text:
Cigarettes, Scotch on the Rocks, and Searching for Someone Special
When local magazines had lots of ads and plenty of money for writers.
With Jim Webb exploring a run for President in 2016, I went back to re-read his 1979 Washingtonian article about women in the military. The headline: "Women Can't Fight." The deck: "A Naval Academy graduate, a combat veteran of Vietnam, says the country's fighting mission is being corrupted, with grave consequences to the national defense. One of the main problems, he says, is women."
Webb got a lot of flak for the article—he had to explain it when he was confirmed as Secretary of the Navy in 1987 and elected to the U.S. Senate in 2008.
For an editor, what was striking about that November 1979 Washingtonian was how different magazines were then. That issue had 324 pages, with 182 pages of ads and 142 pages of editorial. A golden age for magazines—all those ads, all that money for writers and space for stories.
The ads:
There were nine full-page ads for cigarettes: a two-page spread for Benson & Hedges plus full pages for Now, Salem, and Merit. Phillip Morris ran a spread advocating for the arts, also mentioning Marlboro, Benson & Hedges, Merit, Parliament Lights, and Virginia Slims. The Tobacco Institute ran a spread: one page was "A word to smokers" and the other was "A word to nonsmokers." The message to non-smokers: Be open-minded and don't build walls that separate us and don't get in the way of "solutions that bring us together"
There were four full-page ads for scotch whiskey (J&B, Ballantines, Black & White, Teachers), five full-page ads for other hard liquor—bourbon, brandy, and vodka. Plus a full-page ad for "The Apple Disco"—"Every night the Apple's live deejays spin a gossamer fabric of romance…"
There were more than a hundred In Search Of ads—they were paid ads but readers loved reading them. There were ISO parties where singles drank and laughed about who at the party should respond to what ad. Most the ads were serious attempts at finding a mate, but some had what seemed like code words for sex: Good-looking adventurous professor, 34, looking for an earthy woman with domestic tastes and Bohemian desires. Business executive, 35, attractive, honest, discreet, looking for ladies for afternoon meetings. Sincere SWM, 28, seeks an imaginative, uninhibited female for sharing mutual interests.
A fair number of ISOs were looking for same-sex relationships: GWM, intelligent, discreet, editor, 41, trim, handsome Nordic type. I'm masculine appearing but totally gay and completely adaptable.
As for the stories, along with Jim Webb's "Women Can't Fight" the issue had:
David Broder: How He Got to be Number One – Martin F. Nolan profiles the high priest of politics.
Networks: Yes, Virginia, It's Who You Know. Without such networks, the individual stands naked. With the right sets of networks, everything is possible. By Laurence Leamer.
Broken Heart: Sidney Friedberg tells about the heart operation that saved his life.
Homecoming: Fiction by John Rolfe Gardiner.
Nights to Remember: Flood, fire, and wreckage have all taken their toll on Washington. Paul Dickson on our most memorable disasters.
There also were 13 pages of photos of Washington from the air: The Capital, Washington Monument, Pentagon, Watergate, the Mall, RFK Stadium. In those pre-9/11 days, a helicopter could take photographers and writers up over the city to cruise all over the friendly skies.
Plus lots of service stories: How to Find Good Household Help, The Washingtonian Home Design Guide, A Car Owner's Survival Guide, Readers Pick the City's Best Restaurants, The Joys of Bird Feeding.
And there was a lot of gossip and inside stuff: Margaret Trudeau doesn't always don a full wardrobe before going dancing. When will Don Graham stop letting Sally Quinn ruin the Style section? And this from sources inside the Carter White House: "Teddy Kennedy got a note from his mother giving him permission to run for President, but what he really needs is a note from his wife telling him where he can find her."
The cover story? Are Your Parents Home? Everything You May or May Not Want to Know About Your Teenager's Sex Life. Cover price: $1.75.
Jim Webb, aside from his life in the Marines and politics, is a very good writer. His 1978 novel, Fields of Fire, is one of the best books about the Vietnam war and he has written seven other books. He wrote the story and was executive producer for the 2000 film, Rules of Engagement, starring Tommy Lee Jones and Samuel L. Jackson. I don't remember his Washingtonian piece needing much editing but when the issue came out, he called and asked why we had put such a provocative title on it. Jim, that's how editors earn a living.
Another explanation for the 182 pages of ads: Back in the 1970s almost all of the businesses in Washington were locally owned. As an editor, I went to meetings and events where I talked with the men who owned or ran the city's banks, department stores, restaurants, clothing stores, car dealerships. They knew the Washingtonian—they read us, they talked with us, they often ran ads. When I went out to lunch with advertisers, most of them ordered a drink—often an old fashioned, manhattan, or martini, which may help explain all the magazine's liquor ads.
The ad counts began to change in the late 1980s when the national chains—Macy's, Nordstrom's, Home Depot, Bank of America—began moving in, buying out or killing off the local businesses. Where we once sold ads to people who lived in Washington and who knew the magazine, the change from local to national meant we were trying to sell ads to Macy's headquarters in New York, to Nordstrom's in Seattle, to Bloomingdale's in Cincinnati. The digital revolution allowed the big chains to manage stores all over the country and then the Washingtonian was just another magazine they probably didn't read.
The computer also killed off all those In Search Of ads. Why wait for a monthly magazine when you can meet someone tonight through match.com?


pursuant to articles 13 and 14 of the EU General Regulations no. 679/16 on the protection of personal data updated with Law Decree No. 101/2018.
In observance of what is provided for pursuant to articles 13 and 14 of the EU General Regulations No. 679/16 on the protection of personal data, and the "Privacy Decree" regulations - Law Decree No. 101/2018, the company Fashion Group Prato S.r.l., hereinafter FASHIONPO, with registered offices in Prato (PO), Via del Carmine 11, as the Data Controller, informs the interested parties about the aims and modes of processing collected personal data, their realm of communication and diffusion, in addition to the way in which they are provided.
Personal, identification (name, surname, email and telephone number etc) and computer data, collected from interested parties and communicated by them spontaneously via the company website section named "contact us".
The data as per point 1 are used directly by the Controller for correct management of the request managed by the interested party and, in the event, to provide a reply to them.
Data processing is carried out using computerised and electronic means by specially appointed in-house staff. Data are stored in electronic files with full insurance of the minimum security measures provided for by law.
The provision of data is optional; however, refusal to respond will make it impossible for the data processor to follow up on any requests.
For the correct handling of your request via the "Contact" section of the company website, consent to the processing of the above-mentioned data is necessary, as said data are collected outside of past contractual agreements.
It should be noted that consent is considered as freely given when the "Consent" box under the relevant flag is checked.
Data collected will not be disclosed, sold or exchanged with any third party without the express consent of the person concerned, with the exception of communication to third parties authorised (for example IT assistance companies) where necessary for the purposes as set out herein. The data may disclosed to the authorities having jurisdiction according to the law , in the cases specifically established by art. 2-undecies and 2-duodecies of the Privacy Decree No. 101/2018.
Data are stored only for the time necessary to interact with the user to provide them with information.
Pursuant to articles 13, paragraph 2, letters (b) and (d), 14, 15, 18, 19 and 21 of the regulations, interested users are informed that they have the right to ask the company FASHIONPO, as the Data Controller, to access their personal data, to correct or delete them or to limit processing that concerns them or to oppose processing, in the foreseen cases; they have the right, as individuals, to propose a complaint to the Data Protection Authority, following the procedures and indications published on the Authority's official website at www.garanteprivacy.it.
The Data Controller is the company Fashion Group Prato S.r.l., with registered offices in (59100) Prato (PO), Via del Carmine 11.
For all communications, it is possible to contact the Data Controller at the email address: web@fashionpo.com.


text:
Q: How to get min value from mySql but besed on Relational_ID I have a table in MySql

Table Name - T_Price

ID  R_ID    Price
1   ID001   15700
2   ID001   16200
3   ID001   16400
6   ID002   15701
7   ID002   16201
8   ID002   16401

I have to get the lowest value but i am not be able to get
i have tried below query but it is showing me only one record, but i want show every R_ID's lowest value
SELECT P.*
From price P
Where P.price = (select MIN(price) from t_price)

But above query is showing me only this
ID  R_ID    Price
1   ID001   15700

Record i want
ID  R_ID    Price
1   ID001   15700
6   ID002   15701

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
You are at:Home»Analysis»Apple Self-Driving Cars with "revolutionary sensors" – Reuters reveals the company's talks with suppliers
Apple Self-Driving Cars with "revolutionary sensors" – Reuters reveals the company's talks with suppliers
By Zach Wright	 April 18, 2019 No Comments
A minimum of four companies has been in talks with Apple as the potential suppliers for next-gen lidar sensors for self-driving cars, according to a news story by Reuters. Apple is assessing the technology from the companies as well as developing its units, according to insider information from three people.
This gives fresh evidence that Apple continues to have desires to get into the self-driving vehicle race, also known as Project Titan within the company. The focus of the talks is the next-generation sensor which gives a 3D view of the road.
Apple is looking for lidar sensors that are cheaper and smaller as well as being produced en masse more quickly than the current technology, the sources said. The maker of the iPhone wants a revolutionary design, setting the bar high, according to one of the people. The sources would not name the other technology companies that Apple has spoken to.
SELL Apple BUY Apple
This effort to develop sensors signifies Apple's desire to create the hardware that's needed to guide self-driving vehicles, joining car manufacturers as well as investors in a race to uncover the best new technologies.
Lidar systems that are currently in use, such as those mounted on the company's fleet of autonomous test vehicles (from the company Velodyne Inc), use pulses of laser light to get exact images of the car's surroundings. However, these systems cost up to $100,000 and also use mechanically-structured parts to move the laser scans from side to side across the vehicle's path.
Apple vs. Tesla price action on a 1D chart. These two companies aim at becoming the leader of the future self-driving cars market
This makes them far too big as well as being susceptible to failure to be used in mass-produced vehicles. These shortcomings are what has spurred an investment of $1 billion at many start-up companies as well as developed companies too, who want to make smaller, more robust and cheaper lidar units.
Apple has also increased road testing alongside its peaked interest in the sensors as well as bringing in key hires from Alphabet Inc's Google and Tesla Inc. It remains to be seen whether Project Titan's goal will be in building its autonomous vehicle or solely selling the software and hardware elements for the cars while going into partnership with a company for the car itself.
SELL Tesla BUY Tesla
However, Apple's interest in the cheaper technology makes it clear that the company is looking to control the sensors, software, and computer "perception stack" needed to drive a self-driving vehicle, regardless of the vehicle's manufacturer, so said one of the people familiar with these talks. Given that these discussions are not yet public, the three insiders declined to identify themselves.
It is also believed that Apple is developing its lidar system, according to two insiders, as well as its on-going evaluation of outside suppliers too. Apple is seeking designs that can be made with standard semiconductor manufacturing methods, according to four people with inside information.
This has the potential to reduce prices from the thousands to the hundreds when the sensors are made in larger quantities, in the same way at the chips in many devices, such as phones. Apple's ambitions for the sensors are that they can 'see' many hundreds of yards (meters) further ahead.
This shows that Apple wants to have fully autonomous vehicles rather than those like adaptive cruise control that is already used today, according to two insiders.
The long-distance requirement shows Apple is interested in fully self-driving vehicles, versus the more limited features such as adaptive cruise control used today, two people familiar with the matter said. "They're not happy with most of what they see," so said the first person, "they're looking for revolutionary design."
The third person with inside knowledge said that Apple is looking for a sensor that is "design-oriented" that's unobtrusive and sleek enough to be installed into the usual vehicle lines.
Apple investigated building its autonomous vehicle in the past. The tech company had a dedicated team of over twelve engineers to carry out work such as making doors close quietly rather than being slammed shut, so said the fourth person who was informed on the matter.
Last year, Apple re-hired one of their veteran engineers, Doug Field, who was working as the engineering chief for Tesla, putting him to work their Project Titan. This project has around 1,200 workers, according to the total given in official court documents.
The field has been making his mark by laying off around 190 employees as well as hiring critical players like Michael Schwekutsch, who directed electric drive train tech at Tesla. Apple has also increased testing miles over in California, driving almost 80,000 miles in the last year compared with just 800 miles in the previous year.
Apple has declined to comment on the talks.
Apple featured self-driving cars Tesla
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Aerobiz (エアーマネジメント, Air Management - Oozora ni Kakeru au Japon) est un jeu de gestion de compagnie aérienne développé et édité par Koei, sorti en 1992 sur Mega Drive, Super Nintendo, FM Towns, PC-98 et X68000.

