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Tag Archives: common spotted orchid
Midsummer Hillside
Posted by theresagreen in butterflies, Nature of Wales, North Wales, wildflowers
6-spot Burnet Moth, Arge pagana, Bryn Euryn Nature Reserve, calcareous grassland, Cinnabar moth, Cistus Forester moth, common spotted orchid, dark green fritillary, grayling, Large Skipper, Meadow Brown, Painted Lady, Ringlet, rose sawfly, scabious, silver y moth, slow walking, slow worm, small heath, small tortoiseshell
Emerging from the shelter of the Woodland….
12:05 The steps lead up from the Woodland Trail and into an open sloping grassy space, whose character changes from year to year, largely according to the weather. The soil covering over limestone rock is very shallow and susceptible to erosion by the elements and by people walking over it; consequently it dries out rapidly when it's as hot and dry as it was throughout this May. The grass is cut every year, sometime during the autumn or late winter and by now it would usually have grown quite tall again at the bottom end of the slope, but this year it is struggling to recover. A few days before I took this photograph, before the rain returned, it was completely brown and dry. There's still time for it to pick up though, particularly if it keeps raining: plants that grow here are tough.
With no wildflowers there were of course no bees or butterflies or indeed anything much to tempt me to dither about here, so I carried on up the slope towards the trail that leads up to the summit. The view from higher up, looking westwards along the valley gives some indication of what a strange day this was. Low cloud hung as a heavy mist obscured the mountains from view and despite it being windy the warm air charged with moisture made it feel heavy and humid too. Traffic on the Expressway was still light compared to pre-lockdown days, but the sound of even a few vehicles can manifest as a roar at this height.
The nature of the vegetation on the exposed cliff-edge side of the Trail has evolved into an interesting area of what I think of as pre-woodland scrub, by which I mean it's presently a mix of long meadow grasses becoming populated with patches of low-growing bramble, dog rose and young trees. I'm not sure if these trees are self-sown or were deliberately planted, perhaps a mix of both.
12:37 It was windy up here, which is by no means unusual, but there were butterflies and bees flying about, all keeping low and in the shelter of the vegetation. There were Ringlets, the first ones I've seen so far this year, some were chasing around not settling at all, but there was one that found a sunny spot on a low bramble leaf that it kept returning to. I couldn't get a better angle for a photograph, but I was happy to get one at all.
Ringlet
Another first of the year sighting was a lovely Large Skipper that was much more obliging about posing.
Large Skipper
Ochlodes venatus
Amongst the grass summer wildflowers are beginning to show, not in great amounts, but I think that makes them a bit more special.
Lady's Bedstraw-Galium verum-Briwydd felen
Field Scabious-Knautia arvensis-Clafrillys y maes
On a Dog-rose briar were several shiny new 7-spot ladybirds and a Rose Sawfly. Adults of this species are distinctively coloured black and gold and have smoky wings. Female sawflies lay eggs in soft young rose stems and the emerged larvae are sometimes considered to be 'pests' in gardens as they feed on the soft tissue of rose leaves, leaving just the leaf ribs. Happily they're safe from human interference here, although doubtless there'll be predators awaiting future larvae.
Rose Sawfly & 7-spot ladybird
Rose Sawfly-Arge Pagana
A Meadow Brown butterfly intent on feeding on bramble flowers stayed put for long enough for me to take some photographs; opening its wings each time another insect flew close to it.
Meadow Brown
13:09 Back on the path I disturbed a Grayling that had been basking on the warm bare earth. There are never very many here on the Bryn, and there have been years when I haven't managed to catch sight of one at all, so I was happy to see it, but sad I'd missed it. Fortunately it didn't go far and after a fly around it landed back almost in the same spot. These beautifully-marked butterflies are so well camouflaged you can easily lose sight of them until they move or flash their eyespots.
Grayling-Hipparchia Semele
Rather than following the bend in the trail that climbs up to the summit of the hill, I carried on towards the far edge of the cliff, watching out for more Graylings.
There were no more to be seen today, but a Small Tortoiseshell sunning itself on a rock, more than compensated for the lack of them. It was very restless, opening and closing its wings and adjusting its angle, but it stayed until a large dragonfly flew close over the top of it, then it took off and left at speed.
Small Tortoiseshell
13:29 I turned around then and walked back to re-join the Summit Trail where it slopes down then up again, forming quite a deep U-shaped dip. I often look for reasons to spend a few minutes here as by the magic of its geology, it's almost always sheltered from the wind and the only spot that I know of on the Bryn that somehow escapes the constant noise of the Expressway traffic. Today there was sound though, not traffic, but a constant and strangely muffled rumbling of thunder that was emanating from behind the distant cloud-covered mountains. Then to add to the already strange atmosphere of the day, the still air here held the briny scent of the sea; most peculiar! The grassy border on one side of the path here is one of the best spots I know to find numbers of lovely Pyramidal Orchids and they seem to be particularly abundant this year. Traveller's Joy, our wild clematis, seems always to be threatening to take over this ground, but thus far the orchids appear despite its encroachment.
Pyramidal Orchid-Anacamptis pyramidalis
Tegerian bera-Anacamptis pyramidalis
The opposite side of the track, fronting a Blackthorn thicket, has a slightly different character. Not so dominated by the clematis, here there is bramble, Rosebay Willowherb and a few Ragwort plants, which could be why I was got a rare glimpse of a striking red and black Cinnabar Moth. It may have been a newly-emerged one as it was clinging upside down to a blade of grass. There was another Ringlet here too, feeding on bramble and holding open its velvety chocolate-brown wings.
Cinnabar Moth
Goat's-beard-Tragopogon pratensis-Barf yr afr Felen
Walking on up towards the summit over the remains of what were once part of the defensive walls of the old Hillfort, I was keeping an eye out for a glimpse of a Dusky Skipper butterfly; I've seen them here before in previous years, but there's so little in flower here now I guess there's nothing to tempt them.
What there was though were the big round seedheads of Goat's-beard.
The summit, which as you see from a distance, is gently rounded and surprisingly grassy and well-vegetated. There is a huge raspberry-bramble patch, which is always slightly later to flower than those plants lower down the hill, which was attracting the attentions of a Red Admiral and another Small Tortoiseshell butterfly.
13:46 I walked towards the summit edge to look at the view and passed more bramble, which had a big orange and black fly feeding on its blossom; a distinctive orange and black, very bristly tachinid fly – Tachina fera.
Tachina fera
Heavy cloud completely misted out the view across Colwyn Bay. We get at least two types of mist here; there's downwards mist that falls from heavy cloud moving over the mountains, then there's upwards sea-mist drawn up from the surface of the water by warm air. I think it's likely that today's was a blend of both.
The trail carries on around the trig point and opens out again onto the other side of the hill. The view from here was fascinating, a thick band of low cloud obscured the Little Orme, moving across the headland and snaking wraith-like out over the sea.
14:40: On this side of the hill the steeply sloping open grassland is more exposed and open to the elements, mainly from the North and East. It was very windy and although it appeared that we were surrounded on all sides by misty cloud it was actually a very warm, almost hot afternoon. Days like this can sometimes be good for finding insects as in the wind they tend to be less mobile and stay closer to the ground. It helps that they still need to eat too; I spotted a female Swollen-thighed Beetle on a Rockrose flower and a lovely shiny green Forester Moth on Cat's-ear.
Swollen-thighed Beetle-female
Cistus Forester
Tucked down into the shelter of the grass were a Small Heath butterfly and another day-flying moth, this one a Six-spot Burnet.
Small Heath
6-Spot Burnet
This more open grassy part of the Bryn is also good for orchids, this time the pretty pink Common Spotted species. As with most orchid species, numbers of plants fluctuate from year to year, which can be for a number of reasons, but I wonder if there are less now as the character of the habitat is changing. A few years ago this slope was predominantly short grassland, but is quite quickly developing into more 'pre-woodland' grassy scrub with bramble, gorse and trees being left to grow. I had to hunt to find some today, then came upon this perfectly beautiful little group of them set amongst Cowslips going to seed.
Common Spotted Orchid-Dactylorhiza fuchsii
Tegeirian Brych-Dactylorhiza fuchsii
I was hoping to see at least one Dark Green Fritillary butterfly here today and finally got my wish as I stood up from my orchid photographs. Their size, colour and speed of flight are pretty distinctive, so I recognised the one that galloped past in front of me, but it quickly disappeared into the middle of the scrub. I found a narrow track through which I followed in the hope of finding more of them within its shelter, passing by a bramble where a Painted Lady butterfly sat feeding and disturbing a Silver-Y Moth, both of which are migrants, so could have been recent arrivals.
14:20 I sat for a while in a clear spot amongst the scrub and did see more Dark Green Fritillaries, but they were very mobile and of course chose the most inaccessible parts of the vegetation to fly over. But at least I know they are out and about now, so can come back to find them another day. At the bottom of the slope there were more brambles and more insects. Butterflies: another Large Skipper, a Red Admiral and a Speckled Wood to add to my day's list.
Below is a selection of other insects I photographed there:
