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Pentagon Loses 24K Files in Huge Cyber Attack
The Defense Department was the victim of a cyber attack that resulted in the loss of 24,000 files, Deputy Defense Secretary William J. Lynn III disclosed Thursday.
The attack, which happened in the spring, was perpetrated by "foreign intruders" and affected a defense contractor, Lynn said during a speech at the National Defense University, The Washington Post reported. Lynn did not identify the intruders, and said the theft was "data-related," Politico said.
In the same speech, Lynn unveiled the department's new strategy for operating in cyberspace, which is intended to be a unified approach for DoD's Web-based military, intelligence, and business operations.
"The cyber threats we face are urgent, sometimes uncertain and potentially devastating as adversaries constantly search for vulnerabilities," Lynn said in a statement. "Our infrastructure, logistics network and business systems are heavily computerized. With 15,000 networks and more than seven million computing devices, DoD continues to be a target in cyberspace for malicious activity."
The 19-page report has five key goals: treat the Internet as a classroom of sorts to take full advantage of cyberspace's potential; deploy new defense operating concepts to protect against attacks; partner with other agencies for a government-wide cyber strategy; partner with cyber experts overseas; and tap into the expertise of the private sector.
Those new defense operating concepts include a concept known as "cyber hygiene," which essentially means not letting human error lead to the next massive cyber attack.
"People are the Department's first line of defense in sustaining good cyber hygiene and reducing insider threats," the report said. "DoD seeks to foster a stronger culture of information assurance within its workforce to assure individual responsibility and deter malicious insiders by shaping behaviors and attitudes through the imposition of higher costs for malicious activity."
In a statement, Secretary of Defense Leon E. Panetta said cyber security is "an area in which we're going to confront increasing threats in the future and think we have to be better prepared to deal with the growing cyber challenges that will face the nation."
In May, the White House unveiled a cyber-security proposal that it hopes Congress will use as a framework for legislation. Among other things, the plan includes national data breach reporting, increased penalties for computer crimes, rules that would allow the private sector to commiserate with the Department of Homeland Security on cyber-security issues, and cyber-security audits for critical infrastructure providers.
For more from Chloe, follow her on Twitter @ChloeAlbanesius.


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Hunter West Chilliwack, British Columbia, Canada
Sep 25, 2018Full time
Our client is seeking a junior litigator with 1 to 3 years' experience to work in their Chilliwack office. This firm has an excellent reputation in the community and are looking for someone who wants to settle into their community long-term. The salary is excellent and you will be mentored by a leading litigation lawyer. If you are interested in learning more about this role please contact Hunter West.

subset: commoncrawl


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For clarification, Cheung Chau is not a restaurant — it is one of the many islands in Hong Kong. My uncle took me to visit Cheung Chau to observe the rare traditions that are still, miraculously, preserved in Hong Kong. I captured photos of numerous food oddities on the island.
Here is a picture of the harbour. This is not an image of Hong Kong that most people would imagine, eh? Cheung Chau, in my opinion, is a fisherman's village. It's not the luxurious cosmopolitan life in the bustling city of Hong Kong, but there is a lot of history and tradition in this island.
Cheung Chau is known for their dried seafood. They can really dry anything caught from the oceans. Here is some dried octopus looking as appetizing as it could get.
A whole chicken that was skinned and cooked.
Traditional buns. There used to be an old traditional story about these buns. Every year, they would have a bun snatching contest. These buns would be stacked high up like a mountain, and whoever races to the top of the mountain and gets the most buns would win. They stopped this event after one year when the mountains of buns collapsed and killed many people.
I'm not sure how you can eat dried starfish. I'm thinking that we can add into Chinese herbal soup.
Dried shrimplets, or whatever the appropriate name is. I know many Chinese families who add these when they fry vegetables at home.
I bought four red bean cakes (HKD 20). Apparently, the red bean cakes are also famous on the island.
Here is a photo of what was inside the red bean cake. I wasn't ripped off; the cake was filled with freshly cooked red bean.
In short, Cheung Chau is a great place to visit if you want to have a one-day trip outside of urban Hong Kong. It's a place to relax on weekends and enjoy good seafood and traditional Hong Kong village life. Ask for the Chinese menu if you do not want to be ripped off! The restaurant owners are known to rip off foreigners (although prices are still very cheap in comparison to Canada and other parts of the world).


text: A healthy portion of the Boutique's profits come from our Greens Sale. It's a win-win for both the club and shoppers: since most of the supplies are donated, the over 125 arrangements are cost-effective and buyers get a beautiful holiday arrangement at a fraction of a florist's price! Click to see the Holiday Tour Tea.


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I've made another video to go along with this blog post. You don't have to read the post if you don't want to - you can scroll right down to the video and watch it instead.
I helped Lisa update her tired Kitchen on a strict budget. You're going to enjoy this one because it came out just the way we all hope our semi-DIY projects will—successfully! I gave her direction: resources (people to call, websites to visit, paint color suggestions, lighting ideas and technical advice. She handled ALL the project management, which is not easy. Buying and coordinating the delivery and installation of every element takes a lot of determination and the patience of a saint. But she did it!
Here's a Before photo:
Next is the concept board that showed how her selections were all going to play together very nicely.
And take a look at it now:
Buh-bye dated kitchen. Now this is what I would call a remarkable transformation! White cabinets against warm brown hand-scraped floors may be termed "farmhouse" right now, but this is a classic look that will stand the test of time because every element is gorgeous.
Those elongated subway tiles are hand-made, taking the sharp edge off the look of a basic white subway tile. I bet Lisa runs her hands over those tiles on a daily basis (okay, maybe weekly).
The next photo is a Before of the peninsula. Just your standard flat wood back.
Now take a look at it with some simple new moldings:
What a difference, right? I can't pick which new addition is my favorite, but this has got to be near the top of my list!
The sweet roman shade window treatment came from an Etsy vendor. Don't you just love Etsy? It's becoming a regular shopping site for absolutely everyone!
Oops! Did I forget to call out the new Thunder White granite counters? They're hard to miss! Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous.
Lisa is a big Rae Dunn pottery fan. On the other side of the kitchen there's a counter that serves as the coffee station, but Lisa also likes to decorate it for various holidays with pieces from her extensive collection. Such a welcoming kitchen!
Jeez, I almost forgot to insert the video I made of this project. Here it is. Enjoy!


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- Prayer and Worship
- Beliefs and Teachings
- Issues and Action
- Media
- Bible
- Catholic Giving
- About USCCB
On October 12, 2012, the Congregation for
Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments confirmed the inscription of Saint John Paul II, Pope,
into the Proper Calendar for the Dioceses of the United States of
America. Two years later, on May 29, 2014, Pope Francis ordered the inscription of Saint John Paul II into the General Roman Calendar. St. John Paul is celebrated each year as an Optional Memorial on October 22.
The proper liturgical texts in Latin, English, and Spanish are provided below:
Text in Latin — Text in Spanish
From the Common of Pastors: For a Pope.
O God, who are rich in mercy
and who willed that Saint John Paul the Second
should preside as Pope over your universal Church,
grant, we pray, that instructed by his teaching,
we may open our hearts to the saving grace of Christ,
the sole Redeemer of mankind.
Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
from the usual Mass readings of the day,
any Lectionary readings from the Common of Pastors: For a Pope may be used for St. John Paul II. If a more solemn celebration is desired, the following readings are recommended from no. 663A of the Lectionary for Mass Supplement:
First Reading – Isaiah 52:7-10
All the ends of the earth will behold the salvation of our God.
Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 96:1-2a, 2b-3, 7-8a, 10
R/. Proclaim God's marvelous deeds to all the nations.
Gospel Acclamation – John 10:14
I am the good shepherd, says the Lord,
I know my sheep, and mine know me.
Gospel – John 21:15-17
Feed my lambs, feed my sheep.
Text in Latin — Text in Spanish
From the Common of Pastors: For a Pope.
Charles Joseph Wotjtyła was born in 1920 in Wadowice, Poland. After his ordination to the priesthood and theological studies in Rome, he returned to his homeland and resumed various pastoral and academic tasks. He became first auxiliary bishop and, in 1964, Archbishop of Krakow and took part in the Second Vatican Council. On October 16, 1978 he was elected pope and took the name John Paul II. His exceptional apostolic zeal, particularly for families, young people and the sick, led him to numerous pastoral visits throughout the world. Among the many fruits which he has left as a heritage to the Church are above all his rich Magisterium and the promulgation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church as well as the Code of Canon Law for the Latin Church and for the Eastern Churches. In Rome on April 2, 2005, the eve of the Second Sunday of Easter (or of Divine Mercy), he departed peacefully in the Lord.
Do not be afraid. Open wide the doors to Christ.
Peter came to Rome! What else but obedience to the inspiration received from the Lord could have guided him and brought him to this city, the heart of the Empire? Perhaps the fisherman of Galilee did not want to come here. Perhaps he would have preferred to stay there, on the shores of Lake of Genesareth, with his boat and his nets. Yet guided by the Lord, obedient to his inspiration, he came here!
According to an ancient tradition, Peter tried to leave Rome during Nero's persecution. However, the Lord intervened and came to meet him. Peter spoke to him and asked. "Quo vadis, Domine?" — "Where are you going, Lord?" And the Lord answered him at once: "I am going to Rome to be crucified again." Peter went back to Rome and stayed here until his crucifixion.
Our time calls us, urges us, obliges us, to gaze on the Lord and to immerse ourselves in humble and devout meditation on the mystery of the supreme power of Christ himself.
He who was born of the Virgin Mary, the carpenter's Son (as he was thought to be), the Son of the living God (as confessed by Peter), came to make us all "a kingdom of priests."
The Second Vatican Council has reminded us of the mystery of this power and of the fact that Christ's mission as Priest, Prophet-Teacher and King continues in the Church. Everyone, the whole People of God, shares in this threefold mission. Perhaps in the past the tiara, that triple crown, was placed on the Pope's head in order to signify by that symbol the Lord's plan for his Church, namely that all the hierarchical order of Christ's Church, all "sacred power" exercised in the Church, is nothing other than service, service with a single purpose: to ensure that the whole People of God shares in this threefold mission of Christ and always remains under the power of the Lord; a power that has its source not in the powers of this world, but instead in the mystery of the Cross and the Resurrection.
The absolute, and yet sweet and gentle, power of the Lord responds to the whole depths of the human person, to his loftiest aspirations of intellect, will and heart. It does not speak the language of force, but expresses itself in charity and truth.
The new Successor of Peter in the See of Rome today makes a fervent, humble and trusting prayer: Christ, make me become and remain the servant of your unique power, the servant of your sweet power, the servant of your power that knows no dusk. Make me a servant: indeed, the servant of your servants.
Brothers and sisters, do not be afraid to welcome Christ and accept his power.
Help the Pope and all those who wish to serve Christ and with Christ's power to
serve the human person and the whole of mankind.
So often today, man does not know that which is in him, in the depths of his mind and heart. So often he is uncertain about the meaning of his life on this earth. He is assailed by doubt, a doubt which turns into despair. We ask you, therefore, we beg you with humility and with trust, let Christ speak to man. He alone has words of life, yes, of life eternal.Responsory
O God, who are rich in mercy
and who willed that Saint John Paul the Second
should preside as Pope over your universal Church,
grant, we pray, that instructed by his teaching,
we may open our hearts to the saving grace of Christ,
the sole Redeemer of mankind.
Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
By accepting this message, you will be leaving the website of the
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. This link is provided
solely for the user's convenience. By providing this link, the United
States Conference of Catholic Bishops assumes no responsibility for,
nor does it necessarily endorse, the website, its content, or
sponsoring organizations.