Le jeu a pour suite Aerobiz Supersonic, sorti en 1994.

Système de jeu

Accueil
 Famitsu : 29/40

Notes et références

Voir aussi
 Liste de jeux Mega Drive
 Liste de jeux Super Nintendo

Jeu vidéo de simulation économique
Jeu vidéo de simulation aéronautique
Jeu vidéo sorti en 1992
Jeu Mega Drive
Jeu Super Nintendo
Jeu FM Towns
Jeu PC-98
Jeu X68000
Jeu vidéo développé au Japon
Jeu Koei

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
GE Orders Saint-Nazaire CTVs
GE Renewable Energy has placed an order with the joint venture of Louis Dreyfus Armateurs and Tidal Transit for two crew transfer vessels (CTVs) for the Saint-Nazaire offshore wind project in France.
The joint venture LD Tide selected naval architects MAURIC to design the CTVs and French shipyard OCEA to construct them.
Construction will start in 2021, with commissioning scheduled for 2022.
The vessels will be able to accommodate 24 technicians and three crew members and will have a service speed of up to 25kn.
"We are very pleased with this new partnership with LD Tide," said Sebastian Mertens, Director of Service Offshore Wind at GE Renewable Energy Offshore Wind.
"We are convinced that a long-term collaboration at a local level, with the aim of bringing the latest technologies to this first large-scale offshore wind project in French waters, is a formula for success."
Saint-Nazaire, also known as Parc du Banc de Guérande, will comprise 80 GE Haliade 150-6MW turbines manufactured in France and scheduled to be operational in the summer of 2022, when it will become France's first commercial offshore wind farm.
The 480 MW project is being developed by Eolien Maritime France (EMF), a consortium of EDF Renouvelables, Enbridge, and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board.
View post tag: GE Renewable Energy
View post tag: Louis Dreyfus Armateurs
View post tag: Saint-Nazaire
View post tag: Tidal Transit
Photo: MAURIC
LD Tide Inks New CTV Contract for Saint-Nazaire OWF
Louis Dreyfus Armateurs and Tidal Transit, through a joint venture named LD Tide, have signed a crew...
Offshore Wind Brings Acta Marine to Saint-Nazaire
Acta Marine has opened an office in Saint-Nazaire, France, off whose coast a 480 MW offshore wind pr...
ProCon Working on Saint-Nazaire Transition Pieces
ProCon Wind Energy has won a contract to provide the electrical outfitting of the transition pieces ...
Wind Farm Update
DEME About to Start Saint-Nazaire OSS Foundation Works
DEME Group is about to begin offshore substation foundation works at the Saint-Nazaire offshore wind...
Saint-Nazaire Bases Start Taking Shape
DEME Commissions Subsea Drill for Saint-Nazaire OWF's XL-Monopiles
DEME's Trio Starts Saint-Nazaire OWF Work
FwP Atlantic Forum 2017
Seanergy 2019 (June 5 - 7)
Wind Operations Dallas 2020


text:
Tour de Yorkshire 2017 var den 3. udgave af det britiske landevejscykelløb i Yorkshire. Løbet foregik i perioden 28. til 30. april 2017. Løbet var en del af UCI Europe Tour 2017 og var i kategorien 2.1. Den samlede vinder af løbet blev belgiske Serge Pauwels fra .

Ryttere og hold

Danske ryttere
 Magnus Cort kørte for
 Søren Kragh Andersen kørte for
 Mads Würtz Schmidt kørte for

Etaperne

1. etape

2. etape

3. etape

Trøjernes fordeling gennem løbet

Resultater

Samlede stilling

Pointkonkurrencen

Referencer

Eksterne henvisninger

2017
UCI Europe Tour 2017


Fetal size: crown-rump 26cm (10.4 inches), crown-toe 38cm(16.7inches). Fetal weight: 1,25kg (2.7 pounds).
Over the last 5 weeks your baby has doubled its weight. Your baby grows so quickly that even a few weeks growth will have a big effect on your baby's size.
A baby born between 37 and 42 weeks is considered term, and is fully mature at birth. A baby born prior to 37 weeks is considered to be premature, and requires specialist medical attention. Today, rapid medical intervention has enabled babies born as early as 25 weeks to survive, although they face many possible complications and weeks in hospital.
The further a pregnancy develops the higher the chances of a better outcome for mother and baby. Each pregnancy is treated individually. For example, a baby born at 36 weeks may have no problems what so ever, or on the other hand it may require short-term oxygen and assistance with feeding.
Your weight gain up to and including Week 29 should be between 7 and 11 kilos (15-25 pounds).
If you go into premature labour, the most common form of treatment is bed rest. Best rest is often effective in stopping contractions and threatened premature labour. Sometimes drugs are used to suppress premature labour - they relax the muscles and decrease contractions.
If you have experienced threatened premature labour, you will be visiting your health care professional more frequently for the rest of your pregnancy. You and your baby will probably be monitored using ultrasound, along with recordings of your baby's heart rate and your contractions. If premature labour cannot be stopped, your baby will be delivered.
If you haven't already considered names for your baby, now is as good a time as any to start thinking about it.


text:
Airfield Seizure Operations
Army Soldiers assigned to the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), engage enemy forces at Lakehurst Maxfield Field during a multi-component airfield seizure training exercise with the Army Reserve and the 101st Airborne Division on March 13, 2017 to kick off Warrior Exercise 78-17-01. Several Army Reserve organizations including the Army Reserve Aviation Command, 84th Training Command, 78th Training Division, and members of the 200th Military Police Command helped Easy Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division conduct the mission. Roughly 60 units from the U.S. Army Reserve, U.S. Army, U.S. Air Force, and Canadian Armed Forces are participating in the 84th Training Command's joint training exercise, WAREX 78-17-01, at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst from March 8 until April 1, 2017; the WAREX is a large-scale collective training event designed to assess units' combat capabilities as America's Army Reserve continues to build the most capable, combat-ready, and lethal Federal Reserve force in the history of the Nation.
Tags: JBMDL, 200th MPC, 99th Regional Support Command, SSG Shawn Morris, 99TH RSC, Warex, combat support training program, army total force, 200TH MILITARY POLICE COMMAND, America's Army Reserve, CSTP, WAREX 78-17-01, warrior exercise, joint base mcguire-dix-lakehurst, U.S. Army Reserve, USAR, 84th Training Command, 78th Training Division, army reserve
Photo by: Staff Sgt. Shawn Morris | VIRIN: 170313-A-VX676-028.JPG


Whether you are an outdoor adventurer, a hunting enthusiast, or looking for a fun activity on a cold winter day, you are sure to have fun at this year's Outdoor Expo hosted by WJTV- The Wilderness Journal television show! Join us at the Wexford County Civic Center in Cadillac and browse the many vendors, book your next hunting or fishing adventure and more!
Admission: Adults $7; Kids 12 & Under FREE!
And don't forget to Check In with us on Facebook when you Like and Follow us!


text:
What Is a "Cool" Parent?
Best Virtual Bets: Big Bands, Vaccines, and Drowning Girls
Bored at Work? So Are They
Meredith Deliso
| Lists |
Meredith Deliso | December 13, 2011 | 1:00pm
This piece may be a bit too accessible.
"Office Light," Curt Gambetta's new installation at the Lawndale Arts Center, beckons moths to the flame -- 12 fluorescent troffer lights arranged in a 2'x4' office ceiling grid that stands six feet tall. That height purposefully makes it a little too close for comfort for some for sure, urging viewers to take a few steps back to take it in. Stripped of any cubicles or swivel chairs, and even without the aid of the name, the piece's references are clear. Gambetta says his work registers "as a ghost of what is neglected or erased, or a portent of future urban conditions." It's a never-ending cycle.
This authentic nod to the ubiquitous, often monotonous office experience got us thinking about other, more opinionated takes on soul-crushing office culture. With "Office Light" burning until January 7, you should have enough time to check out -- or revisit -- them all.
Yeah, it's obvious, but no pop culture roundup on works that are inspired by mundane office culture would be complete without Mike Judge's 1999 satirical comedy. The story about three disgruntled workers and their rebellion against their greedy boss encapsulates the trivialities of corporate, fluorescent-cast culture like none other.
Sure, it's more absurd and heightened than any office you'll ever work in, but the American version of this mockumentary-style sitcom still captures that 9-5, clocking in, paper-pushing, coffee break grind. And every office has a Meredith, Kelly, Angela, Jim, Stanley and, if you're lucky, Creed.
Who knew cartoons could be so relatable! Scott Adams's titular glasses-wearing, tie-sporting engineer has turned its satirical office humor into a more than 20-year-old comic strip, animated TV series, computer game and, of course, merchandise that's ready for a cubicle near you. Apparently, the commentary on office politics has struck such a chord, Adam himself has said that once he switched the comic's setting from Dilbert's home to his office, the strip took off.
And Then We Came to the End
It's the late 1990s, at a Chicago advertising agency. Layoffs are constant, and workers are throwing themselves into an impossible assignment -- make breast cancer funny to its survivors. Joshua Ferris's told-through-the-watercooler satire of the American workplace perfectly captures the mundane yet oh-so-important details of life under the fluorescent lights, like the allure of free bagels.
The title says it all. This 1997 dark, smart comedy follows four misfits -- temps, of course -- whose anonymity in their offices fuels their cliquey friendship. All the travails of modern office work -- the boredom, the piles of pointless work, the highly anticipated happy hours and, of course, the fluorescent-lit cubicles -- are all there.


text:
Q: Why operator systems contain an abundant of positive elements? I am reading Sec33 of Conway's A Course in Operator Theory, according to his definition,

An operator system is a linear manifold $\mathcal{S}$ in a $C^*$-algebra such that $1\in\mathcal{S}$ and $\mathcal{S}=\mathcal{S}^*$.