Hoverfly -Scaeva pyrastri
Hoverfly-Eristalis pertinax
Hoverfly-Sun-fly-Helophilus pendulus
Tree bumblebee
Swollen-thighed beetle (female)
7-spot Ladybird
15:36 The weather may have been a bit strange, but I headed back home feeling more than happy with the diversity of the wildlife I'd seen during the course of a few hours; then not far along on the path back through the woodlands, lying stretched out and motionless was a perfect Slow Worm. Looking more closely I could see it was lying belly-up and although it looked to be unharmed, I thought the poor thing was dead as it was making no attempt to move.
I couldn't, and still can't imagine how it had ended up in that position, but it was shady there and I wondered if it had got too cold to right itself. I picked up a stick lying nearby and gently rolled it till it was right-side up and to my relief after a few seconds it moved off into the vegetation at the side of the path. Thank goodness I reached it before a curious dog found it….
Summer Orchids
Posted by theresagreen in Bryn Euryn Nature Reserve, calcareous grassland, Nature, Nature of Wales, nature photography, wildflowers, Wildflowers of Wales, wildflowers on limestone
anacamptis pyramidalis, British Orchids, common spotted orchid, dactylorhiza fuchsii, Pyramidal Orchid, summer orchids, Teigeiren Brych, Teigeirian bera
June 23rd-Bryn Euryn
5/6/16 – Pyramidal Orchid – first sighting of 2016
I photographed my first sighting of a Pyramidal Orchid on June 5th, where it was growing through a complimentary patch of Common Rockroses. Since then they have come on apace and there are many more showing their beautiful heads amongst the long grass that fringes the summit of the Bryn.
Ten days later the rush of blooms had slowed and whilst there were still a good number to be found, they are more scattered and most significantly smaller than the earlier ones were.
23/6/16-Bryn Euryn-Pyramidal Orchids in long grass
23/6/16-Bryn Euryn-Pyramidal Orchid in the wider landscape
Pyramidal Orchid– Anacampsis pyramidalis; Welsh – Teigeirian bera
This orchid may be found flowering from early June through to early August, but here it is definitely at its peak now and flowering abundantly.
In general, the Pyramidal Orchid is found on grassland, usually on lime or chalk, but also on dunes. It is locally common in most of Britain, but rare in Scotland.
23/6/16-Pyramidal Orchid-Bryn Euryn
The plant is so-named for the shape of the flowerhead: a workaday name for such an exotic-looking bloom I think, although it does help to distinguish it from the Fragrant Orchid, with which it may be confused.
The plant's success and abundance may be due to its relationship with insects. Each flower has a long thread-like spur that holds a generous supply of nectar that attracts day and night flying butterflies and moths. When the nectar is accessed, modified stamens stick to the tongue of the insect that straighten during the insect's flight and are then pushed directly onto the stigma of the next flower visited. This results in viable seeds being produced in 95% of the flowers.
Crossing the hill's summit and walking through the 'downland' area, more Orchids are blooming prolifically, these being Common Spotted Orchids.
Common Spotted Orchids -Bryn Euryn-Little Orme in background
Flower spikes of plants on Bryn Euryn vary in colour. Most are this lilac-purple colour, others are white with a few in shades between.
Common Spotted Orchid Dactylorhiza fuchsii; Welsh Teigeiren Brych
The flowers vary from white to pale or dark purple and are patterned with dots or small blotches of a darker purple.
The leaves are narrow and usually dark-spotted.
3/7/16-Bryn Euryn-Common Spotted Orchid in long grass amidst Common Rockrose
Into the woods, led by the nose
Posted by theresagreen in Bryn Euryn Nature Reserve, Nature of Wales, nature of woodlands, nature photography, Wildflowers of Wales
common shrew, common spotted orchid, greenbottle flies on shrew carcass, greenbottle fly, honeysuckle, medicinal plants, Pyramidal Orchid
Bryn Euryn's woodland trail is a circular route that travels more or less around the circumference of the bottom of the hill and is a good one to follow if you want a 'proper' walk without too many distractions. That's not to say there isn't anything to see; on my walks there is always something that catches my eye, or as happened on one particular evening, my nose!
I had rejoined this trail after my diversion onto the more open hillside where I had earlier watched the butterflies, and by the time I reached there it was late afternoon and a little cooler; just the time to catch the intermittent scent of honeysuckle, which for me is the absolutely perfect fragrance. The fresh perfume of the honeysuckle takes me back to walking through shady summer woods as a child when the heavenly scent brought the plant to my attention and I would always have to find it and inhale more of it. In fact I still do that; I just cannot resist it.
Honeysuckle – Lonicera periclymenum
Honeysuckle clambering up a tall holly shrub
Therapeutic and medicinal uses
I remember being very disappointed when, training as an aromatherapist, I learnt that Honeysuckle is not an essential oil that is practical to use for therapeutic massage. It is very difficult to extract the oil on a commercial basis, so it ends up being very expensive and difficult to obtain in an 'absolute' or pure form; any you buy is likely to have been mixed with something else. It is more widely used as a component of perfume. Shame, because the essential oil supposedly has some wonderful properties and if it had been practical to use I probably could have used it by the bucketful!
"Honeysuckle aids one to get past mental regrets, and move forward freely in life. It's captivating scent is able to instil love and beauty, and banish any fear and sadness brought about by such events as divorce, death, and loneliness. The oil allows one to overcome harshness, indulge in self-renewal, and inspires hope, progress, freedom, and unity."
Honeysuckle lit by evening sun in a hedgerow, Nevern, Pembrokeshire
Honeysuckle has been used medicinally for thousands of years to treat respiratory conditions, diarrhoea, ease childbirth, and stimulate the flow of energy throughout the body. Aromadendrene, a terpenoid, is a constituent of honeysuckle essential oil, which contributes to the oil's antimicrobial properties. The terpenoid inhibits growth of micro-organisms, such as, bacteria, fungi, and protozoans. Eugenol, a phenylpropene, which is known to be a restorative and has a palliative effect, meaning it relieves pain and prevents further suffering.
Honeysuckle blossoms
I was soon snapped out of my state of pleasant reminiscence brought about by the aromatic honeysuckle as my olfactory sense was assailed by a far less pleasant smell, immediately recognisable as that arising from something that has died. Never one to shirk the responsibility of recording all aspects of the nature I come across on my wanderings, I followed my nose regardless, although trying not to breathe through it. I soon found the source of the stench: another little shrew had passed away; probably murdered by another cat. It was creating a mighty smell for something so tiny in life, but it would have attracted my attention anyway as there were a dozen or more Greenbottle flies swarming over its tiny body. (Those of a squeamish nature should probably look away now!)
Greenbottle flies on the carcass of a dead shrew
I know it's not nice, but we all know that nature is not always about pretty flowers, butterflies and birds singing. Everything dies and it is actually interesting to see what benefits from that; it is often insects that are responsible for completing the circle of life. And, sorry, I do find Greenbottle flies very interesting.
Greenbottle Fly- Lucilia sericata
The Common Green bottle fly is a blow-fly, a member of the family Calliphoridae, is the most well-known of the numerous green bottle fly species and found in most areas of the world. It is 10–14 mm long, slightly larger than a housefly, and has brilliant, metallic, blue-green or golden colouration with black markings. It has short, sparse black bristles (setae) and three cross-grooves on the thorax. The wings are clear with light brown veins, and the legs and antennae are black.
Common Greenbottle Fly-Rhos-on-Sea garden
The fly is found feeding on flowers, but is also a common visitor to carrion and faeces. The female greenbottle lays a mass of eggs in a wound, a carcass or corpse, or in necrotic or decaying tissue. (A single female typically lays 150-200 eggs per batch and may produce 2,000 to 3,000 eggs in its lifetime.) The eggs hatch out in about 8–10 hours in warm moist weather, but may take as long as three days in cooler weather.
Greenbottle flies were most numerous on the corpse, but there are two other species there too
Like most Calliphorids, the insect has been heavily studied and its life cycle and habits well documented and L. sericata is an important species to forensic entomologists. One of the first insects to colonise a corpse, the stage of the insect's development is used to calculate the period of colonization, so that it can be used to aid in determining the time of death of the victim.
Veterinary importance
L. sericata, along with other species of blowfly also makes an impact in a veterinary sense. In the UK and Australia it is commonly referred to as the "sheep blowfly" since sheep are its primary, although not sole host.
In Northern Europe, the fly will lay its eggs in sheep wool. The larvae then migrate down the wool to feed directly on the surface of the animal's skin, which can cause massive lesions and secondary bacterial infections. In the UK, it is estimated that blowfly strike affects 1 million sheep as well as 80% of sheep farms each year. This causes a huge economic impact in these regions: it costs money to treat infected animals and to take measures to control L. sericata populations.
To end on a pleasanter note, here are some more flowers I found along the woodland trail that same evening:
Foxgloves are not common here, but there were a couple of stems of them; tall now and maybe a little more than half-way to being finished.
Foxgloves are about half-way to being over
Amongst the grass and other tougher plants on the path edge a pretty Common Spotted Orchid pushed through.
A Common Spotted Orchid on the side of the trail
Further along, in quite deep shade I was surprised to find another Pyramidal Orchid.
Another Pyramidal Orchid


