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Weatherization Training Plans--Gateway to a New Economy
The American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA) set the stage for many new and expanded training initiatives.
Not only did the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA) provide the Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) with greatly increased funding to finance energy efficiency retrofits to low-income households, but it also set the stage for many new and expanded training initiatives. The DOE Training and Technical Assistance (T&TA) Plan describes WAP as a gateway to a green economy and new residential energy efficiency initiatives and acknowledges that DOE intends to ensure that Recovery Act investments help build a better, stronger weatherization network that provides the foundation needed for a national energy efficiency retrofit market. ARRA doubled the percentage of WAP funding allocated for training and technical assistance to 20%, and state WAP managers were able to consider training initiatives that had previously been fantasies.
Weatherization professionals have long known that a well-trained workforce is an essential component of a high-quality program—one that ensures recipients the greatest possible energy savings, while addressing any potential health or safety problems. The WAP network has made major advances in the national training effort over the 30-year history of the program. Computerized energy audits and diagnostic testing, the use of blower doors and digital combustion analyzers; duct leakage testing; and measuring the electricity use of refrigerators—all these are now commonplace. More and more programs use infrared camera technology in auditing, installations, and inspections. Whole-house weatherization technology has become the accepted approach, treating the dwelling as an interrelated system rather than an assortment of unrelated pieces. Many of the practices seen as the most technologically advanced in the emerging residential energy efficiency retrofit market were first developed, tested, and implemented by the WAP network.
While ARRA has undoubtedly afforded many new training opportunities for WAP managers and trainers, it has also raised the bar on the government's expectations for the professionalism of the network. WAP grantees must develop comprehensive training plans as part of their annual application for funding and state plan process. In broad terms, these training plans must describe in detail how grantees will assess their own particular training needs. Managers need to assess who needs to be trained, who will be doing the training, where the training will be held, and the training methods best suited to the participants. It is imperative that states have a comprehensive, well-coordinated training program to meet the demands of today's WAP. Training programs need to be sustainable and consistent, yet they must constantly evolve.
Before developing a training program, the state's WAP must have a few basics in place. First, written standards and best practices must be up to date and must be an established component of WAP practices. Second, upper management must acknowledge and support the importance of the training program and must make sure that there is adequate funding budgeted to pay for it. Third, all levels of the WAP network should be involved as stakeholders, helping to create a program that is respected by the trainees and that encourages ongoing feedback and continuous adjustment.
Identifying Training Needs
There are several things to consider when identifying training needs. Typically, WAP staff will review the previous year's monitoring reports to see if there are major trends or individual agency deficiencies that indicate the need for additional training. As WAP continues to evolve, new technologies, issues, and policy changes will require widespread training, and technologies already implemented will often need to be reinforced.
Once they have identified training needs, managers and trainers must first assess the knowledge and skills that are necessary to do the job in question. Next, they must assess the knowledge and skills that are already in place. Once they've discovered the gap between the two, they should figure out how to bridge that gap. For instance, if workers are already familiar with blower door diagnostics and routinely conduct pressure pan tests on ducts, the training for performing attic zonal testing is significantly different than it would be for workers who haven't already put these skills to use.
Then there is the question of who needs to be trained. Arguably, all levels and worker classifications need constant and consistent training, with some kind of ongoing refresher courses. However, training program managers must determine priorities. For instance, ARRA has targeted the training needs of certain worker classifications and the appropriate knowledge, skills and abilities that go with that work with an eye toward applying WAP technologies and techniques to a broader green energy efficiency retrofit market. The classifications most frequently targeted are auditor, crew chief, installer, and inspector. The performance of each of these positions is critical to energy savings in each home, and to the ultimate success of WAP's mission.
With all the focus on technology and field practices, management training is sometimes pushed to the back burner. In numerous discussions with state WAP managers, I have heard them acknowledge that the local WAP manager is the person who defines the success of the local program. Time after time, we see that good local WAP directors incorporate into their program the many components needed for a thriving weatherization program. Even if they do not have thorough in-depth technical expertise, they have the management and personnel supervision skills to ensure that their crews and contractors conduct thorough audits and make high-quality installations to make each home as energy efficient as possible. The local WAP manager is also the person most responsible for program compliance, accountability, and performance. With that high level of responsibility, local WAP managers should never be overlooked as a training focus.
Who Does the Training?
Traditionally, on-staff state trainers conduct most of the training within a state's WAP. There is solid reasoning behind this–after all, they are most familiar with the particulars, personnel, and needs, of the state's program. Successful training programs have also brought in outside trainers to provide another perspective. Sometimes state training can become a little stale, and participants can benefit by seeing how other weatherization programs approach certain issues. Frequently, outside trainers will reinforce what the in-state trainers have already said, further showing trainees that WAP best practices are more and more universally consistent. Lastly, ARRA has bolstered the movement toward more partnerships by bringing together building performance experts, community colleges, trade schools, workforce investment boards, and other organizations involved in the expanding green residential energy efficiency movement.
Training Methodologies
Where should training take place? There are several options to consider, each with its own methodology. The DOE T&TA Plan emphasizes training centers, and DOE has invested considerable T&TA funding to set up new training centers and enhance existing ones. There is clear movement toward accreditation of weatherization training centers by DOE. Guidelines for accreditation will probably be defined in the next few months.
Training centers have several advantages. They have both classrooms and lab space to make possible a combination of lecture/visual aids/discussion and hands-on training. The environment is controlled—participants can move quickly from the classroom to the lab and back again. Precise training objectives are easier to accomplish, and a more standardized training environment makes possible uniform and consistent training. State-of-the art props, labs, and mock-ups continue to evolve. I have been amazed to see the progression of models of whole-house mock-ups used in training centers to demonstrate pressure diagnostics (see "Pressure House Learning in Real Time," HE July/August '10, p. 28 and "House of Pressure," HE March/April '10, p. 26).
The downside to training centers is that they are expensive to build and maintain. One has to question whether a training center is worth the investment if it is not intended to be used full time, or close to full time. It is probably not realistic to think all state weatherization programs can or should make such a commitment. Lastly, participants must usually travel to the training, so there can be a loss of production time, though presumably the skills and expertise gained make up for the downtime in the long run.
