Aluminum and magnesium alloys are common materials found in machine shops worldwide, and are known as an "easier" material to machine. However, machinists can still experience hiccups while machining this material if they are not prepared with the proper tooling.. When working with aluminum and magnesium alloys, it is important to choose a coating that will work to extend your tool's life and aid in the removal of chips. A popular choice for this material bucket is Harvey Tool's TiB2 coating.
What is Harvey Tool's TiB2 Coating?
Harvey Tool's TiB2 coating is a Titanium Diboride, ceramic-based coating that provides superb erosion resistance during machining. TiB2 is added to a tool by a method called Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD), which is conducted in a vacuum where particles are vaporized and applied onto a surface, forming thin layers of material onto the properly-prepped tool. This method enables the coating to be corrosion and tarnish resistant.
TiB2 is identified in Harvey Tool's product catalog with a "-C8" following the sku number. It can be found offered in Harvey Tool's lines of Variable Helix End Mills for Aluminum Alloys, Double Angle Shank Cutters, and Miniature High Performance Drills for Aluminum Alloys.
When Should a Machinist Use TiB2?
TiB2 has an extremely low affinity to aluminum, which helps with the chip evacuation process. Simply, chips of a material are able to evacuate through chip valleys easier if they don't have a high affinity to the coating being used. TiB2 coating does not chemically react with aluminum and magnesium, which allows for smoother chip evacuation, as the chips do not stick to the coating and create issues such as chip packing. This is a common machining mishap that can cause both part and tool damage, quickly derailing a machining operation. By using a coating that increases the lubricity of the tool, chips will not have a surface to stick to and will more smoothly evacuate from the flutes of the tool.
While an uncoated tool may work fine in some applications, not all applications can succeed without a tool coating. When working with large production runs where the tools need to hold up through the process of machining large numbers of parts, using a coating is always recommended because they extend the life of your tool.
When is TiB2 Coating Not Beneficial to My Application?
During the PVD coating process, tools can reach a temperature in excess of 500° F, which can cause the toughness of the carbide to drop slightly. This process does not normally compromise the performance of the tool due to the coating being placed over the carbide. The coating then protects the slightly weakened edge and increases tool performance in recommended materials. Micro-fractures only start appearing when the tool is being run incredibly fast through highly abrasive materials, leading to a decrease in the life of the tool.
The coating, while only a few microns thick at most, still provides an ever-so-slight rounded edge to the cutting edge of the tools it is placed on. It is important to take this into consideration, as using the sharpest tools possible when working with materials such as soft plastics is recommended. The sharpest edge possible decreases the likelihood of any "pushing" that might occur on the material and increases the likelihood of proper "shearing" when machining.
If your part's finish is imperative to the final product, an uncoated tool may work better for your application. A coating, like stated above, creates a microscopic rounded surface to the cutting edge of the tool. When running tools at finishing speeds and feeds in materials like aluminum, a sharp edge can create the difference between a finished part that does – or does not – pass final inspection.
Diamond tooling and diamond-coated end mills are a great option when machining highly abrasive materials, as the coating properties help to significantly increase tool life relative to uncoated carbide tools. Diamond tools and diamond-like coated tools are only recommended for non-ferrous applications, including highly abrasive materials ranging from graphite to green ceramics, as they have a tendency to break down in the presence of extreme heat.
To ensure proper diamond tooling selection, it's critical to understand the unique properties and makeup of the coatings, as there are often several diamond coating variations to choose from. Harvey Tool, for example, stocks Amorphous Diamond, CVD Diamond, and PCD Diamond End Mills for customers looking to achieve significantly greater tool life when working in non-ferrous applications.
Diamond, the hardest known material on earth, obtains its strength from the structure of carbon molecules. Graphite, a relatively brittle material, can have the same chemical formula as diamond, but is a completely different material; while Graphite has a sp2 bonded hexagonal structure, diamond has a sp3 bonded cubic structure. The cubic structure is harder than the hexagonal structure as more single bonds can be formed to interweave the carbon into a stronger network of molecules.
Amorphous Diamond is transferred onto carbide tools through a process called physical vapor deposition (PVD). This process spreads a mono-layer of DLC coating about 0.5 – 2.5 microns thick onto any given tool by evaporating a source material and allowing it to condense onto that tool over the course of a few hours.
Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) is a coating process used to grow multiple layers of polycrystalline diamond onto carbide tooling. This procedure takes much longer than the standard PVD coating method. During the coating process, hydrogen molecules are dissociated from the carbon molecules deposited onto the tool, leaving a diamond matrix under the right temperature and pressure conditions. Under the wrong conditions, the tool may be simply coated in graphite. 6% cobalt carbide blanks allow for the best adhesion of diamond and a substrate. CVD diamond coated end mills have a typical thickness of coating that is between 8 and 10 microns thick.
Polycrystalline Diamond (PCD) is a synthetic diamond, meaning it is grown in a lab and contains mostly cubic structures. Diamond hardness ranges from about 80 GPa up to about 98 GPa. PCD end mills have the same diamond structure as CVD diamond tools but the binding technique is different. The diamond starts in a powdery form that is sintered onto a carbide plate using cobalt as a solvent metal substrate. This is done at an extreme temperature and pressure as the cobalt infiltrates the powder, causing the grains to grow together. This effectively creates a thick diamond wafer, between 010" and .030" in width, with a carbide base. This carbide base is then brazed onto the head an end mill and sharpened.
Polycrystalline tools (CVD or sintered) have a much higher hardness, thickness, and max working temperature than Amorphous Diamond oated tools. As mentioned previously, a PCD tool consists of a diamond wafer brazed to a carbide body while a CVD tool is a carbide end mill with a relatively thick layer of polycrystalline diamond grown into it. This grown layer causes the CVD tools to have a rounded cutting edge compared to PCD and Amorphous Diamond coated tools. PCD tools have the thickest diamond layer that is ground to a sharp edge for maximum performance and tool life. The difference between PCD tools and CVD coated tools lies in the thickness of this coat and the sharpness of the cutting edge. Amorphous Diamond tools maintain a sharper edge than CVD coated tools because of their thin coating.
Harvey Tool's line of PCD end mills are all straight fluted, CVD coated tools are all helically fluted, and Amorphous Diamond tools are offered in a variety of options. The contrast between straight fluted and helically fluted can be seen in the images below, PCD (top) and CVD (bottom). Electrical discharge machining, grinding or erosion are used cut the PCD wafer to the specifications. The size of this wafer limits the range of diameters that can be achieved during manufacturing. In most situations a helically fluted tool would be preferred over a straight fluted tool but with true diamond tooling that is not the case. The materials that PCD tools and CVD coated tools are typically used to cut produce a powdery chip that does not require the same evacuation that a metallic or plastic chip necessitates.
CVD tools are ideally suited for abrasive material not requiring a sharp cutting edge – typically materials that produce a powdery chip such as composites and graphite. Amorphous Diamond tools have a broad range of non-ferrous applications spanning from carbon fiber to precious metals but ceramics are typically outside their range as they can be too abrasive and wear away the coating. PCD tools overlap their CVD and DLC coated counterparts as they can be used for any non-ferrous abrasive material.
Harvey Tool carries physical vapor deposition diamond-like carbon coated tools, chemical vapor deposition diamond tools and polycrystalline diamond tools. PCD tools are composed of the thickest diamond wafer brazed onto a carbide shank and are ground to a sharp edge. CVD coated tools have the diamond grown into a carbide end mill. Amorphous Diamond coated tools have the DLC coated onto them through the PVD process. For more information on the diamond coating best suited for your operation, contact a Harvey Tool Tech Team Member for immediate help.
Deburring is a process in which sharp edges and burrs are removed from a part to create a more aesthetically pleasing final product. After milling, parts are typically taken off the machine and sent off to the Deburring Department. Here, the burrs and sharp points are removed, traditionally by hand. However, an operation that takes an hour by hand can be reduced to mere minutes by deburring parts right in the machine with high precision CNC deburring tools, making hand deburring a thing of the past.
Hand deburring tools often have a sharp hook-shaped blade on the end, which is used to scrape/slice off the burrs as it passes along the edge of the part. These tools are fairly simple and easy to use, but much less efficient and precise than CNC deburring tools.
CNC deburring tools are also held to much tighter tolerances than traditional hand-deburring tools. Traditional cylindrical deburring tools typically have a diameter-tolerance window of +/- .008 versus a CNC deburring end mill which has a diameter tolerance of +/-.0005. The tighter tolerance design eliminates the location issues found in traditional deburring tools with loose tolerances, allowing them to be programmed like a traditional end mill.
