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Evolutionary Linguistics.org
Tokyo Lectures in Langauge Evolution
Event Dates: 2-5 April 2015
Poster Call Deadline: 4 March 2015
Event website: http://www.langev.tokyo/
We are pleased to announce that the Tokyo Lectures in Language Evolution will be held from the 2nd - 5th of April 2015 at the Komaba II Campus of the University of Tokyo. The event will bring together researchers from around the world to give an intensive series of courses and lectures introducing modern approaches to research on the origins and evolution of language.
Cedric Boeckx (ICREA/Universitat de Barcelona)
Bart de Boer (Vrije Universiteit Brussel)
Tecumseh Fitch (The University of Vienna)
Jim Hurford (The University of Edinburgh)
Simon Kirby (The University of Edinburgh)
Koji Fujita (Kyoto University)
Takashi Hashimoto (Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology)
Yoshiki Nishimura (The University of Tokyo)
Kazuo Okanoya (The University of Tokyo)
Hirokazu Takahashi (The University of Tokyo)
Ways to Protolang 4
Event Dates: 24 - 26 September 2015
Call Deadline: 1 February 2015
Event Location: Rome, Italy
Event Website: http://www.protolang.org/
The Protolang conference series creates an interdisciplinary platform for scholarly discussion on the origins of symbolic communication distinctive of human beings. The thematic focus of Protolang is on delineating the genetic, anatomical, neuro-cognitive, socio-cultural, semiotic, symbolic and ecological requirements for evolving (proto)language. Sign use, tools, cooperative breeding, pointing, vocalisation, intersubjectivity, bodily mimesis, planning and navigation are among many examples of such possible factors through which hominins have gained a degree of specificity that is not found in other forms of animal communication and cognition. We aim at identifying the proximate and ultimate causes as well as the mechanisms by which these requirements evolved; evaluating the methodologies, research tools and simulation techniques; and enabling extended and vigorous exchange of ideas across disciplinary borders.We invite scholars from A(rcheology) to Z(oology), and all disciplines in between, to contribute data, experimental and theoretical research, and look forward to welcoming you at one of our conferences!
CALL FOR ABSTRACTS:
We call for:
The list of conference areas includes:
animal cognition
anthropology (linguistic, social, cultural)
general evolutionary theory
genetics of language
gesture studies
neuroscience of language
paleoanthropology
philosophy of biology
Pleistocene archaeology
primatology
psychology (evolutionary, comparative, developmental)
speech physiology
Talks and posters:
Please submit an abstract of 400 words prepared for anonymous review to the EasyChair website: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=protolang4
Submissions should be suitable for 30 minutes presentation (20 min for presentation and 10 min for discussion).
Symposia:
Please submit a proposal including: (a) Title of the symposium, (b) name and affiliation of the organizers, (c) a general description of the symposium (400 words), (d) abstract of each contributed talk (100-150 words)
Submissions should be suitable for a two-hour session and include 3 to 5 presentations.
The organizers are responsible for submitting the full symposium program to the EasyChair website: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=protolang4. Theorganizers will also act as chairs of their session.
Note: abstracts of talks, posters and symposia must be submitted in .doc (or .docx) format, no other format will be accepted.
Biolinguistic Investigations on the Language Faculty
Event Dates: 26-28 January 2015
Call Deadline: 15 November 2014
Event Location: Pavia, Italy
The conference is organized by the International Network in Biolinguistics and NeTS Center at IUSS Pavia, Italy.
The conference will be held on January 26 and 27 and will be followed on the 28 by a dedicated session to NeTS results and work in progress. The conference will be transmitted via satellite.
This conference aims to contribute to our understanding of the human capacity for language, understood as a generative procedure that relates sounds and meanings via syntax. While theoretical hypotheses about this relation are part of the generative enterprise since its beginnings, recent developments address the issue in terms of the properties of the 'language organ'. Different hypotheses about the properties of the generative procedure, giving rise to the discrete infinity of language, are under discussion, and their connection with biology is open to important cross-disciplinary work. Advances have been made in human-animal studies to differentiate human language from animal communication. Contributions from neurosciences also point to the exclusive properties of the human brain for language. Studies in genetically based language impairments also contribute to the understanding of the properties of the language organ.
Invited speaker: Ken Wexler, MIT
Call for Papers:
We invite contributions presenting theoretical and experimental investigations on the properties of the Language Faculty relating language to its biological basis.
Abstracts should not exceed two pages, including data, references and diagrams. Abstracts should be typed in at least 11-point font, with one-inch margins (letter-size; 8'' 1/2 by 11'' or A4) and a maximum of 50 lines of text per page. Abstracts must be anonymous and submissions are limited to 2 per author, at least one of which is co-authored.
Only electronic submissions will be accepted. Please submit your abstract using the EasyAbs link that will be posted on the LinguistList by October 31.
CFP: HUMANA.MENTE Journal of Philosophical Studies
Deadline for submissions: March 31th, 2014
2nd Call for Papers Issue 27, October 2014
Origin And Evolution Of Language
Editors: Francesco Ferretti (Roma Tre University), Ines Adornetti (Roma Tre University - University of L'Aquila)
The origin of language is a fascinating subject that has since always been generating great interest as well as important controversies. The interest depends on the core idea that language constitutes the element that, more than any other, makes us humans. The controversies depend on the methodological difficulties related to investigating this topic. Because of these difficulties, the Linguistics Society of Paris in 1866 banned any kind of debate among its members about the topic to avoid the disputes originating from fragile speculations. Over the time the situation has considerably changed, and the origin of language is no longer a taboo today. The emergence of Darwinian evolutionary theory has allowed to address this topic scientifically and systematically; and, in the last forty years, a growing number of scholars from many backgrounds has dealt with the problem and highlighted the different aspects involved in the genesis and evolution of human linguistic capacities.
This special issue aims to address the question concerning the relationship between language origins and human nature. A large part of contemporary theoretical investigation attributes the "uniqueness" that characterizes our species to the fact that humans are talking animals. How true is this interpretation? Can we really assert that humans are uniquely characterized by their verbal skills? Do humans have a special status in nature because of language? The analysis of language in evolutionary terms is a powerful tool to answer these questions: considering our verbal skills in the framework of the evolutionary theory is indeed a way to understand how it is possible to investigate human beings in a naturalistic perspective. In other words, the theme of language origins gives us the opportunity to test Darwin's idea of human beings as animals among other animals.
The issue aims to reflect the inherently interdisciplinary nature of research into the origin and the evolution of language. We invite papers from a wide range of subjects, including:
philosophy of language;
philosophy of biology;
cognitive science;
general evolutionary theory;
evolutionary psychology;
comparative psychology;
paleoanthropology;
gesture studies;
neuroscience of language;
primatology;
animal cognition;
animal communication.
Invited contributors:
Michael C. Corballis (University of Auckland)
Alessandra Falzone (University of Messina)
Stefano Gensini (University of Rome "La Sapienza")
James R. Hurford (University of Edinburgh)
Adrien Meguerditchian (University of Provence)
Antonino Pennisi (University of Messina)
Ian Tattersall (American Museum of Natural History)
Natalie T. Uomini (University of Liverpool)
Jordan Zlatev (Lund University)
Submissions should adhere to the following guidelines:
Articles should be submitted in blind review format (in Microsoft Word). Please omit any self-identifying information within the abstract and body of the paper.
Furthermore, we invite to submit reviews of recent books (published after 2010), and commentaries of articles and books (also published before 2010) that could be particularly interesting for the topics analyzed in this issue.
Max length:
Articles: 40.000 characters (including spaces, references and an abstract of no more than 150 words).
Commentaries: 25.000 characters (including spaces and references).
Reviews: 20.000 characters (including spaces and references).
Submissions should be sent via email to:
francesco.ferretti@uniroma3.it, and
ines.adornetti@gmail.com
Notification of acceptance: June 2014
Language Evolution Position at University of Edinburgh
The University of Edinburgh is advertising for a long-term research-focussed job in any area of Language Evolution, which has the prospect after 5 years of converting into a permanent position. Edinburgh is famous for its involvement in language evolution research, based around what is probably the largest research group dedicated to the topic in the world. You can find out more details here:
https://www.vacancies.ed.ac.uk/pls/corehrrecruit/erq_jobspec_version_4.display_form
DARWIN DAY ROME 2014
Date: 15-Febuary-2014
Location: Rome, Italy
Meeting URL: https://sites.google.com/site/darwinday2014roma/home
ORIGINS AND EVOLUTION OF LANGUAGE
National Museum of Prehistory and Ethnography ''L. Pigorini'', Rome
Roma Tre University, Department of Philosophy, Communication and Visual Arts
Venue: National Museum of Prehistory and Ethnography ''L. Pigorini''
Address: Piazza G. Marconi 14, Rome
Room: "Sala conferenze"
16.00 Opening
16.10 IAN TATTERSALL (American Museum of Natural History, New York)
16.50 DAN SPERBER (CEO Budapest – Institute Jean Nicod Parigi)
A che cosa serve il linguaggio: una prospettiva evoluzionistica
17:30 Discussion
17.50 TECUMSEH FITCH (University of Vienna)
Musical Protolanguage: Darwin's Theory of Language Evolution
18.30 DAVID FRAYER (University of Kansas)
Language in Neandertals?
19:10 Discussion e conclusions
Scientific coordination:
Luca Bondioli ("Pigorini" Museum – Section of Anthropology)
Francesco Ferretti (Roma Tre University – Dep. Philosophy, Communication and Visual Arts)
Organizing Secretary:
Ines Adornetti
Alessandra Chiera
Alessia Nava
Serena Nicchiarelli
Prisca Solaini
Alessandra Sperduti
Serena Vaccaro
Workshop on Language, Cognition and Computational Models
Date: 28-May-2013 - 29-May-2013
Meeting URL: https://sites.google.com/site/lccmodels/home
We are pleased to invite you to the Workshop on Language, Cognition and Computational Models, which will be held in Paris at the Ecole Normale Supérieure (ENS) and at the Institut des Systèmes Complexes de Paris, on May 28 and 29, 2013.
The goal of this event is to provide a venue for the multidisciplinary discussion of theoretical and practical research for computational models of language and cognition. The event centers around recent advances on computational models for language acquisition, processing and evolution.
The first day will mainly address language evolution and some of the computational models that have been proposed to investigate possible avenues for this phenomenon. The second day will address more varied issues, ranging from the origins of language to recent trends in machine translation. All the talks will address key questions dealing with cognitive, formal and/or computational issues related to language evolution and/or language processing.
The event is open to students, researchers and anyone interested in related topics. Attendance is free but people who plan to attend are kindly requested to register preferably before May 10th to help with the planning of the event. The registration form is available at:
https://sites.google.com/site/lccmodels/registration
The workshop is funded by the cluster of labs (labex) Transfers. It is organized thanks to the support of Lattice, Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris Sciences et Lettres, the Institut des Systèmes Complexes de Paris-Ile de France, the Institute of Informatics of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil).
Thierry Poibeau, Laboratoire Lattice ('Langues, Textes, Traitements informatiques et Cognition', UMR8094, CNRS, École Normale Supérieure & Université Paris 3 Sorbonne Nouvelle, France)
Aline Villavicencio, Institute of Informatics, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil)
Ecole Normale Supérieure (ENS): Salle Dussane, 45 rue d'Ulm 75005 Paris
Institut des Systèmes Complexes de Paris-Ile de France (ISC-PIF): 57-59 rue Lhomond F-75005, Paris
For any inquiries regarding the workshop please send an email to:
lccmodels2013gmail.com
More information on:
http://sites.google.com/site/lccmodels/home
Tuesday May 28
Opening - ENS - salle Dussane
Multidisciplinary Aspects of Language Evolution
Dan Dediu (Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, The Netherlands)
The Interplay between Linguistic and Biological Evolution
Ted Briscoe (University of Cambridge, UK)
A Model of L1/L2 Language Acquisition and Its Implications for Language Change
11:15 - 11:45 - Break
Anne Reboul (L2C2-CNRS, France)
Social Evolution of Public Languages: Between Rousseau's Eden and Hobbes' Leviathan
Modeling Language Evolution: Two case studies - ISC-PIF
Benjamin Fagard (Lattice-CNRS, France)
Case, Prepositions and In-Betweens: Sketching a model of grammatical evolution
Remi van Trijp (Sony Computer Science Laboratory Paris, France)
Linguistic Assessment Criteria for Explaining Language Change: A case study on syncretism in German definite articles
Wednesday May 29
Cognitive and Computational Approaches to Language Processing - ENS - salle Dussane
Robert Berwick (MIT, USA)
The Dead Tell No Tales: Known unknowns about the origin of human language
Massimo Poesio (University of Trento, Italy and University of Essex, UK)
Using Data about Conceptual Representations in the Brain for Computational Linguistics
Philippe Blache (LPL, CNRS, France)
Measuring Difficulty as well as Facilitation: A new perspective for human language processing
From Language Variety to Machine Tanslation - ENS - salle Dussane
Shuly Wintner (University of Haifa, Israel)
The Features of Translationese
Martin Kay (Stanford University, USA)
Putting Linguistics back into Computational Linguistics
Discussions and Closing
Major new tenure-track research-focussed positions at University of Edinburgh
Forward from the language evolution google group mailing list:
We thought this would be of particular interest to Language Evolution people. The University of Edinburgh has announced 100 new posts across all areas, including those that relate to work carried out in the School of Philosophy, Psychology & Language Sciences, which obviously includes topics relating to Language Evolution. These prestigious new positions will initially be mainly research-focussed initially, giving an unprecedented opportunity for candidates to pursue an active research agenda. It's expected that successful candidates will have a strong research record in the form of publications already.
The deadline is very tight, unfortunately - 18th April - so interested candidates should apply immediately.
More information is available at the following links:
http://www.ppls.ed.ac.uk/documents/LEL%20Chancellor%20Fellowship%202013.pdf
http://www.ed.ac.uk/schools-departments/human-resources/jobs/chancellors-fellowships
Please pass this on to any likely candidates!
Simon Kirby & Kenny Smith
Music and the Origins of Language. International Summer School on Agent-based Computational Models of Creativity
Call for Participation "Music and the Origins of Language. International Summer School on Agent-based Computational Models of Creativity".
15 - 20 September 2013, Cortona, Italy
http://ai.vub.ac.be/events/cortona-2013
The Evolutionary Linguistics Association (ELA) is proud to announce its second summer school in Cortona on Music and the Origins of Language. The school is intended for postdocs, lecturers and predocs with a background in computer science and a strong interest in music and the origins of language.
The summer school will be held in Cortona, Italy from Sunday 15 September to Friday 20 September 2013. Lectures, activities and meals are all collocated in Hotel Oasi and the Palazzone di Cortona. Participants will all stay at Hotel Oasi.
The summer school has a wide-ranging program of background lectures introducing concepts from biology, anthropology, psychology, music theory and linguistics that are helpful to understand the nature of creativity, the role and intimate relations between language and music, and the mechanisms underlying cultural evolution. It further contains technical lectures on the fundamental computational components required for language processing as well as technical ateliers to learn how to set up evolutionary linguistics experiments. Participants have the opportunity to present their latest research in a poster session. Embedded in the school is an ERC workshop of the Flow Machines project on musical style and composition. The school also features artistic ateliers in which participants create new creative works and engage in performance.
Interested researchers can apply by following the registration information that is available on the website. There are a limited number of scholarships available that cover participation and accommodation fees.
It receives support from FP7 PRAISE and INSIGHT projects, the euCognition Network of Excellence and the ESF project DRUST.
For information and queries, please visit the website http://ai.vub.ac.be/events/cortona-2013/ or email cortona2013@ai.vub.ac.be.
Language Sciences in the 21st Century: The interdisciplinary challenge
Event Dates: 3-4 October 2013
Event Location: Cambridge, UK
Event URL: http://www.languagesciences.cam.ac.uk/events/language-sciences-in-the-21st-century-the-interdisciplinary-challenge
Just a heads up on an upcoming event. They aren't holding an open call for papers, but are asking for "expressions of interest" from researchers AT Cambridge.
Cambridge Language Sciences is hosting a major conference, Language Sciences in the 21st century: The interdisciplinary challenge, at West Road on 3-4 October 2013. The aim is to bring together an international group of researchers, whose work crosses traditional disciplinary boundaries, in order to explore key issues in language sciences. We hope the conference will be both a venue for the presentation of important new work and also a platform for Cambridge's growing profile in this area.
The conference will include invited speakers, symposia, presented papers and posters. The four thematic strands will be:
Philosophy of language meets computational linguistics
Diversity and universals
Beyond our primate inheritance: Neurobiological and evolutionary approaches to language
Interdisciplinary perspectives on multilingualism
The first step in putting together the programme will be to gain an idea of the range of contributions which could come from Cambridge, how they may fit within the conference strands, and how they represent the emergence of broader approaches and themes. We are not, at present, inviting submitted papers. Expressions of interest based on cooperative or collaborative research are particularly welcome.
If you are a Cambridge researcher interested in the possibility of presenting your work at the conference, please contact Jane Walsh in the first instance by the end of January 2013 (jaw75@cam.ac.uk) indicating which theme or themes you feel your research might relate to, providing a brief description of your work and also an indication of how it meets the "interdisciplinary challenge".
This page is maintained by:
Luke McCrohon
Olaf Witkowski
Sławomir Wacewicz
Contributions of relevant events and news are always welcomed, please contact us here.
Biolinguistics
Embodied
Evolang
Phd Postion
Protolanguage