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\section*{Acknowledgment}}

\bibliographystyle{IEEEtran}

\input{defines.tex}

\begin{document}

\pagenumbering{arabic}

\title{Effectiveness of Garbage Collection in MIT/GNU Scheme}

\author{{Amey Karkare$^\ast$\thanks{$^\ast$Supported by Infosys Technologies Limited,
      Bangalore, under Infosys Fellowship Award.},
    Amitabha Sanyal and Uday Khedker}\\
  {Department of Computer Science \& Engg., \\
    IIT Bombay, Mumbai, India \\
    {\tt\{karkare,as,uday\}@cse.iitb.ac.in}}
}

\maketitle

\begin{abstract}
Scheme uses garbage collection for heap memory management.  Ideally,
garbage collectors should be able to reclaim all {\em dead} objects,
i.e. objects that will not be used in future. However, garbage
collectors collect only those dead objects that are not reachable
from any program variable.  Dead objects that are reachable from
program variables are not reclaimed.

In this paper we describe our experiments to measure the effectiveness
of garbage collection in MIT/GNU Scheme. We compute the drag time of
objects, i.e. the time for which an object remains in heap memory
after its last use.  The number of dead objects and the drag time
together indicate opportunities for improving garbage collection. Our
experiments reveal that up to \manual{26\%} of dead objects remain in
memory. The average drag time is up to \manual{37\%} of execution
time.  Overall, we observe memory saving potential ranging from
\manual{9\%} to \manual{65\%}.

\end{abstract}

\section{Introduction}
\label{sec:intro}
Garbage collection is an attractive alternative to manual memory
management because it frees the programmer from the responsibility of
keeping track of object lifetimes. This makes programs easier to
design, implement, understand and maintain. Ideally, a garbage
collector should be able to reclaim all {\em dead} objects,
i.e. objects that will not be used in future. However, this is not
possible because garbage collectors conservatively approximate the
{\em liveness} of an object by its reachability from a predefined set
of variables called {\em root} variables (typically the set of
variables on the program stack).  Garbage collectors cannot
distinguish between {live} reachable objects from {dead} reachable
objects. Hence they collect unreachable objects only as these objects
are guaranteed to be dead.  This means many dead objects are left
uncollected, a fact that has been confirmed by empirical studies for
various languages like Haskell~\cite{rojemo96lag} and
Java~\cite{shaham00gc,shaham01heap,shaham02estimating}.
Our experiments for MIT/GNU Scheme reveal that up to
\manual{26\%} of dead objects remain in memory, with dead objects
remaining in memory for up to \manual{37\%} of execution time.
Memory saving potential ranges from \manual{9\%} to \manual{65\%}.

\subsection{A Motivational Example}
\begin{figure}[ht]
\begin{center}
  \begin{tabular}{c}
    {\tt

      {\begin{uprogram}
	\UFL\ (\LET\ ((x (\LIST\ \ldots)))
	\UNL{1} (\LET\ loop ((y x))
	\UNL{2}   (\IF\ (\NULLQ\ y)
	\UNL{3}         '()
	\UNL{3}         (\BEGIN
        \UNL{4}             (\ldots (\CAR\ y) \ldots)
	{{\rm\small;; process the head}}
	\UNL{4}             (loop (\CDR\ y))))))

      \end{uprogram}}
    }
  \\ \\
  { (a) A program traversing a linked list.} \\ \\  \\
  \raisebox{-23mm}{\scalebox{.9}{

      \psset{unit=1mm}
      \psset{linewidth=.3mm}
      \begin{pspicture}(0,0)(48,45)

	\putnode{c}{origin}{10}{37}{{\white $O_1$} \TwoCells{c1}{c2} $O_1$}
	\putnode{d}{c}{10}{-10}{{\white $O_2$} \TwoCells{d1}{d2} $O_2$}
	\putnode{b}{c}{-10}{-10}{}
	\putnode{e}{d}{-13}{-12}{}
	\putnode{f}{d}{13}{-12}{{\white $O_3$} \TwoCells{f1}{f2} $O_3$}
	\ncline[nodesepB=-.5]{*->}{c2}{d}
	\ncline[nodesepB=-.5]{*->}{c1}{b}
	\ncline[nodesepB=2.5]{*->}{d1}{e}
	\ncline[nodesepB=-.5]{*->}{d2}{f}
	\putnode{w}{c}{-8}{8}{\psframebox[linestyle=none,framesep=.2]{{{\tt x}}}}
	\ncline[nodesepB=-.2,angleA=330,angleB=120]{->}{w}{c}

