets of starting constraints--"reasonable" is of course context
>dependent.
>For the purposes of imposing DITA's content reference constraints, which
>are defined in terms of "document type compatibility" it is sufficient to
>know the DITA document types of the two documents involved and the @class
>values of the elements involved. There is no need to know anything about
>the actual grammar rules *because those rules are already defined in the
>DITA standard*. That is, because no specialization can be less constrained
>than the base, if you know about the base you know the minimum you need to
>know. Because constraints are defined through separate modules you also
>know if a given document type is more constrained than another if they
>otherwise use the same modules. You don't necessarily know *how* it's more
>constrained, just that it is. That is sufficient to know that you should
>not reuse elements from the less-constrained document in the
>more-constrained document if you do not want to risk including something
>the more-constrained document has chosen to disallow.
>The DITA standard says conforming DITA documents do not need to have any
>reference to any grammar because DITA doesn't depend on a particular
>grammar file or form of reference to determine that a given document is or
>is not a DITA document. DITA is an XML standard and XML does not require
>the use of grammar references from document instances. (Remember that
>there are many ways to associate validation with documents other than
>pointing from the document to the grammar--if you know the document's
>abstract type you can always provide a way to do the appropriate
>validation, whatever form it might take. Conversely, if you don't know the
>document type there's no much you can reliably do other than check that
>it's well formed. And remember that the DOCTYPE declaration (or schema
>reference or RELAX NG does not reliably tell you the document's document
>type, for the reasons I've given.)
>DITA depends on three things in document instances that are independent of
>any grammar use in order to determine if a document is (A) a DITA document
>and (B) what its DITA document type is:
>1. The presence of the @DITAArchVersion attribute, which is in a
>DITA-defined namespace (and is the only use of namespaces in DITA other
>than for non-DITA elements).
>2. The presence of the @domains attribute on map and topic elements
>3. The presence of the @class attribute with the DITA-defined syntax on at
>least the map or topic element (but ideally on all elements not within a
>DITA "foreign" element).
>If all three conditions are met the document is almost certainly a DITA
>document and can be reasonably validated against DITA requirements and
>processed as a DITA document. Other vocabularies could have attributes
>named @domains or @class and even have the same syntax, but none should
>ever have the DITAArchVersion attribute.
>My main issue with DTDs, in particular, is not that they weren't quite
>valuable--obviously they were a very important innovation and have
>tremendous practical value even today (the vast majority of DITA documents
>are DTD-based, for various reasons)--but that they were misunderstood as
>being THE primary or only definition of "document type" when they never
>were. This led to a lot of misplaced effort, inappropriate and unrealistic
>expectations, etc.
>E.
>----
>Eliot Kimber, Owner
>Contrext, LLC
>http://contrext.com
>On 5/4/16, 2:08 PM, "Steve Newcomb" <srn@coolheads.com> wrote:
>>Eliot,
>>Like you, I'm not really wedded to the notion of parser-mediated
>>transclusion.   On the other hand, I'm not really convinced we can 100%
>>jettison it, either, or preach that the very concept is somehow evil.
>>It's a hack, that's all.  (Frankly, hacks are what get us through the
>>day.)
>>What you've said is packed, as usual, with terrific insights.  I guess I
>>just have trouble with the rhetoric.  It wouldn't bother me so much if I
>>didn't think your words are (quite deservedly) influential.  If I didn't
>>already know you so well, I might gather that it is your opinion that
>>either:
>>(1) entities have no identity
>>or
>>(2) entities may have identity but it doesn't make any difference,
>>because
>>...entities have no purpose other than content-level reuse in the
>>context of parsing operations.
>>Assuming I'm right, then I'm going to guess that it's your opinion that
>>the *only* reason why we have the "lt" (less-than) general entity is to
>>bypass the parser's natural inclination to recognize a STAGO (start tag
>>open character).  As a purely practical matter, I must admit that I
>>don't think I've *ever* used the "lt" general entity name for any other
>>purpose.  And, truly, that purpose is a hack, pure and simple!  BUT:
>>there's a vital principle here, and I don't want it to be trampled and
>>lost.
>>The principle at work here, at least for me, is that when I'm invoking
>>an entity by name, I'm using a defined name to refer to an abstract
>>thing, namely that abstraction which is shared by all "less-than"
>>characters in all character sets, fonts, encodings, and whatnot.  The
>>fact that I'm invoking the notion of "the less-than character" in the
>>context of parsed character data is irrelevant. I might instead use the
>>entity name "lt" as the value of an ENTITY attribute, for example, or in
>>any of the many ways that HyTime, for example, exploited the notion of
>>entity identity.