text:
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text:
Jen Smith on UK Football
Q&A: Stoops talks about prepping for spread offenses, mobile quarterbacks on SEC teleconference
"Looking forward to getting back on the field. It was good timing for us to have the bye week this past week. I think we used it wisely. Had an opportunity to get guys healthy, to work with some younger guys and some backups. Certainly look to continue to build on some of the good things that we've been doing in the front half of the season and work on the areas that we need improvement. So, it was a good week off for us. I felt like we made a lot of improvement, got a lot better and got healthy. Again, I'm looking forward to a real challenge this Saturday. But, it'll be nice to be home, in front of our home fans. Night game against a very good Mississippi State team. So, we know it's a real challenge like always and have a lot of respect for Coach Mullen and Mississippi State and what they do and look forward to this Saturday."
On what challenges he faced as a first year year coach in 2013: "Yeah, it's always a, you know it was certainly new for me — first year being a head coach and all that. And trying to do it in the SEC with a team that was pretty far buried in the bottom of the SEC. It's always a challenge, but it's been a long time since then. I think we're getting a lot better. It's still a challenge week to week. I think every coach in the SEC will tell you that, and I think we're getting out – that's for sure – from being six feet underground like we were. We're getting to a much more level playing field. We look to continue to build on some of the good things we've been doing the past couple weeks. But, again, we know it's a challenge and looking forward to it. This Saturday will be another opportunity to try to take another step forward and try to win another conference game.
On how he's most different in year four: "Well, it's hard to say. In a lot of ways that was a long time ago. I think certainly I feel more comfortable with being a defensive play caller now, that I assumed this year. That was certainly not the case four years ago. There's just so many things that need to be done to build a program, and we're continuing to build this program in many ways. I certainly feel like I have the ability to be a defensive play caller because with that you have to spend so much time with the fine details of being involved in calling a defense and coordinator a defense. I think that area alone is something I'm much more comfortable in now than I was year one."
On what Boom William's response to Vanderbilt game says about his maturity: "Yeah, I think you've heard me just about say it all year that I've been proud of Boom's growth. He's not perfect, as none of us are, but, again, he's a competitor, he wants the football, he wants to play. That's what you want, but he's also seeing that the team and team-first and whatever the situation is and having trust in his coaches. He may not like every single decision that we make, but it's about the team and I appreciate that about him. Boom is certainly at his best when he's mentally sharp and mentally in tune with what we're doing and being positive and upbeat. It's a real grind to be a running back at any place, let alone in the SEC. And I think it just speaks to his maturity and his growth over the three years."
On benefit of having a mobile quarterback when preparing for a mobile quarterback: "Yeah, I think it definitely helps that you are more familiar with the basics of the Q-run game and seeing that in practice and seeing that in two-a-days. We still go good against good on Tuesdays and Thursdays in certain parts of practice. And to have that and be familiar with it and see it in a fast pace by the offense definitely helps you."
On how much he has had to change his defensive approach due to abundance of spread offense: "A fair amount. A fair amount. It's been around for some time now. It's really hard for me to remember not having to defend it, to be honest with you. You may not know but I spent some time, a lot of years as a defensive coordinator at Arizona and defending Oregon when they were super high octane, so I've been quite familiar with it for some time now."
On the 1976 team being honored at halftime and if he has a relationship with any of those players: "Yeah. I think it's always great to see – I have met several members of the '76 team and to see Art (Still) inducted, get in the college football hall of fame was very exciting. Several of those guys look like they could still play. But it's always good to see them and we were talking about it earlier on my call-in show. Tom Leach was telling me the year before, I think they went 10-1 and they were sitting there and right at about .500 went on a good run and won two or three SEC games in a row and kind of gave 'em some momentum into '76. Maybe we'll use that as inspiration and hopefully we can duplicate that, but we're certainly proud of them and look forward to seeing as many of them as we can. We'll see 'em this weekend."


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Inactive Ingredients: Deionized water, lecithin phospholipids, sodium citrate, potassium sorbate, maltodextrin, paraben, and citric acid.


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So if any of you saw the Harlequin TEEN Facebook page yesterday, you would have seen the lovely front cover of INK! If you've seen it before, then, um..well, it's lovely so let's have a second look! (did I mention I'm biased?)
Now here's my author's cut on the cover reveal for Book 1 of The Paper Gods, INK! :D
I absolutely love this cover. I think it gets prettier every time I look at it. It's almost moving, and...eep!
Which is the perfect feeling to have about this cover, because sketches do come to life in INK. And they have their own darker motive.
I LOVE how the team at Harlequin TEEN have captured the two feelings of INK--pretty, but dark and dangerous around the edges. You have the lovely cherry blossoms, and then the dark ink, and it's all dripping and turning dark and dun dun dun.
Seriously, though, it captures the tone of the book perfectly. The beauty and the danger of the paranormal forces in Japan, the dark and light at play in the story, and a hint of the Japanese calligraphy and setting that are so important for INK. It really is the perfect cover for this book, and I'm so thrilled that this is end result!
And at the risk of being a little mean, I can't WAIT until you guys see the whole cover. Seriously!!
So, ta da! The lovely cover reveal. Thanks for letting me share it with you, and let me know what you think! ^_^
(psst--Flap copy on Goodreads! www.dft.ba/-Ink)