	\putnode{i}{f}{-13}{-12}{}
	\putnode{j}{f}{13}{-12}{\psframebox[linestyle=none,framesep=.5]
	  {\rotatebox{-50}{\bf \ldots}}}
	\ncline[nodesepB=2.5]{*->}{f1}{i}
	\ncline[nodesepB=.1]{*->}{f2}{j}

	\putnode{y}{w}{28}{0}{\psframebox[linestyle=none,framesep=.2]{{{\tt y}}}}
	\ncline{->}{y}{d}
      \end{pspicture}}} \\
  { (b) \renewcommand{\arraystretch}{.9}{
  \begin{tabular}[t]{@{}l}Memory graph at the beginning of\\
    the second iteration of the loop.\end{tabular}}}
  \end{tabular}
\end{center}
\caption{The Motivational Example.\label{fig:motiv}}
\rule{\columnwidth}{.1mm}
\end{figure}

Figure~\ref{fig:motiv}(a)  shows a  program that  traverses  a singly
linked list.  Figure~\ref{fig:motiv}(b) shows  the memory graph at the
end of first iteration of the loop in the program. The object $O_1$ in
the memory is  unused after the first iteration  of the loop. However,
it cannot  be collected by garbage  collector as it  is reachable from
the  variable {\tt x}.  Similarly,  object $O_2$  is  unused after  second
iteration of the loop, $O_3$ after third iteration, and so on.  All of
these objects, though  dead, will be garbage collected  only after the
variable {\tt x}\ goes out of scope (i.e. at the end of the outer {\tt let}
loop.)
If {\tt x}\  is nullified after its  last use (line 2,  first iteration of
loop)  the objects  may be  collected whenever  garbage  collection is
invoked after their last use, even though {\tt x}\ remains in scope.

\subsection{Background}
\label{sec:background}
\begin{figure}[ht!]
  \begin{center}
\scalebox{.9}{
    \psset{unit=1mm}
  \begin{pspicture}(0,0)(110,31)

    \psrelpoint{origin}{st}{0}{13}
    \psrelpoint{st}{ct}{10}{0}
    \psrelpoint{ct}{fu}{10}{0}
    \psrelpoint{fu}{lu}{15}{0}
    \psrelpoint{lu}{ur}{25}{0}
    \psrelpoint{ur}{gc}{25}{0}
    \psrelpoint{gc}{end}{10}{0}
    \psline{-}(\x{st},\y{st})(\x{end},\y{end})
    \rput(\x{ct},\y{ct}){$|$}

    \rput(\x{lu},\y{lu}){$|$}
    \rput(\x{ur},\y{ur}){$|$}
    \rput(\x{gc},\y{gc}){$|$}

    \psrelpoint{ct}{lbct}{0}{-3}
    \rput(\x{lbct},\y{lbct}){\small creation}
    \psrelpoint{fu}{lbfu}{0}{-3}

    \psrelpoint{lu}{lblu}{0}{-3}
    \rput(\x{lblu},\y{lblu}){\small last use}
    \psrelpoint{ur}{lbur}{0}{-6}
    \rput(\x{lbur},\y{lbur}){\small
      \renewcommand{\arraystretch}{.9}{
	\begin{tabular}{c}becomes\\unreachable\end{tabular}}}
    \psrelpoint{gc}{lbgc}{0}{-6}
    \rput(\x{lbgc},\y{lbgc}){\small
      \renewcommand{\arraystretch}{.9}{
	\begin{tabular}{c}garbage\\collected\end{tabular}}}

    \psrelpoint{lu}{db0}{25}{14}
    \rput(\x{db0},\y{db0}){
      $\stackrel{
	\mbox{drag time($\delta$)}}{
	\mbox{\scalebox{8}[1.5]{$\overbrace{\mbox{}}$}}}$}

    \psrelpoint{lu}{db1}{12}{8}
    \rput(\x{db1},\y{db1}){
      $\stackrel{\deltarch}{
	\mbox{\scalebox{4}[1]{$\overbrace{\mbox{}}$}}}$}

    \psrelpoint{ur}{db0}{12}{6}
    \rput(\x{db0},\y{db0}){
      $\stackrel{\deltagc}{
	\mbox{\scalebox{4}[1]{$\overbrace{\mbox{}}$}}}$}

    \psrelpoint{st}{tm}{55}{-10}
    \rput(\x{tm},\y{tm}){\bf\small time $\rightarrow$}
  \end{pspicture}
  }
  \end{center}
  \caption{Events in the life of an object\label{fig:imp-eve}}
\rule{\columnwidth}{.1mm}
\end{figure}
Figure~\ref{fig:imp-eve} shows  the important events in the  life of a
heap object: creation, use,  and garbage collection. The interval from
the time of  last use to the time of garbage  collection is called the
{\em  drag} time  ($\delta$) and  the object  is called  a  {\em dead}
object~\cite{rojemo96lag,shaham00gc,shaham01heap,shaham02estimating}.
If  an object  is never  used  after creation,  its drag  time is  the
interval between its  creation time and its collection  time.  A large
drag time indicates  that the object was reachable,  and hence ignored
by garbage collector, long after its last use.

The  number  of  dead objects  and  the  drag  time  is a  measure  of
improvement opportunities  in garbage collection and give  us an upper
bound on the  number of objects that could be  collected over the ones
collected by  garbage collector. The  upper bound is for  a particular
execution path of program. There may be no algorithm that can collect
all the dead objects.

The drag  time of an  object can be  divided into two  components: (1)
$\deltarch$, the interval  between the last use of  the object and the
time  when it becomes  unreachable, and  (2) $\deltagc$,  the interval
between the time when the object becomes unreachable and the time when
it is  collected by garbage  collector.  $\deltarch$ depends  upon the
program  but   is  independent  of  the   garbage  collector,  whereas
$\deltagc$  depends  heavily  upon the  garbage  collector---algorithm
used, frequency  of invocation, and time of  invocation.  For example,
for a  reference count based  garbage collector, $\deltagc$  is always
$0$  for  all  objects\footnote{Ignoring  objects  that  are  part  of
cycle.}. For  mark and sweep  or copying collector, $\deltagc$  for an
object depends upon  the time when the garbage  collector gets invoked
after  the object  becomes  unreachable. $\deltagc$  can typically  be
reduced  by increasing  the frequency  of garbage  collection  (at the
expense of slowing down the real computation).

\subsection{Organization}
\label{sec:organization}
The rest of this paper is organized as follows:
In Section~\ref{sec:experiments}, we describe our setup to carry out
the experiments and the benchmark programs used for measurements.
Section~\ref{sec:results} discusses the results of the experiments.
Section~\ref{sec:related}  describes the  research done  by  others in
related areas.
Section~\ref{sec:concl-and-future}  concludes the  paper  and provides
directions for future work.

\section{Experimental Setup}
\label{sec:experiments}
In our experiments  we measure the value of  $\deltarch$, which is the
characteristic  of the  program only  and independent  of  the garbage
collector,  and hence  independent of  the Scheme  implementation.  We
approximate $\deltarch$ by $\delta$ by forcing garbage collector to be
invoked  at a  very high  frequency, thereby  ensuring  that $\deltagc
\equiv 0$.  However, this technique  does not work for  incremental or
generational garbage collectors, because these do not scan all objects
in memory for every cycle.  Therefore, even after an object has become
unreachable, it may or may not be collected by next garbage collection
cycle, resulting in a non-zero $\deltagc$.