>>In SGML, every aspect of the use of names to identify things is founded
>>on the notions inherent in DTD syntax.  And DTDs can be fully or
>>partially shared among many documents that invoke those element-type
>>names, attribute names, and entity names, so that they are all
>>(presumably, *cough*) invoking the same things whenever they utter the
>>same names.  And the DTDs themselves can also have "universal" names by
>>invoking the universes (somehow) identified in PUBLIC identifiers.  So I
>>would argue that you err in portraying entities and document types as
>>different things.  Instead, I think they are in fact best understood as
>>different perspectives on one and the same organic whole, a single
>>"grounding tree", if you like.
>>Entity identity is the invisible root of the grounding tree.  In my
>>view, the names declared in document types and invoked in document
>>instances are merely the visible, above-ground parts of it.  Now, one
>>may claim that we don't need entity identity for that purpose, just as
>>we don't need gold to back up the U.S. dollar.  Hmmmm.  But there's
>>still identity, even there, and in the case of U.S. dollars -- even the
>>huge majority of them that don't have individual identity -- their
>>root-existence and root-nature is arguably testable in the form of U.S.
>>military power.
>>Where's the power of URIs, if there no testable "there" there, and they
>>don't even necessarily resolve?  Where's the identity of a document
>>type, if not in an entity of some kind that is testably somewhere and
>>ideally has properties that are useful for testing instances that claim
>>to be of the type?
>>I don't see how your explanation of DITA's approach resolves the
>>problem.  When you say:
>>> ...stop caring about the grammar as an artifact and care only
>>> about the set of (abstract) vocabulary modules the document says it
>>>(may)
>>> use. That is, actually declare the abstract document type in an
>>> unambiguous way and worry about validation details separately.
>>...you don't say how to resolve the problem, other than, implicitly,
>>anyway, via entity identity: the identities of the DITA modules,
>>wherever they are.  Right?  You just don't admit it up front in ENTITY
>>declarations.  It's just understood by everybody, more or less
>>intuitively, I guess.
>>How is that better?
>>Steve
>>On 05/04/2016 01:12 PM, Eliot Kimber wrote:
>>> These are really two different subject domains: entities (content-level
>>> reuse) and document types (defining and determining correctness of
>>> instances against some understood set of rules).
>>> On general entities:
>>> General entities are absolute evil. They should never be used under any
>>> circumstances. Fortunately, the practical reality of XML is that they
>>> almost never are used. I only see them in XML applications that reflect
>>> recent migration from legacy SGML systems.
>>> The alternative is link-based reuse, that is, reuse at the application
>>> processing level, not at the serialization parser level. Or more
>>> precisely: reuse is an application concern, not a serialization
>>>concern.
>>> Entities in SGML and XML are string macros. To the degree that string
>>> macros are useful then they have value and in the context of DTD
>>> declarations parameter entities have obvious value and utility.
>>>Parameter
>>> entities are not evil.
>>> But in the context of content, that is, the domain of the elements
>>> themselves, string macros are a big problem, not because they aren't
>>> useful, but because people think they do something they don't, namely
>>> provide a way to do reliable reuse. The use cases where string macros
>>>are
>>> useful relative to the use cases where they are actively dangerous is
>>>so
>>> small as to make their value not at all worth the cost of their certain
>>> misuse.
>>> Even for apparently-simple use cases like string value parameterization
>>>in
>>> content (e.g., product names or whatever), string macros fail because
>>>they
>>> cannot be related to specific use contexts. When you push on the
>>> requirements for reuse you quickly realize that only application-level
>>> processing gives you the flexibility and opportunities required to
>>> properly implement re-use requirements, in particular, providing the
>>> correct resolution for a given use in a given use context.
>>> The solution was in HyTime, namely the content reference link type,
>>>which
>>> was a link with the base semantic of use by reference. Because it is a
>>> link it is handled in the application domain, not the parsing domain.
>>>This
>>> is transclusion as envisioned by Ted Nelson.
>>> You see this in DITA through DITA's content reference facility and the
>>> map-and-topic architecture, both of which use hyperlinks to establish
>>> reuse relationships. With DITA 1.3 the addressing mechanism is
>>> sufficiently complete to satisfy most of the requirements (the only
>>> missing feature is indirection for references to elements within
>>>topics,
>>> but I defined a potential solution that does not require any
>>>architectural
>>> changes to DITA, just additional processing applied to specific
>>> specializations).