While hand deburring tools often have just a single blade, CNC deburring tools feature double cut patterns and a high number of flutes. The double cut pattern contains both right hand and left hand teeth, which results in an improved finish. These tools leave completed parts looking far superior to their hand-deburred counterparts, with more consistent and controlled edge breaks. Additionally, there is a large variety of CNC deburring tools available today which can take full advantage of multi-axis machines and the most complex tool paths. For example, Harvey Tool's 270° Undercutting End Mill is a great choice for multi-axis and more complex deburring options. Further, Deburring Chamfer Cutters are multi-use tools that can perform both chamfering and deburring accurately with no need for a tool change.
Having an entire department dedicated to deburring can be costly, and many smaller businesses may have pulled employees off other jobs to help with deburring, which hampers production. Taking employees off the deburring station and asking them to run more parts or man another department can help keep labor costs low while still increasing production rates.
By deburring right in the CNC machine, parts can be completed in one machining operation. The double-cut pattern found on many deburring tools also allows for increased speeds and feeds. This helps to reduce cycle times even further, saving hours of work and increasing production efficiency. Deburring in the machine is a highly repeatable process that reduces overall cycle times and allows for more efficient finishing of a part. In addition, CNC machines are going to be more accurate than manual operations, leading to fewer scrapped parts due to human error and inconsistencies.
Simply put, the precision and accuracy of the CNC machine, along with the cost and time savings associated with keeping the part in the machine from start to finish, makes deburring in the CNC machine one of the easiest way to increase your shop's efficiency.
Determining the right speeds and feeds for your tool and operation can be a complicated process, but understanding the ideal speed (RPM) is necessary before you start running your machine. Running a tool too fast can cause suboptimal chip size or even catastrophic tool failure. Conversely, a low RPM can result in deflection, bad finish, or simply decreased metal removal rates. If you are unsure what the ideal RPM for your job is, contact the tool manufacturer.
Another critical aspect of speeds and feeds, the best feed rate for a job varies considerably by tool type and workpiece material. If you run your tool with too slow of a feed rate, you run the risk of recutting chips and accelerating tool wear. If you run your tool with too fast of a feed rate, you can cause tool fracture. This is especially true with miniature tooling.
While traditional roughing is occasionally necessary or optimal, it is generally inferior to High Efficiency Milling (HEM). HEM is a roughing technique that uses a lower Radial Depth of Cut (RDOC) and a higher Axial Depth of Cut (ADOC). This spreads wear evenly across the cutting edge, dissipates heat, and reduces the chance of tool failure. Besides dramatically increasing tool life, HEM can also produce a better finish and higher metal removal rate, making it an all-around efficiency boost for your shop.
Proper running parameters have less of an impact in suboptimal tool holding situations. A poor machine-to-tool connection can cause tool runout, pullout, and scrapped parts. Generally speaking, the more points of contact a tool holder has with the tool's shank, the more secure the connection. Hydraulic and shrink fit tool holders offer increased performance over mechanical tightening methods, as do certain shank modifications, like Helical's ToughGRIP shanks and the Haimer Safe-Lock™.
A feature on a variety of high performance end mills, variable helix, or variable pitch, geometry is a subtle alteration to standard end mill geometry. This geometrical feature ensures that the time intervals between cutting edge contact with the workpiece are varied, rather than simultaneous with each tool rotation. This variation minimizes chatter by reducing harmonics, which increases tool life and produces superior results.
Despite being marginally more expensive, a tool with a coating optimized for your workpiece material can make all the difference. Many coatings increase lubricity, slowing natural tool wear, while others increase hardness and abrasion resistance. However, not all coatings are suitable to all materials, and the difference is most apparent in ferrous and non-ferrous materials. For example, an Aluminum Titanium Nitride (AlTiN) coating increases hardness and temperature resistance in ferrous materials, but has a high affinity to aluminum, causing workpiece adhesion to the cutting tool. A Titanium Diboride (TiB2) coating, on the other hand, has an extremely low affinity to aluminum, and prevents cutting edge build-up and chip packing, and extends tool life.
While a long length of cut (LOC) is absolutely necessary for some jobs, especially in finishing operations, it reduces the rigidity and strength of the cutting tool. As a general rule, a tool's LOC should be only as long as needed to ensure that the tool retains as much of its original substrate as possible. The longer a tool's LOC the more susceptible to deflection it becomes, in turn decreasing its effective tool life and increasing the chance of fracture.
As simple as it seems, a tool's flute count has a direct and notable impact on its performance and running parameters. A tool with a low flute count (2 to 3) has larger flute valleys and a smaller core. As with LOC, the less substrate remaining on a cutting tool, the weaker and less rigid it is. A tool with a high flute count (5 or higher) naturally has a larger core. However, high flute counts are not always better. Lower flute counts are typically used in aluminum and non-ferrous materials, partly because the softness of these materials allows more flexibility for increased metal removal rates, but also because of the properties of their chips. Non-ferrous materials usually produce longer, stringier chips and a lower flute count helps reduce chip recutting. Higher flute count tools are usually necessary for harder ferrous materials, both for their increased strength and because chip recutting is less of a concern since these materials often produce much smaller chips.
Coolant in purpose is widely understood – it's used to temper high temperatures common during machining, and aid in chip evacuation. However, there are several types and styles, each with its own benefits and drawbacks. Knowing which coolant – or if any – is appropriate for your job can help to boost your shop's profitability, capability, and overall machining performance.
Coolant and lubricant are terms used interchangeably, though not all coolants are lubricants. Compressed air, for example, has no lubricating purpose but works only as a cooling option. Direct coolants – those which make physical contact with a part – can be compressed air, water, oil, synthetics, or semi-synthetics. When directed to the cutting action of a tool, these can help to fend off high temperatures that could lead to melting, warping, discoloration, or tool failure. Additionally, coolant can help evacuate chips from a part, preventing chip recutting and aiding in part finish.
Coolant can be expensive, however, and wasteful if not necessary. Understanding the amount of coolant needed for your job can help your shop's efficiency.
Coolant is delivered in several different forms – both in properties and pressure. The most common forms include air, mist, flood coolant, high pressure, and Minimum Quantity Lubricant (MQL). Choosing the wrong pressure can lead to part or tool damage, whereas choosing the wrong amount can lead to exhausted shop resources.
Air: Cools and clears chips, but has no lubricity purpose. Air coolant does not cool as efficiently as water or oil-based coolants. For more sensitive materials, air coolant is often preferred over types that come in direct contact with the part. This is true with many plastics, where thermal shock – or rapid expansion and contraction of a part – can occur if direct coolant is applied.
Mist: This type of low pressure coolant is sufficient for instances where chip evacuation and heat are not major concerns. Because the pressure applied is not great in a mist, the part and tool do not undergo additional stresses.
Flood (See Video Below): This low pressure method creates lubricity and flushes chips from a part to avoid chip recutting, a common and tool damaging occurrence.
High Pressure (See Video Below): Similar to flood coolant, but delivered in greater than 1,000 psi. This is a great option for chip removal and evacuation, as it blasts the chips away from the part. While this method will effectively cool a part immediately, the pressure can be high enough to break miniature diameter tooling. This method is used often in deep pocket or drilling operations, and can be delivered via coolant through tooling, or coolant grooves built into the tool itself. Harvey Tool offers Coolant Through Drills and Coolant Through Threadmills.
Minimum Quantity Lubricant (MQL): Every machine shop focuses on how to gain a competitive advantage – to spend less, make more, and boost shop efficiency. That's why many shops are opting for MQL, along with its obvious environmental benefits. Using only the necessary amount of coolant will dramatically reduce costs and wasted material. This type of lubricant is applied as an aerosol, or an extremely fine mist, to provide just enough coolant to perform a given operation effectively.
Coolant is all-too-often overlooked as a major component of a machining operation. The type of coolant or lubricant, and the pressure at which it's applied, is vital to both machining success and optimum shop efficiency. Coolant can be applied as compressed air, mist, in a flooding property, or as high pressure. Certain machines also are MQL able, meaning they can effectively restrict the amount of coolant being applied to the very amount necessary to avoid being wasteful.
Work hardening is often an unintentional part of the machining process, where the cutting tool generates enough heat in one area to harden the workpiece. This makes for a much more difficult machining process and can lead to scrapped parts, broken tools, and serious headaches.