February 10, 2018 Basketball, Jodie Wagner.
The postseason is about to get underway for boys basketball.
(4) Jupiter vs. (5) Palm Beach Gardens, 6 p.m.; (3) John I. Leonard vs. (6) Seminole Ridge, 7:30 p.m.
(2) Palm Beach Central vs. John I. Leonard/Seminole Ridge winner, 6 p.m.; (1) Wellington vs. Jupiter/Palm Beach Gardens winner, 7:30 p.m.
(7) Park Vista at (3) Santaluces, 7 p.m.; (5) Boca Raton at (4) Spanish River, 7 p.m.
Santaluces/Park Vista winner vs. (2) Atlantic, 6 p.m.; Spanish River/Boca Raton winner vs. (1) Lake Worth, 7:30 p.m.
(5) Boynton Beach at (4) Royal Palm Beach, 7 p.m.; (7) West Boca Raton at (2) Forest Hill, 7 p.m.; (6) Olympic Heights at (3) Palm Beach Lakes, 7 p.m.
Forest Hill/West Boca Raton winner vs. Palm Beach Lakes/Olympic Heights winner, 6 p.m.; (1) Dwyer vs. Royal Palm Beach/Boynton Beach winner, 7:30 p.m.
(2) Suncoast vs. (3) Fort Pierce-Westwood, 5:30 p.m.; (1) Port St. Lucie vs. (4) Lincoln Park Academy, 7 p.m.
(5) King's Academy at (4) Glades Central, 7 p.m.
(1) Oxbridge Academy vs. King's Academy/Glades Central winner, 5 p.m.; (2) Cardinal Newman vs. (3) Inlet Grove, 7 p.m.
(5) American Heritage vs. (4) North Broward Prep, 5:30 p.m.
(1) Saint John Paul II Academy vs. North Broward Prep/American Heritage winner, 5:30 p.m.; (2) Coral Springs Charter vs. (3) St. Andrews, 7 p.m.
(3 North) Port St. Lucie-Somerset Prep at (2 North) Benjamin (Lower School campus), 7 p.m.; (3 South) Yeshiva at (2) Somerset Canyons, 7 p.m.
Benjamin/Somerset Prep winner vs. (1 North) Fort Pierce-John Carroll, 5:30 p.m.; Somerset Canyons/Yeshiva winner vs. (1 South) Westminster Academy, 7 p.m.
Odyssey Charter/Trinity Christian winner at (1) Village Academy, 7 p.m.; (5) Highlands Christian at (4) Lake Worth Christian, 7 p.m.; (7) Vero Beach-St. Edward's at (2) Jupiter Christian, 7 p.m.; (6) Berean Christian at (3) Boca Raton Christian, 7 p.m.
Jupiter Christian/St. Edward's winner vs. Boca Raton Christian/Berean Christian winner, 5 p.m.; Village Academy/Odyssey or Trinity Christian winner vs. Lake Worth Christian/Highlands Christian winner, 7 p.m.
(5) Hollywood Christian vs. (4) Immokalee-Donahue, 5 p.m.
(6) Glades Day vs. (3) Hollywood-Sheridan Hills, 4:30 p.m.; (7) Donna Klein Jewish Academy vs. (2) Atlantic Christian Academy, 6 p.m.
Glades Day/Sheridan Hills winner vs. Donna Klein/Atlantic Christian Academy winner, 5 p.m.; Hollywood Christian/Donahue Academy winner vs. (1) Grandview Prep, 6:30 p.m.
Championship game to be played at higher seed.
(3) Fort Meade at (2) Frostproof, 6 p.m.; (4) Pahokee at (1) Wildwood, 6 p.m.