Several states have also used mobile training units, where trainers go to the local agencies to conduct the training. The main advantages of the mobile training units are that fewer people are traveling, the trainees are often more comfortable on their own turf, and frequently the hands-on training is conducted on an actual weatherization unit and involves assisting in production while trainees use their own tools and equipment. The hands-on experience in an actual home is as realistic as it gets. On the flip side, there can be problems that detract from the training focus. You may not have a controlled environment, as you do in a training center. Training is obviously subject to weather problems. Trainers must do a lot of up-front work to ensure that the right house is chosen—one that can be used to demonstrate all the identified training needs. Too often, too, you discover that you need a tool or material that is not on the jobsite. There can also be a tendency to get bogged down on a particular problem, or to focus too much on getting the job done, which can detract from the actual training objectives.
Training at conferences and in classrooms outside of training centers will always have a place in a training program. The obvious disadvantage is that there is seldom much opportunity for hands-on training. Field workers are more comfortable with hands-on work and are sometimes not fully engaged in a classroom environment. But there are several advantages to classroom training. More trainees can participate, and more topics and new ideas can be discussed. Perhaps the biggest advantage, and one that training managers should strongly encourage and facilitate, is that classroom training offers the opportunity for peer exchange. The discussion with both the experts and one's peers—"how we do it in our agency" or "you might try this"—is often what trainees recall the most when they return from a conference.
Many new opportunities are emerging in online training and distance learning. This too has its advantages. No travel is required, and the training can often be done at the trainee's convenience. Trainees can also repeat the training or specific parts of it. While online training has no hands-on component, in-depth illustrations and descriptions give trainees the knowledge they need to do a job and provide a strong introduction to the "how-to."
Ideally, a good training program will incorporate several of the methodologies described above (see "A Little About WAP Personnel and Workers").
Buy-in at All Levels
A successful training program needs buy-in at all levels. State managers, trainers, program monitors, local agency personnel, and the trainees all need to be involved in, and committed to, the training program.
State WAP managers need to support a comprehensive and sustainable training plan by providing proper funding; ensuring that there are clear and up-to-date standards, best practices, and field guides; adopting core competencies and the knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSA) for various job descriptions; and involving stakeholders from all levels of the WAP.
Trainers need expertise and ongoing professional development. They also need to develop and improve curricula, develop props, understand the basics of adult education, develop an evaluation system to measure the effectiveness of their training, be responsive to the needs of the trainees, and help to reinforce training and best practices.
Monitoring staff should understand that they too have a role in training. They can observe field personnel at a jobsite and provide in-field T&TA and mentoring on-site. Monitors can use digital pictures taken during monitoring as real-life examples for training. Monitoring staff should continually evaluate training needs and recommend ways of meeting those needs in their reports.
A WAP grantee can develop a comprehensive plan, but the local agencies need to buy into the training program for it to be successful. All levels of the agency, from the executive director and WAP manager to the auditors, crews, and inspectors, should recognize the importance of training and never treat it as an inconvenience. Agency management can base employee development and career ladders on training and demonstrated performance. Agency managers should also develop a training plan for each employee and follow up on training events with in-house reinforcement and mentoring. There is no sense in sending employees to training if the trainees are allowed and/or expected to fall back into bad practices when they return.
The trainees themselves need to have the right attitude. They need to see training as an opportunity to gain knowledge and skills—an opportunity that offers them potential personal benefits. They need to be receptive to the training and participate in it fully, understanding that training should be an interactive process and ask questions when it is necessary and appropriate.
Getting buy-in at all levels will help validate a training program and make it both more sustainable and easier to implement and maintain. In order to create the buy-in, consider establishing a WAP network training committee made up of various members and levels of your state weatherization network. Hold regular meetings and/or conference calls. Formalize the training program so everyone is aware of training goals. Develop quality evaluations and assessments of the training and then carefully consider the recommendations. Discuss and consider establishing worker certifications and merit-based rewards. Various levels of worker classifications can give workers a career ladder and can motivate them to excel.
learn more
Go to the WAP Technical Assistance Center web site, www.WAPTAC.org, for a virtual library of all rules, regulations, policies, and procedures required by DOE's WAP. To view the WAP Standardized Training Curricula, go to www.WAPTAC.org, and click on Training Resources/Training Tools/WAP Standardized Curricula. These curricula are comprehensive yet flexible tools, useful to both new and experienced instructors. Each module includes presentations, speaker notes, and other resources. All modules can be downloaded for free.
Workforce Guidelines for Home Energy Upgrades is being finalized by DOE after a draft version was published, and the public was given an opportunity to comment on it. This comprehensive 600-page document will include in-depth sections on Standard Work Specifications, Technical Standards, Job Task Analyses, and Essential KSA. To follow the development of the Workforce Guidelines, go to www1.eere.energy.gov/wip/retrofit_guidelines.html.
Documentation and Certifications
Maintaining high-quality training records is critical for a sustainable training program. Records should be kept for courses. Records for each course should include the curriculum, lesson plans, date and venue, evaluations, participant lists, and test results. Likewise, records should be kept for trainees. Records for each trainee should document participation and attendance, test results, advancement through levels of study, and any certifications.
At the minimum, the DOE T&TA Plan strongly encourages states to consider certifications for WAP workers. Though there are no guarantees, certifications can raise the level of competence throughout the statewide program. Certifications can also provide recognition for WAP personnel who do consistently excellent work, and provide credentials for workers looking to advance in the WAP or energy efficiency field. They can stabilize the workforce and help pave the way for increased wages, respect, and professionalism. Certifications can help validate a training program by providing the means to measure the success of that program; setting standards for knowledge, skills, and abilities, and justifying the investment in training for both the state and local WAP providers.
The Future Looks Bright
WAP training initiatives are more robust than they have been in over 30 years. WAP grantees and local agencies are ideally positioned to improve their programs, provide their workforce with incentives and opportunities to advance, and position themselves as players in the growing residential energy efficiency retrofit movement.
This article was sponsored by DOE's Weatherization Assistance Program, through the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
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Superhero Mash 1 & 2
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Morning Minutes: May 1
Morning Minutes: May 1
Word of the Day
Obfuscate OB-fuh-skeyt (verb) To confuse, bewilder, or stupefy - dictionary.com
Website of the Day
AFI's 100 Years ... 100 Movies - 10th Anniversary Edition
"Citizen Kane" took the number one spot on the American Film Institute's list of the 100 best movies; see which movies were in the other 99 spots.