>>> I'm not aware of any other documentation XML application that has the
>>> equivalent use-by-reference features, but DITA is somewhat unique in
>>>being
>>> driven primarily by re-use requirements, which is not the case for
>>>older
>>> specifications like DocBook, NLM/JATS, and TEI. Of course, there's no
>>> barrier to adding similar features to any application. However, there
>>> complications and policy considerations that have to be carefully
>>>worked
>>> out, such as what are the rules for consistency between referencing and
>>> referenced elements? DITA has one policy, but it may not be the best
>>> policy for all use cases.
>>> On DTDs and grammars in general:
>>> I do not say that DTDs (or grammars in general) are evil.
>>> I only say that the way people applied them was (and is) misguided
>>>because
>>> they misunderstood (or willfully ignored in the face of no better
>>> alternative) their limitations as a way to associate documents with
>>>their
>>> abstract document types. Of course DTDs and grammars in general have
>>>great
>>> value as a way of imposing some order on data as it flows through its
>>> communication channels and goes through its life cycle.
>>> But grammars do not define document types.
>>> At the time namespaces were being defined I tried to suggest some
>>>standard
>>> way to identify abstract document types separate from any particular
>>> implementation of them: basically a formal document that says "This is
>>> what I mean by abstract document type 'X'". You give it a URI so it can
>>>be
>>> referred to unambiguously and you can connect whatever additional
>>> governing or augmenting artifacts to it you want. By such a mechanism
>>>you
>>> could have as complete a definition of a given abstract document type
>>>as
>>> you wanted, including prose definitions as well as any number of
>>> implementing artifacts (grammars, Schematrons, validation applications,
>>> phone numbers to call for usage advice, etc.).
>>> But of course that was too heavy for the time (or for now). Either
>>>people
>>> simply didn't need that level of definitional precision or they used
>>>the
>>> workaround of pointing in the other direction, that is, by having
>>> specifications that say "I define what abstract document type 'X'" is.
>>> This is was in the context of the problem that namespace names don't
>>>point
>>> to anything: people had the idea that namespace names told you
>>>something
>>> but we were always clear that they did not--they were simply magic
>>>strings
>>> that used the mechanics of URIs to ensure that you have a
>>> universally-unique name.
>>> But the namespace tells you nothing about the names in the space (that
>>>is,
>>> what is the set of allowed names, where are their semantics and rules
>>> defined, etc.). The namespace spec specifically says "You should not
>>> expect to find anything at the end of the namespace URI and you should
>>>not
>>> try to resolve it".
>>> So if the namespace name is not the name of the document type, what is?
>>>I
>>> wanted there to be one because I like definitional completeness.
>>> But in fact it's clear now that that level of completeness is either
>>> practical or is not sufficiently desired to make it worth trying to
>>> implement it.
>>> So we're where we were 30 years ago: we have grammar definitions for
>>> documents but we don't have a general way to talk about abstract
>>>document
>>> types as distinct from their implementing artifacts (grammars,
>>>validation
>>> processors, output processors, prose definitions, etc.).
>>> But experience has shown that it's not that big of a deal in practice.
>>> practice, having standards or standards-like documents is sufficient
>>>for
>>> those cases where it is important.
>>> As far as addressing the problem that the reference from a document
>>> instance a grammar in fact tells you nothing reliable, a solution is
>>>what
>>> DITA does: stop caring about the grammar as an artifact and care only
>>> DITA does this as follows:
>>> 1. Defines an architecture for layered vocabulary.
>>> The DITA standard defines an invariant and mandatory set of base
>>>element
>>> types and a mechanism for the definition of new element types in terms
>>>of
>>> the base types. All conforming DITA element types and attributes MUST
>>> based on one of the base types (directly or indirectly) and must be at
>>> least as constrained as the base type (that is, you can't relax
>>> constraints). This is DITA specialization. It ensures that all DITA
>>> documents are minimally processable in terms of the base types (or any
>>> known intermediate types). It allows for reliable interoperation and
>>> interchange of all conforming DITA documents. Because the definitional
>>> mechanism uses attributes it is not dependent on any particular grammar
>>> feature in the way that HyTime is. Any normal XML processor (including
>>>CSS
>>> selectors) can get access to the definitional base of any element and
>>>thus
>>> do what it can with it. The definitional details of an element are
>>> specified on the required @class attribute, e.g. class="- topic/p
>>> mydomain/my-para ", which reflects a specialization of the base type
>>>"P"
>>> in the module "topic" by the module "mydomain" with the name "my-para".
>>> Any general DITA-aware processor can thus process "my-para" elements
>>>using
>>> the rules for "p" or, through extension, can have "mydomain/my-para"
>>> processing, which might be different. But in either case you'll get
>>> something reasonable as a result.