During machining, the friction between the tool and the workplace generates heat. The heat that is transferred to the workpiece causes the structure of the material to change and in turn harden the material. The degree to which it is hardened depends on the amount of heat being generated in the cutting action and the properties of the material, such as carbon content and other alloying elements. The most influential of these alloying elements include Manganese, Silicon, Nickel, Chromium, and Molybdenum.
While the hardness change will be the highest at the surface of the material, the thermal conductivity of the material will affect how far the hardness changes from the surface of the material.
Often times, the thermal properties of a material that makes it appealing for an application are also the main cause of its difficulty to machine. For example, the favorable thermal properties of titanium that allow it to function as a jet turbine are the same properties that cause difficulty in machining it.
As previously stated, work hardening can create some serious problems when machining. The biggest issue is heat generated by the cutting tool and transferring to the workpiece, rather than to the chips. When the heat is transferred to the workpiece, it can cause deformation which will lead to scrapped parts. Stainless Steels and High-Temp Alloys are most prone to work hardening, so extra precaution is needed when machining in these materials.
One other issue that scares a lot of machinists is the chance that a workpiece can harden to the point that it becomes equally as hard as the cutting tool. This is often the case when improper speeds and feeds are used. Incorrect speeds and feeds will cause more rubbing and less cutting, resulting in more heat generation passed to the workpiece. In these situations, machining can become next to impossible, and serious tool wear and eventual tool breakage are inevitable if the tool continues to be fed the same way.
There are a few main keys to avoiding work hardening: correct speeds and feeds, tool coatings, and proper coolant usage. As a general rule of thumb, talking to your tooling manufacturer and using their recommended speeds and feeds is essential for machining success. Speeds and feeds become an even bigger priority when you want to avoid heat and tool rubbing, which can both cause serious work hardening. More cutting power and a constant feed rate keeps the tool moving and prevents heat from building up and transferring to the workpiece. The ultimate goal is to get the heat to transfer to the chips, and minimize the heat that is transferred into workpiece and avoiding any deformation of parts.
While friction is often the main culprit of heat generation, the appropriate coating for the material may help combat the severity. Many coatings for ferrous materials reduce the amount of friction generated during cutting action. This added lubricity will reduce the friction on the cutting tool and workpiece, therefore transferring the heat generated to the chip, rather than to the workpiece.
Proper coolant usage helps to control the temperature in a cutting operation. Flooding the workpiece with coolant may be necessary to maintain the proper temperature, especially when machining in stainless steels and high-temp alloys. Coolant-fed tools can also help to reduce the heat at the contact point, lessening work hardening. While coolant-fed tools are typically a custom modification, saving parts from the scrap heap and using more machine time for the placement part will see the tool pay for itself over time.
Composites are a group of materials made up of at least two unique constituents that, when combined, produce mechanical and physical properties favorable for a wide array of applications. These materials usually contain a binding ingredient, known as a matrix, filled with particles or fibers called reinforcements. Composites have become increasingly popular in the Aerospace, Automotive, and Sporting Goods industries because they can combine the strength of metal, the light weight of plastic, and the rigidity of ceramics.
Unfortunately, composite materials present some unique challenges to machinists. Many composites are very abrasive and can severely reduce tool life, while others can melt and burn if heat generation is not properly controlled. Even if these potential problems are avoided, the wrong tool can leave the part with other quality issues, including delamination.
While composites such as G10 and FR4 are considered "fibrous", composites can also be "layered," such as laminated sheets of PEEK and aluminum. Layered composites are vulnerable to delamination, when the layers of the material are separated by a tool's cutting forces. This yields less structurally sound parts, defeating the purpose of the combined material properties in the first place. In many cases, a single delaminated hole can result in a scrapped part.
Composite materials are generally machined with standard metal cutting end mills, which generate exclusively up or down cutting forces, depending on if they have right or left hand flute geometry. These uni-directional forces cause delamination (Figure 1).
Conversely, compression cutters are designed with both up and down-cut flutes. The top portion of the length of cut, closest to the shank, has a left hand spiral, forcing chips down. The bottom portion of the length of cut, closest to the end, has a right hand spiral, forcing chips up. When cutting, the opposing flute directions generate counteracting up-cut and down-cut forces. The opposing cutting forces stabilize the material removal, which compresses the composite layers, combatting delamination on the top and bottom of a workpiece (Figure 2).
Since compression cutters do not pull up or press down on a workpiece, they leave an excellent finish on layered composites and lightweight materials like plywood. It is important to note, however, that compression cutters are suited specifically to profiling, as the benefits of the up and down-cut geometry are not utilized in slotting or plunging operations.
Something as simple as choosing a tool suited to a specific composite material can have significant effects on the quality of the final part. Consider utilizing tools optimized for different composites and operations or learn how to select the right drill for composite holemaking.
The following is just one of several blog posts relevant to High Efficiency Milling. To achieve a full understanding of this popular machining method, view any of the additional HEM posts below!
Tool wear is the breakdown and gradual failure of a cutting tool due to regular operation. Every tool will experience tool wear at some point in its life. Excessive wear will show inconsistencies and have unwanted effects on your workpiece, so it is important to avoid tool wear in order to achieve optimal end mill performance. Tool wear can also lead to failure, which in turn can lead to serious damage, rework, and scrapped parts.
To prolong tool life, identifying and mitigating the various signs of tool wear is key. Both thermal and mechanical stresses cause tool wear, with heat and abrasion being the major culprits. Learning how to identify the most common types of tool wear and what causes them can help machinists remedy issues quickly and extend tool longevity.
The wear land is a pattern of uniform abrasion on the cutting edge of the tool, caused by mechanical abrasion from the workpiece. This dulls the cutting edge of a tool, and can even alter dimensions such as the tool diameter. At higher speeds, excessive heat becomes more of an issue, causing more damage to the cutting edge, especially when an appropriate tool coating is not used.
If the wear land becomes excessive or causes premature tool failure, reducing the cutting speed and optimizing coolant usage can help. High Efficiency Milling (HEM) toolpaths can help reduce wear by spreading the work done by the tool over its entire length of cut. This prevents localized wear and will prolong tool life by using the entire cutting edge available.
Chipping can be easily identified by a nicked or flaked edge on the cutting tool, or by examining the surface finish of a part. A poor surface finish can often indicate that a tool has experienced some sort of chipping, which can lead to eventual catastrophic tool failure if it is not caught.
Chipping is typically caused by excessive loads and shock-loading during operation, but it can also be caused by thermal cracking, another type of tool wear which is explored in further detail below. To counter chipping, ensure the milling operation is completely free of vibration and chatter. Taking a look at the speeds and feeds can also help. Interrupted cuts and repeated part entry can also have a negative impact on a tool. Reducing feed rates for these situations can mitigate the risk of chipping.
Thermal cracking is often identified by cracks in the tool perpendicular to the cutting edge. Cracks form slowly, but they can lead to both chipping and premature tool failure.
Thermal cracking, as its name suggests, is caused by extreme temperature fluctuations during milling. Adding a proper coating to an end mill is beneficial in providing heat resistance and reduced abrasion on a tool. HEM toolpaths provide excellent protection against thermal cracking, as these toolpaths spread the heat across the cutting edge of the tool, reducing the overall temperature and preventing serious fluctuations in heat.
Fracture is the complete loss of tool usage due to sudden breakage, often as a result of improper speeds and feeds, an incorrect coating, or an inappropriate depth of cut. Tool holder issues or loose work holding can also cause a fracture, as can inconsistencies in workpiece material properties.
Adjusting the speeds, feeds, and depth of cut and checking the setup for rigidity will help to reduce fracturing. Optimizing coolant usage can also be helpful to avoid hot spots in materials which can dull a cutting edge and cause a fracture. HEM toolpaths prevent fracture by offering a more consistent load on a tool. Shock loading is reduced, causing less stress on a tool, which lessens the likelihood of breakage and increases tool life.
It is important to monitor tools and keep them in good, working condition to avoid downtime and save money. Wear is caused by both thermal and mechanical forces, which can be mitigated by running with appropriate running parameters and HEM toolpaths to spread wear over the entire length of cut. While every tool will eventually experience some sort of tool wear, the effects can be delayed by paying close attention to speeds and feeds and depth of cut. Preemptive action should be taken to correct issues before they cause complete tool failure.