Then he makes the comment that operator systems have an abundance of positive elements. His argument is that for every hermitian element $a\in\mathcal{S}$, $|a|$ also lies in $\mathcal{S}$ and hence the positive parts and negative parts lie in $\mathcal{S}$ and hence $\mathcal{S}$ is spanned by its positive elements.
However, I do not know why $|a|$ lies in $\mathcal{S}$ since $\mathcal{S}$ is only assumed to be a linear manifold, not an algebra.
Can somebody give a hint?
Thanks!

A: I assume "linear manifold" means "subspace." I also do not understand the given argument (if $|a|$ denotes the absolute value), but here's another one: the second condition implies that $S$ is spanned by its self-adjoint elements. Let $a$ be such an element. If $\lambda \in \mathbb{R}$ is greater than the spectral radius of $a$ then $a + \lambda$ is positive, so $a = (a + \lambda) - \lambda$ is a difference of positive elements.


Although our focus on disruptive innovation means that we have the tendency to believe that innovation is all about the lightbulb moments and startup mentalities, in fact innovation is more often a long, evolutionary process which requires planning, perseverance and longevity.
Yet with any long-term process come the questions, how can organisations put the necessary steps in place to build this process of innovation? How will you know if this process will work, or indeed measure whether it has worked? How can you build upon the successes and limitations of your process to ensure that it delivers better results next time?
These are all questions which must be answered when crafting an innovation process. Here are 3 tips for beginning this procedure and ensuring that innovation becomes an integral part of your organisational culture.
According to a recent article by Harvard Business Review (HBR), when organisations do not have a formal innovation process they tend to rely on 'well-intentioned, smart people sitting in a committee to decide which ideas are worth pursuing.' This often means that these decisions are subject to being swayed by who has the best pitching style or lobbies the hardest for their idea, rather than focusing purely on the potential and scope of an idea.
HBR suggests that in order to combat this phenomenon, organisations must implement 'a self-regulating, evidence-based innovation pipeline [which] helps innovators and other stakeholders to curate and prioritise problems, ideas, and technologies.' Implementing this kind of prioritisation means that those innovations that are followed through 'will already have substantial evidence — about validated customer needs, processes, legal security, and integration issues' which can help ensure that only the most effective and promising innovations are pursued.
HBR suggests using McKinsey's Three Horizons model to fuel this prioritisation and for the review process to be carried out by the innovation team themselves, rather than a committee of executives, before continuing work the idea or project.
One of the biggest challenges facing innovators is the fact that the constant development of new technologies and shifts in existing trends means that the goalposts of innovation are repeatedly being moved. For projects that can often take months or even years in the making, it is essential that an organisation's innovation process takes account of these technological changes and developments in order to remain competitive.
One of the key lessons to take from business.com's article is that even with a strong process in place to keep up with the pace of change, organisations must create a fine balance between embracing new trends and simply buying into digital innovations for their own sake. Arguing that with 'so many technologies on the edge of exploding right now – the internet of things, virtual reality, augmented reality, artificial intelligence - it's easy to move full steam ahead with the first "fun" idea that comes to mind.' Building a process which allows you to recognise which developments offer most value to your organisation is crucial if your innovation is to be carefully targeted and your energy conserved for the ideas with the most potential for ROI and ultimate success.
One of the biggest benefits to creating an innovation process is the fact that once an effective process has been built, this can then be implemented time and again and tweaked according to the specific idea or project in question. Although creating an innovation process may seem like a lot of work, it is the longevity and far-sightedness inherent in this process-building which really offers value to organisations looking to entrench a culture of innovation among their teams.
In order to build such a system, or 'innovation ecosystem' as Viki calls it, senior executives must remove the obstacles facing those team members willing and able to innovate, provide resources and guidance from early on in the idea generation phase, and allow the time and space for ideas to mature in order to understand their true value.
Viki's belief that 'in the current business environment, sustaining innovation is key to survival' is a poignant one, and should act as motivation enough for organisations large and small to invest time and effort into building a coherent innovation process that consistently delivers results.


text:
Q: Texturing error on a Sphere I have a number of spherical longitude/latitude coordinates for points on a sphere that I need to visualize. For that purpose, I transformed the points to cartesian coordinates and built a mesh of triangles that I can render with VTK. Works so far.
Now I want to use a texture for the sphere model. Therefore I transformed the spherical coordinates to texture coordinates and assigned these to each point. This works for the majority of the sphere's surface triangles and the result looks acceptable.
But, for the triangles on the opposite side of the prime meridian, where the texture wraps, the triangles are textured incorrectly: Instead of repeating the texture and mapping "over the texture boundary", the whole texture gets squeezed onto the single triangle.
Here is a picture of how it looks like:

The zick-zack line is obviously wrong, the blue line should be visible instead. The whole texture is mapped on the triangles, resulting in red and white stripes. This makes sense since, for the triangles in question, the texture coordinates span the whole texture space.
To illustrate this problem, which is not specific to spheres but all closed objects, I have created the following figure:

In the upper rectangle, we see a triangle that spans over the texture boundaries with computed texture coordinates A, B and C. Since the texture can be tiled, this is how I would like the triangle to be rendered.
The lower triangle shows how the texture coordinates are interpreted currently. The coordinates of the edges A, B and C are the same, but this time, the majority of the texture is used for the triangle, instead of tiling the texture at the borders.
I am sure there is quite a common mistake I made but I didn't find anything to help me yet. Have any hints for me?

A: The answer is very simple you need to map your texture coordinates over the edge. The implementation depends on your data set but here is a stab at the problem.
In computer graphics texture coordinates are stored on the faces and not on the vertices and your problem shows the reason. When you map a texture around a sphere, let us say in 10 steps you start with 0.0 then continue in 0.1 increments. If you go with texture coordinates along the prime meridian you get faces with the texture coordinate 0.9 and 0.0. The graphic hardware does what it is told and interpolates the texture between 0.0 and 0.9.
To solve your problem you need to map the texture from 0.9 to 1.0.
If you can, create the polygons that way or duplicate the offending vertices with other texture coordinates.

A: First off, you probably don't want to just map the spherical coordinates to a single rectangular texture that covers the sphere since the texel resolution becomes very non-uniform over the surface.
A better approach is to use an atlas. An "atlas" is a parameterization of the surface into multiple "charts", each of which is a connected region. For example, you could map the sphere onto roughly 6 charts that correspond to the sides of a cube, and each chart would preserve the shape of the portion of the sphere much better. You can google for multi-chart parameterization or something like that. DirectX has built in UVAtlas generation if you want to go that route. The issue of what to do at the seams between charts is simpler actually since triangles always sit within one chart, and is a different problem entirely.
That said, to deal with the seams in your case, you need to know which triangle edges of the (spherical) mesh intersect the boundaries (meridian or whatever). You will then have to break up the triangles incident on those edges into pieces that don't cross the boundary, and apply the texture coordinates properly.

A: Replying to a very old question because I think there's an easier answer, using a built-in method of vtk's vtkSphereSource.
You want to "break" the sphere so that you don't get texture interpolation between 0.9 and 0.0 around the sphere. In python, call sphere.SetEndTheta(360 - 1.e-4), which will, in effect, take a tiny slice out of the sphere. That gives you that end set of vertices for the texture to map all the way to 1.0.


Jupiter in the 6th or 8th from the Moon, and Jupiter is not in an angle.
Sakata Yoga indicates unsteady fortune with the result that life will be full of ups and downs, with slow progress and many disappointments. The mentality will be easily disgruntled and though one will occasionally be hopeful, hope will not be long lasting. If Jupiter and the Moon are rasi aspecting each other while they are in 6/8 from each other, and if they are forming some beneficial yoga as a result of this aspect, then the blemish of Sakata Yoga is voided, although the beneficial yoga they are forming will fructify slowly and with ups and downs. Further, if Jupiter or the Moon is also taking part in other beneficial yogas, whether jointly or independently, then the negative effects of the Sakata Yoga will not be fully effective. There can still be success, but it will be accompanied by some disappointments, delays or ups and downs. Also, if Jupiter is taking part in Adhi Yoga, then Sakata Yoga is not considered present. There are a few other conditions when Jupiter in the 6th or 8th from the Moon does not form Sakata Yoga; these yogas are being given next.


ConocoPhillips has made a discovery at its Cassin prospect, but details remain scarce.
Earlier this year, ConocoPhillips drilled the Cassin No. 1 exploration well to meet work commitments of its Bear Tooth unit in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska.
The "wildcat" well made a discovery, ConocoPhillips EVP of Exploration & Production Matt Fox said during a quarterly earnings call with investors this morning. But while Fox announced the discovery, he offered no details about its size or about future plans.
ConocoPhillips has made discoveries in the NPR-A through its previous exploration work, but development has been constrained by permitting and infrastructure. The company is currently working on its first NPR-A development project with the Alpine West/CD-5 satellite, a project that would pave the way for future westward expansion.