Number to Know
939: The Oakland Athletics' Rickey Henderson stole his 939th base on this date in 1991, breaking the previous record. He would steal a total of 1,406 bases in his career.
This Day in History
May 1, 1941: Orson Welles' "Citizen Kane' debuts at the RKO Palace Theater.
Today's Featured Birthday
Country singer Tim McGraw (46)
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"Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire." - William Butler Yeats


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There are several new developments in Herman Cain's fight against sexual harassment allegations, including who reportedly knew what and when.
Post by: Anderson Cooper
Filed under: Herman Cain • Keeping Them Honest
The Republicans are showing what the white house would look like if either one of them were to win the presidency. I like Herman Cain and I am sure he has some background issues. However, I will assure these people are not the essence of innocense. "we do not live in a perfect world" and if one wanted to find anything on either one of them they could probably find something no matter how small and build it into a 'giant' diversion.Not a way to win to lead America out of this economy.
Our soldiers are fighting for our freedom. Why do these grown men fight each other when the world is watching. Mama always said, 'keep your dirty laundry under the sheets'. Please someone tell these guys to go to an arena and duke it out and please charge admission for the show they are presently giving for free.
Anderson Cooper goes beyond the headlines to tell stories from many points of view, so you can make up your own mind about the news. Tune in weeknights at 8 and 10 ET on CNN.
Questions or comments? Send an email
Want to know more? Go behind the scenes with AC361°


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Is Weed Legal in Victoria, Virginia (VA)?
Is it legal to have weed in my possession in Victoria, Virginia?
In Victoria, Virginia it is illegal to have in your possession weed, cannabis or marijuana.
Is it legal to sell weed in Victoria, Virginia?
In Victoria, Virginia it is a felony to sell weed, cannabis or marijuana.
Is it legal to transfer weed in Victoria, Virginia?
There is no clear information stated at this time for transferring weed, cannabis or marijuana.
Is it legal to grow weed in Victoria, Virginia?
It is Illegal to grow weed, cannabis or marijuana in Victoria, Virginia.
Legal Notice: The information provided by this website must not be taken as a legal advice and by using the information in this website, you are taking full responsibility and release the website, owners and employees from any damages that may occur by using the information. Please consult your own legal person before acting on the content mater.
Is Marijuana Legalization Inevitable in the US?
Every ballot initiative involving the decriminalization or legalization of marijuana passed in the 2020 election. The Democratic-controlled House also passed the MORE Act in early December, which would legalize marijuana at the federal level and implement sweeping regulations surrounding the drug. These developments reveal something important about the shift in the marijuana debate: Marijuana may be one of the truly bipartisan issues in the U.S. right now.
Watch this video to discover the history of marijuana in the U.S., State vs federal law disconnect, the future of legalization and more.
This website does not provide any legal advice and the usage of the information presented on this website is the sole responsibility of the users.


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Brown & Brown Inc.Find Ratings Reports
Below is a summary of the major fundamental and technical factors we consider when determining our overall recommendation of BRO shares. It is provided in order to give you a deeper understanding of our rating methodology as well as to paint a more complete picture of a stock's strengths and weaknesses. It is important to note, however, that these factors only tell part of the story. To gain an even more comprehensive understanding of our stance on the stock, these factors must be assessed in combination with the stock's valuation. Please refer to the Financial Analysis page for further information.
|5.0 out of 5 stars
Measures the growth of both the company's income statement and cash flow. On this factor, BRO has a growth score better than 90% of the stocks we rate.
|Total Return
|3.5 out of 5 stars
Measures the historical price movement of the stock. The stock performance of this company has beaten 60% of the companies we cover.
|4.0 out of 5 stars
Measures the strength and historic growth of a company's return on invested capital. The company has generated more income per dollar of capital than 70% of the companies we review.
|Price Volatility
|4.5 out of 5 stars
Measures the volatility of the company's stock price historically. The stock is less volatile than 80% of the stocks we monitor.
|5.0 out of 5 stars
Measures the solvency of the company based on several ratios. The company is more solvent than 90% of the companies we analyze.
|3.5 out of 5 stars
Measures dividend yield and payouts to shareholders. The company's dividend is higher than 60% of the companies we track.
TheStreet Ratings' stock model projects a stock's total return potential over a 12-month period including both price appreciation and dividends. Our Buy, Hold or Sell ratings designate how we expect these stocks to perform against a general benchmark of the equities market and interest rates. While our model is quantitative, it utilizes both subjective and objective elements. For instance, subjective elements include expected equities market returns, future interest rates, implied industry outlook and forecasted company earnings. Objective elements include volatility of past operating revenues, financial strength, and company cash flows.
Our model guages the relationship between risk and reward in several ways, including: the pricing drawdown as ocmpared to potential profit volatility, i.e. how much one is willing to risk in order to earn profits; the level of acceptable volatility for highly performing stocks; the current valuation as compared to projected earnings growth; and the financial strength of the underlying company as compared to its stock's valuation as compared to its stock's performance. These and many more derived observations are then combined, ranked, weighted, and scenario-tested to create a more complete analysis. The result is a systematic and disciplined method of selecting stocks.


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Patent holding company Lodsys claims it's gaining momentum in its battle with independent developers. The company posted two new blog posts on Monday evening—after almost a year and a half of silence—claiming it has both gained the favor of the US Patent and Trademark Office and made a number of new patent licensing deals with smaller companies. But some of the indie developers targeted by Lodsys have begun chest-thumping in response, declaring that Lodsys "needs to be stopped."
In its first post, Lodsys claims more than 150 companies have paid to obtain the rights to its patent portfolio, with "more than 4 out of 5" choosing to do so outside of litigation. "These companies have realized significant savings by taking advantage of lower licensing rates," Lodsys wrote.
Indeed, it's no surprise that a number of companies have chosen the licensing route. When Lodsys began going after mobile app makers in 2011, first starting with iPhone developers and then spreading to Android and other platforms, it threatened expensive patent infringement lawsuits if the developers didn't cough up some cash to license the patents. Some developers—apparently "more than 150"—ended up being scared into going the licensing route due to their relative size, as many mobile app makers are small shops with limited resources.