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Devi Sridhar's 'Preventable' Review: The Countries That Handled COVID-19 Best – Foreign Policy
A pedestrian passes artwork by the artist known as the Rebel Bear on a wall on Bath Street in Glasgow, England, in April 2020. Andrew Milligan/PA Images via Getty Images
During a recent trip to London, I saw almost no one wearing a mask—except for American tourists, who were easily identifiable because they wore them even when they were outside. Restaurants have recovered and are packed; reservations are down only 13 percent from before the pandemic, compared with 40 percent in New York. For me, a visiting American comparing London to his homeland, the impression is that the city—and the country—has moved on from COVID-19.
Preventable: How a Pandemic Changed the World & How to Stop the Next One, Devi Sridhar, Viking, 432 pp., $32.95, July 2022
But England has not moved on from its failed initial response to COVID-19 and the decisions surrounding it, which remain controversial. Starting in February 2020, the country pursued a libertarian strategy of trying to reach herd immunity, before lurching to a severe lockdown in late March. England cycled through lockdowns of varying severity over roughly the next year. People were ordered to stay at home, and nonessential businesses were closed; at times, it was an offense to leave your home without a reasonable excuse. The National Health Service (NHS) attempted an effort at test and trace from May 2020 to January 2021, but this proved to be completely useless.
I happened to be marooned in London throughout most of 2020, having arrived only days before the initial lockdown was imposed on March 23. I remember how empty London's streets were during that period, except for the speeding ambulances. While I never caught COVID-19, my doctor did—perhaps because of the NHS's lack of personal protective equipment and overall lack of preparedness for a pandemic. Prime Minister Boris Johnson nearly died from the virus. And it was recently revealed, in a scandal known as Partygate, that during lockdown, when group gatherings were forbidden, Johnson hosted parties in the prime minister's residence at No. 10 Downing St. Wine was wheeled in from a nearby shop in a suitcase. Johnson survived a recent no-confidence vote by his own Conservative Party but so narrowly that his premiership remains threatened.
The debate in England about these COVID-19 policies is immensely sensitive—given the staggering number of deaths—and highly politicized, with the Labour press arguing the government did not do enough during COVID-19 and some of the Tory press arguing the government did too much by enacting lockdowns.
Devi Sridhar's Preventable: How a Pandemic Changed the World & How to Stop the Next One is a notable contribution to the still-raging debate. Sridhar, a professor of global public health at the University of Edinburgh, is broadly associated with the Labour-aligned stance—that is, the need to suppress the virus even if this was achieved through the curtailment of individual liberties such as freedom of movement. She has advised Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, as well as the World Health Organization, on COVID-19 and is a divisive figure in the U.K. because of these associations and her support for strict border closures.
Preventable itself is a wide-ranging book. It is in part a work of advocacy for a more muscular response by governments to pandemics and a work of analysis, comparing different countries' methods of trying to control the spread of COVID-19.
A paramedic pushes a patient near a line of ambulances outside the Royal London Hospital on Jan. 5, 2021. JUSTIN TALLIS/AFP via Getty Images
Because these different responses come not only from state capacity but also ideology, reaction to Sridhar's book has been accordingly split. The U.K. progressive, anti-populist press is mostly supportive. The Guardian, where she is a contributor, was glowing. The Financial Times, which seems to advocate trusting the experts—particularly one as establishment as Sridhar (she co-wrote a book with Chelsea Clinton)—as an almost moral duty, was even more positive, getting straight to the political point in its review: "Preventable argues that … the poor leadership skills of populist leaders (such as Johnson, Donald Trump and Brasil's Jair Bolsonaro) condemned some of the countries best equipped to fight the pandemic to failure in 2020."
The story in the Tory press, which tends to be skeptical of COVID-19 lockdown measures—and Sturgeon—was very different. The Spectator, in an article titled "'Please don't do a hit job': An interview with Devi Sridhar," proceeded to do exactly that and was personal in its conclusion: "Now virtually the whole world—with the exception of hermit kingdom China—is living with Covid, being a former pin-up for Zero Covid is no longer quite such good box office." A pre-publication article in the Spectator was even nastier, listing the book in a "guide to all the titles which won't be flying off the bookshelves in the forthcoming months." (It actually was a bestseller.) The article concluded: "With such an avalanche of epidemiological musing … remember the words of Christopher Hitchens: 'Everyone has a book in them and that, in most cases, is where it should stay.'"
The truth however is that Sridhar's book is highly nuanced and the author too intellectually heterodox and empirically oriented to be constrained by a single ideological perspective. There is no doubt she felt countries should have developed a COVID-19 control strategy. But unlike lockdown true believers, Sridhar is very candid that containment policies such as school closures involve trade-offs and can cause harm. As she writes, "School closures have far reaching and detrimental effects. Many children, especially in poorer countries, will never return to formal schooling again."
It is tempting to now relitigate COVID-19 policy decisions made then by citing recent academic research questioning the efficacy of lockdowns. Both pro- and anti-lockdown camps have become amateur epidemiologists. Though they argue endlessly about science, neither side acknowledges the glaring political contradictions in each of their approaches: Zero-COVID adherents tend to be globalists who dream of a borderless world (for people, goods, services, and finance)—except when it comes to COVID-19, where free movement and activity must be tightly prescribed. Anti-lockdown populists pretty much feel the opposite in every respect.
One could read and critique Sridhar's initial policy advice—favoring a more aggressive response to the pandemic, including tight border controls, social distancing, and the banning of nonessential travel—with the benefit of hindsight, but this would not be a very fruitful approach or a good use of the reader's time. For one, Sridhar changes her thinking in response to changing evidence. As an example, she updated her analysis of the cost and benefits of school closures as more data came in showing the developmental harm closures caused to children and the limited risk of COVID-19 transmissions from schools.
More broadly, it is a fact that countries differed in the efficacy of their initial policy response to COVID-19 even if these policies didn't always work in the long term. Some, like Taiwan, were able to contain the virus and had low early death rates. Others, such as the United States, which devotes more resources to health care than any other country in the world, could not mount an effective response at all.
Indeed, the core of Preventable, and what I believe will be its lasting contribution, is how and why countries responded to COVID-19 differently. Rich countries did not necessarily handle the pandemic better than poor ones, showing that something else is at work besides money. The specifics are complex, which is why the book exceeds 400 pages.
South Korean soldiers in protective gear spray disinfectant to help prevent the spread of the COVID-19 in a shopping district in Seoul on March 4, 2020. JUNG YEON-JE/AFP via Getty Images
An Italian Civil Protection member is seen in a hangar where 18 coffins of people who died from COVID-19 wait to be transported to Florence from a village near Bergamo, in Italy's Lombardy region, on April 7, 2020. Marco Di Lauro/Getty Images
Sridhar's framework is essentially political. "[W]ith the right politics and leadership, much of the suffering and death [from COVID-19] was largely preventable," she writes. It is worth looking more closely at the initial policy successes of some countries and failures of others, as detailed in Preventable.
South Korea. South Korea's response to COVID-19 was informed by its recent experiences with another virus: MERS (Middle East respiratory syndrome) in 2015. That experience did not go well: South Korea had the largest outbreak outside of the Middle East. As a result of MERS, South Korea put policies and planning in place for pandemics that proved critical when COVID-19 hit.
South Korea's plans did not rely on a national lockdown, and schools were largely kept open, though social distancing was deployed. Instead, Sridhar writes, "the core of the South Korean response has been the test/trace/isolate system … and by March 2020 it had the highest per capita test rate in the world with results back within twenty-four hours." In comparison, she notes, during this period the U.K. was only offering testing in hospitals.
If someone tested positive, South Korean public health teams traced that person's activity over the previous week using phone and credit card data and closed-circuit TV. They were then asked to isolate at home or in specialized isolation centers, where their symptoms were continuously monitored to see if they required hospitalization. South Korea, according to Sridhar, attributed its low death rate to this monitoring system. The low oxygen levels stemming from COVID-19 may not be detectable by patients themselves, and so often in the United States patients showed up at hospitals when they were already gravely ill.
Sridhar terms the South Korean model, which is based on testing rather than lockdowns, "reasonably effective." But, as she points out, it also involved something else: trust in the government and that it wouldn't misuse the personal data it had gathered.
Senegal. Senegal is another one of the book's case studies of success and one barely known in the global north. As of March 2021, it ranked second, right after New Zealand, in FP Analytics' COVID-19 Global Response Index.
"President [Macky] Sall knew to go early, go hard and keep it simple," Sridhar writes. Once COVID-19 was confirmed in the county, Sall closed schools and air travel and shut down large gatherings. This applied to mosques, with many choosing to worship from home.
Sridhar praises the country's messaging efforts, including the use of religious leaders and musicians who released a single about beating the virus, "Daan Corona." Senegal's success also built on a more traditional disease management and surveillance infrastructure developed for infectious diseases such as Ebola.
As Sridhar writes, "What Senegal's story shows is that even in the context of limited resources and scientific uncertainty, certain countries reacted quickly and effectively to prevent a crisis." Senegal's success rested on leadership, messaging, testing, but also financial support for those who were impacted by COVID-19 restrictions and had no way to earn a living, allowing them to isolate.
Italy. Two regions in Italy, Lombardy and Veneto, make for a clear case study within the same country of differing COVID-19 policy responses and their impact. Veneto took a strict containment approach accompanied by mass testing. Lombardy's focus was on treating cases once they occurred rather than trying to prevent them. The results of these different strategies: Lombardy's case fatality rate was three times that of Veneto, as of April 2020.
In Sridhar's telling, these outcomes were not surprising, and what happened next in Lombardy was almost inevitable: As the pandemic worsened and Lombardy became a death zone, it implemented almost medieval extreme lockdown measures. There was almost no exit from or entry into afflicted areas. She was not surprised by this turn of events: Around the world, before vaccines became widely available, "mitigation strategies [allowing the virus to spread] … have always resulted in lockdown measures."
New Zealand. New Zealand was distinctive in the Anglophone world for successfully pursuing a COVID-19 elimination strategy—of trying to eliminate the virus altogether rather than just flattening the curve through containment. (Australia attempted this, too.) To accomplish this, New Zealand closed its borders to everyone but citizens and long-term residents, who themselves were forced to quarantine in hotels if they chose to enter the country. In March 2020, the country entered a state of emergency with a stay-at-home lockdown.
The elimination strategy was successful: The country went 102 days without cases. But Sridhar also points out that it was not "without its challenges," which she itemizes: Not everyone cooperated with lockdown and test and trace; lockdown took a psychological toll; and the closed border ruined tourism and separated families. Despite these misgivings, Sridhar titles her section on the country, "The Paradise of New Zealand."
Sweden. Sridhar contrasts New Zealand's approach with that of Sweden, which is typically held up as the poster child for the success of a laissez-faire or anti-lockdown approach. Underlying its hands-off approach to COVID-19 was the public health authorities' belief that "the only sustainable way to deal with this kind of respiratory pathogen would be to let it flow through the population and avoid the economic and social costs of lockdown."
Hence, Sweden did not pursue lockdowns or test and trace for that matter. Schools and restaurants stayed open and so did the border. These policies were in stark contrast to the containment measures deployed by other Scandinavian countries.
Did the Swedish lax approach work? Sridhar writes: "The debate is polarized." In her analysis, Sweden's "gamble" did not pay off. "Swedes paid a heavy price in that lives were lost unnecessarily. And, as the year progressed, Sweden went the same way as its Scandinavian neighbors—into suppression," she writes.
Doctors and medical students wearing face masks and shields as a preventive measure against COVID-19 attend a rally against the government medical plan in Seoul on Aug. 14, 2020.Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images
Among the analyses in Preventable of COVID-19 responses across countries and regions, one consistent finding is that poorer countries that took the approach of aggressively trying to contain the pandemic—such as Greece or the Czech Republic—fared better than richer countries, such as France, that were more hands-off, at least initially.
It is true that many of the countries that handled the first wave well, such as South Korea, New Zealand, and Senegal, struggled as time went on. But their strategies bought time until vaccines were available. And their economies were not as devastated as those of countries with laxer policies, according to Sridhar: "[T]hose countries that responded effectively and controlled the virus, like Taiwan, South Korea, Denmark and Norway, had faster economic recovery compared with countries like Britain, Spain and Sweden."
But there is a puzzle in these overall patterns of response. It is clear from Sridhar's telling that countries that undertook a coordinated national response involving test and trace and isolation handled the initial outbreak much better than the disorganized response of the United States and the U.K. Yet it is the latter two countries that were first able to develop effective vaccines.
Is this just a coincidence?
There is a reason to think not. The answer to this puzzle is found outside of Preventable, or even epidemiology writ large, and instead is provided by a niche area of political science studying economic development and varieties of capitalism.
Chalmers Johnson in his book MITI and the Japanese Miracle describes two economic systems, plan-rational vs. market-rational economies, a distinction common in the literature on the varieties of capitalism. Plan-rational economies are characterized by their governments' focus on planning, with economic growth the overarching goal. (The Soviet Union was "plan ideological," according to Johnson, so not part of this grouping.) In plan-rational economies, the state has a developmental orientation, and there is a great deal of state intrusion into the economy. Market-rational economies, in contrast, are centered on market efficiency, with the government playing primarily a regulatory rather than a planning role.
For Johnson, Japan was the exemplifier of the plan-rational system, with the United States the standard-bearer of the market-rational system. There are strengths and weaknesses in each system.
When there is a crisis where there is no consensus about what the long-term goal should be, and therefore how to plan for it, the plan-rational system stumbles. The market-rational system is better at coming up with new answers. Johnson writes that "the great strength of the market-rational system lies in its effectiveness with dealing with critical problems. … [Its approach] helps to promote action when problems of an unfamiliar or unknown magnitude arise."
Johnson doesn't discuss pandemics, but his dual-system typology, which is found elsewhere in political science, applies in this case. Plan-rational economies were distinguished by their planning and state effectiveness at controlling the pandemic—but only initially. In contrast, the more flexible market-rational U.S. and U.K. systems came through when it came to developing vaccines.
This typology of plan rational vs. market rational doesn't map precisely to countries' responses to the pandemic, but it roughly does, with COVID-19 control standouts of Taiwan and South Korea falling into the camp of plan rational.
The typology can be seen again in countries' behavior once vaccines were developed. The United States and U.K. reverted to type—or rather, continued as type—with no planning for the next crisis. There were to be no more Operation Warp Speeds in the United States. In alignment with market efficiency, the U.K. made aggressive moves to rapidly sell off its vaccine manufacturing and innovation center, which had proved so useful in vaccine development. (Kate Bingham, who led the U.K. vaccine task force, denounced the government's overall approach.)
And China, too, continues on its pre-chosen path. Even though vaccines are now readily available, it insists on pursuing a zero-COVID strategy, an authoritarian policy imposed at great cost.
The question is whether the United States can broaden its market-efficient economic approach, which has many strengths, to include planning capabilities, too. As Preventable demonstrates, planning was critical for early pandemic control, though in the long run it was not sufficient. Both approaches are needed. If the United States had added a bit more planning to the mix, many lives could have been saved during the initial outbreak.
The risks facing the United States going forward go well beyond just pandemics. Coronaviruses aren't the only threat emanating from China. China poses unprecedented economic and military challenges to the United States. It is moving to a new economic model, one that combines state planning with market forces. By expanding its own economic model, the United States can respond more effectively to these new threats. Losing this competition is preventable.
Anxiety: This One-Minute Exercise Could Help You Beat Morning Anxiety For Good – GLAMOUR UK
What you need to know about maintaining healthy cholesterol levels – Charlotte Post