Peter Brears' robust discussion of the early history of the Cornish pasty, indeed whether we should call it Cornish at all, provoked other comments, none more extended than one from Barbara Santich in Adelaide, South Australia. She gathered a full sheaf of local press cuttings concerning the pasty, as well as citing these, her own words, from her book Bold Palates: Australia's Gastronomic Heritage (Wakefield Press, 2013): 'In domestic kitchens, however, individual small pies were a long way behind pasties in popularity. While meat pies were typically the product of professional bakers and small-scale manufacturing, pasties – specifically, Cornish pasties – were more often associated with home cooking. In cookbooks published in the first half of the 20th century, recipes for pasties outnumber those for small meat pies by almost ten to one. Like pies, pasties can be seen as a continuation of the centuries-old pie tradition, a raw meat-and-vegetables filling baked inside a pastry case that made it easy to transport and eat – and to reheat, on a shovel held over the fire.
PPC's most intrepid allotment-holder, Phil Iddison, sent me this report from his diggings in London. It runs as follows: 'One by-product of harvests at my allotment in Richmond on Thames has been a steady stream of worked flint tools from the Stone Age. Most are found during the potato harvest when I sift through the soil to try and find every miniature potato to ensure that I do not get rogue potato plants appearing amongst the next year's crops.
'The majority of these tools are simple scrapers, a tool that has little application in the modern kitchen. We now use paring knives, graters and the micro-plane. Other tools are like small axes or pounders and one substantial specimen has a saw edge, perhaps for butchery.
'One of the flints that I picked out of the soil in 2014 did not at first appear to be a worked tool. I put it to one side and only looked at it in detail this spring.
'Consultation with a local archaeologist confirmed that these were tools of Mesolithic and Neolithic types and probably more than 4,000 years old. As they were found in topsoil, an un-stratified horizon, specific dates cannot be given.
'He alerted me to a particular type of tool of which I have collected several specimens. These tools have a prominent notch created on one edge. This is thought to be a specialized scraper, for instance to strip bark from twigs to eat and use in medicine or perhaps craft work. There is palaeofaecal evidence for the consumption of bark in the Neolithic diet.
'This latest flint has two of these notches of different sizes and there is another small notch which looks man-made. It also has a right-angled corner which has both edges re-touched to create serrated edges for cutting or scraping. This small tool, only 40 mm long, has three or four functions! It is not a classic tool with all surfaces worked to create an aesthetically appealing object. It is a flake from a larger flint mass and still has an edge displaying the weathered cortex material of the parent stone. This is the area that is under the user's thumb, providing a natural non-slip surface, an added but significant benefit if the tool becomes wet in use. The alignment of the cutting edges on the tool indicates that it was made for a right-handed user. It is a very practical tool.
'How do I know that it is an ancient tool and not just an accidental fragment of rock? There are three percussion bulb impressions on the flint surface that confirm deliberate pressure flaking by one of our antecedents to create the shapes, surfaces and edges to make this into a versatile and useful implement. The large bulb on the reverse of the tool separated it from the parent flint. Another created the larger notch. The third laid the basis for the sharpened corner. A major retouch created the smaller notch. There is also the comprehensive edge re-touching that does not happen accidentally.
Very large academic conferences are interesting phenomena, and this Leeds event is no exception. 2016 will see food at the centre of things. I repeat the latest release: 'The twenty-third International Medieval Congress will take place in Leeds, from 4–7 July 2016. … The IMC seeks to provide an interdisciplinary forum for the discussion of all aspects of Medieval Studies. Paper and session proposals on any topic related to the European Middle Ages are welcome. However, every year, the IMC chooses a special thematic strand which – for 2016 – is 'Food, Feast & Famine'. The theme has been chosen for the crucial importance of both phenomena in social and intellectual discourse, both medieval and modern, as well as their impact on many aspects of the human experience.
'Food is both a necessity and a marker of economic and social privilege. Who cooks food, who consumes it in the Middle Ages? How and what did people from different social levels or religious commitments eat? How did eating change? How were these issues contested and represented? What does food reveal about differing aspects of medieval society and culture?
'The aim is to cover the entire spectrum of famine to feast through multi-disciplinary approaches. Study of the medieval economy raises issues about standards of living and nutritional health. Both archaeological as well as textual evidence have been used to explore crop yields, agricultural methods, transport problems, dearth, and famine. Geographical and social variations in diet are important for understanding medieval taste and the era's definitions of sufficiency and luxury. Food is an expression of international relations and trade, as shown in the intercultural influences between Christian Europe and Islamic Spain, North Africa, the Eastern Mediterranean, and India.
'Across medieval Europe the acquisition, preservation, and storage of food was a struggle for much of the population, but food consumption was also a means for a clerical and noble elite to display taste and ostentation. In popular culture, feasting is perceived as one of the major activities of the medieval elite. The religious significance of food and fasting in the Middle Ages was part of Christian, Muslim, and Jewish practice. Fasting and food had wide-ranging interconnections with piety and charity, and could involve renunciation of an exceptional intensity. Spiritual and physical nourishment and its absence can be explored in many disciplines from the theological, legal, and literary to the art-historical and linguistic. …[A] Special Thematic Strand 'Food, Feast & Famine' will be co-ordinated by Paul Freedman (Department of History, Yale University).' See for more information.
Ken Albala has notified me of the following: 'We are excited to tell you about a new degree program we are offering: Master of Arts in Food Studies. The program will be offered at University of the Pacific's state-of-the-art new campus in the SoMa district of San Francisco in fall 2015. The faculty includes world-renowned academic and working professionals.
The eager foodist will soon have a calendar full of every sort of conference, symposium and assembly – and an empty bank account. Máirtín Mac Con Iomaire has kindly sent me notification of this excellent event in Ireland. His message runs as follows: 'Just a brief note to remind people to put the 31 May–1 June 2016 in your diaries for the third biennial Dublin Gastronomy Symposium. The theme for 2016 will be Revolution which can be interpreted in the broadest sense. Of course we will be celebrating the 1916 Revolution in Easter 2016 here in Dublin but for the symposium authors might like to write about revolutionary events in the food world – including but not limited to the following topics: food and war, trench food, siege food etc.; impact of French revolution on restaurants; American Revolution – Boston Tea Party; the green organic revolution; the industrial revolution and its effect on food; health food revolution; influence of service à la russe; who were the revolutionary chefs and food producers of the past and who are the present revolutionaries?; revolutionary food writers; revolution in culinary training; can revolution unify citizens under a common cuisine? – Italy and Garibaldi.
While we are at it, I should also tell you of this gathering, scheduled for 15–16 January 2016, to discuss the topic 'Fire, Knives and Fridges: The material culture of cooking tools and techniques'. They continue: 'This year's topic is inspired by the renewed interest in traditional cooking and preservation techniques, such as baking and fermenting, but also by innovations like sous-vide cooking and molecular gastronomy. Since prehistoric times humans have used tools, such as fire, grindstones, and knives to transform raw ingredients into edible food. Anthropologists such as Claude Lévi-Strauss and Richard Wrangham have suggested that it is the discovery of cooking which sets humans apart from apes and makes us a "cooking animal". In their view, advancements in the technology of cooking mark the human transformation of (raw) nature into (cooked) culture.
It is with great regret that I note the death of this wonderful journalist whose presence so enlivened our visits to the Oxford Symposium in years gone by. It was indeed people like Ann Barr that made the Symposium so unique an event. She will be for ever remembered by her Official Sloane Ranger Handbook (1982), written with Peter York, and her Official Foodie Handbook (1984), written with Paul Levy. Each combined utility with the sharpest of wits.
The passage of the last year or two has been soothed by immersion in this Norwegian author's My Struggle so skilfully Englished by Don Bartlett (now up to volume 4 out of 6). I only mention it here because it is full of incidental information about food and cookery in Norway and Sweden over the last few decades. Indeed, I confess that I am sometimes as alert to the local and factual colour as the literary achievement. Just wonderful stuff.
Prospect Books is about to bring out the fourth volume of this series of conference papers. Not before time, because the conference it records was held in 2010, but due to no lack of vim and vigour on the part of Prospect Books. It is available from the website (£30, but £22.50 at present). My ambition had always been to assemble a collection of about twenty of these volumes, by which point something of value and utility might have emerged, but unfortunately it seems impossible to persuade the participants that publication is a good idea and worth their investment of time and effort. I can only deduce either that young archaeologists (for the participants in these conferences are all either postgraduate students or people at the beginning of their careers) are not very energetic or that the university research assessment process (by which funds and prestige are allocated) does not think such volumes of much value.
Geraldene Holt has sent me the following press release: 'The £2000 Jane Grigson Award, created in honour of the twenty-fifth anniversary of Jane Grigson's death, will be made to a writer new to food writing (although they may have written on other subjects) who has already received a commission from a publishing house. In the spirit of Jane's writing, the award will be for a non-fiction book on food in the widest sense, from any genre – cook book, memoir, travel, history – so long as the primary subject is food.
'The Jane Grigson Award is unusual in rewarding a promising new writer ahead of publication in order to help them discover 'one thing, one reference, one passage... that gives you the theme, that shows you the way'. The intention is that the winner will use the £2,000 sum to fund further travel or research in the vital time between gaining a commission and delivery of the manuscript.
I had not come across this website before and I recommend it, if only for its useful gathering of Internet links to texts of old English cookery texts. It is, however, much more than that, having at its heart an encyclopaedia of English dishes with commentary (sometimes), recipes from old texts (sometimes) and pictures (sometimes). There is little about the creator of this great work save that his name is Glyn Lloyd-Hughes, the author/creator of The Squashed Philosophers (Derwent Press), Squashed Dickens, and The Hundred Books: All the Stuff You're Supposed to Have Read.
Along with the cereal café in Shoreditch, hipsters of London have banded together to support a place devoted to porridge. However, rather than merely serving bowls of breakfast all day, they have taken any old grain as their base material and added the world's larder to it. This all occurred in springtime in Hackney and is about to reappear as a pop-up in Victoria (16 Terminus Place). We may think of porridge as British, the menu is anything but: at lunch you can have 'risottos' of chicken congee on barley, or asparagus pea and mint on buckwheat; or there are salads of cajun chicken with quinoa, watercress, broccoli and feta, or kale, avocado, quinioa, broccoli and cashew nuts. Interestingly, from any menus that I have seen, there have been few explorations of British ways with grain (other than porridge) such as frumenty or gruels or sowans, etc.
The first months of the year have seen us frozen like rabbits in headlights as we experienced the full enormity of the state's new subsidy system for English farms: the Basic Payment Scheme (the Single Farm Payment that was). It was intended that the whole process should be online, but first, of course, you had to register (in the way of such systems, it disregarded the fact that you had been registered for the previous regime, run by the same people from the same desks, for years beforehand). You could only register via a mobile phone. We cannot get a mobile signal here in Allaleigh. Everything ground to a halt. And then they worked out a workaround. The next stop was navigating the form itself. Well, that didn't work either, nor for thousands of other, bigger farmers. So they had to call a complete halt and convert it all back to paper. You could follow the whole thing in Private Eye – and it was true. Having been sent the paper material, we were then able to complete the submission by clicking a single button online, so all ended happily, for this year at least. We sometimes question whether we, as very small landholders, deserve such a generous payment but comfort any tenderness of conscience by reckoning that they will soon exclude those with fewer than 25–50 hectares. Who knows? On the agricultural front meanwhile, life has been made much easier by the accession of my son-in-law Paul Adams to the fray. We have increased the flock of sheep and had a good lambing, and we have a new sow, Peggy, and a new boar, Rufus. Peggy had her first litter at the beginning of May, ten piglets in rude health. Isabella soldiers on, with a smaller litter last time of four.
Here in Devon we have got into quite an annual rhythm of making cider (in bountiful years) and apple juice, even if drinking the stuff is more difficult (cider, that is, for the apple juice goes down throats of all ages) – not so much because it's disgusting (although I will not make great claims for it save that it tastes as clean as a whistle), but because there is so much of it and, frankly, we prefer red wine. However, there are flutterings in the dovecotes of small commercial cider makers as a result of the request from the EU that the British government ceases to allow producers (of less than 70 hectolitres of cider in any one year) exemption from excise duty. This may be a very large nail in the coffin of many an artisan cider for the exemption saves them up to £2,500. Having just finished reading Éric Zemmour's Le Suicide français, a glorious, one-sided paean to reactionary nationalism (much more forceful than any arguments from UKIP), I am tempted to align myself with the critics of the Union, while wondering how the small cider makers of France may cope given they have lived without such a subsidy for all these years.
The several series of radio comedies by Miles Jupp portraying the life and recipes of the cookery writer Damien Trench have been the one thing that has got me out of bed of a Monday morning. Their waspish accuracy has me giggling all the way to lunch. I even wrote to his agent to see if Prospect could print the scripts (he never replied, doubtless expecting far, far better things). Then there was a short set of programmes on television which pleased but did not quite delight as the radio had done. All I can say is that when they reappear, they are essential listening.
The back alleys of research in newspapers and documents never run straight and the indefagitable Colin Smythe, whose discoveries about the career of Charle Elmé Francatelli have occupied pages of the last two issues, has more to add. The difficulties surround the precise date at which Francatelli gave up his job at the Reform Club. Comments by George Augustus Sala had encouraged him to believe it was 1862 or 1863, but he now thinks Sala's memory was defective. Therefore, the definitive version of Colin Smythe's paragraphs on this particular detail should now read as follows: 'The title page of the 1867 edition of the Cook's Guide states that Francatelli stayed at the Reform for seven years, i.e. till 1861, and in spite of Sala's recollections – at the time of his writing his memory was obviously failing – he could not have met him there as he was only elected to the Reform on 13 March 1862, over a year after Francatelli's departure. The Reform Club had advertised in the Morning Post for a new Steward and Chief Cook on 21 January 1861, so Francatelli must have left by then or been working his notice.