Apple has also been green-lighted to intervene in Lodsys' lawsuit against some iOS developers. (The lawsuit targets developers who made use of Apple's API for in-app purchasing, but Lodsys says the developers owe licensing fees regardless of the fact that Apple itself owns a license for that functionality.) But Lodsys' second post this week touches on the in-app purchase patent by bragging that it has the USPTO on its side.
"As a part of the Inter-Parties Reexamination requested by Google, the USPTO recently issued an Office Action confirming Claim 24 of US Patent 7,222,078. This claim is particularly relevant regarding in-app purchases and free-to-paid application upgrades," the company wrote. "In addition, we have every confidence that all claims will ultimately be confirmed through this lengthy process. In-app purchase features and free-to-paid upgrades will be a part of the litigation process that is now swiftly moving forward."
The patent firm goes on to point out that Apple's ability to extend its own licensing rights to third parties "remains unresolved and clearly contested."
Other app makers have been fighting back against Lodsys on their own. A number of iOS developers banded together last year to create a group—open to developers of all platforms—called the Appsterdam Legal Defense team in order to fight back against non-practicing entities (NPEs) like Lodsys. By the end of 2011, the group brought on board its own intellectual property attorney. And, in June of this year, the group went a step further by teaming up with "patent research community" Article One in order to help independent app makers look up prior art and make informed decisions about licensing.
The group's founder, Mike Lee, was hardly surprised at Lodsys' latest claims. "Lodsys is designed to fight companies like Apple and Google. What they're not designed to do is fight thousands of tiny players, all determined to make themselves the biggest pain in the ass possible through guerrilla legal tactics, all worth very little actual money," Lee told Ars on Tuesday.
But Lee thinks there is more at stake than just individual developers being bullied. He said ever since creating Appsterdam and the Appsterdam Legal Defense Team—which he is no longer running, but continues to be involved with—he's now exposed to a steady flow of programming talent looking to move from the US to Europe in order to avoid such lawsuits.
"Every non-American organization trying to unseat Silicon Valley as the world leader in technology production should be popping champagne" over Lodsys' continued claims, Lee said. "More patent madness means more talent flowing into Europe, which is great, because it means we can start using our embassies to kick some of that over to countries like Greece and Italy who could definitely use the work."
Lee confirmed his apparent glee at the benefit to the European economy is meant to be ironic, because he believes software patents are costing jobs in the US by forcing developers to move their operations overseas. As a result, Lee added that NPEs like Lodsys should be stopped ASAP.
As an example, Lee pointed out that his two new companies have engineers from San Francisco who have moved to Amsterdam to launch their technology. "[T]he fact that any new technology coming out of the US is immediately infected by parasites like Lodsys means you'd have to be insane to launch anything significant there."
Update: Article One has issued a statement in response to Lodsys' blog posts. "The 150+ licenses that Lodsys is fighting for is money that is being deferred from innovation by small app companies in order to only further inflate the pockets of Non-Practicing entities," Article One CEO Cheryl Milone told Ars. "In order to keep the doors of innovation open, small companies need to have the flexibility to invent without being penalized."
Appsterdam Legal Defense Team has also issued a statement in response to Lodsys.
"Remember the creepy kid in high school that tried to convince you that huffing gas was cool because 'everyone was doing it'. In a set of disturbingly short posts, Lodsys uses the same trite argument to justify its extortionist business model," attorney Mike McCoy told Ars."The timing of the posts follows Apple's statement that it sold 5 million iPhone 5s during launch weekend. That's a lot of new iOS users and developers around the world are most likely seeing a sales boost. Think of these posts as yet another knock on the development community's door, followed by a "businessman" in a very expensive suit saying, 'Look, just pay up like everybody else and keep quiet.'
"Unfortunately for Lodsys, the numbers are pretty disappointing. Given the sheer volume of licensing "requests" sent to developers over the past year, 150 licensees is a pathetic return on investment. Within the Appsterdam community, I believe that developers have been sufficiently warned about Lodsys and their scare tactics. Outside of that sphere, unfortunately, it appears some have chosen to enter into a license.
"And therein lies the principal problem with patent trolls. If even one license is secured, it gives unnecessary credibility to a horribly written patent."


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Brocade Online Shopping
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At the Bike Shed Company we believe in creating high-quality products which last, and do what they're supposed to do. We also believe in providing a friendly and efficient service at every stage.
All our sheds are designed and hand-built at Bower Ashton Wood Yard which is part of the historic Ashton Court Estate, in Bristol. The wood yard is a co-operative space occupied by a diverse group of independent businesses and craftsmen, all of whom work with timber that is responsibly sourced from UK forests.
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This chapter describes issues associated with Oracle TopLink. It includes the following topics:
This section describes general issue and workarounds. It includes the following topic:
Section 8.1.5, "Managed Servers on Sybase with JCA Oracle Database Service"
Section 8.1.6, "Logging Configuration with EclipseLink Using Container Managed JPA"
This section contains information on the following issues:
Section 188.8.131.52, "Incorrect outer join SQL on SQLServer2005"
Section 22.214.171.124, "UnitOfWork.release() not Supported with External Transaction Control"
Section 188.8.131.52, "Returning Policy for UPDATE with Optimistic Locking"
Section 22.214.171.124, "JDBC Drivers returning Timestamps as Strings"
Section 126.96.36.199, "Proxy Authentication with Oracle Containers for Java EE (OC4J) Managed Data Sources"
Section 22.214.171.124, "Unit of Work does not add Deleted Objects to Change Set"
TopLink generates incorrect outer join for SQL Server v2005. The outer join syntax generated is correct for earlier versions of this database. To work around this limitation, reconfigure the database compatibility (refer to the SQLServer documentation for details). Alternatively, you can use a custom TopLink database platform.
A unit of work synchronized with a Java Transaction API (JTA) will throw an exception if it is released. If the current transaction requires its changes to not be persisted, the JTA transaction must be rolled back.