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Jerry Lewis Was Many Things, But He Was Not A Fool
By Scott Simon
Jerry Lewis jokes with photographers on May 26, 1982, during the 35th International Movie Festival in Cannes.
Jerry Lewis could make people laugh with a sneeze. My mother remembered being in an old freight elevator with Jerry at the Chez Paree nightclub in Chicago as it rose slowly in silence to the show floor. Jerry Lewis sneezed. He didn't twist his lips or roll his eyes. Jerry just sneezed: and the waiters, janitors, and showgirls in the elevator erupted in laughter.
When Jerry Lewis died this week, at the age of 91, he was acclaimed as a clown, a genius, a humanitarian and egomaniac, all in the same breath.
I knew Jerry Lewis slightly as a child, and later as a reporter. He gave my father a small role in the first film he directed, 1960's The Bellboy. My father's lines lasted half a minute on screen, but years later, Jerry heard my father was down on his luck and hired him to be a straight man for half a dozen of his club appearances. Jerry Lewis didn't give my father a handout or sermons, but a job. It was a way of telling him: you're still in the game.
I remember Jerry as being grandly, almost maniacally generous. Someone on the crew complimented a red sweater he wore one day, and the next, everyone on the crew got the same red sweater from Jerry, in a gorgeous gold box from Beverly Hills. He'd fall on his rubber face to make any child laugh until our stomachs ached and we had to gasp; which wasn't always fun. Even as children we could see Jerry might be the one who really needed the laughs.
The Bellboy, by the way, is a Jerry Lewis film that stands up well. Edouard Waintrop of the Cannes Film Festival, called it, "one of the funniest and most audacious films in cinema history, a series of gags without any sentimentality."
Years later, when we profiled Jerry, he told us he was flattered but baffled by his fame in France.
"I do schtick," he told us, "and they call it arrrrt. Go figure."
Jerry became almost equally famous for hosting the Muscular Dystrophy Association Telethon for 45 years, and though in time his approach was criticized for being maudlin and patronizing, the telethons raised more than 2 billion dollars for research.
He became an intense and accomplished dramatic actor in later years, and made a film in 1972 the world may never see. The Day the Clown Cried is about a clown, played by Jerry, who entertains children--into the gas chambers of a Nazi death camp. Jerry Lewis told us his film was bad—he was bad--and he didn't want it released.
"I want to make people laugh and cry," he said. "Not gag." Jerry Lewis was a great clown. Not a fool.
STF / AFP/Getty Images
Jerry Lewis looks through the cine camera, on March 22, 1972, during the shooting of "The Day the Clown Cried," the film he directed at the Cirque D'Hiver in Paris.
Scott Simon
Scott Simon is one of America's most admired writers and broadcasters. He is the host of Weekend Edition Saturday and is one of the hosts of NPR's morning news podcast Up First. He has reported from all fifty states, five continents, and ten wars, from El Salvador to Sarajevo to Afghanistan and Iraq. His books have chronicled character and characters, in war and peace, sports and art, tragedy and comedy.
See stories by Scott Simon