>>> 2. Defines a modular architecture for vocabulary such that each kind of
>>> vocabulary definition (map types, topic types, or mix-in "domains")
>>> follows a regular pattern. There is no sense of "a" DITA DTD, only
>>> collections of modules that can be combined into document types (both
>>> the abstract sense of "DITA document type" and in the implementation
>>>sense
>>> of a "a working grammar file that governs document instances that use a
>>> given set of modules").
>>> DITA requires that a given version in time of a module is invariant,
>>> meaning that every copy of the module should be identical to every
>>>other
>>> (basically, you never directly modify a vocabulary module's grammar
>>> implementation). Each module is given a name that should be globally
>>> unique, or at least unique within its expected scope of use. Experience
>>> has shown us that it's actually pretty easy to ensure practical
>>>uniqueness
>>> just by judicious use of name prefixes and general respect for people's
>>> namespaces. No need to step up to full GUID-style uniqueification ala
>>>XML
>>> namespaces.
>>> In addition to vocabulary modules, which define element types or
>>> attributes, you can have "constraint modules", which impose constraints
>>>on
>>> vocabulary defined in other modules. Constraint modules let you further
>>> constrain the vocabulary without the need to directly modify a given
>>> module's grammar definition. Again, the rule is that you can only
>>> constrain, you can't relax.
>>> 3. Defines a "DITA document type" as a unique set of modules,
>>>identified
>>> by module name. If two DITA documents declare the use of the same set
>>> modules then by definition they have the same DITA document type. This
>>> works because of rule (2): all copies of a given module must be
>>>identical.
>>> So it is sufficient to simply identify the modules. In theory one could
>>>go
>>> from the module names to some set of implementations of the modules
>>> although I don't know of any tools that do that because in practice
>>>most
>>> DITA documents have associated DTDs that already integrate the grammars
>>> for the modules being used. But it is possible. The DITA document type
>>>is
>>> declared on the @domains attribute, which is required on DITA root
>>> elements (maps and topics).
>>> Note that you could have a conforming DITA vocabulary module that is
>>>only
>>> ever defined in prose. As long as documents reflected the types
>>>correctly
>>> in the @class attributes and reflected the module name in the @domains
>>> attribute the DITA definitional requirements are met. It would be up to
>>> tool implementors to do whatever was appropriate for your domain (which
>>> might be nothing if your vocabulary exists only to provide
>>>distinguishing
>>> names and doesn't require any processing different from the base).
>>>Nobody
>>> would do this *but they could*.
>>> Thus DITA completely divorces the notion of "document type" from any
>>> implementation details of grammar, validation, or processing, with the
>>> clear implication that there better be clear documentation of what a
>>>given
>>> vocabulary module is.
>>> E.
>>> ----
>>> Eliot Kimber, Owner
>>> Contrext, LLC
>>> http://contrext.com
>>> On 5/4/16, 11:06 AM, "Steve Newcomb" <srn@coolheads.com> wrote:
>>>> Eliot,
>>>> In order to avoid potential misunderstandings, I think it might be
>>>>worth
>>>> clarifying your position on the following points:
>>>> (1) Resolved: the whole idea of entity identity was a mistake, is
>>>> worthless, and is evil.
>>>> (2) Resolved: the whole idea of document type identity was a mistake,
>>>>is
>>>> I have deliberately made these statements extreme and obviously silly
>>>>in
>>>> order to dramatize the fact that, even though there are problems with
>>>> SGML's and/or XML's operational approaches to them, we cannot discard
>>>> these ideas altogether.  The ideas themselves remain profound and
>>>> necessary.  They will always be needed.  The usefulness of their
>>>>various
>>>> operational prostheses will always be limited to certain cultural
>>>> contexts.  Even within their specific contexts, those prostheses will
>>>> always be imperfect.  They will always require occasional repair and
>>>> replacement, in order that they remain available for use even as that
>>>> context's notions of "entity", "document", and "identity" continue to
>>>> evolve and diversify.
>>>> The operational prostheses with which these ideas were fitted at
>>>>SGML's
>>>> birth are things of their time.  That was then, this is now, and "time
>>>> makes ancient good uncouth".  Their goodness in their earlier context
>>>> a matter of record; they were used, a lot, for a lot of reasons and in
>>>>a
>>>> lot of ways.  At the time, it was not stupid or evil to make the
>>>>notion
>>>> of document type identity depend on the notion of entity identity, nor
>>>> was it stupid or evil to make the notion of entity identity dependent
>>>>on
>>>> PUBLIC identifiers.  And in many ways, it still isn't.  What is your
>>>> proposed alternative, and why is it better?