We   have  used  MIT/GNU   Scheme\footnote{Release   7.7.90.+,  from
\url{http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/mit-scheme/snapshot.pkg/20050724/}}, as it
uses  a  simple copying  based  garbage  collector,  which is  neither
incremental  nor  generational.   It   is  also  easy  to  modify  the
implementation to invoke garbage collector at a very high frequency.

We record the statistics associated with {\em pairs} and {\em vectors}
only, ignoring all other  constructs (e.g.  {\em strings}) that create
objects  in  heap.   Collecting   statistics  for  all  constructs  is
difficult as (a)  it slows down the experiments  considerably, and (b)
the amount of statistics generated is overwhelming---even for moderate
size benchmarks, the execution goes out of memory. This restriction is
not that bad  because previous studies have shown  that cons cells and
vectors  account for  most  of the  space  as well  number of  objects
allocated                in                typical                LISP
programs~[\cite{zorn89phd},~Section~3.7.1].

We  associate a  structure with  every object  under  consideration to
record  the creation  time  and  the most  recent  use time.  Whenever
garbage collector  collects an  object, its data  is written to  a log
file  along  with the  garbage  collection  time.  The log  file  thus
generated         is         post-processed        to         generate
statistics.  Section~\ref{sec:gen-data} and Section~\ref{sec:rep-data}
describe the process in detail.

\subsection{Generating Data}
\label{sec:gen-data}
We associate  a structure ({\tt GC\_structure})  to record the  creation time
({\tt Create\_time})  and the  most  recent use  time  ({\tt Use\_time}) with  every
object  under consideration.  The object  address is  used as  key for
{\tt GC\_structure}.  {\tt GC\_structure}\ also  contains a  flag ({\tt GC\_flag})  to tell
whether the corresponding object  was collected by the current garbage
collection or  not. Scheme primitives  and procedures are  modified to
update the  fields of {\tt GC\_structure}. We  describe how this  is done for
primitives that  operate on {\em  pairs} (or lists).   Similar changes
are applied to primitives for {\em vectors} too.
\begin{itemize}
\item{\em Creation:}  In Scheme,  pairs are created  using primitives,
  e.g.   {\tt   cons},    {\tt   list},   {\tt   vector->list},   {\tt
  string->list}.   These  primitives  are   modified  to   create  the
  {{\tt GC\_structure}}(s)  corresponding  to the  new  pair(s) created,  and
  populate the {\tt Create\_time}, while {\tt Use\_time}\ is set to an invalid value
  (-1).

\item{\em Use:} Primitives like  {\tt car}, {\tt cdr}, {\tt set-car!},
  {\tt set-cdr!}  including predicates like {\tt  null?}, {\tt pair?},
  {\tt  number?}  are  considered as  use  of their  argument and  are
  modified to  update {\tt Use\_time}\  of corresponding {\tt GC\_structure}.  If an
  object is never used, its {\tt Use\_time}\ remains -1.

\item{\em Garbage collection:} Garbage  collector in MIT/GNU Scheme is
  a copying collector.  Before actual garbage collection, we reset the
  GC flag  in all {{\tt GC\_structure}}s.  Whenever an object is  copied from
  working memory  to free memory, corresponding {{\tt GC\_flag}}  is set, and
  its  new address  is copied  into  the key.  At the  end of  garbage
  collection, all {{\tt GC\_structure}}s are  scanned. If {{\tt GC\_flag}} is false,
  meaning the object was not copied to free memory, than the object is
  assumed to be collected by  garbage collector. For all such objects,
  we write  the data in {{\tt GC\_structure}}s  to a log file  along with the
  garbage  collection  time. Also,  at  program  termination, data  in
  {{\tt GC\_structure}}s of all  the objects remaining in heap  is written to
  the log file.
\end{itemize}
Scheme   runtime  libraries   are   forced  to   use  these   modified
primitives.  We   trigger  garbage  collection   at  every  \manual{10
milliseconds}. The benchmarks are  run in this modified environment to
generate data in the log file.

\subsection{Reporting Data}
\label{sec:rep-data}
The  log  files  generated  by  running  the  benchmark  programs  are
processed to generate statistics.  In our experiments
\begin{itemize}
\item  We  compare the  number  of dead  objects  with  the number  of
  allocated objects.
\item We  compare the  average drag time  of objects and  maximum drag
  time over all the objects with the total runtime of the program.
\item  We  record the  distribution  of drag  times  of  objects as  a
  percentage of total runtime.
\end{itemize}
Potential savings in  memory is estimated by measuring  the space time
product for dead objects as a percentage of space time product for all
allocated objects.

\subsection{Benchmarks}
\label{sec:benchmarks}
\begin{table}[t!]
\begin{center}
\renewcommand{\arraystretch}{1}{
\begin{tabular}{|l|l|} \hline
  \multicolumn{1}{|c}{\bf Benchmark} & \multicolumn{1}{|c|}{\bf
    Description} \\ \hline\hline
  \mbox{\tt silex}  & Lexical analyzer generator~\cite{silex.web} \\
  \mbox{\tt lalr}   & An LALR(1) parser generator~\cite{lalr.web}\\
  \mbox{\tt eopl}   & Code in Chapter 7 of Essentials of Programming \\
          & Languages~\cite{eopl.book} \\
  \mbox{\tt prolog} & Interpreter for pure Prolog~\cite{prolog.web}\\
  \mbox{\tt sudoku} & Sudoku~\cite{sudoku.www} puzzle solver~\cite{sudoku.web}\\
  \mbox{\tt cipher} & Program~\cite{cipher.web} to decode substitution cipher~\cite{cipher.www} \\ \hline
\end{tabular}}
\end{center}
\caption{The benchmarks}\label{tab:benchmarks}
\rule{\columnwidth}{.1mm}
\end{table}

Our benchmark programs are described in Table~\ref{tab:benchmarks}.
The programs range from code (\mbox{\tt eopl}) from standard text-book {\em
Essentials of Programming Languages}~\cite{eopl.book} to the programs
(\mbox{\tt cipher}\ and \mbox{\tt sudoku}) by first year undergraduates.
\mbox{\tt silex}\ and \mbox{\tt lalr}\ are run with one test case each, while \mbox{\tt eopl},
\mbox{\tt prolog}, \mbox{\tt sudoku}\ and \mbox{\tt cipher}\ are run with multiple test cases
each. The benchmarks and test cases can be obtained
from~\cite{gc-scheme.web}.

\section{Results}
\label{sec:results}

In this section we describe the results of our experiments.

\subsection{Reachable vs. Live Objects}
\label{sec:rch-use}
\begin{figure*}[t]
\begin{center}
  \begin{tabular}{|@{}c@{}|@{}c@{}|} \hline

    \scalebox{.99}{\includegraphics{BM_data/silex.epsi}}  &
    \scalebox{.99}{\includegraphics{BM_data/lalr.epsi}}  \\ \hline
    &\\
    \scalebox{.99}{\includegraphics{BM_data/eopl.epsi}}   &
    \scalebox{.99}{\includegraphics{BM_data/prolog.epsi}} \\ \hline
    &\\
    \scalebox{.99}{\includegraphics{BM_data/sudoku.epsi}} &
    \scalebox{.99}{\includegraphics{BM_data/cipher.epsi}} \\ \hline
  \end{tabular}
\end{center}

\hspace*{17mm}{  X axis  indicates  measurement instants  in
  milliseconds.  Y axis indicates  number of heap objects.} \\[-1mm]
\hspace*{17mm}{ Solid line represents reachable objects.  Dashed
  line represents live objects.}

\caption{Reachable objects vs. live objects}
\label{fig:graph-rch-use}
\rule{\textwidth}{.1mm}
\end{figure*}

Figure~\ref{fig:graph-rch-use} plots reachable objects and live
objects against time. The difference between the two lines gives the
number of reachable but dead objects. All the graphs show a
significant number of dead objects.