Attorneys in a class action concerning defective washing machines sold by Sears, Roebuck and Co. and Whirlpool Corp. failed to justify a fee award of nearly $4.8 million, which was 1.75 times the fees the attorneys originally charged for their work on the case, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit held, reversing the judgment of a federal district court in Illinois and directing the court to reduce the fee award to $2.7 million. The lower court had reasoned that the case was unusually complex and had served the public interest, and that the attorneys had obtained an especially favorable settlement for the class, even though the fees they sought—$4.8 million with a 1.75 multiplier, as opposed to $2.7 million without a multiplier—greatly exceeded the likely award of damages to the class. While the Seventh Circuit agreed that work by the plaintiffs' attorneys (class counsel) in "a difficult case against a powerful corporation" warranted a fee in excess of the benefits to the class, the attorneys failed to prove that a reasonable fee would exceed $2.7 million, which was the pre-multiplier figure sought by class counsel and three times the damages awarded to the class in settlement (In Re Sears, Roebuck and Co. Front-loading Washer Products Liability Litigation, August 14, 2017, Posner, R.).
The case at issue stemmed from two defects in washing machines sold by Sears and Whirlpool (collectively, Sears): a control unit defect and the development of mold in the washers. Two plaintiff classes were certified in 2013—one consisting of owners of machines manufactured between 2004 and 2006 that had been affected by the control unit defect; and the other consisting of owners of machines affected by mold. Sears settled with both classes, and its appeal was limited to challenging the fees awarded to class counsel by the district court.
District court's class counsel fee award. The settlement left it to the court to determine the fees. Although the amount of damages that the class will receive has not yet been determined, the district court accepted Sears' estimate that the class members would receive no more than $900,000 from the settlement. Class counsel agreed to seek no more than $6 million in attorney fees. They claimed to have incurred $3.16 million in fees, but asked the court to multiply the amount by 1.9 to account for what they asserted was "their extraordinary effort in the case." They later increased their base fee estimate to $3.25 million after discovering more billable time, but reduced their multiplier request from 1.9 to 1.85. Either calculation would yield approximately $6 million for class counsel. However, the trial court concluded that attorneys for the class were entitled to a base fee of only $2,726,191, which the court multiplied by 1.75, making the total fee award $4,770,834.
Cut in fee award. The Seventh Circuit directed that the fee award be reduced to $2.7 million, despite class counsel's argument that the large fee award was warranted based on "the novelty/complexity of the legal issues involved, the degree of success obtained, the public interest advanced by the litigation, the fact that fees were contingent on the outcome of the case, and to a lesser extent the preclusion of certain class counsel from working on other cases." The district court had rejected the last two factors, but it deemed the first three (novelty/complexity, degree of success, and public interest) to be adequate in support of the 1.75 multiplier. The appellate court found that reasoning "questionable, because novelty and complexity influence the base fee—the more novel and complex a case, the more hours will be billed and the higher the hourly billing rates will be."
The district court, comparing the hourly rates sought by class counsel with the complexity of their work, concluded that the case was not very complex—the issue being whether or not Sears had sold defective washing machines. This conclusion left the appellate court "puzzled" as to why a multiplier was nevertheless allowed.
The Seventh Circuit noted that in two class action cases it had previously decided, it stated that a district court should compare attorney fees to what the class actually recovers and "presume" that fees exceeding the class recovery are unreasonable. The presumption, the appellate court said, was not an irrebuttable one. Given "the extensive time and effort" by class counsel in the case, which was "difficult" and was "against a powerful corporation," class counsel was entitled to a fee in excess of the class's benefits. However, class counsel failed to prove that a reasonable fee would exceed $2.7 million, which was the pre-multiplier figure sought by class counsel and three times the damages awarded to the class. Thus, the Seventh Circuit reversed the lower court's judgment and remanded with directions to award $2.7 million in fees to the class counsel.
The case is No. 16-3554.
Attorneys: James J. Rosemergy (Carey, Danis & Lowe) for Kevin Barnes. Timothy S. Bishop (Mayer Brown LLP) and Allison R. McLaughlin (Wheeler Trigg O'Donnell LLP) for Sears, Roebuck and Co. and Whirlpool Corp.
Companies: Sears, Roebuck and Co.; Whirlpool Corp.