When in a container-demarcated transaction, call
setRollbackOnly() on the EJB/session context:
@Stateless public class MySessionBean { @Resource SessionContext sc; public void someMethod() { ... sc.setRollbackOnly(); } }
When in a bean-demarcated transaction then you call
rollback() on the UserTransaction obtained from the EJB/session context:
@Stateless @TransactionManagement(TransactionManagementType.BEAN) public class MySessionBean implements SomeInterface { @Resource SessionContext sc; public void someMethod() { sc.getUserTransaction().begin(); ... sc.getUserTransaction().rollback(); } }
The returning policy, which allows values modified during
INSERT and
UPDATE to be returned and populated in cached objects, does not work in conjunction with numeric version optimistic locking for
UPDATE. The value returned for all
UPDATE operations is 1 and does not provide meaningful locking protection.
Do not use a returning policy for
UPDATE in conjunction with numeric optimistic locking.
The use of returning policy for
INSERT when using optimistic locking works correctly.
TopLink assumes that date and time information returned from the server will use
Timestamp. If the JDBC driver returns a
String for the current date, TopLink will throw an exception. This is the case when using a DB2 JDBC driver.
To work around this issue, consider using a driver that returns
Timestamp (such as
COM.ibm.db2.jdbc.app.DB2Driver) or change the policy to use local time instead of server time.
Another option is to use a query re-director on the
ValueReadQuery used by the platform:
ValueReadQuery vrq = new ValueReadQuery( "SELECT to_char(sysdate, 'YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS.SSSSS') FROM DUAL" ); vrq.setRedirector(new TSQueryRedirector()); ... class TSQueryRedirector implements QueryRedirector { public Object invokeQuery(DatabaseQuery query, Record arguments, Session session) { String value = (String)session.executeQuery(query); return ConversionManager.getDefaultManager().convertObject( value, java.sql.Timestamp.class ); } }
Proxy authentication does not work with OC4J managed data sources. Instead of using the data source provided by the application server, you must create a data source yourself.
Refer to the "Configuring Oracle Database Proxy Authentication" in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Developer's Guide for Oracle TopLink for more information.
For example, replace this code:
login.setConnector( new OracleJDBC10_1_0_2ProxyConnector( ((JNDIConnectorlogin.getConnector()).getName() ) );
with the following:
oracle.jdbc.pool.OracleDataSource ds = new oracle.jdbc.pool.OracleDataSource(); ds.setUser("MyMainUser"); ds.setPassword("MyPassword"); ds.setUrl("jdbc:oracle:thin:@MyServer:1521:MyDb"); login.setConnector(new OracleJDBC10_1_0_2ProxyConnector(ds));
When accessing the change set of a Unit of Work to determine what has changed, objects that are pending deletion (such as
uow.deleteObject( ) and
uow.deleteAllObjects( )) will not be returned from the result set.
The objects pending deletion are only available through the Unit of Work
getDeletedObjects call.
This section contains information on the following issues:
Due to an issue with Sun JDK 1.6, if NullPointExecption error dialog is generated when saving a file, the error dialog window is not in focus.
Due to an issue with certain configurations and versions of Windows operating systems, users that launch the TopLink Workbench with the
workbench.cmd file may receive a dialog that states: Could not find the main class. This occurs because the classpath specified contains a directory path which has periods in it. The workaround is to rename the offending directory or change the classpath to use directory paths which do not contain periods.
This section contains information on the following issue:
To fully support Oracle Spatial and Oracle XDB mapping capabilities (in both standalone Oracle WebLogic Server and the Oracle JDeveloper integrated WebLogic Server), you must use the
toplink-spatial-template.jar and
toplink-xdb-template.jar to extend the WebLogic Server domain to support Oracle Spatial and XDB, respectively.
To extend your WebLogic Server domain:
Download the
toplink-spatial-template.jar (to support Oracle Spatial) and
toplink-xdb-template.jar (to support Oracle XDB) files from:
Use Table 8-1, "To Support Oracle Spatial" or Table 8-2, "To Support Oracle XDB" to determine which files to copy.
Table 8-1 To Support Oracle Spatial
|Copy this file
|From...Foot 1
|To...Foot 2
Footnote 1 These are the default locations. Your actual location may vary depending on your specific environment, installed options, and version.
Footnote 2 When using Oracle JDeveloper integrated WebLogic Server, the
<WEBLOGIC_HOME> is located within the
<JDEVELOPER_HOME> directory.
Table 8-2 To Support Oracle XDB
|Copy this file
|From...Foot 1
|To...Foot 2
Footnote 1 These are the default locations. Your actual location may vary depending on your specific environment, installed options, and version.
Footnote 2 When using Oracle JDeveloper integrated WebLogic Server, the
<WEBLOGIC_HOME> is located within the
<JDEVELOPER_HOME> directory.
Note:Although the actual JAR file may be named differently in your From directory, the file must be named as shown, when copied to the To directory.
Launch the Config Wizard (
/common/bin/config.sh (or
Select Extend an existing WebLogic domain.
Browse and select your WebLogic Server domain.
When using JDeveloper with integrated WebLogic Server, the typical WebLogic Server domain location may be similar to:
In Windows environments:
XX.XX.XX.XX is the unique number of the product build.
For Windows platforms, you must enable the Show hidden files and folders folder option.
In non-Windows environments, the default location is under the current user's default home directory:
Refer to the Oracle JDeveloper documentation for details.
Select Extend my domain using an existing extension template.
Browse and select the required template JAR (toplink-spatial-template.jar for Oracle Spatial, toplink-xdb-template.jar for Oracle XDB).
Complete the remaining pages of the wizard.
By default, EclipseLink interprets zero as null for primitive types that cannot be null (such as
int and
long) causing zero to be an invalid value for primary keys. You can modify this setting by using the
allow-zero-id property in the
persistence.xml file. Valid values are:
true – EclipseLink interprets zero values as zero. This permits primary keys to use a value of zero.
false (default) – EclipseLink interprets zero as null.
Refer the EclipseLink User's Guide at
http://wiki.eclipse.org/EclipseLink/UserGuide for more information.
When using a JCA service with the Oracle Database adapter in a cluster to perform database operations on a Sybase database, the managed nodes in the cluster process the messages and may attempt to perform duplicate operations.
Because supported versions of Sybase do not support Oracle TopLink record locking, Sybase allows the duplicate operation attempts.
By default, EclipseLink users in container managed JPA will use the Oracle WebLogic Server logging options to report all log messages generated by EclipseLink. Refer to "Configuring WebLogic Logging Services" in Oracle® Fusion Middleware Configuring Log Files and Filtering Log Messages for Oracle WebLogic Server.