text:
Demolition of old Livingston County 911 Central Dispatch building in Howell underway
The former Livingston County 911 Central Dispatch building in Howell is in the process of being demolished.
Contractor JS Vig Construction in Plymouth is the lead contractor on the demolition project, according to Kim Vig, the company's head of marketing. The process started Tuesday.
The entire demolition project is expected to cost approximately $6.5 million, according to Livingston County Administrator Ken Hinton, who said Friday that the amount is a total from contracts awarded throughout the last several years.
Joe Raica Excavating, based in Fowlerville, was hired as a subcontractor to do the demolition, Vig said.
Once the demolition is complete, the site at 300 S. Highlander Way will be graded, and asphalt will be put down for the creation of a parking lot, Vig said.
The demolition, site grading and new parking lot is all planned to be complete by mid-November, she said.
County 911 staff moved in August into its new building, which is located right next to the old one. Ground broke on the new facility in July last year.
The new building cost $6.9 million to construct. It has the same address as the old building.
MORE: Livingston County breaks ground on new 911 Central Dispatch facility


Central Appalachia is the procedure of linear ridges, intervening valleys, and deeply dissected plateaus that make up the rugged terrain present in western and southwestern Virginia, jap and crucial West Virginia, western Maryland, and a section of south important and southwestern Pennsylvania. via its concise and available procedure, A normal background of the significant Appalachians completely examines the biology and ecology of the crops, animals, and different organisms of this area of jap North America.
With over a hundred and twenty photographs, this article presents an outline of the panorama of this quarter, together with the main adjustments that experience taken position over the last three hundred million years; describes the differing kinds of forests and different plant groups presently found in crucial Appalachia; and examines dwelling structures starting from microorganisms and fungi to birds and mammals. via a attention of the background of people within the sector, starting with the arriving of the 1st local american citizens, A ordinary historical past of the crucial Appalachians additionally discusses the prior, current, and destiny impacts of human job upon this geographic area.
Featured in Kindred Spiritmagazine, this 3rd volumeof the best-selling Crystal Bible books offers greater than 250 new new release, high-vibration stones for therapeutic and transformation. integrated are many new and infrequent minerals whose esoteric homes should not defined somewhere else. This crucial consultant additionally encompasses a part on crystal skulls, crystal beings, Madagascan stones, and the way to paintings with the 'new' chakras, similar to the Soul famous person and Manifestation chakras, which are encouraged via the strong crystals featured.
Environmental Economics is an advent to the fundamental rules of environmental economics as they've been constructed long ago and as they proceed to conform. The examples mentioned during this textbook signify just a pattern of the entire diversity of concerns that really exists. therefore the 7th variation sticks to the fundamental rules and ways in which environmental economists have stumbled on to make the fundamental recommendations and types extra particular and correct to concrete environmental concerns.
Taking a disease-based approach, Fish Viruses and micro organism: Pathobiology and Protection focuses at the pathobiology of and protecting options opposed to the commonest, significant microbial pathogens of economically very important marine and freshwater fish. The ebook covers well-studied, notifiable piscine viruses and micro organism, together with new and rising illnesses that could turn into large threats to neighborhood fish populations in new nation-states if transported there through contaminated fish or eggs.


My latest piece of work for GigaOM Pro just went live. Scaling Hadoop clusters: the role of cluster management is available to GigaOM Pro subscribers, and was underwritten by StackIQ.
Thanks to everyone who took the time to speak with me during the preparation of this report.
From Facebook to Johns Hopkins University, organizations are coping with the challenge of processing unprecedented volumes of data. It is possible to manually build, run and maintain a large cluster and to use it to run applications such as Hadoop. However, many of the processes involved are repetitive, time-consuming and error-prone. So IT managers (and companies like IBM and Dell) are increasingly turning to cluster-management solutions capable of automating a wide range of tasks associated with cluster creation, management and maintenance.
This report provides an introduction to Hadoop and then turns to more-complicated matters like ensuring efficient infrastructure and exploring the role of cluster management. Also included is an analysis of different cluster-management tools from Rocks to Apachi Ambari and how to integrate them with Hadoop.
Compulsory picture of an elephant as it's a Hadoop story provided by Flickr user Brian Snelson.


Tasteful off-white painted finish with wax lacquered oak tops.
If you qualify for our local delivery service - we can assemble the bed free of charge.
Please note that there is a Shaker painted bedframe on promotion in our ''Bed Frames' section - this is not the same range and will be a different colour.


text:
Q: Minkowski's and Holder's inequality confusion Something doesn't completely makes sense to me in Minkowski's inequality and I'm trying to understand it.
All throughout let $a_i, b_i \geq 0$, and $p > 1$, $\frac{1}{p} + \frac{1}{q} = 1$.
Holder's inequality states that:
$\sum_i a_ib_i \leq (\sum_i a_i ^p)^\frac{1}{p} (\sum_i b_i ^q)^\frac{1}{q}$
And the equality happens exactly when $a_i ^p = b_i^q$.
I'm trying to figure out when Minkowski's inequality turns into an equality.
Minkowski states $(\sum_i (a_i + b_i)^p)^\frac{1}{p} \leq (\sum_i a_i ^p)^\frac{1}{p} + (\sum_i b_i ^p)^\frac{1}{p}$
One of the stages of the proof is stating that $\sum_i (a_i + b_i)^p = \sum_ia_i(a_i+b_i)^{p-1} + \sum_i b_i (a_i + b_i)^{p-1}$ and now using Holder's inequality on these two summations which will lead to an inequality.
But when is that inequality an equality? Since we used Holder, it should be the same criteria but applied twice:
$a_i ^p = ((a_i+b_i)^{p-1})^{q}$ from the first sum
$b_i ^p = ((a_i+b_i)^{p-1})^{q}$ from the second
after realizing that $q = \frac{p}{p-1}$ this simplifies to $a_i ^p = b_i^ p = (a_i+b_i)^p$
Seems to me as if the only solution to these equations is $a_i = b_i = 0$. However, since this is just the triangle inequality, the criteria should be that $a = kb$ for some constant $k$, but I'm not seeing it based on this proof.
Can someone shed light on the matter?

A: You can check that your condition does not cover the case where $a_i>0$ but $b_i =0$, $\forall i$.
The point is, the condition that Holder inequality becomes equality is
$$\alpha a_i^p = \beta b_i^q,$$
for some numbers $\alpha,\beta$, while at least one of them should be non-zero. Now by this condition, the equality conditions of Minkowski inequality are $\exists
k_1,k_2,h_1,h_2$ s.t. $k_1^2 + k_2^2 >0$, $h_1^2+h_2^2>0$, and
$k_1a^p_i=k_2((a_i+b_i)^{p−1})^q = k_2(a_i+b_i)^{p}$  from the first sum
$h_1b^p_i=h_2((a_i+b_i)^{p−1})^q = h_2(a_i+b_i)^{p}$ from the second
In the non-trival case, $k_1,k_2,h_1,h_2>0$, and the two conditions imply that $a_i = kb_i$.


My children, there is a shift coming in the lives of many of My people. I will be moving many of My people away from areas where they now reside in order to protect them. You will feel this shift in your spirit. Submit to My leading that I may protect you from what is soon to come, for it is for your benefit and the benefit of your children. There are disasters coming that you know not of. Some of these are personal disasters that will happen if you stay when I am trying to move you. Some of these are disasters on a much larger scale.
In the new places I move you to, I will lead you to your provision. You will have work, and housing and all the things you need. Do not fear.
My people have a tendency to fear. This is because you have not learned to trust Me as your Provider. Learn of Me and believe.
All areas are not in danger. Do not move unless I am leading you, but do not fear when I do. I am with you and I am for you.
This week's Podcast (Trusting God 101 [Water Walking Update] – Thursday, July 19, 2018), ties in with this.
God always, and richly bless you, and everyone who comes here to be blessed, fed, and edified.