Protect your furniture from spills, stains, wear and tear with the Deluxe Reversible Quilted Furniture Protector. It's a must-have for homes with children and pets. This reversible furniture protector comes in a variety of reversible solid colors. Its beautiful quilted texture, lofty poly fill and soft suede-like finish provide designer style and ultimate comfort. The Deluxe Reversible Quilted Furniture Protector is machine washable for your convenience.
Designed to fit loveseats that have a back height of 34" and that measure 58-73" wide (outside arm to outside arm) with a seat cushion depth of 38".


In any business, it must be understood that anybody has only one opportunity to make a lasting impression. When sending quotes to your customers or placing an order to a supplier, it is a must that even the paper you use properly represents your business. This can happen through a professional letterhead, which is widely used as an important means of communication between a company and its customers. At IPrint Express, we pay close attention to every detail and overall quality of the letterheads that we produce as we understand the role they play in building your brand and in effectively reaching out to your potential customers. Through this, your press releases, presentations, announcements, invoices, and even agendas will have more impact.


Following the presentation by Falcon Housing in July, Vaughan Lake of Hastoe Housing Associations gave a presentation to the August meeting of the Parish Council. Hastoe has been in business for 20 years and has built over 700 properties in the South West. The majority of these properties are rented but they do offer a shared ownership agreement and this is becoming increasingly popular. Properties are let to local people who are on the Council Housing List. At the September meeting of the Parish Council it was decided that Hastoe would best suit the requirements of the Parish, at this stage, as the company is able to be more flexible, particularly with regard to working with land-owner/builder, as well as liaising with officials. It is proposed to produce a Planning Application for Affordable Housing and one larger dwelling on land off Little Bray Lane opposite the Methodist Chapel. This is a separate application to the Outline Planning Application to build five affordable dwellings and a shop with flat above on land behind The Old Post Office.
The Head Teacher has taken early retirement following ill health over the last year, and the position will be advertised in due course. Meanwhile, the school continues to move forward under the Acting Head Teacher. The recent Ofsted Report was satisfactory.
The Roadshow will be at the Village Hall from 11 am to 4 pm on Wednesday, 3rd November. You will be able to use the computers on board, explore the internet for free and talk to Radio Devon.
The AGM was held on 15th September. The Chairman of the Flower Show and the Club was warmly thanked for all her hard work. The Officers of the Club agreed to retain their roles for a further year. The next meeting will be held on Wednesday, 20th October at 7.30 pm in the Village Hall when Nick Oliver from St Johns Garden Centre will be talking about greenhouses and house plants. All are welcome – it will be an enjoyable evening. The November meeting will be our Christmas Meal and will take place on the 17th. The venue is still to be decided.
On behalf of the Flower Show Committee, many thanks to everyone who helped, entered and supported the Show. Without your continued support the Show cannot run smoothly. This year entries were up, with high standards achieved and good comments from the judges. The Children's Section especially delighted the judges.
There will be a quiz night held on 1st October at 7.30 pm in the Village Hall. There will be a bar and nibbles provided. Everybody is welcome with teams of up to 6 people. The tickets are £5 per. All proceeds will go toward the Pre-school and it looks to be a great night out.
The recent trip to Worcester was a great success and very much enjoyed by all who went. The Porcelain Factory was well worth the visit.
Following its massive success back in March, the Travelling Trends Fashion Show is returning to Brayford. This time, ladies, we have been promised a larger selection of clothes, including larger sizes and clothes for the more mature lady, all of which will be available to try and buy on the night. Tickets are now on sale at £5, to include a glass of wine and festive nibbles. There will be a raffle on the night and bargains guaranteed. The show takes place on Thursday, 18th November at the Village Hall, doors open 7 pm, show starts 7.30 pm and is in aid of Brayford Primary School.
Well done to Kelly, Bethany, Chilli, Jessica, Edward and Charlotte who took part in a sponsored cycle on 31st July. They rode 10 miles along the Tarka Trail from Barnstaple to Braunton and back, raising a massive £258.70 for a new bike rack/shelter for the school. They would like to say a big thank you to everyone for supporting them and to Squires Fish and Chip Shop, Braunton, for donating their lunch.
Harvest Festival will be on Sunday, 10th October at 11 am, when Bishop Michael will be with us, with lunch after.
Our Harvest Celebration will be on Sunday, 3rd October at 11 am and 6.30 pm. The Exeter Male Voice Praise will be coming to the Chapel on Thursday, 11th November at 7.30 pm.
Everyone is welcome to join us on both these occasions.
You are invited to a joint Harvest Festival Celebration with High Bray and Charles Churches and Brayford Methodist Chapel on Tuesday, 5th October at 6.45 pm in the Village Hall. This will include a short service of thanksgiving with Reverends Mark and Clay, to be followed by a "bring and share supper". Flowers and vegetables from the Methodist Chapel will be sold and the proceeds will go to Christian Aid Funds. A warm welcome is extended to all.
The Boomerangs' Christmas Fayre will be on Saturday, 27th November in the Village Hall. There will be lots to buy and do, so please come along.
The new academic year has got off to a flying start. The AGM was on the 15th September. We are sorry to see some members of the committee go. These are Sarah, Tracey and Samantha. They have all played big parts in the pre-school and we would like to say thank you to them all for their help and support. With the committee for the pre-school in mind, we are very desperate for some new blood. We need more people to be involved. You don't have to take a huge part, just be able to attend the meetings, which are held once a month generally, and perhaps lighten the load when there are fundraising events, etc. going on. Kerry has also decided to step down as Chair for the time being for her own personal reasons. Her husband, Darren, has taken her place, so all correspondence, etc. can still be sent to Kerry.
Congratulations to Brayford Boomerangs Pre-School for taking 1st Prize in this year's carnival for their entry "Can't Wait Till Christmas". Photos will be on display on the Boomerangs' notice board in the Village Hall.
We carried on Mother and Toddlers through the holidays with the older children able to attend and take part in different activities. This proved very popular. Although the group was busy through the summer, things have gone quiet again now the children are back to school. If you know of anybody with an under 5 who might be interested in coming, please let them know. It runs on a Thursday afternoon from 1.30 to 3.15 pm.
At the AGM in August, the Chairman and Treasurer were elected. Any problems or queries should be reported to Donald. We would like to thank Mike for all the hard work he has put into the Association over the years. The next AGM will be in January 2005, when it will be decided how much the next subscription will be.
Thanks to everyone who came to the Picnic. £97 was raised towards the caravan at Dawlish Warren. On October 20th at 2.30 pm, Jane Templeton will be giving a talk on Rehabilitation at South Lydcott and on November 17th Rosemary Tull will be talking on "A Joy Shared" at Mrs Greenwood's in North Molton.
The annual lunch at South Deans, hosted by Jim and Ruth in their lovely garden, was a very happy occasion and much enjoyed by everyone. The September meeting was also fun. Unusual jewellery – each item telling a story – was produced by some W.I. members. The meeting to be held on October 6th (one week earlier than usual) is an OPEN MEETING (including menfolk!), as it is thought it will appeal to everyone. Barbara Hadrill will be here from Devon Marine Life (Devon Wildlife) and is well-known for her informative and extremely interesting talks. Visitors are most welcome. There is a charge of £2.50 per person, inclusive of supper, and the talk will start at approximately 8.00 pm. To re-launch the North Devon Home Economics Area, a "Pudding Party" was held at Fishleigh Farm House Foods on 13th September – an afternoon of culinary indulgence!
The Boddington Family would like to thank everyone who attended their open invitation in August to a Cream Tea. There was a large turnout and the afternoon raised a massive £1,177.91. In addition, Sheila raised £115 from the proceeds of a plant/flower sale and this will be added to the total. The money will be paid into the Valerie Boddington Living Memories Fund at the North Devon Hospice.
Ray and Ruby are very grateful for the wonderful support for the MacMillan overnight stay and social evening, very especially to Ray Hobbs for giving his time to play the music. The evening raised £425, so thank you to everyone who contributed.
Yes, it's coming at last and will be available from 6th October, 2004. Broadband offers a high speed connection (up to 10 times faster than dial-up), which gives you the ability to get high quality video and audio, and receive emails and downloads faster. It is a permanent connection to the Internet: no need to dial-up. You can use the telephone and the Internet at the same time.
To encourage you to sign up for Broadband, most Internet Service Providers are offering introductory "deals", including free connection (saving you £50), firewalls, virus scan, web site space, and other goodies.


"A bright, colorful and fantastic 3D open world, crafting and relationship game"
My Time at Portia is a fantastic little 3D open world, building, crafting and relationship/dating game where you play as young man (or woman) who has come back to the island of his father's youth to take over his old workshop and building company where first of you must pass some tests to obtain your builders license from the friendly town sheriff.
After you have obtained your license you can start building things to help grow your workshop and it's most likely you will also meet a few love interests along the way!
The description says that this is set in a post-apocalyptic setting but it's so bright and colorful and inviting that it's a very happy vision of a post-apocalyptic universe where live seems to be continuing in a very normal and happy fashion.
Discovering the island of Portia and meeting its wonderful residents is half the fun here but the crafting side of My Time at Portia should also appease those who are looking for a MineCraft clone.
Bear in mind the game is still in the alpha phase and there are other things the developers are considering adding to the game such as farming aspects, also if you're not running this on a fairly powerful computer you may have some problems as a game that looks this good really is worthy of something with a decent graphics card.
A bright colorful and intriguing game which should appeal to all gamers and if this is the post-apocalyptic world then bring on the apocalypse!
You can download My Time at Portia for free here.