text:
Back to Leadership
Romayne C. Brown
Romayne C. Brown was appointed to the Metra Board of Directors by Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle in September 2013, and was elected Chair of the Metra Board in September 2020. She is a professional transit manager with more than 31 years of operational and customer service experience.
Norman Carlson
Norman Carlson was appointed to the Metra Board of Directors in April 2013 by the Chairman of the Lake County Board, was elected Chair of the Metra Board in October 2016, and was elected Vice Chair of the Metra Board in September 2020.
Rodney Craig
Director and Secretary
Rodney S. Craig was appointed to the Metra Board of Directors in 2014 by the suburban members of the Cook County Board. Mr. Craig has also served as the president of the Village of Hanover Park since 2007.
Ken Koehler
Director and Treasurer
Ken Koehler was appointed to the Metra Board of Directors in September 2015 by the McHenry County Board. He is a longtime resident of McHenry County and Crystal Lake.
Julius W. (Wes) Becton
Wes Becton was appointed to the Metra Board of Directors in July 2021 by the Chairman of the DuPage County Board. Mr. Becton is CEO and co-founder of George Washington Street Partners, a consulting firm that specializes in business consulting and executive leadership coaching.
Ricardo Estrada
Ricardo (Ric) Estrada was appointed to the Metra Board of Directors in June 2021 by the mayor of Chicago. Mr. Estrada has three decades of leadership in human services and is currently the CEO of Metropolitan Family Services, one of Illinois's largest human service agencies.
Keri Holleb Hotaling
Keri L. Holleb Hotaling was appointed to the Metra Board of Directors in 2020 by suburban members of the Cook County Board. Ms. Holleb Hotaling, a Partner at Jenner & Block LLP in Chicago, Illinois, is a litigator with significant civil trial and appellate experience in both state and federal courts.
Joseph McMahon
Joseph H. McMahon was appointed to the Metra Board of Directors in May 2021 by the Chairman of the Kane County Board. He is the former Kane County State's Attorney.
Donald A. Orseno
Donald A. Orseno was appointed to the Metra Board of Directors in December 2019 by the Will County Executive. Mr. Orseno came to the Board after a long career at Metra, including serving as CEO/Executive Director.
Stephen Palmer
Stephen Palmer was appointed to the Metra Board of Directors in 2016 by suburban members of the Cook County Board. Mr. Palmer, a lifelong resident of the Village of LaGrange, is the owner and operator of Palmer Place Restaurant in LaGrange.
Paul E. Ruffin
Paul E. Ruffin was appointed to the Metra Board of Directors in June 2021 by suburban members of the Cook County Board. Mr. Ruffin comes to the Board with nearly three decades of experience in account management, sales, ands IT consulting, with special focus on process improvement, supplier diversity and minority business development.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Older single male looking for friends!


This post is a response to the recent article, "QUIZ: Are You Smart Enough to Get Into Private Kindergarten?" by Amy Zimmer. The article highlights new trends in educational testing for private school entrance exams. Parents are now faced with having to prepare their young children for a test – and resources are becoming more and more available, such as TestingMom.com. Eleane N. McCoy, Immanuel Christian School's Primary Team Leader, has provided a thoughtful response to this trend, and asks poignant questions to today's parents.
Okay, so how many moms clicked on the popular website, TestingMom.com, which claims to "make your kid smarter," just to see what it was like? It is natural as mothers to be curious about our children's future. Will he be a rich man, poor man, beggar man, thief, doctor, lawyer, Indian chief? Taking these exams and trying to predict the future for a four or five year old is like predicting the future through the childhood rhyme repeated as one counted out the buttons worn that day. Every day is a different number of buttons; thus, a different future! So it is with a child's future. Unpredictable. Through the careful watch of parents and caregivers, each day brings new and exciting knowledge built on yesterday's adventures. But what should that knowledge entail? That is the true question at hand.
So, we must ask ourselves as today's parents: What it is that we value as a society? What are we telling our children when we begin preparing them for testing at two years of age? What does that show we value the most?
I can't help but turn to God's Word for the answer to the age-old question, "What are we here for?" According to Psalm 73: 25-26, "Who do I have in heaven, but You? And I desire nothing on earth but You. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart, my portion forever." We are on this earth to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. To that end, we should be preparing our children on what it means to, act justly, love mercy, and to walk humbly with our God (Micah 6: 8).


This does not produce exactly the same SQL, but does provide the same logical result. Translating "complex" SQL queries to LINQ is not always straightforward.
Just youse the above code and this should work fine!
I haven't had the need to do any groupby commands yet, so I left that out as to not send you down the wrong path. Two other quick things to note. I have been unable to actually join on two parameters although as above there are ways to get around it. Also, the ?? operator works really well in place of the isnull in SQL.
You're going to want to use the join into construct to create a group query.
Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged c# linq left-join or ask your own question.


text:
Q: Diagram in Tikz environment I'm looking to create something like this in Tikz environment. Any tips? help?

A: The forest package allows you to recreate these figures.
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[edges]{forest}
\begin{document}
\begin{forest}
for tree={rounded corners,text=white,font=\sffamily,align=center,
grow'=east,forked edges,edge = {semithick, -stealth}, % see https://tex.stackexchange.com/a/333597/121799
anchor=west,l sep=2.5em,
if level=0{fill=green!60!black}{},
if level=1{fill=blue!70,minimum width={1.1*width("Merkmal beliebig")}}{},
if level=2{fill=blue,minimum width={1.1*width("Varianz unbekannt")}}{},
}
[Erwartungswert $\mu$
 [Merkmal\\ normalverteilt
  [Varianz bekannt]
  [Varianz unbekannt]
 ]
 [Merkmal beliebig\\ verteilt]
]
\end{forest}
\bigskip

\begin{forest}
for tree={rounded corners,text=white,font=\sffamily,align=center,
grow'=east,forked edges,edge = {semithick, -stealth}, % see https://tex.stackexchange.com/a/333597/121799
anchor=west,l sep=3.5em,
if level=0{fill=green!60!black}{},
if level=1{fill=blue!70,minimum width={1.1*width("Merkmal beliebig")}}{},
}
[Varianz $\sigma^2$
 [Merkmal\\ normalverteilt
 ]
]
\end{forest}
\end{document}

A: An alternative to @marmot's nice answer:
\documentclass[tikz,margin=3mm]{standalone}
\usetikzlibrary{positioning}
\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}[
    filv/.style={
        fill=green!50!black,
        font=\color{white},
        rectangle,
        rounded corners=3pt,
        minimum width=3.5cm
    },
    selv/.style={
        fill=cyan!50!black,
        font=\color{white},
        rectangle,
        rounded corners=3pt,
        minimum width=3.5cm,
        align=center
    },
    thlv/.style={
        fill=blue!30!black,
        font=\color{white},
        rectangle,
        rounded corners=3pt,
        minimum width=3.5cm
    }
]
\node[filv] (lv1-1) {Erwartungswert $\mu$};
\node[filv,below=2cm of lv1-1.south] (lv1-2) {Varianz $\sigma^2$};
\node[selv,above right=0.25cm and 1.5cm of lv1-1.east] (lv2-1) {Merkmal\\ normalverteilt};
\node[selv,below right=0.25cm and 1.5cm of lv1-1.east] (lv2-2) {Merkmal beliebig\\ verteilt};
\node[selv,right=1.5cm of lv1-2.east] (lv2-3) {Merkmal\\ normalverteilt};
\node[thlv,right=1.5cm of lv2-1.north east] (lv3-1) {Varianz bekannt};
\node[thlv,right=1.5cm of lv2-1.south east] (lv3-2) {Varianz unbekannt};
\draw[-latex] (lv1-2)--(lv2-3);
\coordinate[right=0.75cm of lv1-1.east] (mid1);
\coordinate[left=0.75cm of lv2-1.west] (mid1-a);
\coordinate[left=0.75cm of lv2-2.west] (mid1-b);
\draw (lv1-1)--(mid1);
\draw[latex-latex] (lv2-2)--(mid1-b)--(mid1-a)--(lv2-1);
\coordinate[right=0.75cm of lv2-1.east] (mid2);
\coordinate[left=0.75cm of lv3-1.west] (mid2-a);
\coordinate[left=0.75cm of lv3-2.west] (mid2-b);
\draw (lv2-1)--(mid2);
\draw[latex-latex] (lv3-2)--(mid2-b)--(mid2-a)--(lv3-1);
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

A: for completness ... pure tikz version with using trees library:
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
 \usetikzlibrary{arrows, positioning, trees}

\begin{document}
\begin{figure}
    \tikzset{
  base/.style = {rounded corners,
                 text=white, font=\sffamily,
                 minimum width=20ex,
                 align=center},
    L1/.style = {base, fill=teal},
    L2/.style = {base, fill=cyan!80!black},
    L3/.style = {base, fill=cyan!60!black},
   grow=east,
   edge from parent fork right,
   level distance = 37mm,
   level 1/.style = {sibling distance=16mm},
   level 2/.style = {sibling distance = 8mm},
    edge from parent/.style = {draw, semithick, -latex}
            }
    \begin{tikzpicture}
\node[L1] {Erwartungswert $\mu$}
    child {node[L2] {Merkmal\\ normalverteilt}
        child {node[L3] {Varianz bekannt}}
        child {node[L3] {Varianz unbekannt}}
          }
    child {node[L2] {Merkmal beliebig\\ verteilt}}
    ;
    \end{tikzpicture}