>>>> Steve
>>>> On 05/04/2016 11:23 AM, Eliot Kimber wrote:
>>>>> SGML requires the use of a DTD--there was no notion of a "default"
>>>>>DTD.
>>>>> This requirement was, I'll argue, the result of a fundamental
>>>>>conceptual
>>>>> mistake--understandable at the time but a mistake nevertheless.
>>>>> The conceptual mistakes that SGML made was conflating the notion of
>>>>>an
>>>>> abstract "document type" with the grammar definition for (partially)
>>>>> validating documents against that document type. That is, SGML saw
>>>>>the
>>>>> DTD
>>>>> as being equal to the definition of the "document type" as an
>>>>> abstraction.
>>>>> But of course that is nonsense. There was (remains today) the
>>>>>misguided
>>>>> notion that a reference to an external DTD subset somehow told you
>>>>> something actionable about the document you had. But of course it
>>>>>tells
>>>>> you nothing reliable because the document could define it's "real"
>>>>>DTD
>>>>> in
>>>>> the internal subset or the local environment could put whatever it
>>>>>wants
>>>>> at the end of the public ID the document is referencing.
>>>>> Consider this SGML document:
>>>>> <!DOCTYPE notdocbook PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.5//EN" [
>>>>>     <!ELEMENT notdocbook ANY >
>>>>>     <!ELEMENT bogus ANY >
>>>>> ]>
>>>>> <notdocbook>
>>>>>     <bogus><para>This is not a DocBook document</para></bogus>
>>>>> </notdocbook>
>>>>> This document will be taken as a DocBook document by any tool that
>>>>> thinks
>>>>> the public ID means something. But obviously it is not a DocBook
>>>>> document.
>>>>> It is, however, 100% DTD valid. QED DTDs are useless as tools of
>>>>> document
>>>>> type definition. The only reason the SGML (and now XML world) didn't
>>>>> collapse under this fact is that the vast majority of SGML and XML
>>>>> authoring and management tools simply refused to preserve internal
>>>>> subsets
>>>>> (going back to the discussion about DynaBase's problems with entity
>>>>> preservation).
>>>>> Standoff grammars like XSD and RELAX NG at least avoid the problem of
>>>>> internal DTD subsets but they still fail to serve as reliable
>>>>> definitions
>>>>> of document types in abstract because they are still only defining
>>>>> grammar rules for a subset of all possible conforming documents in a
>>>>> document document type.
>>>>> Because of features like tag omission, inclusion exceptions, and
>>>>>short
>>>>> references, it was simply impossible to parse an SGML document
>>>>>without
>>>>> having both its DTD and its SGML declaration (which defined the
>>>>>lexical
>>>>> syntax details). There is a default SGML declaration, but not a
>>>>>default
>>>>> DTD.
>>>>> A lot of what we did in XML was remove this dependency by having a
>>>>>fixed
>>>>> syntax and removing all markup minimization except attribute
>>>>>defaults.
>>>>> XML does retain one markup minimization feature, attribute defaults.
>>>>> Fortunately, both XSD and RELAX NG provide alternatives to DTDs for
>>>>> getting default attribute values.
>>>>> Cheers,
>>>>> Eliot
>>>>> ----
>>>>> Eliot Kimber, Owner
>>>>> Contrext, LLC
>>>>> http://contrext.com
>>>>> On 5/4/16, 6:16 AM, "Norman Gray" <norman@astro.gla.ac.uk> wrote:
>>>>>> Greetings.
>>>>>> (catching up ...)
>>>>>> On 29 Apr 2016, at 17:58, John Cowan wrote:
>>>>>>> On Fri, Apr 29, 2016 at 8:54 AM, Norman Gray
>>>>>>><norman@astro.gla.ac.uk>
>>>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> In the XML world, the DTD is just for validation
>>>>>>> That turns out not to be the case.  There are a number of XML DTD
>>>>>>> features
>>>>>>> which affect the infoset returned by a compliant parser.  If they
>>>>>>>are
>>>>>>> in
>>>>>>> the internal subset, the parser MUST respect them;
>>>>>> I stand corrected; I was sloppy.  I think this doesn't change my
>>>>>> original point, however, which was that in SGML the DTD was integral
>>>>>>to
>>>>>> the document, and to the parse of the document, and that it's easy
>>>>>> forget this after one has got used to two decades of XML[1].  I
>>>>>>can't
>>>>>> remember if there was a trivial or default DTD which was assumed in
>>>>>>the
>>>>>> absence of a declared one, in the same way that there was a default
>>>>>> SGML
>>>>>> Declaration, but taking advantage of that would probably have been
>>>>>> regarded as a curiosity, rather than normal practice.