To use the EclipseLink native logging configuration, add the following property to your
persistence.xml file:
<property name="eclipselink.logging.logger" value="DefaultLogger"/>
TopLink DBWS deployment may fail in JRockit VM environment. When generating a WAR file for deployment, the TopLink Database Web Services (DBWS) design-time utility uses a version of ASM for code generation which is not compatible with the version of JRockit that is bundled with Oracle WebLogic Server (WLS) 10.3.3. This results in a deployment failure with the SOAP message exception Illegal target of jump or branch.
Note:This issue does not occur when running the application server in a Sun JVM environment.
To generate a DBWS deployment WAR file that will successfully deploy in a JRockit JVM environment, use this procedure:
Note:You can complete this procedure using an IDE, such as Oracle JDeveloper.
Create a new project. Add the following libraries to the classpath:
Java EE
Oracle TopLink
Oracle JWSDL
Oracle SOAP
JAX-WS Web services
JDBC Library
Import the
dbws-bulider.xml file and add it to the project classpath.
Create a new file named
META-INF/services/org.eclipse.persistence.tools.dbws.DBWSPackager in the project's
src directory. The file should contain the following, single line:
Add this newly created file to the project classpath.
Use the
DBWSBuilder utility to generate the web service artifacts in the specified directory:
Main class:
Arguments: -
builderFile dbws-builder.xml -stageDir . -packageAs jdev
Rebuild the project. This will generate a
DBWSProvider.class file.
Use the web service artifacts to generate a WAR deployment profile. The
.war file should contain the following:
You can now deploy the WAR file to your application server


text:
Care Assistant
Nurseplus are looking for experienced Care Assistants to provide person centred care to clients within local Residential and Nursing homes in Great Yarmouth and surrounding areas. You would be playing a pivotal role in providing excellent support and care for clients and your daily tasks as a Care Assistant will include assisting service users with personal care, medications, daily activities and leading a more fulfilled life. Minimum requirements to work with Nurseplus as a Care Assistant: • Previous experience in a care setting • You must have the right to work within the UK • You must have a good standard of English and be able to communicate effectively • A warm, compassionate and personable nature with the ability to work with patience, tact and understanding. Benefits of working with Nurseplus as a Care Assistant: • Flexible Hours -To suit your needs, full or part time, days, evening, nights, weekends • Excellent Weekly Pay- Competitive hourly rates • FREE Training – In-line with Care Certificate • FREE Uniform after completion of training • Refer a friend scheme- Earn £250 for every friend you refer* • Expert training, supervision and ongoing support • Career development support- Nurseplus is a growing company with a variety of opportunities for career progression About us Nurseplus is a national company with a network of branches across the UK. We are committed to supporting our workforce to ensure they have the right skills to do their job and enable them to develop themselves and their careers. An enhanced DBS check will be required. Apply today for jobs in Great Yarmouth *T&C's apply.Apply now


text:
With Thanksgiving around the corner, turkey dishes are obviously all over the net. When it comes to roasted turkey recipes, I've discovered that I have quite a few photos of the preparation itself, and hardly any acceptable ones of the final results. It's no wonder – as once it is served, it is usually gone quite quickly… Hopefully, I'll remember to take some decent photos this week.
However, I always add some other dishes with turkey, for the sake of those who are not into roasted turkey, such as the recipe I have here, for turkey meatloaf.
As turkey breast is quite lean, I usually mix it with ingredients that will help keep it moist while baking. This time I chose potatoes and leeks – one of my favorite combinations. Both complement the turkey meat and keep it moist, while adding wonderful flavor and texture.
This is dish is perfect for serving at a buffet lunch or dinner. It can be prepared up to 3 days ahead and can be served warm or cold. Try it and enjoy.
Makes: 6
Prep time: 30 minutes
Baking time: 45 minutes
For the potatoes and leeks:
3 medium potatoes, unpeeled
1/3 cup duck fat or soft butter
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1 large leek (white and light green part only)
½ cup water
1 tsp salt
½ tsp freshly ground black pepper
¼ tsp freshly ground nutmeg
For the turkey:
1.1 lbs (500 grams) skinless turkey breast
1/3 cup raw pistachios, roughly chopped
2 tsp salt
½ tsp freshly ground black pepper
½ tsp paprika
1 XL egg
1 tsp Dijon mustard
¼ cup mayonnaise
1. Place the potatoes in a medium pot. Cover with water and bring to the boil. Lower the heat to medium and cook for about 20 minutes, or until the potatoes are soft. Drain, let cool a bit and peel. Roughly puree, add the duck fat or butter and mustard and mix well.
2. Cut the leek lengthwise and chop roughly. Wash thoroughly, drain, and place in a large shallow pot. Sprinkle with salt and add ½ cup water. Cover the pot and steam over high heat until the leeks are soft and most of the water evaporated. Uncover the pot and let cool.
3. Preheat the oven to 390F (200C). Line a 10" (25cm) loaf pan with baking paper.
4. In a food processor with the metal blade, finely chop half of the turkey breast and place in a bowl. Roughly chop the other half and add to the bowl. Add 2/3 of the potatoes and leeks, along with and the rest of the ingredients for the turkey layer, and mix well. Place the mixture in the pan and press it with a spatula.
Mix the rest of the potato puree with the leeks and season with salt, black pepper and nutmeg. Spread the mixture on top of the turkey mix.
6. Cover the pan with baking paper and aluminum foil and place in the oven. Bake for 30 minutes, remove the aluminum foil and baking paper cover and place back in the oven. Bake for 15-20 minutes, until the topping is golden.
7. Let cool in the pan for 10 minutes before slicing.
If preparing in advance, let cool to room temperature, cover with plastic wrap and keep in the fridge for up to three days.


text: Julius Perdana [a.k.a Julescrafter] is a self-taught graphic designer and 3D modeler of architectural animation. Despite a background in architecture, he began his career as a graphic designer for a printing company in 2001. Having co-founded two small graphic design companies he now fully works as a papercraft artist and an online publisher. Paper modeling is his hobby since he was a kid back in 1992.


text:
I was going to read The Lost Symbol over the weekend but picked up T. R. Reid's elegant indictment of health care in the U.S., The Healing of America (Penguin, 277 pp., $25.95). And I was hooked after the first sentence: "If Nikki White had been a resident of any other rich country, she would be alive today."