Students will receive a certificate acknowledging the number of hours they volunteer for this wonderful nonprofit event. Volunteer hours are required by most local high schools for graduation.
We have many different ways that you can help with this fun event. Here is a list of some of the things we need to do!
* How old will you be on August 12th, 2017?
If you will be 18 or older, please use the Adult Volunteer form here.
What Day(s) Will You Be Available?
What is the Earliest Start Time You Will Be Available on Sunday August 12th?
What is the Latest End Time You Will Be Availble until on Sunday August 12th?
* With which high school or youth group are you affiliated?


text:
import androidHelpers from '../android-helpers';
import _ from 'lodash';
import temp from 'temp';
import { fs, util, zip } from 'appium-support';
import path from 'path';
import log from '../logger';
import B from 'bluebird';
import jimp from 'jimp';
import { exec } from 'teen_process';

const swipeStepsPerSec = 28;
const dragStepsPerSec = 40;
const CONTAINER_PATH_MARKER = '@';
// https://regex101.com/r/PLdB0G/2
const CONTAINER_PATH_PATTERN = new RegExp(`^${CONTAINER_PATH_MARKER}([^/]+)/(.+)`);
const ANDROID_MEDIA_RESCAN_INTENT = 'android.intent.action.MEDIA_SCANNER_SCAN_FILE';

let commands = {}, helpers = {}, extensions = {};

commands.keyevent = async function (keycode, metastate = null) {
  // TODO deprecate keyevent; currently wd only implements keyevent
  log.warn("keyevent will be deprecated use pressKeyCode");
  return await this.pressKeyCode(keycode, metastate);
};

commands.pressKeyCode = async function (keycode, metastate = null) {
  return await this.bootstrap.sendAction("pressKeyCode", {keycode, metastate});
};

commands.longPressKeyCode = async function (keycode, metastate = null) {
  return await this.bootstrap.sendAction("longPressKeyCode", {keycode, metastate});
};

commands.getOrientation = async function () {
  let params = {
    naturalOrientation: !!this.opts.androidNaturalOrientation,
  };
  let orientation = await this.bootstrap.sendAction("orientation", params);
  return orientation.toUpperCase();
};

commands.setOrientation = async function (orientation) {
  orientation = orientation.toUpperCase();
  let params = {
    orientation,
    naturalOrientation: !!this.opts.androidNaturalOrientation,
  };
  return await this.bootstrap.sendAction("orientation", params);
};

commands.fakeFlick = async function (xSpeed, ySpeed) {
  return await this.bootstrap.sendAction('flick', {xSpeed, ySpeed});
};

commands.fakeFlickElement = async function (elementId, xoffset, yoffset, speed) {
  let params = {xoffset, yoffset, speed, elementId};
  return await this.bootstrap.sendAction('element:flick', params);
};

commands.swipe = async function (startX, startY, endX, endY, duration, touchCount, elId) {
  if (startX === 'null') {
    startX = 0.5;
  }
  if (startY === 'null') {
    startY = 0.5;
  }
  let swipeOpts = {startX, startY, endX, endY,
                   steps: Math.round(duration * swipeStepsPerSec)};
  // going the long way and checking for undefined and null since
  // we can't be assured `elId` is a string and not an int
  if (util.hasValue(elId)) {
    swipeOpts.elementId = elId;
  }
  return await this.doSwipe(swipeOpts);
};

commands.doSwipe = async function (swipeOpts) {
  if (util.hasValue(swipeOpts.elementId)) {
    return await this.bootstrap.sendAction("element:swipe", swipeOpts);
  } else {
    return await this.bootstrap.sendAction("swipe", swipeOpts);
  }
};

commands.pinchClose = async function (startX, startY, endX, endY, duration, percent, steps, elId) {
  let pinchOpts = {
    direction: 'in',
    elementId: elId,
    percent,
    steps
  };
  return await this.bootstrap.sendAction("element:pinch", pinchOpts);
};

commands.pinchOpen = async function (startX, startY, endX, endY, duration, percent, steps, elId) {
  let pinchOpts = {direction: 'out', elementId: elId, percent, steps};
  return await this.bootstrap.sendAction("element:pinch", pinchOpts);
};

commands.flick = async function (element, xSpeed, ySpeed, xOffset, yOffset, speed) {
  if (element) {
    await this.fakeFlickElement(element, xOffset, yOffset, speed);
  } else {
    await this.fakeFlick(xSpeed, ySpeed);
  }
};

commands.drag = async function (startX, startY, endX, endY, duration, touchCount, elementId, destElId) {
  let dragOpts = {
    elementId, destElId, startX, startY, endX, endY,
    steps: Math.round(duration * dragStepsPerSec)
  };
  return await this.doDrag(dragOpts);

};

commands.doDrag = async function (dragOpts) {
  if (util.hasValue(dragOpts.elementId)) {
    return await this.bootstrap.sendAction("element:drag", dragOpts);
  } else {
    return await this.bootstrap.sendAction("drag", dragOpts);
  }
};

commands.lock = async function (seconds) {
  await this.adb.lock();
  if (isNaN(seconds)) {
    return;
  }

  const floatSeconds = parseFloat(seconds);
  if (floatSeconds <= 0) {
    return;
  }
  await B.delay(1000 * floatSeconds);
  await this.unlock();
};

commands.isLocked = async function () {
  return await this.adb.isScreenLocked();
};

commands.unlock = async function () {
  return await androidHelpers.unlock(this, this.adb, this.caps);
};

commands.openNotifications = async function () {
  return await this.bootstrap.sendAction("openNotification");
};

commands.setLocation = async function (latitude, longitude) {
  return await this.adb.sendTelnetCommand(`geo fix ${longitude} ${latitude}`);
};

function parseContainerPath (remotePath) {
  const match = CONTAINER_PATH_PATTERN.exec(remotePath);
  if (!match) {
    log.errorAndThrow(`It is expected that package identifier is separated from the relative path with a single slash. ` +
                      `'${remotePath}' is given instead`);
  }
  return [match[1], path.posix.resolve(`/data/data/${match[1]}`, match[2])];
}

commands.pullFile = async function (remotePath) {
  if (remotePath.endsWith('/')) {
    log.errorAndThrow(`It is expected that remote path points to a file and not to a folder. ` +
                      `'${remotePath}' is given instead`);
  }
  let tmpDestination = null;
  if (remotePath.startsWith(CONTAINER_PATH_MARKER)) {
    const [packageId, pathInContainer] = parseContainerPath(remotePath);
    log.info(`Parsed package identifier '${packageId}' from '${remotePath}'. Will get the data from '${pathInContainer}'`);
    tmpDestination = `/data/local/tmp/${path.posix.basename(pathInContainer)}`;
    try {
      await this.adb.shell(['run-as', packageId, `chmod 777 '${pathInContainer.replace(/'/g, '\\\'')}'`]);
      await this.adb.shell(['cp', '-f', pathInContainer, tmpDestination]);
    } catch (e) {
      log.errorAndThrow(`Cannot access the container of '${packageId}' application. ` +
                        `Is the application installed and has 'debuggable' build option set to true? ` +
                        `Original error: ${e.message}`);
    }
  }
  const localFile = temp.path({prefix: 'appium', suffix: '.tmp'});
  try {
    await this.adb.pull(_.isString(tmpDestination) ? tmpDestination : remotePath, localFile);
    const data = await fs.readFile(localFile);
    return new Buffer(data).toString('base64');
  } finally {
    if (await fs.exists(localFile)) {
      await fs.unlink(localFile);
    }
    if (_.isString(tmpDestination)) {
      await this.adb.shell(['rm', '-f', tmpDestination]);
    }
  }
};

commands.pushFile = async function (remotePath, base64Data) {
  if (remotePath.endsWith('/')) {
    log.errorAndThrow(`It is expected that remote path points to a file and not to a folder. ` +
                      `'${remotePath}' is given instead`);
  }
  const localFile = temp.path({prefix: 'appium', suffix: '.tmp'});
  if (_.isArray(base64Data)) {
    // some clients (ahem) java, send a byte array encoding utf8 characters
    // instead of a string, which would be infinitely better!
    base64Data = Buffer.from(base64Data).toString('utf8');
  }
  const content = Buffer.from(base64Data, 'base64');
  let tmpDestination = null;
  try {
    await fs.writeFile(localFile, content.toString('binary'), 'binary');
    if (remotePath.startsWith(CONTAINER_PATH_MARKER)) {
      const [packageId, pathInContainer] = parseContainerPath(remotePath);
      log.info(`Parsed package identifier '${packageId}' from '${remotePath}'. Will put the data into '${pathInContainer}'`);
      tmpDestination = `/data/local/tmp/${path.posix.basename(pathInContainer)}`;
      try {
        await this.adb.shell(
          ['run-as', packageId, `mkdir -p '${path.posix.dirname(pathInContainer).replace(/'/g, '\\\'')}'`]
        );
        await this.adb.shell(['run-as', packageId, `touch '${pathInContainer.replace(/'/g, '\\\'')}'`]);
        await this.adb.shell(['run-as', packageId, `chmod 777 '${pathInContainer.replace(/'/g, '\\\'')}'`]);
        await this.adb.push(localFile, tmpDestination);
        await this.adb.shell(['cp', '-f', tmpDestination, pathInContainer]);
      } catch (e) {
        log.errorAndThrow(`Cannot access the container of '${packageId}' application. ` +
                          `Is the application installed and has 'debuggable' build option set to true? ` +
                          `Original error: ${e.message}`);
      }
    } else {
      // adb push creates folders and overwrites existing files.
      await this.adb.push(localFile, remotePath);