>>>>>> In XML, in contrast, the DTD has a more auxiliary role, and at a
>>>>>>first
>>>>>> conceptual look, that role is validation (even though -- footnote!
>>>>>>--
>>>>>> it
>>>>>> may change other things about the parse as well).  Thus _omitting_
>>>>>>an
>>>>>> XML DTD (or XSchema) is neither perverse nor curious.
>>>>>> Practical aspect: When I'm writing XML, I use a DTD (in whatever
>>>>>> syntax)
>>>>>> to help Emacs tell me if the document is valid, but I don't even
>>>>>>know
>>>>>> whether the XML parsers I use are capable of using a DTD external
>>>>>> subset.  That careless ignorance would be impossible with SGML.
>>>>>> The rational extension of that attitude, of course, is MicroXML,
>>>>>>which
>>>>>> (as you of course know) doesn't use any external resources at all,
>>>>>>and
>>>>>> doesn't care about validation.
>>>>>> Best wishes,
>>>>>> Norman
>>>>>> [1] Hang on, _two_ decades?!  I've just checked and ... 1996 doesn't
>>>>>> seem that long ago.
>>>>>> --
>>>>>> Norman Gray  :  https://nxg.me.uk
>>>>>> SUPA School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Glasgow, UK
>>>>>>_____________________________________________________________________
>>>>>>_
>>>>>> XML-DEV is a publicly archived, unmoderated list hosted by OASIS
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>>>>>> Or unsubscribe: xml-dev-unsubscribe@lists.xml.org
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>>>>>______________________________________________________________________
>>>>>_
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>_______________________________________________________________________
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From: "Liam R. E. Quin" <liam@w3.org>
From: "Simon St.Laurent" <simonstl@simonstl.com>
From: "Norman Gray" <norman@astro.gla.ac.uk>
From: Steve Newcomb <srn@coolheads.com>
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text:
Home / Reviews / TADPOLE
May 3, 2009 by Matt
All young men have had such fantasies. Hell, I'm not so sure the desire ever leaves, unless of course we are of advancing middle-age and our only options are women who, at best, resemble our grandmothers. I am speaking of the lust we might hold for an older woman. When we are young men, full of idealism, passion, and a need to screw anything that moves, older women are seen not only as experienced sexually, but as the holders of great wisdom and dignity; a direct contrast to the vapid ninnies that are the vast majority of teenage girls. This yearning for a woman of keen intellect and worldly delight is, of course, wholly dependent on our comparable abilities, for it is unlikely that the captain of the football team requires philosophical examinations and existential ruminations.
Oscar (Aaron Stanford) is just such a lad. Erudite, wise, and preoccupied with Voltaire, he holds out hope that he may indulge in his need for an idealized older woman. Such matters are complicated by the fact that she, Eve (played by Sigourney Weaver), is Oscar's stepmother. The story begins as Oscar is home for Thanksgiving break to visit his father Stanley (the always charming John Ritter) and his new wife. Stanley is a professor of history, Eve a medical researcher, and Oscar the shining product of such a stellar environment. As an example of Oscar's obviously different needs, he is approached by a tartish young school chum on the train home. While most young boys of fifteen would be soiling their jeans at such an opportunity, Oscar is immersed in Candide, pausing only to notice that the young girl does not possess the hands of a great woman. Oscar is just that sort of romantic. He wants more than the average girl his age can give. He wants his stepmother.
Oscar's world is one of dinner parties with his father's colleagues, private schools, and yes, friends of the family who desperately want to sleep with young Oscar. The woman in question, Diane (Bebe Neuwirth), flirts with young Oscar as the film opens and within a matter of minutes, has him on her chiropractic table with his shirt off. After much drinking and innuendo, the two end up in the sheets, although this is not enough for dear Oscar. Diane is older, yes, but not possessing the elevated gifts of his deepest fantasies. She is not his stepmother. Oscar even manages to get several phone numbers from Diane's girlfriends, but he is disinterested at best. And yes, it was at this point I most felt the film's unreality. One may pine for the one holy grail of older women, but it is inconceivable that any teenage boy is going to resist the advances of other older women. It would have been far more gratifying (and in touch with the world as we know it), had Oscar bedded each and every one of these 40-ish ladies, and dammit, I wanted to witness it all. Is that asking too much?