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Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Ghosts in the machine
I was for various reasons (one of which was this brilliant piece of radio from Radiolab) googling a friend who died a few years ago. He's still there, in google, but he's fading. Other people have his name now and they are doing things that Google notes. Vesa is, being dead, at a distinct disadvantage in the rankings because despite doing lots of things noteworthy in his unfortunately too brief life - they are now all in the past. He never got chance to start a Facebook page, so someone else with his name has got that one. He went too early to see the explosion in the popularity of blogging. But his name is still there - it's not gone completely, a ghost in the machine, and some of us still remember him as well in our more organic memories.
The picture above is of me, but it was taken by Vesa - back when photos were on film and had to be scanned. He made the webpage for the climbing club and for some reason I ended up on the front page; I wasn't really even a member, I just went out climbing with them because they were nice guys. I had completely forgotten about it, and it was googling his name that led me to it, the entry tunnel to a now defunct website, but which lives on lurking forgotten on some server. I too am also a ghost in the machine.
Vesa - you are getting a climb named in your honour mate! It's not a very good one, but hey - neither of us were ever really very good climbers were we? ;-) Rest easy now.
Posted by Toby - Northern Light Blog at 8/12/2009
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R in Insurance, London 2013
The first R in Insurance conference took place at Cass Business School, London, 15 July 2013.
The programme and the presentation files of the first R in Insurance conference have been published on GitHub.
- 8:30 - 9:00 Registration
- 9:00 - 10:00 Opening Keynote
- 10:00 - 11:00 Contributed Talks
- A practical approach to claims reserving using state space models with growth curves - Chibisi Chima-Okereke [slides]
- A new R-package for statistical modelling and forecasting in non-life insurance - Lola Martínez-Miranda [slides]
- A re-reserving algorithm to derive the 1-year reserve risk view - Alessandro Carrato [slides]
- 11:00 - 11:30 Tea/Coffee
- 11:30 - 12:30 Contributed Talks
- Pricing insurance contracts with R - Giorgio Alfredo Spedicato [slides]
- Mortality modelling in R: an analysis of mortality trends by cause of death and socio-economic circumstances in England - Andrés M. Villegas
- Non-Life Insurance Pricing using R - Allan Engelhardt [slides]
- 12:30 - 13:30 Lunch
- 13:30 - 14:30 Contributed Talks
- End User Computing: Excel / VBA vs. R - Karen Seidel and Richard Pugh
- Claim fraud analytics with R - Enzo Martoglio and Adam Green
- Integrating R with Azure for High-throughput analysis - Hugh P. Shanahan [slides]
- 14:30 - 15:00 Panel discussion
- The Future of R in Insurance
- 15:00 - 15:30 Tea/Coffee
- 15:30 - 16:30 Contributed Talks
- Automate presentations of management information with R - Simon Brickman and Adam Rich
- Practical implementation of R in the London Market - Ed Tredger and Fiachra McLoughlin
- Catastrophe Modelling in R - Stefan Eppert [slides]
- 16:30 - 17:30 Closing Keynote
- 17:30 - 18:30 Drinks reception
- 18:45 Bus transfer to conference dinner restaurant
- 19:00 Conference dinner at Cantina del Ponte which lies on the banks of the Thames, over-looking Tower Bridge
Implementing CreditRisk+ in R with the Faster Fourier Transform
Professor Alexander McNeil
Department of Actuarial Science & Statistics, Heriot-Watt University
The well-known CreditRisk+ model of portfolio credit risk is often described as "an actuarial model". Conditional on independent gamma-distributed economic factors, credit losses in fixed time periods are conditionally independent Poisson events. Exposures are usually discretised into a finite number of exposure bands. This leads to a reasonably tractable model that can be represented in terms of compound sums.
We will review the structure of the model and then show how it can be easily implemented in R. We focus on computing the portfolio loss distribution using Fourier inversion techniques and deriving measures of tail risk. We will also discuss the calibration of the model.
A practical approach to claims reserving using state space models with growth curves
Chibisi Chima-Okereke
Active Analytics Ltd
State space models offer much flexibility in dealing with general time series and regression problems. Bayesian approach means that expert judgement can be used in their formulation and they offer the benefit of allowing the modeller to use information available at any time period to pre-empt the effects of expected changes or increased uncertainty in forecasts rather than being limited by more classical approaches. This makes them valuable for many applications and they are considered here for the calculation of actuarial reserves.
In this talk, a state space model using various growth curves for modelling claims developments is presented. These curves are used to model logarithm and inverse transformed cumulative claims as well as development patterns. An advantage of the state space modelling procedure is that a standard output of the model are parametric ultimate claims forecast distributions for state and observations. The parameters used in the state matrix are obtained from no-linear regression of curves from the claims triangle.
Intervention techniques allow the modeller to quickly asses the effects of new information before subsequent observations are obtained. The model can also be used as a tool for pre-empting the effects of potentially large claim events on the business class or increased uncertainty in the underwriting environment.
This technique is compared with outputs from the chain ladder method. The models are created using R, a rich statistical analysis environment which also provides a framework for creating space state models as well as allowing the user to create custom algorithms.
A new R-package for statistical modelling and forecasting in non-life insurance
Martínez-Miranda, M.D., Nielsen, J.P. and Verrall, R.
Cass Business School
The recent Double Chain Ladder (DCL) by Martínez-Miranda, Nielsen and Verrall (2012) has demonstrated how the classical chain ladder technique can be broken down into its components. It was shown that DCL works under a wide array of stochastic assumptions on the nature and dependency structure of payments. Under certain model assumptions and via one particular estimation technique, it is possible to interpret the classical chain ladder method as a model of the observed number of counts with a build-in delay function from a claim is reported until it is paid. Under the DCL framework it is possible to gain a deeper understanding of the fundamental drivers of the claims development than is possible with the basic chain ladder technique. One example is the case when expert knowledge is available and one would like to incorporate it into the statistical analysis. This can be done in a surprisingly simple way to include into a double chain ladder framework.
In this talk we present a new package in R to analyse run-off triangles in the double chain ladder framework. The package, which is expected to be launched in July 2013, contains several functions to assist the user along the full reserving exercise. Using specific functions in the package the user will be able to load the data into R from Excel spreadsheets, make the necessary manipulations on the data, generate plots to visualize and gain intuition about the data, break down classical chain ladder under the DCL model, visualize the underlying delay function and the inflation, introduce expert knowledge about the severity inflation, the zero-claims etc. The package contains also data examples and has been documented to facilitate the analyses to a wide audience, which includes practitioners, academic researchers and also undergraduate, master and PhD students. Using the package the user will be able to reproduce the methodology of the recent papers by Martínez-Miranda, Nielsen, Nielsen and Verrall (2011), Martínez-Miranda, Nielsen and Verrall (2012, 2013), Martínez-Miranda, Nielsen and Wüthrich (2012) and Martínez-Miranda, Nielsen, Verrall and Wüthrich (2013).
- Martinez-Miranda M.D, Nielsen B, Nielsen J.P and Verrall, R. (2011) "Cash flow simulation for a model of outstanding liabilities based on claim amounts and claim numbers". Astin Bulletin, 41⁄1, 107-129.
- Martínez-Miranda, M.D., Nielsen, J.P. and Verrall, R. (2012) "Double Chain Ladder". Astin Bulletin, 42⁄1, 59-76.
- Martínez-Miranda, M.D., Nielsen, J.P. and Verrall, R. (2013) "Double Chain Ladder and Bornhuetter-Ferguson". North American Actuarial Journal.
- Martínez-Miranda, M.D., Nielsen, J.P. and Wüthrich, M.V. (2012) "Statistical modelling and forecasting in Non-life insurance". SORT-Statistics and Operations Research Transactions 36 (2) July-December 2012, 195-218.
- Martínez-Miranda, M.D., Nielsen, J.P., Verrall, R. and Wüthrich, M.V. (2013) "Double Chain Ladder, Claims Development Inflation and Zero Claims". Scandinavian Actuarial Journal.
A re-reserving algorithm to derive the 1-year reserve risk view
Alessandro Carrato1
1Fully Qualified Actuary, Istituto Italiano degli Attuari / International Actuarial Association - ASTIN Section
Keywords: reserve risk, one-year view, re-reserving, ultimate view, model error, solvency 2
I consider a practical approach, based on R code, to the methodology for the one-year view reserve risk described by [1]. The idea is to extend the re-reserving algorithm outside the chain ladder model (see [2]), introducing a proper algorithm that works directly on the underlying GLM model defined for the ultimate view, and updated with the simulated payments after 1 year. Besides, the R code gives also the option to change the regression structure, distribution in the exponential family and link function of the ultimate-view reserve risk (see [3] and [4]) in order to permit a better understanding and evaluation of the model error, as required by Solvency 2 (see [5]).
- Ohlsson et al. (2008) – The one-year non life insurance risk [ASTIN Colloquia 2008]
- Merz, Wüthrich (2008) – Modelling CDR for Solvency purposes [CAS E-Forum, Fall 2008, 542-568]
- Gigante, Sigalotti (2005) – Model Risk In Claims Reserving with GLM [Giornale Istituto Italiano degli Attuari LXVIII, n. 1-2, pp. 55-87, 0390-5780]
- Wüthrich, Merz (2008) – Stochastic Claims Reserving Methods in Insurance [The Wiley Finance Series]
- EIOPA (2012) – Technical Specifications for the Solvency II valuation and Solvency Capital Requirements calculations [SCR 1.23, p. 119]
Pricing insurance contracts with R
Giorgio Alfredo Spedicato Ph.D C.Stat ACAS
The R statistical system [3] could be a very powerful tool to price contracts in the business of insurance. As 2013, several packages already exist that can aid pricing actuaries in their activity. This presentation will show how standard R code enhanced by ad - hoc packages could provide sound actuarial solutions for real business.
A first example could be pricing life contingent coverages for life insurance business. Few examples performed with the aid of lifecontingencies package [5] will show how R can be easily used to perform standard pricing and reserving for life insurances.
A second set of examples will show how GLM estimation capabilities of R statistical environment can be used to perform standard pricing of personal lines general insurance coverages. Examples will be taken from [4] working paper.
The last set of example briefly show an application of actuar [2] and fitdistrplus [1] packages to price non-proportional reinsurance coverage for a Motor Third Party Liability portfolio.
- Marie Laure Delignette-Muller, Regis Pouillot, Jean-Baptiste Denis, and Christophe Dutang. fitdistrplus: help to fit of a parametric distribution to non-censored or censored data, 2012. R package version 1.0-0.
- Christophe Dutang, Vincent Goulet, and Mathieu Pigeon. actuar: An r package for actuarial science. Journal of Statistical Software, 25(7):38, 2008.
- R Development Core Team. R: A Language and Environment for Statistical Computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria, 2012. ISBN 3-900051-07-0.
- Giorgio Alfredo Spedicato. Third party motor liability ratemak- ing with R. 6 2012. Casualty Actuarial Society Working Paper.
- Giorgio Alfredo Spedicato. Lifecontingencies: an R package to perform life contingencies actuarial mathematics, 02 2013. R package version 0.9.7.
Mortality modelling in R: an analysis of mortality trends by cause of death and socio-economic circumstances in England
Andrés M. Villegas
Cass Business School
Keywords: Mortality modelling; Lee-Carter model; socio-economic circumstances; cause of death; ggplot2; gnm; forecast.
It is well known that mortality rates and life expectancy vary across socio-economic subpopulations of a country. Higher socio-economic groups - whether defined by educational attainment, occupation, income or area deprivation - have lower mortality rates and longer lives than lower socio-economic groups. In many cases, high socio-economic subpopulations also experience faster rates of improvement in mortality. These socio-economic differences pose important challenges when designing public policies for tackling social inequalities, as well as when managing the longevity risk in pension funds and annuity portfolios. The successful addressing of these social and financial challenges requires the best possible understanding of what has happened historically and what is likely to occur in the future. A key step in this direction is to investigate how individual causes of death differ between the different socio-economic subgroups of the population.