The graphs of \mbox{\tt prolog}, \mbox{\tt sudoku}\ and \mbox{\tt cipher}\ contain many {crests} and
{troughs},  while  the  graphs  for  \mbox{\tt silex},  \mbox{\tt lalr}\  and  \mbox{\tt eopl}\  are
relatively  smooth. Our conjecture  is that  this is  because \mbox{\tt prolog},
\mbox{\tt sudoku}\  and \mbox{\tt cipher}\  use backtracking  algorithms, and  the troughs
correspond   to  the   transitions  between   successive  backtracking
phases. To  validate our conjecture, we experimented  with \mbox{\tt sudoku}. We
used 3  different test cases---the first  test case had  only one cell
unfilled so that no backtracking  was required by \mbox{\tt sudoku}\ solver. The
second test case  had very few unfilled cells so  that a little amount
of backtracking  was involved,  while the third  test case was  a very
hard puzzle that involved high amount of backtracking. The results are
shown in  Figure~\ref{fig:sudoku-bts}: We can see that,  for the third
test case, the number of crest-trough pairs is too high as compared to
other  cases. Also,  since  \mbox{\tt sudoku}\ solver's  algorithm  is mainly  a
backtracking  algorithm with  a few  heuristics, runtime  of  the test
cases increases with the level of difficulty (backtracking).

\begin{figure*}[t]
\begin{center}
  \begin{tabular}{|@{}c@{}|@{}c@{}|@{}c@{}|} \hline
    & & \\
    \scalebox{.8}{\includegraphics{sudoku_nobt.epsi}}  &
    \scalebox{.8}{\includegraphics{sudoku_bt.epsi}}  &
    \scalebox{.8}{\includegraphics{sudoku_highbt.epsi}}   \\
    { No backtracking} & { Little backtracking} &
    { High backtracking} \\ \hline
  \end{tabular}
\end{center}

\hspace*{3mm}{  X axis  indicates  measurement instants  in
  milliseconds.  Y axis indicates  number of heap objects.} \\[-1mm]
\hspace*{3mm}{ Solid line represents reachable objects.  Dashed
  line represents live objects.}

\caption{Effect of backtracking on \mbox{\tt sudoku}\ solver}
\label{fig:sudoku-bts}
\rule{\textwidth}{.1mm}
\end{figure*}

In \mbox{\tt eopl}\ there is an initial burst where the reachable memory is very
high. This corresponds to the phase where all the test cases are
loaded into Scheme. For our experiments, we ran three interpreters
corresponding to the code given in Chapter~7
of~\cite{eopl.book}. Small crests in plot of reachable objects (and
troughs in plot of live objects) in \mbox{\tt eopl}\ correspond to transition
from one interpreter to other.

\begin{table}[t]
  \begin{center}
    \renewcommand{\arraystretch}{1}{
      \input{BM_data/RchDragIntegral.tex}}
  \end{center}

  \caption{Space time product for reachable objects and
    live objects}
  \label{tab:space-time-prod}
\rule{\columnwidth}{.1mm}
\end{table}

To estimate the memory savings, we compute the space-time product for
reachable objects and that for live objects by computing the area
under respective plots (see Table~\ref{tab:space-time-prod}).  The
potential of saving ranges from \manual{9\%} to \manual{65\%}
for our benchmarks.

\subsection{Number of  Allocated Objects vs. Dead Objects}
\label{sec:num-tot-drag}

\begin{figure*}[t]
\begin{center}
  \scalebox{.99}{\includegraphics{BM_data/TotVsDrag.epsi}}

{ Figures in parenthesis denote the percentage of dead objects
  with respect to allocated objects.}
\end{center}
\caption{Allocated objects vs. dead objects}
\label{fig:num-tot-drag}
\rule{\textwidth}{.1mm}
\end{figure*}

Figure~\ref{fig:num-tot-drag} shows total number of objects allocated
vs. number of dead objects.  Even though the percentage of dead
objects is very small (less than \manual{5\%}) for \mbox{\tt sudoku}\ and \mbox{\tt eopl},
there is still significant potential for memory savings because the
drag time of these objects is large. This is described in details in
next section.

\subsection{Drag vs. Runtime}
\label{sec:drag-run}

\begin{table}[t]
\begin{center}

    \input{BM_data/DragData.tex}

\vskip 5pt
\end{center}
\hspace*{5mm}{ All times are in milliseconds.} \\
\hspace*{5mm}{ Figures in  parenthesis denote percentage value
  with respect to runtime.}

\caption{Statistics of dead objects}
\label{tab:drag-stats}
\rule{\columnwidth}{.1mm}
\end{table}

In  Table~\ref{tab:drag-stats},  we  show  how drag  time  of  objects
compare with  the total  runtime for a  given program.  Note  that for
\mbox{\tt silex}, \mbox{\tt eopl},  \mbox{\tt prolog}, and  \mbox{\tt sudoku}, the maximum  drag time  is very
close to  the total runtime.  This indicates presence of  objects that
are  created near  the  beginning  of the  program  and remain  unused
throughout the execution.

\begin{figure*}[t]
\begin{center}
  \begin{tabular}{|c|c|} \hline
    &\\
    \scalebox{.69}{\includegraphics{BM_data/silex_drag.epsi}}  &
    \scalebox{.69}{\includegraphics{BM_data/lalr_drag.epsi}}   \\ \hline
    &\\
    \scalebox{.69}{\includegraphics{BM_data/eopl_drag.epsi}}   &
    \scalebox{.69}{\includegraphics{BM_data/prolog_drag.epsi}} \\ \hline
    &\\
    \scalebox{.69}{\includegraphics{BM_data/sudoku_drag.epsi}} &
    \scalebox{.69}{\includegraphics{BM_data/cipher_drag.epsi}} \\ \hline
  \end{tabular}
\end{center}
\hspace*{7mm}{ X axis indicates percentage of runtime.  Y axis
  indicates number of dead heap objects (log scale).}

\caption{Distribution of dead objects as percentage of runtime}
\label{fig:graph-drag}
\rule{\textwidth}{.1mm}
\end{figure*}

Figure~\ref{fig:graph-drag} shows the distribution of dead times of
objects as percentage of runtime of the program. In all the
benchmarks, most of the dead objects are in the range
\mbox{\manual{0--50\%}} of total runtime. \mbox{\tt lalr}\ and \mbox{\tt cipher}\ do not
have any objects towards higher percentages. On the other hand,
\mbox{\tt silex}, \mbox{\tt eopl}\ and \mbox{\tt sudoku}\ have a large number of objects that have a
significant drag time of \mbox{\manual{95--100\%}}. These objects
contribute significantly to the space time product
(Table~\ref{tab:space-time-prod}). Collecting such objects will yield
high memory savings.

\section{Related Work}
\label{sec:related}
Similar experiments have been done to measure the effectiveness of
garbage collection in different language implementations,
e.g. Haskell~\cite{rojemo96lag}, Java~\cite{shaham00gc,%
shaham01heap,shaham02estimating}.  Our definitions and
measurement methodologies are based on the standards from previous
work.

KBDB\cite{serrano00understanding}, a heap inspector for Scheme
programs, relies on user interaction to inspect heap usage at
different points during the execution of program. Typically, the heap
is inspected before and after evaluation of some expression to
estimate the memory leaked by that expression. This approach is
orthogonal to our approach of using dead object information to detect
memory leak.