Steffe.se – Page 12 – Programming, math & physics simulation. Dev at Goo Technologies.
If you've read the section header you might have guessed I'm sick again. Yay. While not being able to sleep, I tried some random games in the Ubuntu repos. Among them were Wormux, Pydance and Urban Terror.
Wormux, a Worms rip off for Linux, sucked big time. I have nothing more to say.
Pydance is a StepMania-similar dance simulator which is surprisingly adaptive to different kinds of input (dance pads, bongo drums etc), but it also sucked when trying to play it. Are the arrows supposed to lag? Do I have the wrong latency settings on my input? I tried to solve those things, but I left the game without any answer to any of the questions.
Urban Terror. What do you think of when hearing it? Terrorists, police, bombs? Yeah, that's about it. This is a plain CounterStrike rip-off. I joined some online server games anyway, and I must say that it's not bad. It may not be CounterStrike, but it's for sure a good try. In addition to the basic moves in CS, you can do powerslides and wall jumps, which makes things a bit more interesting.
To do: Uninstall all the new games but Urban Terror.
Got a mail from Marina today also. It's always fun to read her emails. They might be a bit long but they are interesting and mostly positive. Marina is an old friend of mine in the world of friendship bracelets. We've helped each other for a long time over the net with different things, mostly things related to copyright of patterns.
So, I finally got myself a "real" blog instead of coding it from scratch… Why? Well, there are many reasons but the main reasons are lack of time, compatibility, etc. Anyway, I hope you like it and that you will come here from time to time. Nice to have you here by the way!
So, why english? I normally speak swedish, but as I got many friends around the world I thought it might increase the readability among my total group of friends. Let's just hope my english works out well enough for you.
This site is also supposed to work as a reference for my work. Recently, I started my own company. That was the easiest reason to solve my position. I have a bad habit of coding all the time, mostly web programming and such. Obviously, it implies money, and money implies taxes, and taxes… Are smaller if you have your own company. At least in Sweden.
I'm going to tell you some more later but now it's time to fix this ugly WordPress theme. See ya.


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2019-20 Broadway Series
Future Seasons
Algonquin Youth Ensemble
Page & Stage
Workshops and Residencies
Broadway Ray Match
Broadway Bash
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Neil Simon's
Broadway Series 2019-2020
A perfect coming-of-age comedy, Neil Simon's Brighton Beach Memoirs follows Eugene Morris Jerome as he navigates the problems that come with being a teenager during the Great Depression.
Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad
This stirring drama with music is a classic tribute to the great American who freed herself and hundreds of her people from the bonds of slavery.
Chris Pinnella: Sinatra at the Sands
Flashback to 1966 Las Vegas & join powerhouse vocalist Chris Pinnella along with a 14-member big band as they perform the iconic live album 'Sinatra at the Sands.'
Joe Holiday's
A combination of stage magic, music, audience participation and comedy, and of course, books!
by Aaron Sorkin
Aaron Sorkin's unforgettable A Few Good Men tells the story of military lawyers who uncover a high-level conspiracy while defending two United States Marines accused of murder.
Experience the tale of an unlikely friendship between a crazy cat, Pete, and his ultra-organized owner, Jimmy.
Uncle Vinnie's Presents
Jeff Norris & His K9's for Warriors
Rental Event
Dog Loves Books
Dog loves books SO much that he decides to open his own bookstore. He decides that the best way to sell books is to act out all kinds of fun stories for his customers - everything from dancing dinosaurs to funny fairy tales.
with Yosi & The Superdads
Roll out of bed, grab breakfast at the Paramount or the Pig and come to the theatre to party in your jammies!
Asbury Shorts New York
An Evening of the World's Best Short Films
Asbury Shorts New York is New York City's longest running exhibition of award-winning short films and producer Doug LeClaire brings the World's Best Short Films back to Algonquin Arts Theatre.
There's a moon out tonight, and it's shining on lovers, clowns, and fairies hip-hopping through the enchanted woods in the most resilient of Shakespeare's comedies, easily adapting itself both to traditional and a radically new interpretation.
Born: Celebrating the Boss' 70th
Featuring Brian Kirk & the Jirks & Special Guests
Join Brian Kirk & The Jirks and a cavalcade of Jersey Shore favorites as they celebrate the 70th birthday of our native son, Bruce Springsteen.
Anthony Rodia
Take it straight from the horses' mouth: A Day at the Races has the inside track to be the is a fundraiser that we bet you'll love. Part day at the track, part tricky tray, odds are you've never had this much fun supporting the Algonquin.
How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying
Big business means big laughs in this delightfully clever lampoon of life on the corporate ladder.
Chicken Dance
The colorful story of two barnyard chickens on a mission to win the barnyard talent contest first prize of two tickets to see the great Elvis Poultry in concert!
Father Alphonse Stephenson conducts
La Traviata - A Staged Concert
With the Orchestra of St. Peter by the Sea
Verdi's masterpiece includes everything that makes opera such a unique and moving art form
Lois Lowry's
At the age of twelve, Jonas, from a seemingly ideal, futuristic world, is singled out to receive special training from The Giver, who alone holds the memories of the true joys and challenges of life.
With humor, high-energy dancing, romance and a fantastic score, Hello, Dolly! tells of matchmaker Dolly Gallagher-Levi and her hilarious romantic exploits.
Little Girl is thrilled when she receives Biscuit as a birthday present, but will this rambunctious puppy learn how to behave and accept being part of a family?
A timeless story of love, betrayal and integrity, The Scarlet Letter follows heroine Hester Prynne who forges a new morality independent of the community that publicly shames and stigmatizes her.
The Magic School Bus
Lost in the Solar System
When the class gets lost on the way to the planetarium, Ms. Frizzle saves the day by blasting into outer space for an epic interplanetary field trip!
Tickets On Sale: Tuesday, February 18, 2020 at 11:00am
with Let's Hang On
We're thrilled to have America's No. 1 Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons tribute, Let's Hang On, to headline the 2020 Broadway Bash. Stay tuned for more information!
Everyone's favorite practically perfect nanny takes the stage in this Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious musical adventure.
Green Day's
Green Day's powerhouse album is brought to life in this electric-rock musical of youthful disillusion. Content Advisory.
January 23 - January 31, 2021
Biloxi Blues
April 10 - April 25, 2021
Musical - To Be Announced
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text:
Q: How to wait for 2 Actions in @ngrx/effects Can effect wait two actions like Promise.all? Example:
@Effect()
pulic addUser() {
   return this.actions$.ofType(user.ADD)
      .switchMap(() => {
         return this.userService.add();
      })
      .map(() => {
         return new user.AddSuccessAction();
      });
}

@Effect()
pulic addUserOptions() {
   return this.actions$.ofType(userOptions.ADD)
      .switchMap(() => {
         return this.userOptionsService.add();
      })
      .map(() => {
         return new userOptions.AddSuccessAction();
      });
}

@Effect()
public complete() {
   return this.actions$.ofType(user.ADD_SUCCESS, userOptions.ADD_SUCCESS)
      // how to make it works like Promise.all ?
      .switchMap(() => {
         return this.statisticService.add();
      })
      .map(() => {
         return new account.CompleteAction();
      });
}

UPDATED
What I want to achieve is simillar behavior to Promise.all. How to dispatch two effects in parallel, wait until all the effects are resolved, then dispatch a third action. Something like https://redux-saga.js.org/docs/advanced/RunningTasksInParallel.html With promises it was quite obviouse:
Promise.all([fetch1, fetch2]).then(fetch3);

Is it possible in ngrx/effects? Or is it a wrong way in ngrx/effects?
ANSWER
There are few options which you can use:
1) Do not use generic actions.
Follow these rules from Myke Ryan's presentation: https://youtu.be/JmnsEvoy-gY
Pros: easier to debug
Cons: tons of boilerplate and actions
2) Use complex stream with nested actions.
Check this article: https://bertrandg.github.io/ngrx-effects-complex-stream-with-nested-actions/
Here is simple example for two actions:
@Effect()
public someAction(): Observable<Action> {
    return this.actions$.pipe(
        ofType(actions.SOME_ACTION),
        map((action: actions.SomeAction) => action.payload),
        mergeMap((payload) => {
            const firstActionSuccess$ = this.actions$.pipe(
                ofType(actions.FIRST_ACTION_SUCCESS),
                takeUntil(this.actions$.pipe(ofType(actions.FIRST_ACTION_FAIL))),
                first(),
            );

            const secondActionsSuccess$ = this.actions$.pipe(
                ofType(actions.SECOND_ACTION_SUCCESS),
                takeUntil(this.actions$.pipe(ofType(actions.SECOND_ACTION_FAIL))),
                first(),
            );

            const result$ = forkJoin(firstActionSuccess$, secondActionsSuccess$).pipe(
                first(),
            )
                .subscribe(() => {
                    // do something
                });

            return [
                new actions.FirstAction(),
                new actions.SecondAction(),
            ];
        }),
    );
}

Pros: you can achieve what you want
Cons: complex stream is too complex to support :) looks ugly and may quickly become to hell, observables won't unsubscribe until succes or fail actions, it means that in theory any third-party actions can emit signals to these observables.
3) Use aggregator pattern.
Check Victor Savkin's presentation about State Management Patterns and Best Practices with NgRx: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vX2vG0o-rpM
Here is simple example:
First you need to create actions with correlationId param. CorrelationId should be uniq, it may be some guid for example. This ID you will use in your chain of actions to identify your actions.
export class SomeAction implements Action {
    public readonly type = SOME_ACTION;

    constructor(public readonly correlationId?: string | number) { }
    // if you need payload, then make correlationId as a second argument
    // constructor(public readonly payload: any, public readonly correlationId?: string | number) { }
}

export class SomeActionSuccess implements Action {
    public readonly type = SOME_ACTION_SUCCESS;

    constructor(public readonly correlationId?: string | number) { }
}

export class FirstAction implements Action {
    public readonly type = FIRST_ACTION;

    constructor(public readonly correlationId?: string | number) { }
}

export class FirstActionSuccess implements Action {
    public readonly type = FIRST_ACTION_SUCCESS;

    constructor(public readonly correlationId?: string | number) { }
}

// the same actions for SecondAction and ResultAction

Then our effects:
@Effect()
public someAction(): Observable<Action> {
    return this.actions$.pipe(
        ofType(actions.SOME_ACTION),
        mergeMap((action: actions.SomeAction) => {
            return [
                new actions.FirstAction(action.corelationId),
                new actions.SecondAction(action.corelationId),
            ];
        }),
    );
}