Reid had his bad shoulder examined by doctors in other well-off democracies that included France, Germany, Great Britain, Japan and Canada. And he uses the results as a springboard for exposing flaws in arguments made by insurers and others against adopting practices that work overseas: "It's all socialized medicine over there," "They ration care with waiting lists and limited choice," "Those systems are too foreign to work in the United States," and more.
Until I can review The Healing of America, here's a brief excerpt from the book about the excuses used by major insurers to reject claims:
"In other developed countries, insurers are required to pay every claim. But U.S. insurance companies deny about 30 percent of all claims, although some of these are eventually paid through an appeal process. The reasons cited for denying valid claims can be ingenious. When our family lived in Japan, the friendly adjusters at Prudential used to deny our claims for medical or dental care on the grounds that the bills we submitted were denominated in yen. Somebody at Prudential had determined that the Japanese yen was a foreign currency; that violated the rules. My company later switched our health insurance to Aetna, which employed a similar dodge: The adjuster said she couldn't pay our claims because she couldn't call the doctor's office to verify the bills. It seems that Aetna had a phone system for its adjusters that didn't allow international calls, so our claims had to be denied.
"The most maddening of all the profit-maximizing mechanisms in the U.S. health insurance industry is the practice known as 'rescission,' a legal term that means 'We're canceling your coverage.' This occurs when an injured person who has been paying premiums for months or years has a serious accident or contracts a serious disease, which can mean serious bills for the insurance company to pay. At that point, the insurer's Rescission Department digs through all the records, looking for a reason to cancel the sick person's coverage. For example, Steven Hailey, a machinist in Cypress, California, paid his health insurance premium every month. Then he was hit by a truck. He was still being treated for his injuries when Blue Shield of California wrote to tell him that his coverage had been canceled because his weight was too high. He would have to pay the hospital bills himself – about $450,000 worth of bills."


text:
First of two parts
By Chris Camire
State officials say the success of Gateway Cities is key to strengthening Massachusetts' economy, but doing business in these underperforming areas often makes little financial sense.
In some cases, developers are unable to recover the cost of developing properties due to low rents and sale prices, according to a new report from MassINC, which has dedicated itself to strengthening Gateway Cities.
While a 1,200-square-foot home in Lowell would cost $241,420, it could only be sold for $151,200 or rented out for a profit of $37,750, according to the study. MassINC is advocating that the state invest $1.7 billion in these cities during the next decade to help bridge that gap.
By enticing construction projects with targeted subsidies, MassINC argues that the market can change.
In Fitchburg, the state gave the city a $1 million grant to build a park off River, Sheldon and Nockege streets. It led to a private developer to invest $18 million to convert a mill building across the river into private housing, said Mayor Lisa Wong.
"Just building a park across the river created an added value for the mill to be desirable so they could actually create a project that people would buy," Wong said. "These state investments are fairly small, but they lead to people investing millions of dollars into housing units."
In Leominster, more than $1 million in grants during the past two years for the Comb & Carriage District helped fund sidewalks, paving, drainage and new sewer and water pipes, said Mayor Dean Mazzarella.
In Lowell, the success of the Ayer Lofts, a residential and retail space tailored toward artists that was completed in 2000, spawned further residential development in the city.
"No other project after that needed the same level of subsidy that one did," said Assistant City Manager Adam Baacke. "From that point up until the new great recession began, we were seeing project after project that needed less assistance than the one before."
Twenty-four cities are eligible for state grants and support for economic and community development as part of the Gateway Cities program. They have populations of more than 35,000 but less than 250,000, and median household incomes and rates of college education below the state average.
MassINC estimates its proposal could spawn close to $7 billion in total investment during the next 10 years and create 80,000 jobs. But it remains unclear if Massachusetts has the financial resources to deliver.
Secretary of Housing and Economic Development Gregory Bialecki said the state must first determine how much money it is currently investing in these 24 cities, which also include Lawrence, Haverhill and Springfield.
Bialecki noted that the state recently invested $25 million into Holyoke's Green High Performance Computer Center. The state put another $90 million toward a University of Massachusetts Medical School research facility in Worcester and plans to invest "tens of millions of dollars" in a new South Terminal port in New Bedford.
Large-scale projects, such as City Square in Worcester or the Hamilton Canal District in Lowell, a 15-acre mixed-use neighborhood, are other examples of the state's commitment to Gateway Cities, he said.
"If we ask ourselves which public investments are most likely to leverage private investment, it's not a guess," Bialecki said. "To me, one of the great ones is the UMass campuses. The UMass Medical school was transformative in Worcester. UMass Lowell, what Marty Meehan is doing up there now, is transformative for Lowell."
Bialecki acknowledged that finding additional money could be challenging due to the state's precarious financial situation. State revenue has fallen short of more optimistic projections, forcing Gov. Deval Patrick and legislative leaders to consider at least $540 million in mid-year cuts.
"We think the next step is, let's work with MassINC and others. Let's add up, between our capital programs, tax programs, how much we're investing in our Gateway Cities now," he said. "Then we'll have a conversation about whether we can get to where we need to be with current investments, or whether we need additional resources, as well."
Last year Gov. Deval Patrick rejected an effort to increase the number of Gateway Cities in Massachusetts, disappointing advocates who said the expansion would have helped communities hit hard by the recession. Bialecki said the state does not have the resources to expand the program by adding communities while maintaining its effectiveness.
The expansion would have lowered the population threshold to 20,000, paving the way for Gardner, Agawam, West Springfield and Randolph to become Gateway Cities.
Unemployment in Gateway Cities is traditionally higher than the state average. The unemployment rate in Lowell was 8.2 percent in December, for example, while the state's rate was 6.6 percent.
Despite funding challenges, state Sen. Ben Downing, D-Pittsfield, who co-chairs the Gateway Cities legislative caucus, said the report is an important step in determining what the best financial tools are to spur economic growth in these areas of the state.
The report also calls for the creation of a $100 million revolving loan fund to support construction with low- or no-interest financing; $20 million a year in additional funding for the MassWorks grant program; $2.5 million to train and hire five professionals to serve in Gateway City economic development agencies; changes to the Business Improvement District statute; and $150,000 to collect and analyze public resale and market data to understand trends and the impact of state investments.