In this talk we illustrate how R can be used in the analysis of recent trends in mortality by cause of death and socio-economic stratification, using mortality data for England split by socio-economic circumstances. More specifically, we demonstrate how existing R packages can be used in the preliminary analysis and visualisation of mortality data (ggplot2) and in the modelling (gnm) and projection (forecast) of mortality trends employing multi-population extensions of the popular Lee-Carter mortality model.
- Hyndman, R. J, 2013. forecast: Forecasting functions for time series. R package version 4.03.
- Turner, H., Firth, D., 2012. Generalized nonlinear models in R: an overview of the gnm package. R Package Version 1.0-6.
- Wickham, H., 2009. ggplot2: elegant graphics for data analysis. Springer New York.
Non-Life Insurance Pricing using R
Allan Engelhardt and Suresh Gangam
CYBAEA Limited, London, UK and 64 Squares, Maharashtra, India
Insurance can greatly benefit from adopting the R platform and leading companies are already reaping the rewards. We will show one example from non-life insurance pricing which will cover both technical implementation and business change, and we will share information on the commercial benefits obtained. By using a specific example we can keep the presentation concrete and the benefits real; however, the applicability of the approach is general and we will touch on this in the discussion.
There are many advantages of R. We will focus on two. First, R is finely balanced to allow exploratory data analysis and interactive model development while also being a platform for statistical computing and data mining. As we will show, this is key for productivity and an element to set up (bit-perfect) reproducible models.
Second, it is comprehensive in the sense that most approaches to statistics and data mining are included in the tool or its contributed packages. Among other benefits, this allows you to easily run multiple model types on your data, ensuring compatibility with classic and often robust approaches while at the same time taking advantage of the latest developments and emerging industry standards.
Non-life insurance pricing is a well-known and well-established process and yet still a critical business issue. The standard for tariff analysis is generalised linear models. We first show how to develop such a model in R, including model selection and validation. We touch upon how to deploy the model (both scoring using the model and updating the model itself) while ensuring the results remain validated and reproducible.
Next we show how easy it is to extend the model to more complex techniques. In the interest of time we jump over intermediate approaches and go straight to ensemble models, which are possibly the state-of-the-art for high-performance models.
We are in no way advocating wholesale abandonment of classical approaches for modern techniques, "black-box" or otherwise. Rather, we propose that you make use of both: continuity and understanding tempered with the results from the latest up-to-date methods. In the final part we cover some of these business issues to show how other insurers resolved them and what commercial benefits resulted. Examples include using the advanced models to restrict the validity domain of the classical approach (risk we do not understand and will not insure) and using them to create derived variables, such as interaction variables, to extend the domain of the GLM (understanding complex risk).
End User Computing: Excel / VBA vs. R
Karen Seidel and Richard Pugh
Lloyd's and Mango Solutions
Most actuarial departments in the Non-Life insurance industry use Excel /VBA as their computation engine. Industry leading bespoke modelling software, such as Igloo and ReMetrica relies on Excel / VBA for data inputs and reporting. This talk points out the typical problems that arise from using Excel / VBA in capital modelling and how these issues can be overcome with a combination of R and a proper version control system. Issues covered include
- Keeping track of links
- Keeping track of different versions of input data, model code and outputs
- Support for multiple users
- Trickiness of updates (eg range adjustments for a new underwriting year)
- Limitations of Excel analyses
- Limitations of reporting in Excel
- Constraints on data volumes
Claim fraud analytics with R
Enzo Martoglio and Adam Green
Steria UK and Syntomy
According to different sources the insurance sector is plagued by fraudulent claims: in the UK alone total undetected general insurance claims fraud is estimated at £1.9 billion per annum. This adds around 6% (or £44 a year), on average, to the insurance premiums paid by all policyholders (Research Brief - 2009 Association of British Insurers).
R offer powerful analytical functions to detect fraudulent claims. They range from network analysis, typically used to monitor fraudulent motoring claims, to text analytics.
The presentation aims to:
- Offer a brief overview of the R packages that can be used for fraudulent claim analytics (e.g. how network analytics can be used to spot frauds etc.).
- Illustrate the analytical pipeline component required to detect potentially fraudulent claims using text analytics. One of the components illustrated will be the use of the LIWC (Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count) dictionary.
- Link claims with the general insurance process to show the benefits obtained through a wider usage of analytics.
Please note that currently we plan to illustrate the above using dummy data, as any insurance company is reluctant to "loan" their data for analysis.
Integrating R with Azure for High-throughput analysis
Hugh P. Shanahan1, Anne M Owen2, Andrew P. Harrison3
1Department of Computer Science, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, Surrey, TW20 0EX, U.K.,
2Department of Mathematical Sciences, University of Essex, Wivenhoe Park, Colchester, CO4 3SQ, U.K.,
3Department of Biological Sciences, University of Essex, Wivenhoe Park, Colchester, CO4 3SQ, U.K.
Keywords: Cloud Computing, Azure, PaaS, High-throughput
Cloud Computing is increasingly being used by the Scientific community. For example, in Bionformatics this has been largely driven by the rapid increase in the size of Omic (Genomic, Transcriptomic,…) data sets Stein (2010). This rapid increase in data size is not unique to this field and is a surprisingly general feature in data analysis. This type of computing is particularly useful for a workflow where one needs to execute a complicated analysis (e.g. a large R script) in a trivially parallel fashion over a large data set. Within Insurance possible applications for such high-throughput calculations include
- time-series analysis which require extensive parameter sweeps or
- VaR calculations for a portfolio of a large number of various financial instruments Kim (2009).
Much of the emphasis in cloud computing has been on the use of Infrastructure as a Service platforms, such as Amazon's EC2 service where the user gets direct access to the console of the Virtual Machines(VM's) and MapReduce frameworks, in particular Hadoop Yoo (2011). An alternative to this is to use a Platform as a Service (PaaS) infrastructure, where access to the VM's is programmatic. Other PaaS clouds exists, notably the Google App Engine but are limited due to a conservative approach to allowing libraries on the App Engine.
A PaaS interface can offer certain advantages over the other approaches. In particular, it is more straight- forward to design interfaces to software packages such as R. In the case of Azure, another advantage is that Microsoft Research have provided a set of C# libraries called the Generic Worker which allow easy scaling of VM's.
We have developed software that makes use of these libraries to run R scripts to analyse a particular data set approximately 1 Tbyte in total size though decomposed into a number of a much smaller units. This analysis provides an exemplar to run multiple R jobs in parallel with each other on the Azure platform and to make use of its mass storage facilities. We believe that this workflow is a very common one and is applicable to any number of different areas where R is employed. We will discuss an early generalisation we have dubbed GWydiR to run any R script on Azure in this fashion, with a goal on providing as simple a method as possible for a user to scale up their R jobs.
- Stein, L. D. (2010, January). The case for cloud computing in genome informatics. Genome biology 11(5), 207.
- Hyunjoo, K., Chaudhari, S., Parashar, M. and Marty, C. (2009) Online Risk Analytics on the Cloud. 9th IEEE/ACM International Symposium on Cluster Computing and the Grid, 2009. CCGRID '09 484-489 DOI:0.1109/CCGRID.2009.82
- Yoo, D. and Sim, K-M. (2011). A comparative review of job scheduling for MapReduce., 2011 IEEE International Conference on Cloud Computing and Intelligence Systems (CCIS) 353-358. DOI:10.1109/CCIS.2011.6045089
Automate presentations of management information with R
Simon Brickman and Adam Rich
The talk will provide R code to show how to automate the presentation of key charts, tables and reports.
This will be in the context of providing information to general insurance professionals who are mainly non actuarial. Typical audience is underwriters and claims managers. The goal here is to impart the maximum clarity to the information whilst also making the production task easy and flexible.
The code used will essentially comprise of existing package material: the intellectual added value provided here is really around the collation of this material into a useful bundle of value to analytical practitioners. The talk will also compare and contrast the process with current alternatives used in the industry and discuss ideas for future development to assist actuaries in their roles within general insurance.
Practical implementation of R in the London Market
Ed Tredger and Fiachra McLoughlin
Our talk will focus on the massive potential for R in the London Insurance Market, our practical experiences of using it with our insurance clients and the main obstacles R faces in gaining wider acceptance and usage in the London Market. All of this talk is based on practical experience of using R in real-world examples and draws from the presenter's personal experience.
There are three distinct sections to the talk:
- Why R is useful in the London market
- Personal experiences of using R in real-world problems
- Practical barriers to using R in Insurance
Since the first part of the talk will be well-understood by most attendees, this will be the briefest, but will offer our perspective based on the model development and modelling projects we deliver across a wide range of Lloyd's and London Market clients.
The second part will discuss different applications of R we have found useful, how they have been implemented and what value they have added to the client. This part of the talk will use examples of how R has been successfully used in pricing, reporting and in producing Lloyd's returns.
The third part of the talk is likely to prompt the most discussion; here we will discuss the barriers R encounters in Insurance and how these might be overcome. There is little doubt that while seasoned R users believe strongly in its abilities R has not, yet, reached a high level of market penetration. We hope that this talk will stimulate debate within the audience about overcoming these obstacles so that R can achieve wider recognition throughout the Insurance industry.
Catastrophe Modelling in R
S. Eppert, D. Lohmann and G. Morrow
KatRisk LLC, 405 Kains Ave, Albany CA 94706, USA
Catastrophe (cat) models are used to estimate loss distributions from natural hazards like tropical cyclones, floods, or earthquakes. They integrate multiple disciplines such as meteorology, climatology, hydrology, structural engineering, statistics, software engineering and actuarial sciences.
The ever increasing complexity of these models, the need for model transparency, as well as the desire to integrate models with diverse APIs have led us to develop an open source web-based cat model engine based on R using Shiny.
By using R, users can easily create custom analytics and integrate auxiliary data from any data source, while being able to probe underlying model assumptions, perform sensitivity analysis and in- vestigate all components of the cat model. We will demo our software and speak about the various technology components.
There is an R in Lloyd's
Trevor Maynard
Head of Exposure Management and Reinsurance, Lloyd's
In 2005, a group of nerds in Lloyd's (with one honorary member from outside) started a group called R Souls (say it fast and you'll get the joke).
They met every Friday to make the most of the fish and chips and swapped stories about R; learning from one another and becoming ever more proficient in the amazingly stable, flexible and exciting tool that is, R.
From these humble beginnings R is now embedded in many of Lloyd's core functions from benchmarking and reporting to catastrophe modelling.
My talk will give a short history of this turbulent and emotional journey including some tips on how to work with IT departments, and convince others to move from planet Excel to the 21st century.