      // if we have pushed a file, it might be a media file, so ensure that
      // apps know about it
      log.info("After pushing media file, broadcasting media scan intent");
      try {
        await this.adb.shell(['am', 'broadcast', '-a',
          ANDROID_MEDIA_RESCAN_INTENT, '-d', `file://${remotePath}`]);
      } catch (e) {
        log.warn(`Got error broadcasting media scan intent: ${e.message}; ignoring`);
      }
    }
  } finally {
    if (await fs.exists(localFile)) {
      await fs.unlink(localFile);
    }
    if (_.isString(tmpDestination)) {
      await this.adb.shell(['rm', '-f', tmpDestination]);
    }
  }
};

commands.pullFolder = async function (remotePath) {
  let localFolder = temp.path({prefix: 'appium'});
  await this.adb.pull(remotePath, localFolder);
  return (await zip.toInMemoryZip(localFolder)).toString('base64');
};

commands.fingerprint = async function (fingerprintId) {
  if (!this.isEmulator()) {
    log.errorAndThrow("fingerprint method is only available for emulators");
  }
  await this.adb.fingerprint(fingerprintId);
};

commands.sendSMS = async function (phoneNumber, message) {
  if (!this.isEmulator()) {
    log.errorAndThrow("sendSMS method is only available for emulators");
  }
  await this.adb.sendSMS(phoneNumber, message);
};

commands.gsmCall = async function (phoneNumber, action) {
  if (!this.isEmulator()) {
    log.errorAndThrow("gsmCall method is only available for emulators");
  }
  await this.adb.gsmCall(phoneNumber, action);
};

commands.gsmSignal = async function (signalStrengh) {
  if (!this.isEmulator()) {
    log.errorAndThrow("gsmSignal method is only available for emulators");
  }
  await this.adb.gsmSignal(signalStrengh);
};

commands.gsmVoice = async function (state) {
  if (!this.isEmulator()) {
    log.errorAndThrow("gsmVoice method is only available for emulators");
  }
  await this.adb.gsmVoice(state);
};

commands.powerAC = async function (state) {
  if (!this.isEmulator()) {
    log.errorAndThrow("powerAC method is only available for emulators");
  }
  await this.adb.powerAC(state);
};

commands.powerCapacity = async function (batteryPercent) {
  if (!this.isEmulator()) {
    log.errorAndThrow("powerCapacity method is only available for emulators");
  }
  await this.adb.powerCapacity(batteryPercent);
};

commands.networkSpeed = async function (networkSpeed) {
  if (!this.isEmulator()) {
    log.errorAndThrow("networkSpeed method is only available for emulators");
  }
  await this.adb.networkSpeed(networkSpeed);
};

helpers.getScreenshotDataWithAdbShell = async function (adb, opts) {
  const localFile = temp.path({prefix: 'appium', suffix: '.png'});
  if (await fs.exists(localFile)) {
    await fs.unlink(localFile);
  }
  try {
    const pngDir = opts.androidScreenshotPath || '/data/local/tmp/';
    const png = path.posix.resolve(pngDir, 'screenshot.png');
    const cmd = ['/system/bin/rm', `${png};`, '/system/bin/screencap', '-p', png];
    await adb.shell(cmd);
    if (!await adb.fileSize(png)) {
      throw new Error('The size of the taken screenshot equals to zero.');
    }
    await adb.pull(png, localFile);
    return await jimp.read(localFile);
  } finally {
    if (await fs.exists(localFile)) {
      await fs.unlink(localFile);
    }
  }
};

helpers.getScreenshotDataWithAdbExecOut = async function (adb) {
  let {stdout, stderr, code} = await exec(adb.executable.path,
                                    adb.executable.defaultArgs
                                      .concat(['exec-out', '/system/bin/screencap', '-p']),
                                    {encoding: 'binary', isBuffer: true});
  // if there is an error, throw
  if (code || stderr.length) {
    throw new Error(`Screenshot returned error, code: '${code}', stderr: '${stderr.toString()}'`);
  }
  // if we don't get anything at all, throw
  if (!stdout.length) {
    throw new Error('Screenshot returned no data');
  }

  return await jimp.read(stdout);
};

commands.getScreenshot = async function () {
  const apiLevel = await this.adb.getApiLevel();
  let image = null;
  if (apiLevel > 20) {
    try {
      // This screenshoting approach is way faster, since it requires less external commands
      // to be executed. Unfortunately, exec-out option is only supported by newer Android/SDK versions (5.0 and later)
      image = await this.getScreenshotDataWithAdbExecOut(this.adb);
    } catch (e) {
      log.info(`Cannot get screenshot data with 'adb exec-out' because of '${e.message}'. ` +
               `Defaulting to 'adb shell' call`);
    }
  }
  if (!image) {
    try {
      image = await this.getScreenshotDataWithAdbShell(this.adb, this.opts);
    } catch (e) {
      const err = `Cannot get screenshot data because of '${e.message}'. ` +
                  `Make sure the 'LayoutParams.FLAG_SECURE' is not set for ` +
                  `the current view`;
      log.errorAndThrow(err);
    }
  }
  if (apiLevel < 23) {
    // Android bug 8433742 - rotate screenshot if screen is rotated
    let screenOrientation = await this.adb.getScreenOrientation();
    try {
      image = await image.rotate(-90 * screenOrientation);
    } catch (err) {
      log.warn(`Could not rotate screenshot due to error: ${err}`);
    }
  }
  const getBuffer = B.promisify(image.getBuffer, {context: image});
  const imgBuffer = await getBuffer(jimp.MIME_PNG);
  return imgBuffer.toString('base64');
};

Object.assign(extensions, commands, helpers);
export { commands, helpers };
export default extensions;

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Q: FormsAuthenticationTicket Userdata still readable after encryption (asp.net MVC3 with forms Auth.) Im building a website with the new ASP.NET MVC3 framework and using FormsAuth. for securing the website. I'm storing the role of a user in the UserData property of the FormsAuthenticationTicket, (setting the cookie manually), I then call the encrypt method on the ticket before adding it to the cookie(see below a Standard ticket sniplet).
if (Validate(model.UserName, model.Password))
                {
                    FormsAuthenticationTicket authTicket =  new FormsAuthenticationTicket(1,
                            model.UserName,
                            DateTime.Now,
                            DateTime.Now.AddMinutes(30),
                            false,
                            UserType.Administrator.ToString());
                    string encryptedTicket = FormsAuthentication.Encrypt(authTicket);
                    HttpCookie faCookie = new HttpCookie(FormsAuthentication.FormsCookieName, encryptedTicket);
                    Response.Cookies.Add(faCookie);
                    return RedirectToAction("startpage", "mycontroller");
                }
            }

Now I've made a custom AuthorizeAttribute thats able to check if the user is 1. authenticated and 2. has the admin role (from the ticket). (below)
The AuthorizeCore method of this derived class will be called when an action takes places in a class that has the attribute annotion.
protected override bool AuthorizeCore(HttpContextBase httpContext)
        {
            if (httpContext == null)
            {
                throw new ArgumentNullException("httpContext");
            }
            IPrincipal user = httpContext.User;
            if (!user.Identity.IsAuthenticated)
            {
                return false;
            }
            string cookieName = FormsAuthentication.FormsCookieName;
            HttpCookie authCookie = httpContext.Request.Cookies[cookieName];
            if (authCookie == null)
                return false;

            FormsAuthenticationTicket authTicket =       FormsAuthentication.Decrypt(authCookie.Value);
            if (authTicket.UserData != UserType.Administrator.ToString())
                return false;
            return true;

So here's where im getting confused.
When I follow the code being executed (with valid credentials, in debug), and check the values of the variables made on each line, the encryptedTicket encrypts just fine before adding it to the reponsecookie.
But when I then check the AuthorizeCore method when the controller (of the index page) is being called, the parameter its getting, the HttpContext, contains the ticket with everything unencrypted, so there is no need to decrypt the ticket anymore when reading the cookie.
Why do I see the ticket succesfully being encrypted in the logon controller where I send it back to the client, but then when I receive the httpcontext in the AuthorizeAdministrator class its all unencrypted again.
Sorry for the long question/story, there's probably a simple and short answer for it.
Hope my story is clear.
Thanks.

A: Forms auth needs to decrypt the cookie early in the page processing pipeline, to determine if the user is authorized -- that's when it fills in the details for User.Identity, etc.


text:
¹²US Economic Contraction-2010
By The Consumer Metrics Institute | 21 September 2010
The Consumer Metrics Institute's Growth Index hasn't been in operation very long, but thus far it has been an effective leading indicator of GDP. As such, the prospect of a double-dip recession, something that's happened only once since the Great Depression, remains a distinct possibility. That earlier double dip was a 6-month recession from January 1980 to July 1980, a 12-month recovery, and a 16-month of recession from July 1981 to November 1982. The one bit of good news for that earlier period is that the second dip coincided with the end of a secular bear market and the beginning of an 18-year cycle of accelerating growth.
Consumer Metrics Institute's Contraction Watch
The comparison of the 91-Day Growth Indexes during the 'quarter' immediately following the commencement of a contraction. The contraction events of 2008 and 2010 are shown against the same scale of annualized contraction.
September 18, 2010— Has the Bottom Been Reached?
During the month and a half from August 1 to September 15, our Weighted Composite Index has improved substantially, rising from recording a year-over-year contraction rate in excess of 9% to recently registering a contraction rate near 3%. This is the largest positive movement that we have seen over half of a quarter since late 2009. The improvement has stopped (at least temporarily) the decline of our 91-day trailing quarter average (our Daily Growth Index).
We have previously pointed out that the true severity of any contraction event is the area between the "zero" axis in the above chart and the line being traced out by the daily contraction values. By that measure the "Great Recession of 2008" had a total of 793 percentage-days of contraction, and its severity can be visualized as the amount of area covered by the red stripes in the chart below:
Similarly, the current 2010 contraction has just reached 592 percentage-days, and its severity can be visualized as the amount of area covered by the blue stripes in this chart:
The blue stripes above already cover about 75% of the area covered by the 2008 "Great Recession", and the curve has only just begun to start back up. Looking ahead, should the 2010 event recover from its bottom exactly as the 2008 event did, it would still experience another 466 percentage-days of contraction before ending— resulting in a grand total of 1058 percentage-days of contraction for the 2010 event, fully 33% more severe than the "Great Recession of 2008." This, of course, assumes that stimuli comparable to those seen in 2008-2009 will be available to cause such a recovery during 2010-2011— and that unemployment quickly returns to the levels that helped consumer demand start to rebound in late August of 2008: about 6.1%. Absent fresh consumer stimuli and dropping unemployment rates, the consumer demand contraction we are witnessing could very well linger.
Over the past month and a half we have seen a substantial reduction in the year-over-year contraction of consumer demand. That said, it is important to remember that consumer demand is still contracting, albeit at a slower rate. We have previously used the analogy that our data is far "upstream" in the economy. We are sampling the behavior of internet shopping consumers on a daily basis. Those consumer activities flow "downstream" to factories over the course of weeks or quarters. It's not unlike being upstream on a great river and watching a water-level gauge predict that downstream communities will be flooding catastrophically in a few days or weeks. Although our flood-gage may have just peaked, the downstream damage remains inevitable— it simply hasn't arrived yet.