\bigskip
    \begin{tikzpicture}
\node[L1] {Varianz $\sigma^2$}
    child {node[L2] {Merkmal\\ normalverteilt}}
   ;
    \end{tikzpicture}
\end{figure}
\end{document}

of course, with forest is more simply and elegant solution

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Q: Doctrine insert/update/modify sub entities on @OneToMany I have a project based on Symfony 2.6. It has the following structure:
Customer->@OneToMany->Orders->@OneToMany->Domains->@OneToMany->SubDomains

same in reverse order:
SubDomains->@ManyToOne->Domains->@ManyToOne->Orders->@ManyToOne->Customer

Doctrine creates some additional pretty cool "magic" columns like customer_id (in domains), order_id (in domains) and domain_id (in subdomains).
It think it would be perfect, if all these *_id cols are filled with the IDs of the parent table. But in my case, that will not match all the time.
Only for tables customer and order, the *_id cols are filled properly.
My PHP code creates new Domain Entities. It also sets the ID, if the record exists in DB, and it adds all the subdomains as ArrayCollection.
Here is my storeOrder() method:
protected function storeOrder(Order $order, array $domains) {
    if ($order->getDomains()->count() === 0) {
        // insert
        foreach ($domains as $domain) {
            $order->getDomains()->add($this->createDomainFromArray($domain));
        }
    } else {
        // remove/add
        $order->getDomains()->clear();
        foreach ($domains as $domain) {
            $order->getDomains()->add($this->createDomainFromArray($domain));
        }
    }
    //$updatedOrder = $this->entityManager->merge($order);
    // starts the commit process incl. transactions and prepared queries
    $this->entityManager->persist($order);
    $this->entityManager->flush();
    // clear all cached entities in em. That speeds up processing enormous
    $this->entityManager->clear();
    $this->amountOfDomains += count($domains);
}

/**
 * create a domain object from delivered data array
 *
 * @param array $data
 * @return Domain
 */
protected function createDomainFromArray($data) {
    $domain = new Domain();
    $domain->setOrderNumber($this->orderNumber);
    $domain->fromArray(ArrayUtility::removeSubEntriesFromArray($data));
    $this->addIdToDomainIfFoundInDatabase($domain);
    $this->addSubDomainsToDomain($domain, $data['subdomain']);

    return $domain;
}

/**
 * To prevent duplicate domains in database we have to set the id,
 * if we have found such domain already in DB
 * @param Domain $domain
 */
protected function addIdToDomainIfFoundInDatabase(Domain $domain) {
    /** @var Domain|NULL $domainFromDatabase */
    $domainFromDatabase = $this->findDomainBySeid($domain->getSeid());
    if ($domainFromDatabase instanceof Domain) {
        $domain->setId($domainFromDatabase->getId());
    }
}

/**
 * find domain by seid
 *
 * @param int $seid
 * @return Domain|NULL
 */
protected function findDomainBySeid($seid) {
    // do not use empty, because findOneBy can also return NULL as result
    if (!isset($this->cache['domainFromDatabase']) || (is_object($this->cache['domainFromDatabase']) && $this->cache['domainFromDatabase']->getSeid() !== $seid)) {
        $this->cache['domainFromDatabase'] = $this->domainRepository->findOneBy(array(
            'seid' => $seid,
            'orderNumber' => $this->orderNumber
        ));
    }
    return $this->cache['domainFromDatabase'];
}

/**
 * add/override subdomains to domain object
 *
 * @param Domain $domain
 * @param array $subDomains These are the subDomains from request
 */
protected function addSubDomainsToDomain(Domain $domain, array $subDomains) {
    $first = TRUE;
    $this->amountOfSubDomains += count($subDomains);
    $domainFromDatabase = $this->findDomainBySeid($domain->getSeid());
    if ($domainFromDatabase instanceof Domain) {
        $subDomainsFromDatabase = $domainFromDatabase->getSubDomains();
    } else {
        $subDomainsFromDatabase = new ArrayCollection();
    }

    foreach ($subDomains as $subDomain) {
        // create new SubDomain
        $subDomainObject = new SubDomain();
        $subDomainObject->setOrderNumber($this->orderNumber);
        $subDomainObject->fromArray($subDomain);

        // add ID to subDomain, if we have one already in DB
        // It's not perfect, but as long as we can have fully equal records in subdomain table
        // I don't see any chance to change that
        if ($first) {
            $subDomainFromDatabase = $subDomainsFromDatabase->first();
            $first = FALSE;
        } else {
            $subDomainFromDatabase = $subDomainsFromDatabase->next();
        }
        if ($subDomainFromDatabase instanceof SubDomain) {
            $subDomainObject->setId($subDomainFromDatabase->getId());
        }

        // add Order to Customer
        $domain->addSubDomain($subDomainObject);
    }
}

Here are the annotation from order entity:
/**
 * Order -> domains
 *
 * @var ArrayCollection
 * @ORM\OneToMany(targetEntity="FQCN\Domain", mappedBy="order", cascade={"all"})
 */
protected $domains;

Here are the annotations from subdomain entity:
/**
 * relation from domain to order
 *
 * @ORM\ManyToOne(targetEntity="FQCN\Order", inversedBy="domains")
 */
protected $order = NULL;

/**
 * domain -> subDomains
 *
 * @var ArrayCollection
 * @ORM\OneToMany(targetEntity="FQCN\SubDomain", mappedBy="domain", cascade={"all"})
 */
protected $subDomains;

If I use only flush(), the *_id fields will not be filled. If I call detach($order), the fields will be filled properly, but now I have a second (duplicate) of $order in my database. If I use merge() everything works on INSERT, but not if I want to update all my ArrayCollections.
What I'm doing wrong? How to UPDATE ArrayCollections the right way without removing and creating them again? How to get the *_id field filled?
Stefan

A: Thank you all. Here my solution:
I have added a new function to my domain model, to get the original subDomain object from database:
public function getSubDomain($seid) {
    foreach ($this->subDomains as $subDomain) {
        if ($subDomain->getSeid() === $seid) {
            return $subDomain;
        }
    }
}

In my DomainSynchronization-Object I decide between updated or new record:
$domainFromDatabase = $order->getDomain((int)$domain['seid']);
if ($domainFromDatabase instanceof Domain) {
    // update
    $this->updateDomainFromArray($domainFromDatabase, $domain);
} else {
    // insert
    $order->getDomains()->add($this->createDomainFromArray($domain, $order));

}
And, as @redbirdo already mentioned, I add the domain object to subDomains manually now:
protected function addSubDomainsToDomain(Domain $domain, array $subDomains) {
    $this->amountOfSubDomains += count($subDomains);
    foreach ($subDomains as $subDomain) {
        $subDomainObject = $domain->getSubDomain((int)$subDomain['seid']);
        if ($subDomainObject instanceof SubDomain) {
            // update
            $subDomainObject->fromArray($subDomain);
        } else {
            // insert
            $subDomainObject = new SubDomain();
            $subDomainObject->setDomain($domain);
            $subDomainObject->setOrderNumber($this->orderNumber);
            $subDomainObject->fromArray($subDomain);
            $domain->addSubDomain($subDomainObject);
        }
    }
}

Now I don't need a ->persist() or ->merge() anymore. It's enough to call:
$this->entityManager->flush();

Any I can see the parent UIDs now in subdomain table, too.
Thank you all

A: Firstly, I notice that when you add a domain to an order you are calling:
$order->getDomains()->add($this->createDomainFromArray($domain));

Your order class should have these methods, then you can use addDomain():
public function addDomain(Domain $domain)
{
    $this->domains[] = $domain;
    return $this;
}

public function removeDomain(Domain $domain)
{
    $this->domains->removeElement($domain);
}

Adding those methods may be enough to fix your issue. However, I usually find it necessary to explicitly set both ends of a relationship, in this case between Order and Domain. I presume you aren't doing this since when you create a Domain you do not pass in the Order:
$order->getDomains()->add($this->createDomainFromArray($domain));

Try this instead:
$domain = $this->createDomainFromArray($domain);
$domain->setOrder($order);
$order->addDomain($domain);

You will need to do something similar with your SubDomains.
I can't see why you should need to use $em->detach() or $em->merge() although from the code in the question I don't know where the Order passed into storeOrder() is coming from.