Of course, Oscar wants to keep his liaison with Diane a closely guarded secret, but all is revealed at a farcical dinner at a restaurant. The scene is full of a frantic, desperate humor, and it was one of the undeniable pleasures of the film. Eve is stunned, and doesn't quite know how to deal with Oscar after the affair is out in the open. One could argue that she would be properly disgusted, but because this is Oscar's story, we know that deep down, she is (albeit reluctantly) slightly curious. After all, Eve is charmed by Oscar – they share literary discussions and speak in tones usually reserved for university roundtables. She seems content with Oscar's father, but as in all cinematic marriages of this type, there is a "hole" that prevents true and absolute happiness. Oscar just might be the key that unlocks her moribund marital state.
It would be nasty of me to reveal the outcome of this dilemma, although I can say that the result is gently satisfying because it ends as it should. Still, I do have a problem with one aspect of the conclusion, in that Oscar is seen as "redeemed" by a new found interest in the very type of girl who so bored him at the beginning. The young lass on the train appears again as Oscar returns to school, only this time she is armed with a handy quote from Voltaire. It is certain that this girl merely memorized a bit of the Frenchman's work in order to get into Oscar's pants, but that seems to be enough for him. We can imagine that the filmmakers are implying that Oscar must (and will) forego his attraction to older women and begin to accept girls of his own age group. Why must this be so? Oscar was our screen champion; a boy who desired stimulation of the mind and body that only a seasoned woman could provide. Teenage girls might do the trick in the back row of a movie theater, but they will never exchange the sorts of knowing glances that come when two people have entered a distinctly higher plane. We wanted then (and want even today, regardless of age) the carnal and the scholarly; orgasms and poetry.
At 77 minutes, Tadpole is both quick and light as a feather. It is fine entertainment, but lacking true depth and quality (filmed on digital video, it is often blurry and unfocused). There are genuine laughs to be found and the performances are sharp (Stanford is a keeper). Still, I wanted Oscar to keep his dreams alive and continue in his quest to find the perfect woman. At 15, he is unlikely to find such things among his peers. Personally, I was a loser all-around at that age, but I too felt the tug of the "woman" – deep, insightful, sophisticated, even married with a family – that surpassed even the hottest of young flesh. For while I would have sold my mother to bandits in order to have quick, mindless sex at that age, it would have taken an Eve to keep me around.


text:
Living Spiritual Teachers Project	Kabir Helminski
Shaikh of the Mevlevi Order of Sufis
Translator of Rumi and co-founder and co-director of the Threshold Society
Muslim educator and retreat leader
By	Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
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Kabir Helminski is co-director and co-founder — together with his wife Camille Helminski (also profiled in the Living Spiritual Teachers Project) — of The Threshold Society, a nonprofit educational foundation that has developed programs to provide a structure for practice and study within Sufism and spiritual psychology.
He is a Shaikh of the Mevlevi Order of Sufis, which traces its inspiration to Jelaluddin Rumi. He began his Mevlevi training as a student of the late Shaikh Suleyman Loras. In 1990 he was subsequently appointed a Shaikh by the late Dr. Celaleddin Celebi of Istanbul, Turkey, head of the Mevlevi Tariqa (Order) and twenty-first generation descendant of Mevlâna Jalâluddîn Rumi. Under Kabir's direction The Mevlevi Order is working to apply traditional Sufi principles to the conditions of contemporary life.
From 1980 until 1999 he was the director of Threshold Books, one of the foremost publishers of Sufi literature. He has translated many volumes of Sufi literature, including the works of Rumi, and is the author of books on Sufism. He leads workshops and retreats for Sufis and the broader multifaith community.
Between 1994 and 2000 he toured with the Whirling Dervishes of Turkey, bringing the spiritual culture of the Mevlevis to more than 100,000 people. He has an M.A. in psychology and an (honorary) Ph.D. in literature from Selcuk University, Konya, Turkey. In 2001 he was the first Muslim to deliver the prestigious Wit Lectures on spirituality at Harvard Divinity School. He is now co-director of an international education project in Islamic education, The Book Project.
Read For:
Teachings on Sufi mysticism, especially the poetry and practices of Rumi
Progressive understandings of the Qur'an and Islam
Points of intersection between Sufism, Islam, and other world religions
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text:
Deanna Cremin
About Deanna
The Billboard
The Deanna Cremin Square was dedicated in the summer of 1995. The square was an idea proposed by her friend, Danielle Shute. Shute suggested the area near the corner of Jaques Street and Temple Street, because it was the neighborhood where Deanna grew up and played in as a child. The Deanna Cremin Square can be seen from St. Polycarp's Church, where Deanna's funeral was held on April 3, 1995.