@Effect()
public firstAction(): Observable<Action> {
    return this.actions$.pipe(
        ofType(actions.FIRST_ACTION),
        switchMap((action: actions.FirstAction) => {
            // something
            ...map(() => new actions.FirstActionSuccess(action.correlationId));
        }),
    );
}
// the same for secondAction

@Effect()
public resultAction(): Observable<Action> {
    return this.actions$.pipe(
        ofType(actions.SOME_ACTION),
        switchMap((action: actions.SomeAction) => {
            const firstActionSuccess$ = this.actions$.pipe(
                ofType(actions.FIRST_ACTION_SUCCESS),
                filter((t: actions.FirstActionSuccess) => t.correlationId === action.correlationId),
                first(),
            );

            const secondActionsSuccess$ = this.actions$.pipe(
                ofType(actions.SECOND_ACTION_SUCCESS),
                filter((t: actions.SecondActionSuccess) => t.correlationId === action.correlationId),
                first(),
            );

            return zip(firstActionSuccess$, secondActionsSuccess$).pipe(
                map(() => new actions.resultSuccessAction()),
            )
        }),
    );
}

Pros: the same as point 2, but no third-party actions.
Cons: the same as point 1 and 2
4) Do not use effects for API. Use good old services which emulate effects but return Observable.
In you service:
public dispatchFirstAction(): Observable<void> {
    this.store.dispatch(new actions.FirstAction(filter));

    return this.service.someCoolMethod().pipe(
        map((data) => this.store.dispatch(new actions.FirstActionSuccess(data))),
        catchError((error) => {
            this.store.dispatch(new actions.FirstActionFail());

            return Observable.throw(error);
        }),
    );
}

So you can combine it anywhere later, like:
const result1$ = this.service.dispatchFirstAction();
const result2$ = this.service.dispatchSecondAction();

forkJoin(result1$, result2$).subscribe();

5) Use ngxs: https://github.com/ngxs/store
Pros: less boilerplate, this feels like angular stuff, it grows fast
Cons: has got less features than ngrx

A: Using Observable.combineLatest works for me.
@Effect()
  complete$ = this.actions$.ofType<Action1>(ACTION1).combineLatest(this.actions$.ofType<Action2>(ACTION2),
    (action1, action2) => {

      return new Action3();
    }
  ).take(1);

take(1) results in dispatching Action3() only once.

A: Another combineLatest version with pipes and switchMap
import { Observable, of } from 'rxjs'
import { combineLatest, switchMap, withLatestFrom } from 'rxjs/operators'

@Effect()
someEffect$: Observable<Actions> = this.actions$.pipe(
  ofType(Action1),
  combineLatest(this.actions$.ofType(Action2)),
  switchMap(() => of({ type: Action3 }))
)

A: I am new to RXJS but what about this.
You can remove {dispatch: false} if you change the tap to a switchMap.
@Effect({dispatch: false})
public waitForActions(): Observable<any> {
    const waitFor: string[] = [
        SomeAction.EVENT_1,
        SomeAction.EVENT_2,
        SomeAction.EVENT_3,
    ];

    return this._actions$
        .pipe(
            ofType(...waitFor),
            distinct((action: IAction<any>) => action.type),
            bufferCount(waitFor.length),
            tap(console.log),
        );
}

A: This worked for me in ngrx 8
waitFor2Actions$ = createEffect(() =>
    combineLatest([
      this.actions$.pipe(ofType(actions.action1)),
      this.actions$.pipe(ofType(actions.action2)),
    ]).pipe(
      switchMap(() => ...),
    )
  );

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Fresh Renderings for UCLA's Student Housing Expansion
Nearly 6,900 student beds could added at five sites across the Westwood campus.
February 09, 2018, 9:03AMSteven Sharp Comments
UCLA continues to move forward with plans to add up to 6,900 beds to its Westwood campus, in accordance with its 2016-2026 Student Housing plan.
The proposed expansion, revealed in mid-2017, designates five sites for the construction of new dormitories and apartments for undergraduate and graduate students. An update to the project's environmental impact report has unveiled renderings for three of those sites: Lot 15, Warren Hall and the University Extension.
At the northwest corner of the UCLA Campus, UCLA hopes to replace Lot 15 with a pair of eight-story buildings that would feature 1,781 student beds. The proposed mid-rise structures have decreased in size during the schematic design phase, losing 19 student beds and approximately 10,000 square feet of floor space.
Per the environmental report, construction at Lot 15 could begin as early as October 2018, with completion following as soon as June 2021.
The Warren Hall site, situated in the southwest portion of the UCLA campus, could be demolished to make way for three mid-rise buildings between eight and ten stories in height. Plans call for 2,279 student beds - down from 2,350 in the earlier plan - and 591,100 square feet of total construction.
Demolition of the existing Warren Hall could commence in November 2018, with the completion of the replacement housing occurring as early as April 2022.
The University is pursuing the construction of a high-rise building at the corner of Gayley and Le Conte Avenues, which would replace a smaller building currently occupied by the University Extension. The proposed building, which would range between 9 and 17 stories in height, calls for 1,159 student beds - down from 1,350 in the earlier plan.
Demolition of the existing facility would begin in August 2018, with occupancy of the replacement occurring sometime in Fall 2021.
An additional 1,400 student beds are slated for sites at Bradley International Hall and Drake Stadium, which would commence in 2022 and 2023 respectively.
The proposed expansion has brought student housing advocates into open conflict with neighboring homeowners, particularly in regards to the planned 17-story tower.
The new student housing will also serve a role in the 2028 Summer Olympics, where the UCLA campus is slated to serve as the Athlete's Village.
UCLA Plans Major Expansion of Student Housing Capacity (Urbanize LA)


text:
Q: How to use PySpark to stream data into MySQL database? I am currently working on a single page web app that allows users to upload large CSV files (currently testing a ~7GB file) to a flask server and then stream that dataset to a database. The upload takes about a minute and the file gets fully saved to a temporary file on the flask server. Now I need to be able to stream this file and store it into a database. I did some research and found that PySpark is great for streaming data and I am choosing MySQL as the database to stream the CSV data into (but I am open to other dbs and streaming methods). I am a junior dev and new to PySpark so I'm not sure how to go about this. The Spark streaming guide says that data must ingested through a source like Kafka, Flume, TCP socets, etc so I am wondering if I have to use any of those methods to get my CSV file into Spark. However, I came across this great example where they are streaming csv data into Azure SQL database and it looks like they are just reading the file directly using Spark without needing to ingest it through a streaming source like Kafka, etc. The only thing that confuses me with that example is that they are using a HDInsight Spark cluster to stream data into the db and I'm not sure how to incorporate that all with a flask server. I appologize for the lack of code but currently I just have a flask server file with one route doing the file upload. Any examples, tutorials, or advice would be greatly appreciated.

A: I am not sure about the streaming part but spark can handle large files efficiently - and storing to a db table will be done in parallel, so without much knowledge about your details, and provided that you have the uploaded file on your server, I'd say that:
If I wanted to save a big structured file like a csv in a table, I would start like this:
# start with some basic spark configuration, e.g. we want the timezone to be UTC
conf = SparkConf()
conf.set('spark.sql.session.timeZone', 'UTC')
# this is important: you need to have the mysql connector jar for the right mysql version:
conf.set('jars', 'path to mysql connector jar you can download from here: https://dev.mysql.com/downloads/connector/odbc/')
# instantiate a spark session: the first time it will take a few seconds
spark = SparkSession.builder \
    .config(conf=conf) \
    .appName('Huge File uploader') \
    .getOrCreate()

# read the file first as a dataframe
df = spark.read.csv('path to 7GB/ huge csv file')

# optionally, add a filename column
from pyspark.sql import functions as F
df = df.withColumn('filename', F.lit('thecurrentfilename'))

# write it to the table
df.write.format('jdbc').options(
            url='e.g. localhost:port',
            driver='com.mysql.cj.jdbc.Driver',  # the driver for MySQL
            dbtable='the table name to save to',
            user='user',
            password='secret',
        ).mode('append').save()

Note the mode 'append' here: the catch in this is that spark cannot perform updates on a table, it is either append the new rows or replace what is in the table.
So, if your csv is like this:
id, name, address....

You will end up with a table with the same fields.
This is the most basic example I could think of so that you start with spark, with no considerations about a spark cluster or anything else related. I would suggest you take this for a spin and figure out if this suits your needs :)
Also, keep in mind that this might take a few seconds or more depending on your data, where the database is located, your machine and your database load, so it might be a good idea to keep things asynchronous with your api, again I don't know about any of your other details.
Hope this helps. Good luck!