text:
Charles Foster Named Vice Dean of Consular Corps of Houston
by Foster LLP, on News
HOUSTON – March 1, 2018 – Charles Foster, founder and chairman of immigration law firm, Foster LLP, will today be named vice dean of the Consular Corps of Houston. Mr. Foster will officially receive the honor and be appointed vice dean by the Consular Corps of Houston's executive committee at […]
Foster Ranked #1 Largest Houston-Area Immigration Law Firm
HOUSTON – Aug. 14, 2017 – Foster LLP, a leading immigration law firm delivering the full spectrum of U.S. and global immigration solutions, was recently ranked No. 1 in the Houston Business Journal's list of the Largest Houston-Area Immigration Law Firms. Foster received the top ranking out of 19 other […]
Eight Foster Immigration Attorneys Named to 2018 Best Lawyers in America© List
HOUSTON – Aug. 21, 2017 – Foster LLP, a leading immigration law firm delivering the full spectrum of U.S. and global immigration solutions, is pleased to announce that eight Foster immigration attorneys have been selected by their peers for inclusion in the 2018 The Best Lawyers in America© list published […]


I was feeling a bit depressed last week, and at first I thought it was a post-holiday slump or a bout of homesickness. After a while, though, I realised that my depression was caused by the gaping void which had opened up in my life since Mrs M and I finished watching the final season of ER.
I was addicted to ER way back in the mid-nineties, and Mrs M caught the bug when a friend of hers lent us a huge pile of DVDs last year. Once she had reached season 5 or 6, I picked up where I had left off, and we both became more and more obsessed, until we practically sprinted through the last few episodes.
Bizarrely, the Japanese DVDs use Roman numerals, so it wasn't until I accompanied Mrs M to the local video shop that we realised season XV was in stock, although the show's secondary title in Japan is a helpfully literal translation of the phrase 'emergency room': 緊急救命室 / Kinkyu-kyumei-shitsu. Mrs M watched some of the early episodes dubbed into Japanese, but this always felt a bit odd, particularly as the voice actors performed as if they were working on a more, as it were, 'grown up' production. So for the most part we chose the original soundtrack with Japanese subtitles, which gave Mrs M her English listening practice and me my Japanese reading practice (not that I'm ever going to use words like ten-teki - 点滴 / intravenous drip - hin-myaku - 頻脈 / tachycardia - and hohwa - 飽和 / saturation - in real life, but anyway).
To be honest, the glory days of ER were its first few seasons, when the show was fast-paced, technically superb and genuinely gritty (in a way that I assume Hill Street Blues used to be, although I never saw it). Somewhere around series 11 or 12, the makers seemed to lose their mojo, and we nearly gave up on it altogether, as the pace slowed to a crawl and it all began to look a bit daytime-y. But while the budgets had clearly been cut, with noticeably fewer set pieces and special effects than before, there was enough good acting and good writing that, by the two-hour finalé, we almost didn't want it to end at all.
At the peak of its success, the show's stars were getting paid seven-figure sums per episode, which is pretty mind-boggling when you consider they were making 22 a year. The sequences set in the Congo in seasons 9 and 10 really did look more like a feature film than a TV show, and I suppose from that point onwards, they only way they could go was down.
While the female characters remained strong until the end - Angela Bassett acts the rest of the cast off the screen as Doctor Banfield in season 15 (where on earth had she been since What's Love Got To Do With It?), and Parminder Nagra (of Bend It Like Beckham fame) got better the more seasons she starred in - once Anthony Edwards and George Clooney had left, no one ever quite managed to fill their surgical gowns. Doctor Kovac, Doctor Gates, Ray what's-his-name: they were all a little too pretty and a little too shallow. Mekhi Phifer as Doctor Pratt was the pick of the bunch, although Mrs M's vote for studliest doc went to Noah Wyle as Carter.
Carter was in many ways the heart and soul of the show: he started pretty much when it started and the two grew up together, and you could almost say we saw the world of the ER through his eyes. Carter also starred in what was probably my favourite episode, in which he and a medical student are stabbed by a psychopathic patient, although the way he left the show, by being dragged off to Africa by his frankly annoying wife (sorry, Thandie Newton - it wasn't you, it was the role), was a little anti-climactic.
Conversely, if I had to choose my least favourite episode, it would probably be the one in which Ewan McGregor adopts one of the thoroughly unconvincing accents for which he has become so renowned, playing a 'Chicago'-ite who holds up a convenience store (McGregor is so rubbish at accents that on occasion I even find myself doubting his Scots, although I should probably leave it to someone better qualified for the job to trash the likes of The Phantom Menace).
Another stand-out episode (a double- or possibly even triple-bill, if I remember rightly), was the one in which Doctor Romano gets his arm chopped off by a helicopter rotor blade, which leads me on to one of the few gripes I have with the normally excellent scriptwriting.
Because there is more time in a TV series than a movie in which to create realistically complex characters, it's very satisfying to watch those characters develop as time passes, but for whatever reason, Romano was never allowed to do so. He was bullying and insensitive from the very first minute he appeared on screen until the very last, and particularly after the arm / rotor blade incident, you felt there was a chance he might redeem himself. In one of the more bizarre curtain calls the show has seen, however, he died just as he had lived: as the guy everyone loved to hate.
In contrast, there are characters like Frank: on the surface, Frank is a doughnut-eating, old-school conservative, racially insensitive male chauvanist. While his main function is to provide comic relief to contrast with the blood-and-guts being spilled around him, in a couple of key episodes we are given insights into his life that cast him in a completely new light. In one we meet the daughter to whom he is devoted, and who happens to have Downs Syndrome, and in another, when he finds himself on the wrong side of the reception desk as a patient, he delivers an anaesthetic-induced monologue about the African-American soldiers he fought with and came to admire in the Vietnam war.
In the old days, when the writers had run out of ideas and the film crew needed some time off, sitcoms used to do a flashback episode: scenes from previous series would be interspersed with 'Hey, do you remember when so-and-so did that hilarious thing?' dialogue and wiggly screen special effects straight from an episode of Scooby Doo. Apart from one very short sequence just before Doctor Rasgotra jumps ship, mercifully, the makers of ER didn't stoop to such nonsense. While a lot of the actors who had left the show returned for cameos in season 15, it was all done with a reasonable amount of subtlety, so that rather than a big, back-slapping party scene in the final episode, characters pop up in relatively credible circumstances - or in Doctors Greene and Romano's case, a rather ingenious and newly filmed flashback that fills in some of Doctor Banfield's back story.
Sure, there are a few more loose ends in the plotlines than before, the way in which characters are introduced and retired from the show is sometimes perfunctory, and the camerawork isn't quite as easy on the eye as it used to be, but even season 15 is gripping, and funny, and moving, and stomach churning, and all kinds of other things that make you want to keep watching, and for those many reasons, I shall continue to feel a bit depressed for at least another couple of weeks - or until Mrs M and I start watching seasons I to VIII of XXIV, whichever comes first.
I'm sure some of you have been wondering where I've been for the past couple of weeks (at least I hope some of you have been wondering where I've been for the past couple of weeks), so just to let you know, I haven't disappeared off the face of the earth, I've merely disappeared off the face of Ibaraki.
For the final week and a half of my summer holidays, I decided to cycle to Sadogashima (佐渡島 / Sado Island) on my cut-price Joyful Yamashin mountain bike, and the plan at present is to transform the scrawled diary entries I kept into eloquent and evocative blog posts. While I'm working on the first of these, here's a pretty photo of the prettiest place I saw: Futatsugamé on the northern tip of the island.