Somerville — It's a bitterly cold morning when Albert Rodgers fusses over his daughter's wreath. He checks it out from all angles, admiring the ribbon with the word "justice," making sure the green and white flowers are secure and fresh.
It's his job to get the wreath every year for the square named in his daughter's honor, the wreath marking Deanna Cremin Square.
"It's keeping her memory alive," he said. "It's my responsibility as a parent to keep her name alive."
Just four days after she celebrated her 17th birthday in March 1995, Deanna Cremin was raped and murdered. Cremin's body was found behind a senior housing complex on Winter Hill, her death apparently from strangulation.
Family members take on the responsibility of keeping Deanna's name in the public. Her father tends to the wreath and the square, her mother rides herd on police investigators, and other friends update Web sites or create tributes online.
Her killer has never been found. But her family has hope. And that is why this large group of people touched by Deanna Cremins' short life keep working to keep her name alive.
"I personally will not give up my pursuit for justice in Deanna's name," wrote Deanna's mother, Katherine Cremin, in an e-mail to the Journal. "And we are still asking for anyone with any information to please come forward. There is still a $20,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of this person."
Cremin said there may be DNA evidence in the case that has yet to be analyzed with better tests than were available in 1995. "I know the investigators on this case have put in countless hours and days toward getting resolution. I hope, and with good reason believe, that a person may be finally brought up on charges this year," she said.
"She would have been 30 years old this March 26," her mother said. "My family and I often wonder what she would have been like. Would she have been married and had children? Would she have achieved her goal of working with disabled and needy children? All the things that so many of her friends and family members have achieved?"
Her father wondered that, too, as he stood in the cold in his daughter's square.
"I really miss her, you know? The hurting subsides. Things do get easier," Rodgers said with tears in his eyes that couldn't be completely accounted for by the cold. "Life goes on, you know? You can't let it consume you. And then you feel guilty, you know?"
Those who have any information regarding the Deanna Cremin case may call the Somerville Detective Bureau at 617-625-1600. All calls are confidential. For more information on Deanna Cremin, or the reward foundation and the scholarship it endows, contact www.deannacremin.org.
Copyright 2008 Somerville Journal. Some rights reserved
DEANNACREMIN.ORG
#JUSTICEFORDEANNA
ANYONE WITH INFORMATION…
Anyone with information regarding Deanna Cremin's death can contact the Middlesex County District Attorney's Office at 617-679-6600 or the Somerville Police Department at 617-625-1600. Calls will be confidential. Anonymous tips can be texted to TIP411, subject 617SPD.
DEANNA ON YOUTUBE
JUSTICE FOR DEANNA ON FACEBOOK
JUSTICE FOR DEANNA ON MYSPACE
WIKI ENTRY FOR DEANNA CREMIN
MR DEANNA ON MALAYSIA LIVE CASINO
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12 Years Pass
14 Years, Case Unsolved
Hundreds March
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I left my job today. Pastures new and all that (and self-employment!) but it seems a little strange. At least now I may have time to get book finished.
So I've basically not had a life and piled into getting the book finished - hoping that it would be finished at about the same time as leaving my job. No such luck.


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Your best friend . . . or a vicious killer? You won't know until the 11th Hour.
Lindsay Boxer is pregnant at last! But her work doesn't slow for a second. When millionaire Chaz Smith is mercilessly gunned down, she discovers that the murder weapon is linked to the deaths of four of San Francisco's most untouchable criminals. And it was taken from her own department's evidence locker. Anyone could be the killer-even her closest friends.
Facing a series of vicious articles about her personal life and a brutal crime scene in a famous actor's garden, Lindsay realizes that the ground beneath her feet holds hundreds of secrets. But this time she has no one to turn to-especially not her husband Joe.
From one of the world's finest suspense writers, 11THHour is the most shocking, most emotional, and most thrilling Women's Murder Club novel ever.
FANS LOVE THE WOMEN'S MURDER CLUB!
"Those who haven't read any of the novels in the Women's Murder Club series are cheating themselves."—BookReporter.com
"I can't believe how good Patterson is, whether he's doing a Washington police yarn or traveling a different road with a female narrator. He is always on the mark. I have never begun a Patterson book and been able to put it down."—Larry King, USA Today
"Patterson and Paetro are at their best here, weaving a number of plots together to create a novel that dips and flows across genre lines.... A series that shows no signs of fatigue or flagging."—BookReporter.com
Women's Murder Club