\section{Conclusions and Future Work}
\label{sec:concl-and-future}
Our experiments  show that for Scheme,  at any given time,  there is a
significant number  of reachable objects  that are not live.   Also, a
large  number   of  such   objects  remain  in   memory  for   a  long
duration. Garbage  collection for Scheme can  improve significantly if
such objects  can be identified  and made unreachable at  the earliest
using automatic techniques.

In, our earlier work~\cite{khedker06heap}, we have shown that for
imperative languages like Java, the number of reachable dead objects
can be reduced by automatically identifying and nullifying dead memory
links. We are extending that work to be applicable to functional
languages. The work reported in this paper is the first step towards
that direction.
\begin{acks}
 We are thankful to Chris Hanson, Matt Birkholz and Taylor Campbell
for answering our queries related to memory management primitives in
MIT/GNU Scheme.
\end{acks}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaArXiv


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J Balvin Is Performing a Futuristic VR Concert | Entertainment | The USA Print
HomeUSA NewsNaasón Joaquín García: The leader of La Luz del Mundo pleads guilty...
Naasón Joaquín García: The leader of La Luz del Mundo pleads guilty to avoid going to trial in the US | The USA Print
The metaverse is a...
Naasón Joaquín García, leader of the La Luz del Mundo church, after being arrested in Los Angeles, on June 5, 2019.Damian Dovarganes (AP)
Naasón Joaquín García, leader of the La Luz del Mundo church, pleaded guilty this Friday to three charges of sexual abuse of three underage women. The guilty plea comes three days before the apostle of Jesus Christ, as he is known to his followers, began his trial in Los Angeles. Garcia was facing 19 court charges for sexual abuse of minors, rape, possession of child pornography and human trafficking. He is expected to receive a sentence on Wednesday morning for crimes committed since 2015. "As leader of the Light of the World, Naasón Joaquín García abused his power to take advantage of girls. He trusted those around him to groom worshipers for him to abuse," California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a statement. "Sexual exploitation will never be acceptable in the state," he added.
The religious leader has admitted his guilt of committing lewd acts with a 15-year-old girl and forcing her and another woman under 18 to have sex with him. The character, who had great influence among political groups in Mexico, now faces a prison sentence of around 17 years, as a source explained to EL PAÍS. Garcia has been in a California prison for three years, where he was awaiting trial. On Monday, the defense and prosecution were to begin selecting the 12 jurors who would hear testimony from the victims. García had defended his innocence at all times, but this Friday's news has taken an unexpected turn in a case that brought to light the darkest side of a church with a presence in more than 50 countries around the world.
Also Read Prosecutors: Freeing New Mexico candidate is a danger | The USA Print
"I still trust in God! I know that God is for me! I will not fear what the man can say! ", Reads one of the last messages that Joaquín García published on his birthday, on May 7. The trial was scheduled for 2020, but the outbreak of the covid-19 pandemic and a series of appeals delayed the start. "We have full confidence that the time will come when the apostle's innocence and honorability will be proven," Eliezer Gutiérrez Avelar, a spokesman for the organization, said in a video in May. Sources close to the investigation have said this Friday that the negotiation took place this morning in exchange for a reduced sentence. His attorney, Alan Jackson, acknowledged in a 2021 motion that his client could spend the rest of her life behind bars if convicted of the charges.
Joaquín García was detained by FBI agents on June 5, 2019 at the Los Angeles airport after landing in a jet private. An iPad was found inside his luggage, where the police found a video of a naked 14-year-old boy, masked and receiving oral sex. The woman who performed fellatio, according to the testimonies presented by the Prosecutor's Office, was the adolescent's aunt. In recent days it had been announced that the judge had authorized that recording to be shown to the 12 members of the jury during the trial. Other images of minors having sex were found on their electronic devices. Joaquín, self-proclaimed servant of God, claims to have more than five million faithful throughout the world, although his critics claim that the real figure does not exceed one million. In Mexico, where the church was founded in the 1920s, it has more than 190,000 followers, according to the latest census.
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The case in California uncovered that the religious leader surrounded himself with a group of maidens, girls and adolescents who were instructed on the principle that serving him and being touched by him was a blessing. Joaquín García assumed power after the death in December 2014 of his father, Samuel Joaquín, who headed the church for more than 50 years. The organization was founded by his grandfather, Eusebio Joaquín, also known as Brother Aarón. The Prosecutor's Office assured that, under the narrative that Naasón was part of the "lineage chosen by God", everything was allowed and that the abuses were facilitated by the church machinery: with women in charge of recruiting the girls, as well as a dome of ministers and unconditional members who were in charge of covering up the crimes.
"La Luz del Mundo is a criminal organization, Naasón did not act alone," said Sochil Martin, who belonged to his close circle for years and was the first person to publicly denounce the abuses. Martin affirms that she was abused in her youth by Samuel Joaquín and that Naasón Joaquín asked her to recruit several young girls. A civil lawsuit targeting the president of the church and his closest group is still pending in US courts.
File image of the temple of Hermosa Provincia, in the Mexican city of Guadalajara, the headquarters of La Luz del Mundo.Fernando Carranza (FOUR DARK)
Three weeks before his arrest, La Luz del Mundo had displayed its political power. Thanks to contacts in the Mexican Senate, the apostle had received a unique tribute for his 50th birthday: the party was not at the Hermosa Provincia temple in Guadalajara, the religious organization's equivalent to the Vatican, but at the Palacio de Bellas Artes of Mexico City, a venue reserved for cultural events that does not usually celebrate any type of religious act. A few days later he traveled to El Salvador to meet with the president, Nayib Bukele, and lay the first stone of the City of Light of the World, a new mega-construction the size of 100 soccer fields.
Joaquín García and his family have multiple properties in Mexico, the United States and Central America, including a ranch with exotic animals in Texas, valued at more than four million dollars. The predominantly humble congregation had to give offerings, gifts and tithes each month to "honor the man of God," according to former members. "When you are inside, Naasón is God and the greatest blessing is obedience, your whole life and your salvation depend on him," says Elisa Flores, who left the cult early last year when she learned of the accusations. After his fortune was made public, a Los Angeles judge set bail at $90 million for him to face trial in freedom, a record figure.
Despite the coup, several people who belonged to the organization point out that Joaquín García has paved the way to maintain control, even from prison. "They told us, for example, that the apostle Paul had also been in prison and that he will continue to be an apostle no matter where he is," says Flores. However, the picture is full of unknowns. For people who have decided to expose the abuse, the guilty plea is not the end of the story. "Even with Naasón in jail, my life and that of my family are in danger, but no matter what happens, I will continue to fight," says Martin.
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Improve on patience, strength, and trust, while creating a deep connection between yourself and the horse.
Doing yoga while on horseback will not only improve balance but it will help you relieve stress, become more flexible, define muscle, calm your mind, and push your limits. Yoga on horseback will build a bond between human and animal in a much deeper way then horseback riding alone. These gentle giants will help you calm and tame the endless stream of thoughts, making you feel more confident, focused, and most of all lead to greater concentration. So slow down, breath right, and challenge yourself in the rarest way that yoga has to offer.
You do not have to have yoga or horse experience. You will need to come with a fresh mind and extreme focus. The horses are solid and supportive. We offer different levels of equine yoga sessions.
because we may be out on a ride, but we will return your call as quick as possible.


How to describe a summer breeze? Soft. Lingering. Sensuous. A caress like no other. We dove into summer by blending summery elements into a gorgeously unexpected fragrance. With a cool aquatic essence and notes of driftwood to hint at a beachy bliss. Laced with base notes of luscious honeysuckle to evoke the sultry sweetness only summer can bring. Up to 105 hours of burn time.