text:
David V. Goliath: Small-Cap Tech To Save Giant Coal
Posted By: OilPrice May 7, 2015, 9:55 am
The Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) new mercury pollution regulations that took effect last month opened the flood gates for a new multi-billion-dollar energy industry that has investors scrambling to get in on second-generation technology poised for massive revenue gains.
When the EPA measures to curb mercury pollution from coal-fired power plants over 25 megawatts took effect on 16 April, it wasn't only environmentalists who were popping the champagne corks—technology companies specializing in mercury remediation broke out the glasses as well.
After all, the new regulations created a $2 billion-a-year, federally mandated business for them virtually overnight. These Federal regulations add a further 28 states to the 22 states who already have similar state-imposed mercury emission compliance regulations.
This is a newborn industry that is only going to get bigger—and fast. The 16 April EPA Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) require that all US-based coal- and oil-fired electric power plants generating 25MW and higher reduce their mercury emissions by approximately 90%.
With compliance deferments awarded in 2014, approximately 25% of the United States coal-fired plants operated by the power utility industry are subject to compliance with the EPA mercury emission controls in 2015. But this is only the beginning.
By this time next year, 75% of the rest of America's coal-fired plants are scheduled to come under strict mercury emission regulations, while new limits are expected to be placed on greenhouse gas emissions this summer as well.
In order for coal-fired power plants to survive, they will have to find a way to comply cost-effectively. This is where new second-generation mercury remediation technology comes in to save the day.
Once investors realize the door that was opened wide on 16 April, a number of small- and mid-cap plays will suddenly seem like a good way to profit on the new regulations, including: Advanced Emissions Solutions, Albemarle Corporation, Calgon Carbon, Fuel Tech and Midwest Energy Emissions.
The largest first-generation emission control companies in this industry right now are Federal Signal, Cabot, Advanced Emissions Solutions, Calgon Carbon Corporation and CECO Environmental. But it is the small-cap players here that will be undervalued, with some analysts predicting share prices jumping by 15%-84%.
To many industry analysts, the first-generation mercury emission technological solutions missed the mark. Their activated carbon filtration technology was too expensive, using up to $5-$6 million per energy generating unit (EGU) per year. First-generation technology also missed the mark on coal ash, which was destroyed in the carbon filtration process, but could be used as a cash cushion to partly mitigate the costs of emissions control. When you consider that re-selling coal ash to the cement and concrete industry is estimated to bring coal plants $450 million annually in extra income, this loss is a great one.
This brings us to the second-generation mercury emissions control technology put out by smaller environmental services companies in which investors are hustling to get in on the ground floor before stocks start to soar.
One that stands out is Midwest Energy Emissions, which burst onto this scene from obscurity in collaboration with North Dakota University's Environmental Emission Research (EERC) team, which has been researching clean coal technologies for over 50 years. Not only does MEEC's second-generation solution guarantee coal-fired power plant compliance, but it appears to be the first to do so at 50% lower costs than first-generation solutions.
The technological solution developed by EERC and MEEC is a patented, cost-effective mercury capture system for coal-fired units in the US and Canada that not only allows them to meet EPA emissions stands for 90% reductions, but to exceed them. But the real advancement here is economic: The technology can be implemented for half the cost of its predecessors and at the end of the day, according to university researchers and MEEC, it significantly reduces expensive wear and tear on boiler systems.
From the perspective of the coal industry, this second-generation solution could not come at a better time because it will make compliance survivable and even economical. From the broader perspective of the American economy, this is a win-win solution that allows us to hang on to coal, but clean it up cost-effectively while in the meantime, saving hundreds of thousands of jobs according to a recent Heritage Foundation research report.
From a pure investment perspective, EPA regulation strongly controls new entrants on this explosive scene, but the credibility resounds most loudly with the upstart MEEC due to its public-private partnership with EERC, which is one of the world's leading developers of cleaner, more efficient energy and environmental technologies and was designated by the EPA itself as the Center for Air Toxic Metal (CATM).
That MEEC has already booked over $100 million of revenue from leading U.S. Utility companies speaks volumes about the potential of this technology.
Overall, this brand new multi-billion sector is poised for overnight gains, with analysts predicting that the industry will outperform the S&P broader market substantially during the next two quarters, and beyond, as coal-fired power plants work towards compliance.
Source: http://oilprice.com/Energy/Coal/David-V.-Goliath-Small-Cap-Tech-To-Save-Giant-Coal.html
By James Stafford of Oilprice.com
OilPrice
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Prof. Yash Ghai reading Sri Lankan minds on federalism states 'There seems to be a phobia in your
9 November 2017 12:00 am - 0 - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
Prof. Yash Ghai
Prof. Yash Ghai has advised in the negotiations and making of constitutions in about 15 countries. He chaired the Kenyan Constitution Commission and its constituent assembly which led to a new constitution in 2010. In 2013 Prof. Ghai was selected by the Fijian Military Government to be the Chairperson of Fiji's Constitutional Committee. He was the Sir Y K Pao Professor of Public Law at the University of Hong Kong and has taught law at the University of Warwick. He has held visiting professorships at the Harvard Law School, Yale Law School, Uppsala University and the University of Wisconsin. In a recent visit to Sri Lanka, at the invitation of Democracy Reporting International, he shared with the Dailymirror the Kenyan experience of constitution making.
The people were very tired of an autocratic Government and some communities were completely marginalized because of the tribes
The Kenyan Constitution pays the most respect to the people
We wanted to remove ethnicity from politics
We didn't want parties to start squabbling on ethnic lines
QCould you trace how Kenya was able to introduce a new constitution in 2010?
It took a longtime. Discussions about a new constitution commenced about 12 years before we finally had the constitution. There are a number of reasons as to why it took that long. We were experiencing a very momentous period from a situation of a one party state to a very democratic constitution. So it took time to persuade the regime.
Fortunately, the people were very keen on a very democratic system which is fair to all the communities, and that helped us a lot. People appreciated what we were doing. The politicians also realized that the people were in support of a more democratic, participatory process. So in the end we put the draft to a public referendum and it was approved by 70% of the voters. It took a longtime because politicians kept changing their mind.
I think people were longing for a change for a long time because we've had two very tyrannical presidents, who completely monopolized state power.
Q Since it took 12 years for the Constitution to be introduced, was the same draft used? What exactly was the process?
One advantage we had-may be over the system here- is that there was a commission appointed to propose a Constitution. This was a mixture of academics and civil society people. There were no politicians involved. I chaired that commission. We had good resources. We had enough money from Parliament and I didn't need to raise money from outside. So in comparison to the work the commission achieved within 4 or 5 years, the period before wasn't so formulized. But the civil society had become very active and they had been meeting and putting pressure on the Government. They had even done a rough draft of the Constitution. Ours was much longer and more sophisticated. But we did use the draft they had made. By that time there was strong public support. I think that was basically what kept the process going.
Q Could you share the Kenyan experience of public consultation before the Constitution was drafted?
I believe very much in consultation. I think the Kenyan Constitution is probably one that pays the most respect to the people. We are of course a much bigger country than yours. At that time we had 70 districts. We went around to each of these districts. We had meetings and explained to the people what our mission was. Then we told that we would return in six months when they would talk to us. We also posed some questions that they should also think about. We then established a small office in each of those districts, with one or two staffers, a small library and a computer where they could keep in touch with our work as we toured the country. They were also funded so that they could have their own meetings. This was done because when we went back six months later, they would be able to provide us with a collective view, or each group or individual could tell us what they wished to see in the Constitution.
When we returned to our office in Nairobi I had about 70 computer end lists. All these data was fed into a computer along 10 or 12 themes. At the conclusion we could see which people wanted a parliamentary system, who wanted an executive presidency and who wanted religion to take part in politics etc. We analyzed and summarized the feedback we received. We received space (full pages) in newspapers where we said 'this is what the people told us'. We took them (newspapers) to the people themselves and inquired if it was a true representation of what they had said. Not a single group wrote back and said we never said that. We wanted to respond to the people's concerns because often they can't articulate. The press doesn't go there. There is no mechanism for accountability. So this was the first time they really had the opportunity to get engaged. For us it was very important to see what life is and what the day today issues important to them are.
We believed in transparency. This was important in educating us and other Kenyans as to what people were thinking of in different places. It was also important because we wanted their support. They were very impressed. Nobody had shown that respect to them before. Even when the President was attacking me openly I just laughed. I knew that all these people were behind us. Their support didn't wither. The whole thing was very democratic.
Here (In Sri Lanka) there has been some consultation. I've seen this big report that they produced. I was quite impressed by the way they had reached out to the people. I put a very high priority to people's participation. Reading the report I was impressed by the views the people had presented which weren't bigoted, which weren't ethnically oriented. Many of them, I thought, were very democratic. It seems to me already that not too much attention is being given to this excellent report, because they not only summarize what people said, but also made their own submissions.
Q In Sri Lanka, the constitution making process has gone beyond the stage of the Public Representations Committee (PRC) report and the interim report has been released. When it comes to debating the interim report, do you think it's still important to consult the public and obtain their views?
Oh, yes, I think it's essential during all the stages. They have to be consulted and there has to be publicity for all the discussions that take place in parliament or committees. In our case it wasn't a parliament. It was produced by 15 of us after all these consultations I mentioned and all the research. Not a single politician was involved and they didn't like some parts, and I said 'sorry, people in this country want it'. So I would say continue with the dialogue with the people.
Q When Kenya held a referendum in 2010 what was the driving force which made Kenya win the referendum?
I think the people were very tired of an autocratic Government and some communities were completely marginalized because of what we called the tribes. I won't say that they were helping people of their own tribes. But the impression given was that they only support the people of their own tribe. But in fact when we were travelling in the country, even in the area of the President, we didn't see much sign of development. People complained to us that even though the President came from their tribe he didn't really care for them. So I think that people had grown tired of the dictatorial regime. They had got tired of corruption, and it had gone on for quite a long period. They wanted a fairer system and this was throughout the country. So that morally and psychologically enabled those of us involved in making the constitution to feel that we have this very strong support.
Q What are some of the progressive features of the Kenyan Constitution that Sri Lanka could also adopt?
The Kenyan Constitution has a number of innovations. We were very much entranced by the South African Constitution. Their Constitution was made about 20 years before we finalized ours. So we were studying it very carefully. We had our own views. We had been for 20 or more years under a dictatorship. So we wanted to avoid that from repeating.
There was a strong emphasis on human rights and people's power. People not only vote at elections every five years, but constantly stay engaged with the law and policy making process. The Government actually has to consult the people before they make policy. They have to announce in the newspapers what they're proposing and they must give some weeks for the public to comment. So it's very much a constant democratic system.
We are also very concerned about conflicts between different ethnic groups in Sri Lanka. That had been a very big problem for us. We have about 44 tribes. But five tribes dominate the whole country and they're constantly fighting each other over Presidency and power. So we wanted to remove ethnicity from politics. Now the real test is citizenship. If you're a citizen, you'll have the same rights that anybody else has. At the same time we appreciate the culture of different groups-the music, the literature, the religion etc. We thought that all that was valuable should be preserved. But we tried to make a distinction between private lives, social lives and the State. We didn't want all these to intrude the State. We just wanted every citizen to be treated as an equal, which I think was a big change.
Generally the executive presidency isn't very healthy, especially when you have a multiplicity of language groups or religious groups because inevitably you'll have the President from one community. And that person has all the great powers. Inevitably the president enjoying all these powers unnerves the people
We also tried-though it's a difficult thing to do- to make every political party register as a party for the purpose of elections. They had to establish themselves with the registrar of societies and prove that it was genuinely a national political party. What we meant this way was that they had offices all over the country, and that their membership reflected the diversity of the country. We didn't want parties to start squabbling on ethnic lines.
We also created a number of independent institutions where we felt that the Government would become too partisan such as in the appointment of judges and the ombudsman. So we have around nine of those politically independent institutions.
Q You have been vocal against the 'imperial presidency' of Kenya. There is an executive presidency in place in Sri Lanka. Do you think that the executive presidency should be abolished, or that the powers of the executive president should be reduced?
Generally the executive presidency isn't very healthy, especially when you have a multiplicity of language groups or religious groups because inevitably you'll have the President from one community. And that person has all the great powers. Inevitably the president enjoying all these powers unnerves the people. He receives a lot of authority. So this is not really very democratic. Many communities feel left out, whereas in a parliamentary system there is much more sharing. There is a Prime Minister who is the leader of the Government, but there is accountability on a daily basis to Parliament. Within the cabinet itself there are discussions. In England, very recently, the Prime Minister was thrown out. In Multi-ethnic societies I think a parliamentary system is much better. There's a big fashion in the African countries to have an executive presidency and I think that has been a big disaster for Africa.
Q How can constitutional reform resolve minority concerns?
A constitution can resolve it by ensuring that the appointments of public servants and ministries are based on merit and not on ethnicity. If the larger tribe tries to bribe then they get disqualified. We also have provisions that if a particular community has been marginalized over a period of time- as many have in our country- then the State must take remedial action, so they also elevate themselves to the level of other communities. So I think that the minority groups now feel that they are part of the Kenyan family.
The other thing we did was to set up a system of devolution. We have around 47 constituencies which we call counties. Significant powers over matters of local concern such as primary schools, agriculture have been devolved where the counties are in control. They raise the money themselves through taxes, but the substantial amount of money they have is what is transferred from the national treasury on the advice of an independent commission. They now have their own area and nobody can interfere. As a result these people feel that they are part of Kenya.
In your case I know that the Buddhists claim special privileges. But it's hard to see on what basis they claim this special treatment, emphasis or mention. I think it will be wonderful if Buddhists, Muslims and Christians can air their voices together and state what the national problems are
We have a senate, a second chamber which consists of representatives from the counties. So in these different ways we have tried to change the system. But I can't say that we have succeeded completely. The constitution came in 2010 and the time since then hasn't been sufficient to try to make fundamental changes.
Q Has Kenya also been struggling with the 'Unitary' and 'Federal' labels like in Sri Lanka?
No, most countries in Africa are unitary. But there has been an increasing trend during the past twenty to twenty five years towards some kind of a provincial Government. The word federal is used only in Nigeria and Ethiopia. In Kenya we don't use the word 'federal'. We say 'devolution'. In South Africa there are three tiers whereas we have two. There is a trend now in Africa towards sharing power. They feel that it's not really possible to govern from the Capital especially as our communications aren't that great and roads aren't very tarred. So it's slow, but I think it's a good move and I certainly support that. I think we are better off in Kenya for having devolution.
QWhy is it that federalism is feared?
There seems to be a particular phobia in your country (Sri Lanka). Most people (in other countries) aren't afraid. After all India despite making itself a federation remains very united. I'm also a bit puzzled. I was speaking the other day here and I said that I look upon federalism not as to something do with the minority. It is to do more with democracy. As I often say in lighter vein locally, any Kenyan unhappy with their local Government can just walk half a mile and knock on the door of the governor and say 'come come tell me this'. And some do this. This is just to say that you have so much access to the Government. The Government can't make policy either at the national level or at the provincial level without informing the people. This has really enhanced equality and democracy.
Q How do you balance freedom of religion with other fundamental rights such as the right to equality in a constitution?
The Bill of Rights of the Kenyan Constitution provides for religions freedom to be exercised. Rights of religious communities are protected but another Article states that the State and religion are separate. Most people are Christians. The church has tended to throw its weight around and we have to remind them that they better stick to the church, and not get into politics. We have many religions. But Christians and Muslims are the main groups. There are also Hindus and other smaller groups. I must say that the religious groups have done a wonderful job. They meet up regularly. They put pressure on the Government collectively. They respect all the religions within the parties. So religious groups have been a positive factor when we were making the Constitution. Religious groups were supporting us. But we know by studying other countries that religion can be divisive and can lead to conflict.
In your case I know that the Buddhists claim special privileges. But it's hard to see on what basis they claim this special treatment, emphasis or mention. I think it will be wonderful if Buddhists, Muslims and Christians can air their voices together and state what the national problems are, and express the views of the religious groups in a positive manner. In some countries, as my own (Kenya), it has been possible. In some countries it hasn't been. I think a country where a religion begins to play an active role in politics is not very healthy. That's not democratic. Increasingly, if you look around the world, religions are welcome in States, but they are not to take part in politics, and all religions are equal.
Pix by Nisal Baduge