text:
Cheer Up, Georgie
The author of the books that inspired 'Game of Thrones' has sounded a bit bummed out lately. But as the TV world prepares to bid adieu to the world he created, we're here to remind him that he has a lot to be happy about.
By Ben Lindbergh Apr 12, 2019, 6:30am EDT
Share All sharing options for: Cheer Up, Georgie
Getty Images/Ringer illustration
We're worried about you.
Game of Thrones has never been bigger, but lately you've stopped sounding like your usual, jovial self. Your recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter took place at a celebratory event—the world premiere of Thrones Season 8—yet your words were tinged with sadness. "I think I'm going to be hanging around Westeros while everyone else has left," you said. You also made working on The Winds of Winter sound like staying with Annie Wilkes. "I've been in isolation," you said. "My loyal staff—I have a couple of them with me—have chained me to the typewriter. They're making me eat healthy food. It's horrible!" Almost five years after giving fans the finger for focusing on your mortality, you raised the subject yourself, confessing, "I wish I was 30 years old instead of 70."
Yes, the transcriber inserted two parenthetical laughs. But an innocuous-looking "(Laughs.)" can conflate or mask so many emotions. Were you expressing merriment, desperation, or resignation? Were those laughs hearty guffaws, or merely mirthless snorts?
Based on your interview with The Guardian late last year, the latter seems more likely. "Every time I sit down I'm very conscious I have to do something great, and trying to do something great is a considerable weight to bear," you said, admitting that Winds has proved "very, very challenging" and explaining that you sometimes struggle to enter the trance state your writing requires. In another interview the same month, you added, "I've had dark nights of the soul where I've pounded my head against the keyboard and said, 'God, will I ever finish this?' The show is going further and further forward and I'm falling further and further behind. What the hell is happening here?" When you announced the 20th-anniversary edition of A Clash of Kings last December, you reminisced fondly about the three-year gap between A Game of Thrones and Clash, writing, "Sigh. Those were the days, when I was only two years late." It's been almost nine years since you wrote, "I am dancing, boys and girls, I'm dancing as fast as I can. But some days it does feel as if I am dancing in circles."
That was when Winds was in its early stages. Several overoptimistic publication predictions later, you've stopped offering estimates of when the sixth installment of A Song of Ice and Fire might appear (beyond "It'll be done when it's done"), and you've taken to musing about other well-known works that were never completed. You also titled a recent blog post, "Kill Me Now." Granted, that one was about the Odell Beckham Jr. trade, but it fit the morbid mood that persisted into this week, when you observed National Pet Day by mourning a departed companion who's gone the way of Ser Pounce.
In perhaps the most melancholy-inducing development, you've abandoned your quest to call the first Game of Thrones prequel The Long Night, even though that was your preferred title for the as-yet-unnamed show. Evidently HBO wouldn't defer to your wishes. That decision seems symbolic of the sidelining that's occurred as the adaptation has grown beyond the books. As recently as September, you stood front and center when Thrones won the Emmy for Best Drama, the showrunners and actors arrayed behind you like lesser lights.
Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images
At the recent premiere in New York, though, you were as far from center stage as you could have been while still standing on it.
FilmMagic for HBO
If you can't quite make yourself out, you're the colorless, barely lit blur on the left.
We know it can't be easy to watch someone else complete the story you started and beat you to big revelations that you planned to pay off yourself. It must feel a little like a Rumpelstiltskin scenario; by adapting your series for the screen, HBO made you wealthy and well known, but now it's come to claim your treasured artistic offspring. We wouldn't blame you for contemplating baking Benioff pie after seeing David Benioff assert that "This is where the story ends" and utter casually cutting lines like, "I don't think that final book is written in stone yet—it's not written on paper yet." Maybe the writing will go faster with the adaptation complete. ("It's been going very well lately," you divulged at the premiere.) Then again, feeling less like you're racing the clock could be small consolation if instead you feel like you lost.
If we were with you, we would give you a hug. But in lieu of a hug, here's a reminder of why you really have very little to feel glum about—and not just because you're probably making more money than the Iron Bank of Braavos.
As you recently recounted, before beginning A Game of Thrones, you spent half a decade in Hollywood development hell, pitching concepts and scripting pilots that never turned into TV series. Things are different today. HBO has tinkered with premises for five Thrones spinoffs, while continuing to work on the long-running series itself. Hulu is planning on two shows set in your Wild Cards universe. Syfy produced a series based on your 1980s Nightflyers novella and short stories. (It was canceled in February, following its first season, but at least it made it to air.) In other words, within the past year, a total of nine series based on your work have been in some stage of development, with at least a third of them either in existence or about to be. Robert Kirkman wishes his work were this much in demand.
Some of your other ideas from decades ago that didn't break through then may get new leases on life in print, following in the footsteps of Starport, a recently released graphic novel. That touches on another oft-overlooked accomplishment: Even though A Song of Ice and Fire is still stalled at five finished books, it's not like you haven't been busy. By most writers' standards, you've been extraordinarily productive, albeit not always in the way that most of your fans preferred. As of early 2017, you had published more than half a million non-ASOIAF words since completing A Dance With Dragons in April 2011. And that total doesn't account for additional projects you've authored since, including last year's 700-page-plus opus, Fire & Blood.
Factor in editing and all of the time sucks that stem directly or indirectly from the public profile that's been bolstered by Thrones—creative contributions to TV adaptations, conventions and interviews, all of those trips to the Emmys—and it's no surprise that Winds is way behind schedule. It also seems safe to assume that it's taking so long partly because it's intended to be a really big book. "My books are not books of ordinary length," you pointed out to Entertainment Tonight last month. "Even A Game of Thrones, which is the smallest of them, is like four regular novels." Given that exchange rate, your pace isn't as slow as it seems.
More than all that, though, focus on this: Thrones has monopolized our interest in a way that few pieces of culture still can. Much of the world will be drawn to Westeros this weekend, and although those many millions of fans will be tuning in via video, not turning pages, their attention is attributable to you, big guy. We don't love this series because Benioff and Weiss changed Jeyne Westerling to Talisa Stark. Thrones has thrived thanks to the settings, characters, and conflicts you crafted. The show's popularity is proof of your power as a storyteller.
If the show continues to falter as it strays further from the books (which was often the case in Season 7), you'll look better by comparison. If it finishes strong, much of the glory for orchestrating its entire epic arc will still redound to you. The books climbed to the top of best-seller lists long before HBO started sniffing around, so the small-screen series is a product of preexisting success. In the long run, it won't much matter which version of the story wrapped up earlier; reading and watching will be two satisfying and largely complementary ways to experience the saga. Some people who watch the show will gravitate to the books, just as many of those who read the books will want to watch the show. In the long run, the books may hold up better; imagination doesn't date itself as soon as CGI.
The timing of HBO's big finish makes the loss of creative control you've encountered unusual; it's atypical for an adaptation to outstrip its source material while the original series is still in progress. In another sense, though, this is par for the course. Every massively successful storyteller eventually cedes some control of the canvas that once existed only in their mind. Once the work is out there, others are free to interpret it in any way they wish (or write fan fiction about it, much to your dismay).
In many ways, you have it much better than most authors of celebrated series, even aside from the fame and fortune. Unlike Frank Herbert or Robert Jordan, you still have a chance to tie up the series yourself; even if you never finish A Dream of Spring, you'll still have lived long enough to see the story end in one form, largely following the path you plotted. Unlike Stephen King, you haven't seen your magnum opus mangled in movie form after interminable delays. Unlike George Lucas, you haven't tarnished your own series' legacy and then signed away the right to take part in restoring it. Unlike J.R.R. Tolkien, you got to play a prominent role in shaping what your world would look like on screen. You're the rare creator who wrote something beloved and then entrusted it to a team that took the time and care to record a cover version that's just as revered.
You've constructed a sandbox that's too fun for other people not to play in. Perhaps you've had to share it sooner than you would have liked, but there are still benefits to being the progenitor of the stallion that mounted the TV world. Even the people who yell at you for not finishing Winds faster are, in their own immensely unwelcome way, telling you that your work is important to them. If they didn't love your books, they wouldn't want more of them.
When you spoke about the ending of A Song of Ice and Fire in 2016, you said, "I suspect the overall flavor is going to be as much bittersweet as it is happy." It's probably bittersweet for you that Thrones reached its grand finale first. But no matter how these last six episodes unfold, your words won't be wind.
An earlier version of this story misnamed the author who began the Dune series. It was Frank Herbert, not Brian.
Disclosure: HBO is an initial investor in The Ringer.
Next Up In Game of Thrones
The Best Post–'Game of Thrones' Career
How 'House of the Dragon' Rewrote the History of Westeros
'House of the Dragon' Season 1 Awards, Season 2 Book Look Ahead, and Greg Yaitanes Chat!
The Bridge Scene Redux - 'House of the Dragon' Finale
'House of the Dragon' Episode 10 Mailbag: Dance Lessons
'House of the Dragon' Episode 10 Deep Dive


The idea of Construction Management centers on introducing Wilkie Construction Company, as the Owner's acting agent and manager, for the complete building process.
"IF" the Owner and the Contractor enters into a Construction Management delivery system, then the Contractor may aid the Owner in contractual arranging for the Architectural Designer-of-Record and his consultants for the project.
While Wilkie will not hire the Owner's Design-of-Record for this project, Wilkie will perform all aspects of the construction project. The Construction Manager insures that all efforts and all construction aspects are coordinated, but not repeated right from the start of the design process to final delivery.
It brings the General Contractor's knowledge and expertise to the Architectural Team members - early in their design phases.
It puts into place a construction system which controls time, money and materials and works for the Owner's best interest.
It allows design and construction to advance currently thus saving time and therefore money for the client and the contractor.
In a Construction Management (CM) relationship, Wilkie serves as a consultant to the Owner in the entire construction process. As a Construction Manager, Wilkie advises the Owner of the construction time, the total schedule and cost. As a Construction Manager, Wilkie may or may not do some of the trades of work, per the contractual arrangement with the Owner.
However, CM @ Risk ([email protected]) contract will have a Guaranteed Maximum Contract Sum. Whereby the Owner wants to "CAP" his financial exposure for total cost - subject to changes in thes scope of work resulting in additive monetary change orders or change order directives for extra Time and Money.
In a Win-Win-Share relationship and as an added incentive the Owner and the Contractor will enter a "split-savings" contract arrangement...i.e.50-50, 60-40, or 67-33. These are monetary savings to each party when the total "original" CM @ Risk is less than the specified contract amount. However, change orders must be kept separately in order for the "split-savings" contract arrangement to be fairly and equitably accounted.
Above the Cost-of-the-Work (see section below – Cost-of-the-Work, that is Job Cost vs. General Conditions) the Contractor will receive either a specified percentage or a lump sum Fee above job cost for their office overhead and profit. The Owner will be billed for the actual Cost-of-the-Work from beginning to completion plus his CM Fee.