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5 comments:
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Ab-Soul and Schoolboy Q interview with Karen Civil (Video)
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Here's a cool interview of Ab-Soul and Schoolboy Q by Karen Civil. They discuss what it would take to drop a Black Hippy album, how they decide who gets on what track, why Schoolboy Q is now calling himself Puff Daddy and more. Check out the video below. Related: Ab-Soul discusses his earliest musical influences (Video)


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Reporting by Karen Lema
Editing by Michael Urquhart
Original report at Reuters
MANILA, Nov 15 (Reuters) - The Philippine government has named the four groups given the go ahead to bid on Dec. 12 for a multi-billion dollar 25-year contract to run the national power grid.
The bidders will have a chance to comment on the auction transaction documents in a closed-door prebid conference on Thursday, the state agency overseeing the sale of the government's power assets said in a statement sent late on Wednesday.
The four groups are:
1) Monte Oro Grid Resources Corp, which teamed up with State Grid Corp of China. Monte Oro's president Walter Brown is also chairman of mining firm Philex Corp (PX.PS: Quote, Profile, Research);
2) Two Rivers Pacific Holdings Corp of Metro Pacific Corp (MPI.PS: Quote, Profile, Research) and Italy's Terna-Rete Electtrica Nazionale S.P.A. (TRN.MI: Quote, Profile, Research);
3) San Miguel Energy Corp, a unit of food and drinks group San Miguel Corp (SMCB.PS: Quote, Profile, Research), and TPG Aurora B.V.; and
4) a consortium of Citadel Holdings Inc and Power Grid Corp of India Ltd.
At a last failed auction of the power grid in February, only Citadel Holdings, a Filipino business group, with then partner Terna submitted a bid. The Dec. 12 auction will be Manila's fifth attempt since 2003 to privatise the transmission network. There were 21 investors that initially expressed interest to take part in next month's sale of the power grid, valued at nearly $3 billion by the government in earlier auctions.
The state agency PSALM said a fifth investor group, which it did not name, failed to qualify for the auction even after a reconsideration of documents from groups which failed to pass the first review round.
The power grid is likely to require $850 million over the next five years for upgrades and expansion. The private investment arm of the World Bank has said it will give financial help of up to $250 million to the winning bidder.
Thursday, 15 November 2007
Philippines names four groups bidding for power grid
Reporting by Karen Lema
Posted Thursday, November 15, 2007 0 comments
Labels: economy, energy, Philippines, power, power generation
Air passenger traffic rises 23% in 1st 9 months
By Lenie Lectura
Original report at The Business Mirror
DOMESTIC passenger traffic in the first nine months of the year grew 23 percent to 7.69 million from 6.23 million aided by the airlines' aggressive pricing strategies.
Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) data showed that Cebu Pacific continued to lead the industry as it overtook Philippine Airlines (PAL) with 3,331,902 passengers from January to September this year, compared with the flag carrier's 2,971,041.
In the first half of the year, Cebu Pacific carried 2,256,289 passengers as against PAL's 1,981,267. This meant that during the third quarter Cebu Pacific added slightly over one million passengers while PAL added 989,774.
Comparing it with last year's figures, PAL transported 2,874,756 passengers as against Cebu Pacific's 2,126,333 from the period January to September 2006. Load factor for PAL hit 76 percent compared with Cebu Pacific's 75 percent in the first nine months of last year.
The Gokongwei-owned budget carrier attained an 83-percent load factor out of a possible 4,037,915 seats during the first nine months of the year, compared with PAL's 79 percent.
Cebu Pacific's growth may be attributed to its continuing expansion, aggressive pricing strategy, and active search for and opening of new domestic routes.
Air Philippines, meanwhile, carried 835,071 passengers for the first nine months of the year from 724,086 in the same period last year. Load factor remained unchanged at 72 percent.
Air Philippines is 99-percent owned by the Lucio Tan Group. PAL, however, is 95-percent owned by Tan.
Asian Spirit registered 366,443 passengers from 321,241 in the same period a year ago. Load factor rose to 57 percent this year from 51 percent last year.
Seair posted 185,573 passengers, down from 189,688 in the same period last year. As a result, load factor dropped to 62 percent from 70 percent last year.
During the period, the number of domestic passengers carried by all the carriers reached 7,681,030 from 6,236,104 last year. Cargo also rose by 7 percent while the number of seats allocated for the period also grew by 16 percent.
Posted Thursday, November 15, 2007 0 comments
Labels: aviation, economy, Philippines
Slanted (On Opinion Polls)
By Alex Magno
Original article at The Philippine Star
If an opinion poll was taken, during Galileo's time, asking citizens if the Earth was round or flat, guess what the outcome would be?
Nearly everyone would have said the Earth was flat, of course. That was how it felt. That was what common sense dictates. That was what dogma said. It was, at that time, punishable to say otherwise.
The idea that the Earth was round — and, not only that, rotating on its axis — was totally laughable. It defies the common sense. Galileo was taunted in the streets for his proposition and asked why the seas did not spill over from a round, rotating planet.
If opinion polls then had the political impact they enjoy today, poor Galileo would not have been simply asked to retract his proposition. He would have been burned at the stake for heresy in order to please the mob, win political points and conserve the dogma.
Fortunately for Galileo, opinion polls were not yet in fashion during is time. A practical man, he quickly recanted what he knew was true, telling his apprentice there was no sense pushing an idea no one was prepared to accept. Recanting did not diminish the truth. It simply ensured everyone's comfort, Galileo's primarily.
Unfortunately for us, opinion polls are in fashion during our time. They ask the totally uninformed to render an expert opinion.
The results are treated as news. They grab the headlines. They influence the design of policy. They dictate the behavior of political leaders. They shape public expectation of what ought to be done. They conserve dogma.
And it is called democracy. The way that word is understood these days is that it is a condition where the banal opinions of the uninformed should take precedence over the sound conclusions of the expertly informed.
If we take this notion of democracy to undue extents, much tragedy could be produced.
For instance, if we ask people by means of an opinion poll if they wanted to be taxed, guess what the outcome would be? If, by means of an opinion poll, we asked them to choose between a proper national budget or simply distributing cash to every citizen, they will likely choose the latter.
If opinion polls were to be obeyed, we would have a regime that collects no taxes, subsidizes oil and food and gives away housing to all who have none. It would be a regime that is bankrupt, paralyzed and mired in debt. But what the heck, it will be a regime with high approval ratings — although eventually it will be a regime that runs out of the means to meet pompous public expectation and be overthrown.
In Venezuela today, the rich and the educated are marching in the streets to oppose a constitutional amendment that would allow Hugo Chavez to seek reelection indefinitely. Why are they doing that? Because Hugo Chavez will win every election in sight. He is popular. He has used the country's oil income to dole out to the poor and subsidize everything he can.
But, after Zimbabwe under the leftist Robert Mugabe, Venezuela under Chavez has been the second fastest declining economy in the world. From having South America's highest per capita income, it now has the lowest. In the name of some variant of socialism, this clown has redistributed poverty, not wealth. And the grateful poor will, by valid democratic means, reelect him to power indefinitely. The opinion polls will validate that.
A few days ago, the SWS released a poll where 13% said they were better off now after the peso appreciated and 30% said they were better off before appreciation. 57% said things were the same. In the usual neat way that SWS outcomes are reported, the numbers are broken down into income brackets and across regions of the country.
The news media dutifully carried out the results as a big story, concluding, as the SWS does, that the peso's appreciation by a net effect of -17% harmed more Filipinos than it helped. The implication is that the peso's appreciation is bad.
But how did we know that?
Those who said their lives were better before might have been simply reporting the usual erosion of inflation on fixed incomes rather a negative effect of peso appreciation. But since the SWS questionnaire linked income erosion to peso appreciation, we are all brought to what might be a contrived conclusion. It is entirely possible we might get the same profile of responses (or even worse) if the peso was depreciating.
And what about the 57% who said the behavior of the currency did not matter? That is a pretty impressive number. Why was this not the headline story?
Some of my readers have asked me this really unwarranted question: If the peso was behaving so well, why are oil prices still rising?
Well, over the past few months, the price of crude simply rose faster than the peso appreciated. From about $30 a barrel, the price in now well over $90 so quickly. If the exchange rate remained the same, we would be paying P100 per liter for fuel.
That did not happen. And that is what is important.
Surveys do not ask people to report on what did not happen. Most respondents do not know what did not happen. A certain degree of economic literacy is required to understand what did not happen.
When a calamity does not happen because of excellent weather forecasting, that is not news. It does not make the headlines. There are no dramatic pictures of weathermen issuing a bland advisory for all ships to remain in port.
There lies the usual slant.
Posted Thursday, November 15, 2007 0 comments
Labels: media, opinion polls, Philippines
Farm sector expands 4.3% in 1st 9 months
By Ted P. Torres
Original article at The Philippine Star
For the first three quarters this year, the agriculture sector grew by 4.3 percent with a gross value of P684.1 billion.
With this performance, agriculture officials remain confident that the sector will hit its revised growth target of 4.5 to five percent for the whole year this year.
The agriculture sector, which accounts for almost a quarter of the country's gross domestic product, grew by 3.88 percent last year.
"I am comfortable that the original full year target of 4.5 to five percent is achievable, depending on the weather," Agriculture Secretary Arthur C. Yap said in a press briefing yesterday.
Forecasting for 2008 is not possible as the sector is dependent on weather conditions, Yap said, adding that "there are more uncertainties next year, and disturbing climate change is perceptible."
The agriculture department had set an original growth target of 4.5 to five percent but this was downscaled to 3.8 to four percent due to the dry spell that affected the country in the second quarter.
To achieve the original growth target, the corn sector must grow by a similar 4.5 to five percent in the last three months of 2007, while the rice sector must expand by over five percent.