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I Think My Employer Is Discriminating Against Me. What Do I Do?
If an employer or co-worker makes your life miserable because he or she views you as "different" and acts on this attitude in a negative manner, and this behavior is consistent and systemic, you can file a lawsuit for employment discrimination. An employee's salary was lowered because his boss learned he was gay A recent [Read More]
If an employer or co-worker makes your life miserable because he or she views you as "different" and acts on… [Read More]
Help Is Here for Renters Threatened by Rent Increases
A new law, AB-1482, was passed on October 8, 2019, limiting the amount that landlords can increase rent under each renewal term. No one should be forced to endure living in a filthy or dangerous home without basic services, much less pay rent increases while the value of what you're paying for decreases. Every issue [Read More]
A new law, AB-1482, was passed on October 8, 2019, limiting the amount that landlords can increase rent under each… [Read More]
What to Expect from the Passing of Governor Newsom's Wildfire Utility Bill Law
In the wake of the ongoing lawsuit against Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) as a result of the 2018 Paradise/Camp fire, California Governor Gavin Newsom has enacted a utility bill law that could benefit victims of wildfires and alleviate financial burdens for utility companies. The objective of the bill, which passed on July 12, is [Read More]
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New Anti-Harassment Training Requirements in California
In the wake of the #MeToo movement, California passed a sweeping amendment to its workplace safety and anti-harassment standards. These new standards are codified under the Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) with the enactment of SB 1343. Key changes to California's workplace sexual harassment policies In previous iterations of FEHA, mandatory anti-sexual harassment training [Read More]
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Four McNicholas & McNicholas, LLP Attorneys Recognized Among The Best Lawyers in America 2020
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Understanding California's Peace Officers Bill of Rights [Infographic]
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Most people have heard of a statute of limitations, where after a certain period of time, legal action can no longer be taken. This is because as time goes on, evidence becomes stale, a witness's memory fades, and sometimes documents get lost. While the law provides exceptions for some crimes, sadly, in California, a strict [Read More]
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Understanding Disability Discrimination Law in California
If you suffer from a disability, both state and federal laws protect your ability to work so long as you can perform the essential duties of your job with reasonable accommodation. If you find yourself struggling at work, you should consider whether your challenges are resulting from not being accommodated properly. Disability Protections Are Much [Read More]
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Corruption and Discrimination in Law Enforcement: How Officers Can Speak Up
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In addition to working on stressful cases, police officers frequently deal with internal conflicts on the job, and the hazards… [Read More]
If an employer or co-worker makes your life miserable because he or she views you as "different" and acts on…
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In the wake of the ongoing lawsuit against Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) as a result of the 2018 Paradise/Camp…
In the wake of the #MeToo movement, California passed a sweeping amendment to its workplace safety and anti-harassment standards. These…
Partners John McNicholas, Patrick McNicholas, Matthew McNicholas and Senior Lawyer Courtney McNicholas were selected for inclusion in The Best Lawyers…
What rights do public safety officers have when facing internal investigations? The California Peace Officers Bill of Rights defines clear…
Many victims of childhood sexual assault are not ready to come forward until it's too late to pursue justice through…
Most people have heard of a statute of limitations, where after a certain period of time, legal action can no…
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In addition to working on stressful cases, police officers frequently deal with internal conflicts on the job, and the hazards…


Jean-Pierre Melville was the master of the drame azur; those strange, dark films, usually French, that contrasted such dramatic darkness with often very light visuals of a bluish hue. The light was still murky, creating bluish white-outs with cloud, fog, sea and other natural elements playing into the blurring of the image. But the drama was predominantly daytime, often making crime films especially seem refreshing from their often night-based leaning. I often now think of the opening Alain Corneau's Série Noire (1979) (or even several moments from Le Choix des Armes, 1981), Chantal Akerman's Les Rendez-vous d'Anna (1978), and most of Marguerite Duras' shoreline based dramas (especially Agatha and the Limitless Reading and L'Homme Atlantique). But Melville's films managed perfectly that icy mixture of crime in particular and blue washouts, never bettered than in the opening segment of his final film Un Flic (1972). The film uses this aesthetic to create tension (as well as an icy melancholy) but the effect is more startling than simply another way to crank up the criminal ante. More than anything else, this use of colour aesthetic made me unusually consider the colour theories of the French architect Le Corbusier, such is its thematic power in Melville's film especially (it is telling, however, how all of the films mentioned above do play with filmic space in interesting and various ways).
Un Flic follows a group of thieves having had a shaky start to their first bank heist, now planning their second. The film is relatively straightforward in narrative terms but Melville breaks apart the medium in slick and subtle new ways of portraying the noir clichés. The sense of drame azur is most apparent in the first heist which takes up most of the film's opening. Melville presents the viewer with a lightening quick array of blue-white images: white cranes in a blind sky, a wave crashing down into foam, a gull hovering under the clouds. He cuts from this array of images to a block of seaside buildings, incredibly uniform and white, but all tinged with a light blue. The viewer is following a black car which eventually cuts through the haze, the titles intercutting between this journey and black title cards. In the car are four men wearing hats; they seem ominous without trying.
Melville unusually cuts to Paris, near the Champs-Élysées where we briefly meet Alain Delon's character charged with eventually stopping the thieves. It's a strange disjoint and one that could have been avoided though Melville quickly corrects and returns to the tense scene of the driving. The car parks up outside a lonely bank, taking up the corner of the uniform building. No one is around and, most importantly, the colour aesthetic is isolating the building. The roads could lead to nowhere and anywhere, the shoreline opposite may or may not be there. It's a stunningly eerie realisation for a noir film set here in the daytime. The men then get out one by one, enter the bank, botch the job, and escape with only some of the money, one of them having being injured by an ambitious bank clerk. It's all brilliantly realised, the inside of the bank feeling almost like an outpost in the middle of nowhere though containing several customers to add contrast.
Thoughts of Le Corbusier first arose from the building used in the shot itself. The building, which are the beachfront apartments in Saint-Jean-de-Monts, Vendée, resemble nothing less than the Unite d'habitation in Marseille that Le Corbusier designed with the help of Nadir Afonso in 1952. The building's formal design is broken up by blocks of primary colours, arranged in very specific orders according to the designer's preference for what contrasts worked best. These colours were organised via a special key-hole system developed much earlier that used a piece of card to allow colours to occupy one small space in between. The idea being, when applied to architecture, that such combinations of colour psychologically effect the perception of the space, with certain colours drawing the eye more, others complementing certain lines or alcoves. Melville's building, however, has none of this, reflecting what the overall colour scheme of the film actually creates; a removal of lending the eye a hand.
The mass of blue-white seems to become part of the natural surroundings, the lack of people further hinting that the space is strangely part of the wider ephemeral surroundings: sky, crane, gull, waves, building, fog. What effect does this have on the drama? Aside from the previously mentioned tension, the feeling that the dangerous robbers could easily vanish into the ether is built by this white-out. They might as well rob a bank in the middle of a forest; the space will protect them. The whole aesthetic plays with a problem that Le Corbusier was trying to solve, fading everything together until it is simply a range of shapes that benefit those who require getaways and disappearances. Such light colouring, these white-blue hues, were the sort of atmospheric tones that the designer used in order to materialise boundaries of space whilst also trying not to ultimately restrict such space, what he would sometimes label as "transitional" pigments or colours. The drame azur is the mise-en-scène equivalent of Le Corbusier's transitional colours (which also explains why many of the earlier films mentioned follow characters that seem to be in some way disappearing). In Un Flic, the colour palette only partly materialises such boundaries; the space is left opaque, unrestricted and endless, the criminal car disappearing into the white-blue air soon to cause more mayhem when it emerges in more solid surroundings.