Audiobookworm Promotions is organizing an audiobook blog tour for The Ivory Staff, a Dark Fantasy novel from M. Lachi.
The tour will run from Nov. 26th to Dec. 2nd and will have unlimited stops.
Signups end on November 19th.
The Ivory Staff is narrated by John Hawks.
Review copies will be distributed by Oct. 26th. Reviews must be of at least 3.5 stars.
Post options for this tour include: Reviews, Spotlights, Author Interviews, Guest Posts, and a giveaway.
Samiyah, a young peasant on a quest to find love and honor, wins a chance to attend the royal ball. Beyond her wildest dreams, she finds herself dancing in the arms of Prince Chad, heir to the throne.
As there brews a violent struggle between the brutal ruling-class and the oppressed peasantry, Chad and Samiyah's growing, talk-of-the-town love spawns whispers of bloody uprisings and plots of swift usurpation.
M. Lachi is a novelist and composer hailing New York City. While her musical works landed her features on Oprah Radio, Huffpost and NPR, her 2015 debut novel "The Ivory Staff" found itself in The Examiner/AXS and Publisher's Weekly. Outside of writing and composing, M. Lachi can be found social-butterflying around New York with her partner-in-crime.
Oct. 26th: Review copies are distributed.
Nov. 2nd: Interview questions due to me.
Nov. 19th: Media packets are distributed via email.


text:
Ereignisse
 528/527 v. Chr.: Nach dem Tod des Peisistratos führen seine Söhne Hippias und Hipparchos die Peisistratiden-Tyrannis in Athen fort.

Gestorben
 um 527/425 v. Chr.: Mahavira, indischer Religionsgründer des Jainismus (* um 599 v. Chr./497 v. Chr.)
 528/527 v. Chr.: Peisistratos, athenischer Politiker, Tyrann von Athen (* um 600 v. Chr.)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Technology Review has a future-looking story about how the widespread adoption of plug-in hybrids could have a number of benefits on top of lowering vehicle emissions. By requiring that people charge their cars during periods of low demand, power plants can operate at a higher, more level output that leads to greater efficiencies. And because more power is being sold throughout the day a greater incentive may be there for power producers to invest in clean coal and carbon sequestration technologies. The story also talks about how millions of battery-powered cars connected to the grid could stabilize the electricity system, preventing things like blackouts by letting the grid draw from the cars during high-peak periods. And, of course, each vehicle could have intelligent charging systems — connected to the Web with a unique IP address — that charge vehicles when rates are lowest or, in the case of intermittent renewables, when the wind is blowing or the sun is shining.