Bureau of Agriculture Statistics (BAS) director Romeo Recide said rice and corn will be the trendsetters for the remaining three months as the other sectors have been consistent in their performance in the previous quarters.
"Palay must grow by over 10 percent in the fourth quarter to support the full year growth target," Recide added.
Meanwhile, the fishery sector continued to lead the agriculture sector with a 7.92-percent growth in the first nine months of 2007. This sector accounts for 26.35 percent of the agriculture sector.
At current prices, it contributed P134.6 billion for a little over 10-percent growth.
Output of commercial fisheries expanded by 10.71 percent. Aquaculture and municipal fisheries recorded a positive output of 6.5 percent and 8.16 percent, respectively.
Accounting for 46.77 percent of the agriculture sector, the crops subsector expanded by 4.17 percent, with a gross value at current prices of P350.9 billion. Palay and corn production grew by 3.45 percent and 9.5 percent, respectively. Banana, pineapple, mango, cassava, mongo, tomato, onion, eggplant and rubber also boosted the performance of the subsector.
The livestock subsector grew by 2.06 percent while the poultry subsector grow by a mere 0.41 percent.
Posted Thursday, November 15, 2007 0 comments
Labels: agriculture, economy, Philippines
Tuesday, 13 November 2007
Philippines: Chinese-funded North Rail Project Again Under Scrutiny
Mike Cohen
Pacific News Center Correspondent 12.NOV.07
5:30 p.m.
The $1.126-billion North Rail project in the Philippines funded by the Chinese government is again at the center of attention after Senator Juan Ponce Enrile accused House Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. of "meddling" in the approval of the contract.
Enrile, who criticized the project in a privilege speech in 2005, disclosed that de Venecia had asked him to go easy on the Chinese contractors of the project. But de Venecia denied this and said that he merely told Enrile that the Chinese government was threatening to withdraw from the project.
"I did discuss the project with Enrile in 2005 but I only asked him not to rock the boat because the Chinese government threatened to withdraw from the project after he attacked it," said de Venecia.
Enrile, however said, he merely wanted to ensure transparency in government projects, especially after the recent scandal involving the construction of a national broadband system, wherein De Venecia's son had made serious allegations about the "political influence" used to approve the project.
North Rail: Vital link between Manila and Clark Economic Zone
The 80.2-kilometer North Rail is considered the flagship project of the Arroyo administration and is expected to boost economic growth, especially in Central Luzon.
The rail service would make it easier to access the Clark Special Economic Zone, Angeles City in Pampanga, the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport (DMIA) and Bulacan province from Manila.
Cerge Remonde, director general of the Presidential Management Staff (PMS), aired his concern over the possible adverse impact of politics on the project.
"We are hopeful that politics would not derail this important project which seeks to restore train service in Central Luzon," said Remonde, who also manages the national government's infratructure projects.
Project on track says DOTC
The Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) said the construction timetable for the two phases of the project is on schedule. The first phase of the project is expected to be completed by February 2010 while the second phase is expected to be finished in 2011.
"The first section of the project would definitely start in January 2008, as the remaining squatters residing along the old train line to be revived would be relocated by December," said North Rail Corp. President Jose Cortes Jr.
The Northrail project is divided into two sections: Section I spans Caloocan, Valenzuela, Meycauayan, Marilao, Bocaue, the Guiguinto Multi-Modal Station up to Malolos; Section II starts from Malolos to Calumpit in Bulacan up to Apalit, San Fernando, Angeles and the Clark Multi-Modal Station, all in Pampanga.
Phase I of the project will cost $452.32 million, while Phase II would require a budget of $673.67 million. The plan is to link up North Rail with the existing Metro Rail Transit (MRT) commuter trains and the Light Rail Transit (LRT) system to allow rail travel from Metro Manila to Central Luzon.
The rail system is expected to boost economic growth in Central Luzon as it would provide a crucial link between Clark and Subic Economic Zones, Manila, and economic zones in the Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon) region. Currently, cargo trains run from the Calabarzon area to Manila and locators in the region rely heavily on it.
The Clark economic zone is home to cargo giants FedEx, DHL, and UPS. The North Rail project is expected to reduce traffic delays experienced by Clark locators and provide a more secure alternative for other businesses in Central Luzon to ship their goods. "Truck jacking" on national highways is a common problem experienced by shippers and businessmen in the Philippines.
For air passengers, the railway will also offer a more direct link to DMIA, considered as the country's hub for low-cost airlines such as Tiger Airways. The rail would cut travel time to 45 minutes from one hour and a half by bus or car.
South East Asia remains to be the number one investment region for mobile operators
Altimo, the international telecoms investment group, announces the findings of the second issue of Mobile Development Index ('Altimo Index'), an international research project evaluating the relative investment opportunities in the world's mobile telecoms markets.
The index was elaborated by Altimo in collaboration the Cambridge University, the London Business School and the New Economic School (Moscow).
Based on mobile industry and macroeconomic data (such as expected growth in ARPU, EBITDA margins, GDP growth, etc) from Q3 2006 to Q2 2007, Altimo and its partners have generated an index which attributes investment ratings to 77 markets globally.
[The first of] the key findings of the second Altimo Index [shows that] Southern and Eastern Asia will be the key region for investment for 2008-2012 driven by strengthening economies, growth in mobile spending and rising penetration:
o The Philippines, Indonesia and Vietnam are the top three mobile investment markets for investment in the short term.
o India has shown significant decline in indicators following rise in competition and steady growth of mobile penetration.
Posted Tuesday, November 13, 2007 0 comments
Labels: Altimo, communications, mobile phones, Philippines
FDIs' 26% rise signals RP is desirable: BSP
By Jun Vallecera
Original report at The Business Mirror
FOREIGN direct investments (FDIs), the kind that helps generate employment and stays for the long haul, flowed inward on net basis in the first eight months and totaled $1.7 billion, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reported on Monday.
This was 26.2-percent higher than a year ago when it totaled only $1.4 billion, and an indication of the rising desirability of Manila as an investment destination, according to the BSP.
Net foreign direct investments in August alone totaled $77 million. "Contributing largely to this development was the more than 100-percent rise in net equity capital for the period to $1.7 billion," BSP Governor Amando M. Tetangco Jr. said in a statement.
Equity capital has been rising since 2005 when it stood at $737 million during the period, to $793 million last year, and finally to $1.676 billion this year. Equity capital placements this year rose 58.7 percent higher to $1.863 billion and equity withdrawals slowed by 50 percent to only $187 million, from year-ago withdrawals of $381 million.
Manufacturers of electronics, food, automotive sensors, decorative crafts and health and chemicals producers were direct beneficiaries of the foreign inflows.
So were international couriers, information technology developers, multimedia service providers as well as construction, mining, real estate, financial intermediaries and agricultural industries.
According to the BSP, the bulk of the equity investments came from the United States, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Hong Kong and Germany.
The other capital account, representing intercompany lending between foreign principals and their subsidiaries or affiliates in the Philippines, posted a net inflow of $25 million for the period, significantly lower than year-ago level of $396 million due to the repayment of loans by subsidiaries to parent firms.
The net reinvested earnings account also posted net inflow of only $21 million versus last year's $176 million.
These inflows helped boost the country's savings-to-output ratio to 29.8 percent of the gross domestic product, or higher than last year's 28.5 percent of GDP.
Economists attributed the increase to the improving macroeconomic underpinnings of the country and to generally lower interest rates that lend to lower cost of capital, in turn encouraging people to expand capacities and invest more.
Posted Tuesday, November 13, 2007 0 comments
Labels: economy, FDI, foreign direct investments, Philippines
DHL Express invests P30M for service centers in Clark, Subic
By Lenie Lectura
Original report at The Business Mirror
DHL Express Philippines has invested P30 million for the establishment of two service centers in Clark and Subic to further strengthen its Northern Luzon operations.
The Subic service center opened last month, while the Clark center is scheduled to open in the first quarter of 2008.
The service centers there will serve clients from the manufacturing industry, semiconductor firms, importers, exporters and private individuals who have offices in Subic, Clark, Bataan and the Buffer Triangle economic zones.
DHL Express country manager Larry Llamzon said DHL's Northern Luzon operations will boost the company's operations. "In the next three to five years, the Northern Luzon operations will contribute at least 15 percent to the company's total revenue," said Llamzon.
DHL's service centers in Laguna and Cavite greatly contribute to the company in terms of revenue. "They contribute around 30 percent of the company's total revenue. Our service centers in Makati and Ortigas are also doing well," added Llamzon.
He added that the company will be able to recover investments in Subic and Clark in less than three years.
The Subic will be the firm's ninth service center in the country. The service centers are equipped with cutting-edge shipment-handling equipment which include shipment-tracking devices, package sorting and distribution, access control and surveillance systems to ensure efficient express delivery solutions.
Llamzon said the North Luzon Triangle, which includes Subic, Clark and Bataan, has always been a thriving business district. Foreign and local investors have seen the potential of the area and have tapped into it. DHL's presence in North Luzon will further help attract more investors and contribute to the growth of the existing and business industries there.
"The new DHL service center will not only accelerate the company's response time in the region but will extend DHL's reach nationwide. It will also strengthen logistics trade facilitation capability and will also bring in additional income to the North Luzon Triangle," said Llamzon.
Its rival FedEx is also present in Subic. Llamzon said the company welcomes competition and believes that the industry is big enough for the two largest players in the air express. FedEx was supposed to pull out all of its operations in Subic.
"Although our competitor's pullout from the economic triangle would have brought in more clients, DHL believes that the presence of other logistics companies in the area will not be a hindrance to its growth," he said.
Posted Tuesday, November 13, 2007 0 comments
Labels: Clark, DHL, Philippines, Subic Bay


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|Stained Glass • Fusing • Mosaics • Jewelry Supplies
Create Fine Silver Jewelry Using Clay
Discover the creative possibilities of Precious Metal Clay. Shape it like a clay, and fire it to 99.9% pure silver. PMC3 fires at a low temperature, no kiln or torch is needed! A Delphi Exclusive!
Create intricate silver projects with a simple firing option, the Hot Pot. Kit includes everything you need to fire your pieces, plus PMC3 clay and tools to easily create beautiful textures and perfect shapes.
Kit Includes:
|Step-By-Step: Firing metal clay with the Hot Pot
|1. Fill the terra cotta pot with fuel.
|2. Place dried metal clay project onto wire grid.
|3. Light with a long match. Once fuel burns out, polish project and enjoy!


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Best Chocolate Shops
by Kallie Kouvelis in Best of McHenry County, Fans' Choice Awards, Food & Drink, Going Places, Lil Hank, Shopping
Top 5 chocolate shops, ranked.
1. Riverside Chocolate Factory, McHenry, est. 1986
- Why it's the best: "It is due to our consistent use of the absolute finest ingredients, local and organic when available."
- Don't leave without trying: Chocolate-dipped strawberries or raspberries.
2. Anderson's Candy Shop, downtown Richmond, est. 1919
- Why it's one of the best: "Anderson's quality is time-tested and unbeatable. The caramels, creams and toffees are made from scratch and hand dipped in high-quality chocolate."
- Don't leave without trying: The peanut butter cream and raspberry mallow bars or the famous Lars Bars (like a turtle).
3. Ethereal Confections, Woodstock Square, est. 2011
- Why it's one of the best: "We're the only bean-to-bar chocolate company in the state of Illinois! We're all natural and we use organic ingredients whenever possible, so our products are truly 'ethereal.' With small plates, coffee, tea, hot cocoa, pastries, desserts and chocolate pairings, there are a lot of delectable options!"
- Don't leave without trying: Caramel inferno truffle: caramel, ghost chili, habanero and smoked sea salt.
4. Morkes Chocolates of Huntley, est. 1920
- Why it's one of the best: "From the moment you walk through our doors and ring the old-fashioned shop keeper's bell, you will experience a feast for the senses: enticing smells, a friendly staff and beautiful decorations. Come on in and enjoy a cozy cup of coffee, tea or another sweet treat."
- Don't leave without trying: A caramel pecan donut and a salted caramel mocha.
5. Mellie's Chocolate & Co, Downtown Crystal Lake, est. 2014
- Why it's one of the best: "Freshly made chocolates everyday. We use the highest-quality ingredients!"
- Don't leave without trying: Our handmade celtic sea salt caramel.
Details are subject to change at any time – always call ahead!
Ranking based on Facebook fan votes. Subscribe to our Facebook Events Page to cast your vote in our polls.
Riverside Chocolate Factory
Riverside Chocolate Factory, Illinois 120, McHenry, IL, United States
Anderson's Candy Shop
Anderson's Candy Shop, North Main Street, Richmond, IL, United States
Ethereal Confections
Ethereal Confections, South Benton Street, Woodstock, IL, United States
Morkes Chocolates
Morkes Chocolates, Main Street, Huntley, IL, United States
Mellie's Chocolate & Co.
Mellie's Chocolate & Co., North Williams Street, Crystal Lake, IL, United States


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Authors, Writers, Publishers, and Book Readers
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San Diego, CA, United States
Green Bay, WI, United States
Watford, United Kingdom
Smashwords Self-Published Bestsellers September 2019
Jeanine Cummins's New Novel Is a Harrowing Immigrant's Tale
Why Not Try to Fight Back?: PW Talks with Jane McAlevey
The Debutante: PW Talks with Martha Waters
A Ghost Story: PW Talks with Emily St. John Mandel
'The Great Pretender' Investigates A Landmark Moment In Psychiatric History
Novelist Doctor Skewers Corporate Medicine In 'Man's 4th Best Hospital'
'Mama Hissa's Mice' Creep Through A Dystopian Future Kuwait
What Happens To Your Used Stuff? 'Secondhand' Tells Of A Billion-Dollar Industry
Flea Talks About His Wild Childhood In 1970s Hollywood In 'Acid For The Children'
Jamaica: A Small Nation With an Outsize Global Influence
How to Beat the Market
'Parisian Lives: Samuel Beckett, Simone de Beauvoir and Me: A Memoir,' by Deirdre Bair: An Excerpt
New & Noteworthy, From Philosophy to New York Architecture
Patient Care Is Wrenching: A Psychiatrist, a Nurse and a Doctor Bare All
What Is the Meaning of Sacred Texts?
Cult of the Literary Sad Woman
'Busted in New York: And Other Essays,' by Darryl Pinckney: An Excerpt
'Essays One,' by Lydia Davis: An Excerpt
Who's in the Kitchen: A Quartet of Culinary Narratives
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Contact Us
Specimen Division
Onsite Consulting
About Us
Although there are many palms that we call "date palms". The
"true" date palm from which the tasty fruit is obtained is
Phoenix dactylifera which is a multi-stemmed palm from which
the suckers are usually removed to create single stemmed
specimens. Trimmed in this manner the date palm will grow to
heights of 100 ft (45.7 m). The broad gray trunk is patterned
with diamond-shaped leaf scars and is up to 16 inches in
diameter. The large greenish or bluish gray pinnate leaves are
typically 18-20 ft (5.5-6.1 m) long by 2 ft (0.6 m) wide. They
are arranged in a thick canopy up to 40 feet wide. Leaflets are
1-2 ft (0.3-0.6 m) long and arranged in V-shape ranks that run
the length of the leafstem. Leaflets near the base are modified
into sharp 3-4 in (7.6-10.2 cm) spines.
The yellow orange to red fruit, called
'dates', are oblong and about 1.5 in (3.8 cm) in length. They
consist of a large pointed seed surrounded by sweet sugary
flesh. Dates are formed from flowers on 4 ft (1.2 m)
inflorescences that emerge from among the leaves in spring. Male
and female flowers grow on separate plants. Only female plants
produce dates and only if a male tree is nearby. Dates are not
formed in climates that are too cool. When grown in humid
tropical climates like Florida, the fruit tends to be of low
quality often dropping from the tree before ripening.
Click here for
more information on Medjool Date Palms
Professional installation available.
800-753-2034 to speak with one of our
knowledgeable sales people.
Contact Us


text:
Board Member — Monrovia Unified School District
Access additional information about this contest in the tabs in this section. For most screenreaders, you can hit Return or Enter to enter a tab and read the content within.
About this office
Members establish educational goals and standards, approve curricula and the district's budget, approve various purchases and renovations, and appoint the superintendent of schools.
You can vote for 2 of these 4 candidates.
Maritza C. Travanti
Senior Policy Analyst-Internal Revenue...
Top 3 Priorities
- Early Reading Intervention starting with Pre-K and...
- Declining enrollment. The district must attract and...
- Transparency and open communication. Stakeholders...
Selene Lockerbie
Top 3 Priorities
- Better budget management that focuses resources on...
- Developmentally appropriate curriculum
- Innovative programs that entice enrollment in MUSD
Terrence G. Williams
School Board President
Top 3 Priorities
- Continue to advocate for Special Need resources as...
- Encourage "Camp Catch up" for all of our summer schools...
- Transition our Middle Schools with an arts program...
Top 3 Priorities
J. Christian Holt's priorities are not yet available.
Encourage this candidate to share their information on Voter's Edge.


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It was a day of flow, starting with a flashback! The keynote speakers at the first OptiMYz Live in 2009 were Olympic gold medal swimmer Mark Tewksbury and his coach Debbie Muir, showing us how they prepared Mark for the swim of his life. Debbie explained how there were two keys: one was the small improvements in technique that that he had to make; the second was getting Mark to believe in himself.
Now here I was at the Can-Fit-Pro conference at Saint Mary's University in Halifax, hanging out with leading fitness profressionals. Helen Vanderburg from Calgary was on stage, telling the audience how to develop their careers. The key figures in her talk: Mark Tewksbury and Debbie Muir.
When Helen was a12-year-old swimmer, she said, Debbie Muir was her coach. One day Debbie said she would only keep working with Helen if she removed the words "I can't" from her vocabulary. Helen said she wasn't even aware of this tendency at the time, but she followed Debbie's advice and went on to become a world champion as a member of Canada's national synchronized swimming team.
Helen has been in the fitness industry for 30 years and owns several fitness companies. To succeed in the industry, she said, you must be prepared to grow and adapt. She quoted Mark's advice: that you need PASSION: perserverance, (positive) attitude, strength, (ability) to strive, integrity, and openness to novel approaches. By chance, I was sitting beside a friend of mine Vanessa Frank, a PFC at Nubody's/GoodLife Burnside, who is very much a "mind-body" person like Helen.
I spoke to Helen afterwards. She was off to Zenergy, a class taught by Jennifer Horvath of Montreal, that combines yoga and Pilates. I was the last one in the door, placed close to Helen, Cathy Grad my yoga teacher from Burnside Nubody's/GoodLife, and Jennifer the teacher. (This was cool as Cathy and I were both missing her Saturday yoga class.) It started easily enough with breathing exercises and soon moved into a lot of core work. From the corner of my eye I could see Helen, how strong and flexible she is–how she loves her life in fitness. Having never done Pilates, I could really feel it by the end (kayaking earlier that morning had something to do with it too).
Later Jennifer told me about her path: growing up in India had piqued her interest in Eastern philosophy and religion, and a friend who is a Can-Fit-Pro VP had one day suggested she try yoga. It took a while but she grew to love it and now she is an elite instructor trainer who helps to train Olympic athletes in China and Russia.
Then I was off to take my sister and her friend to lunch on a terrace and visited my mother and my mother-in-law in a retirement home. My 86-year-old mother uses a walker but she loves to be outside and can walk quite a distance. My mother-in-law is in a wheelchair recovering from an operation. She is getting physio and is stronger by the day.
We all have limitations. No-one is perfect. Saying "I can" can make all the difference!


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there's no other word i can say. it's just, i'm home! ha. ha.
i'm home not because i'm homesick.
i'm here because the institute where i'm studying give me a break for a week.
yes, i just can stay there. however, everyone is moving out!
lecturers, wardens and others are moving out, they say.
also the caterers at the canteen. what would i eat? ho.
my quarters-mates also went home.
yesterday, after the announcement about this break was announced, everybody packed their things and went to Butterworth. everyone called their contacts to get tickets!
i went to the bus terminal with 3 friends - k.wanis, farah and norlida.
when we arrived there, we, quickly went to ticket counter. we're lucky. so, we headed to a stall.
well, the owner of the stall is from the same state with us.
after maghrib, i could see most of people at the terminal are my institute-mate. from my batch, seniors.
one word describes my feelings : frustrated. smokers, couples. hu. hu.
apa peranan aku? and it's not just that. i'm surprised that certain people that is respected at the college is just the same with others outside the college. T.T
ok, next story, orientation or management week!
i was wearing mask along my trip to my hometown.


text:
The Asbestos Safety and Eradication Agency provides a national focus on asbestos issues which go beyond workplace safety to encompass environmental and public health issues.
The agency was created on 1 July 2013 to develop the National Strategic Plan for Asbestos Management and Awareness 2014-18 as well as coordinate, monitor and report on the implementation of this plan.
The Agency also manages the National Asbestos Exposure Register. If you believe you have been exposed to asbestos-containing materials, you can register your details by completing the online registration form on the bottom of the National Asbestos Exposure Register page.
If you cannot complete the online registration form, please email firstname.lastname@example.com to request an electronic form to fill out and return to the agency by the same email address.
If you have any questions regarding the agency, please call 1300 326 148.


text:
Hey Hey Hey!
Has anyone else noticed how hot it is in En-ger-lund En-ger-lund En-ger-luuuuuunnnnd lately? I mean man it's seriously hot. I have been sleeping without the sheets over me! Last night I had no sheets and TWO fans blowing on me, even my satin headscarf was making me hot. I'm just hot all the time! My relatives from Barbados have come up and they said it's been hotter than Barbados and they don't want to go outside lol. Today it will be by 2 degrees! Below are comparisons of the capital cities of both countries London (England) and Bridgetown (in the parish of St Michael in Barbados).
For those who work in Fahrenheit today London has a high of 90℉ and a low 0f 72℉ and Bridgetown the capital city of Barbados has a high of 86℉ and a low of 77℉. So it's hot.
Have fun in the sun everybody!


text:
Although visiting local wineries was on my Fall Want To List, it is one of those things that is always on my Things To Do list.
Three years ago, we went to Heritage as part of a friend's birthday wine tour. It was our favorite of the four wineries we visited that day. Unlike the other wineries, at Heritage we took an hour tour of the winery, tasted three different wines along the way*, and left with a souvenir glass. The price has increased since then, but the current price of $20 is still pretty fair for a tour, generous tasting, and glass.
*One straight from the barrel!
For the last three years, I have talked and talked and talked about revisiting*. Unlike most small wineries, Heritage isn't simply a winery you visit with the intention of having a quick tasting. They not only offer tasting tours and tastings in the tasting room, but they also have an outdoor seating area where, weather permitting, visitors enjoy wine flights and live music.
*I think it was the list that made me finally do it.
A regular tasting costs $5-$10 and you end up drinking around 5 ounces of wine. If you're looking for a quick tasting and an expert to walk you through what you're tasting, this is for you.
However, if you want to enjoy all that Heritage has to offer, their wine flights (priced $12-$22) are the way to go. This is what I had in mind when I added visiting wineries to my Fall Want To list. Not just going to a winery, trying their wine, and leaving; but going to wineries and absorbing their atmosphere.
Each flight equals a total of two glasses of wine, which was perfect for us. Knowing the environment of Heritage (live music, outdoor seating, cider donuts…wait, I didn't mention their cider donuts??) we planned to sit in their 'cigar lounge', while sipping our wine and reading.
Pretty sweet plan, if you ask me.
Of the three wines we tasted during our first tour, Lance's favorite was (and continues to be) their Chambourcin, an earthy and fruity red wine aged in American oak.
After our combined flights of ten wines, we left with a bottle of Chambourcin, Sauvignon Blanc*, and Coeur d'Est**.
*A fruitier white with flavors reminiscent of creamy key lime pie, fermented in stainless steel.
**Taste of blackberry, coffee beans and black pepper aged in French and American oak.
If you're looking to make an event of going to a winery, Heritage is the place to go. From their live entertainment to the wide selection of tasting and food options, it is bound to be a good time.
Heritage Vineyards
480 Mullica Hill Road
Mullica Hill, NJ 08062


text:
Micah Sharbiro
Birthday: March 17, 2003
Micah was born in the Kibagare section of Kenya. A series of tragic events lead to Micah being brought to Rehema Home Nairobi when he was three years old. He was malnourished and in need of a good home. With proper nutrition, love, and prayer, he started to improve.
Today Micah is happy and healthy. He can be quite shy when you first meet him, but he is very affectionate. He loves to play football (soccer) and basketball.
Micah has a truly endearing smile. He would like to be a teacher when he grows up. It is a beautiful thing to see that he has a bright future ahead of him full of love and possibilities.


text:
The R-chart blog explains how to read a weblog file into R, so you can analyze traffic to a website. For example, here's a page request chart created with R:
Now, charts like this are stock-in-trade for tools like Google Analytics, but this is still useful if you want to look at the performance of a site that hasn't been instrumented for analytics. It also allows you to analyze other data in the weblog, such as frequency of HTTP status codes:
(Looks like this particular site is experiencing a lot of page-not-found 404 errors.) With access to the raw weblog data in R, you could subject it to any kind of statistical analysis.
You can find the R code and lots of tips for dealing with weblog data in R at the link below.
R-chart: Log File Analysis with R
R-bloggers.com offers daily e-mail updates about R news and tutorials on topics such as: Data science, Big Data, R jobs, visualization (ggplot2, Boxplots, maps, animation), programming (RStudio, Sweave, LaTeX, SQL, Eclipse, git, hadoop, Web Scraping) statistics (regression, PCA, time series, trading) and more...


text:
After a busy, stressful day I came home from work in the cold and the dark. My mood was soon enlightened by the arrival of a fabulous gift basket from one of my favourite gluten free food suppliers- Genius.
|This is my kind of parcel!
As you know I have Coeliac Disease which I bored you all with in my feature Gluten Free Girl. I discovered Genius Gluten Free Foods a few years back when attending a food allergy exhibition in London, and since then their products have been a staple part in my gluten free diet. Genius Gluten Free offer a huge range of gluten-free and wheat-free foods and they are brilliant.
When I first tried their bread I literally thought all my Christmases had come at once! Up until that point, believe it or not, I had at times been reduced to eating a sandwich with a knife and fork. If you manage to keep a slice of gluten free bread in tact when spreading the butter, you know you are onto a good thing. Their bread not only allowed the butter to spread, but once the sandwich was created it didn't fall into a zillion pieces of crumbling mush the moment it was lifted from the plate. Pure Genius. Its the small things that count for us Coeliacs! So I was over the moon when I was sent a range of their newest products to try out…pass me a plate! Yum!
|Wow! It's like Christmas…
The Lemon & Raisin Pancakes were so yummy! I used to love scotch pancakes and probably haven't had one for about 8 years so I thoroughly enjoyed every bite!
|Best Breakfast & Blogging Fuel
I've never felt restricted being a Coeliac. Instead I tend to try a range of different foods that perhaps I wouldn't have before my diagnosis. The Spiced Fruit Loaf, which has taken the company two years to perfect, demonstrates the lengths Genius go to in order to produce some of the best gluten free products on the market. I had never eaten a fruit loaf before, but this was amazing! Toasted with butter and a cup of tea, it made the perfect afternoon snack. It was so good even the Hubster got in on the action!
|Perfect afternoon snack!
Along with a scrummy loaf of bread, they also sent me some crumpets. I've tried gluten free crumpets before and they have been a little disappointing. They are usually about 4 inches thick and take about five attempts in the toaster to get them warmed up throughout. But Genius Gluten Free Foods have made another breakthrough – they not only look like normal crumpets, but taste and cook like normal crumpets! Happy days!
|They were so good, I ate them before I even thought about taking a photo of them…!
Thank you so much to Genius Gluten Free Foods for their generous gift. You have made one gluten free girl very happy indeed. My tummy and I appreciate your love and hard work for creating such tasty and brilliant gluten free foods!
Until next time,
With Love & a Healthy Tummy,
Katie x


text:
235: Blue Marble
The ocean is complicated and diverse. Yet thanks to peripatetic ocean advocate Wallace J. Nichols, the blue marble has become a symbol for better understanding the ocean as an essential element in our lives. In this episode of World Ocean Radio, host Peter Neill will share his practice of carrying blue marbles with him wherever he goes, gifting them to new friends, thereby developing an understanding that an acceptance of the blue marble creates a shared responsibility for the ocean future.
You can carry blue marbles, too. Check out the Blue Marble Project today.
Peter Neill, host of World Ocean Radio, provides coverage of a broad spectrum of ocean issues from science and education to advocacy and exemplary projects. World Ocean Radio, a project of the World Ocean Observatory, is a weekly series of brief audio essays available for syndicated use at no cost by community radio stations worldwide. Contact us for more information.
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