The report also proposes the coordination of economic development programs to foster growth in Gateway Cities, using existing grant programs to target anchor tenants for downtowns, increase by $2 million cultural district grants, and dedicate $75 million from the higher education capital budget to create three satellite UMass campuses.
"When we look back on our Gateway Cities 20 to 30 years from now, we are not looking at the opportunities we missed, we are looking at how we put the stake in the ground to ensure future generations have the opportunity to live in the community the grew up in," said Downing.
Coming Monday: If the MassINC plan comes to fruition, how do Gateway Cities see their future?
Follow Chris Camire on Twitter @camirereports


text:
Scientific SIG
Status: Active (@May 2016)
Chairs: Stig Telfer, Blair Bethwaite and Martial Michel
OpenStack Foundation liaison: David F. Flanders <firstname.lastname@example.com>
Welcome to the OpenStack Scientific Special Interest Group (SIG) landing page.
Please cite this SIG using the #scientific tag on listservs, github, blogs, twitter and other social infrastructure.
- 1 Purpose
- 2 Communication
- 3 Members
- 4 History
- 5 Activity Areas
- 6 Meetings
Aim: The Scientific SIG is dedicated to representing and advancing the use-cases and needs of research and high-performance computing with OpenStack. It's also a great forum for cross-institutional collaboration. If you are (or would like to) run OpenStack to support researchers/scientists/academics and/or HPC/HTC, then please join!
- HPC/HTC Infrastructure
- Research Data Infrastructure
- Application Infrastructure
- Social Infrastructure
- Create opportunities for the scientific community to engage the wider OpenStack community, i.e. industry,
The default communication of our members is via the following open community mailing lists:
- firstname.lastname@example.com for coordination of SIG activities. Please prefix email subject lines with the tag "[scientific]".
- email@example.com for operational discussion of scientific OpenStack deployment issues. Please prefix email subject lines with the tag "[scientific]".
Please use the hashtag "scientific" for tagging any etherpad URLs, code, blogs posts, scientific research and/or other social publishing platforms.
No formal membership is required. Please introduce yourself and/or fellow colleagues to this SIG using one of the mailing lists above, or by attending one of the IRC meetings.
This group is open to all members of the scientific OpenStack community and supporting vendors.
Significant dates for the SIG (in reverse chronological order):
- [Please add latest activity for the #scientific SIG here at the top of this list]
- The group previously known as the Scientific Working Group adopted SIG status in accordance with recommendation by the OpenStack User Committee
- A proposal for hosting a face-to-face working group meeting was drafted at the following document: https://docs.google.com/document/d/10d7XDC1yw3thjxMMC1EXJlfmMAcjkfj2wnhH2MJgh9k/edit
- The group was approved by the OpenStack foundation's User Committee board and wiki page minted on 15th January 2016.
- The original proposal and call for nominations was drafted via this etherpad: https://etherpad.openstack.org/p/scientific-wg
- The #scientific-wg originated from a conversation in the hallways of the Tokyo OpenStack summit (Oct 2015), ideas originating from John Taylor, Paul Calleja, Stig Telfer, Jonathan Proulx, David F. Flanders, Lauren Sell & Tom Fifield.
Activity Areas
Every OpenStack development cycle, we select focus areas of interest to active members at the time. These SIG members gather data on problems and solutions in areas that affect them.
For the Ocata development cycle, the four activity areas are:
- Monitoring and Telemetry
- GPUs in OpenStack
- Data Management and Big Data
- Scientific OpenStack Federation
Scientific OpenStack
The Scientific WG contributes knowledge and experience to the OpenStack Foundation's Scientific OpenStack site.
The Scientific WG also generated and maintains the content for the OpenStack/HPC guide "The Crossroads of Cloud and HPC: OpenStack for Scientific Research", published by the OpenStack Foundation and made available as an ebook.
The Scientific SIG usually meets at the OpenStack Summits, and also at operators mid-cycle meetups (where possible).
- Boston Summit May 2017, Boston, MA, USA: https://etherpad.openstack.org/p/Scientific-WG-boston
- Newton Design Summit April 2016, Austin, USA: https://etherpad.openstack.org/p/scientific-wg-austin-summit-agenda
- Operators mid-cycle February 2016, Manchester, UK: https://etherpad.openstack.org/p/MAN-ops-Scientific-WG
Boston Summit, May 2017
The Scientific WG is planning a range activities for the summit in Boston:
IRC Meetings
For the best global coverage, IRC meetings are held in alternating time zones:
- Every two weeks on even weeks, 2100 UTC on Tuesday in IRC channel #openstack-meeting
- Every two weeks on odd weeks, 1100 UTC on Wednesday in IRC channel #openstack-meeting
Full details (including a calendar file) are available at eavesdrop.openstack.org. If you need help getting started with IRC see http://docs.openstack.org/upstream-training/irc.html.
IRC Meeting April 8th 2020
2020-04-08 1100 UTC in channel #openstack-meeting
- Kolla user group - Thursday 1500 UTC
IRC Meeting March 31st 2020
2020-03-31 2100 UTC in channel #openstack-meeting
- Bare metal SIG white paper - Ironic user contributions?
IRC Meeting March 25th 2020
2020-03-25 1100 UTC in channel #openstack-meeting
- Coronavirus
IRC Meeting March 11th 2020
2020-03-11 1100 UTC in channel #openstack-meeting
- Coronavirus
IRC Meeting February 26th 2020
2020-02-26 1100 UTC in channel #openstack-meeting
- UKRI Cloud workshop, 2nd March in London
- Scientific SIG at Vancouver PTG
- Scientific SIG at ISC 2020
Earlier Meetings
Minutes and transcripts from all previous meetings can be found here.


text:
TEL AVIV, Israel — Menahem Golan, a veteran Israeli filmmaker who built an empire on the back of brawny men beating others senseless across a host of 1980s action films, has died in Tel Aviv. He was 85.
Throughout his long career, Golan produced more than 200 movies and directed a fourth of them. But while others attended the Cannes film festival in tuxedoes, Golan wore rainbow-colored suspenders over his T-shirts and proudly hawked a different type of fare.
It was the 1987 film "Bloodsport" that he produced that introduced American audiences to the face — and kicks — of a then-unknown Jean-Claude Van Damme. He produced Sylvester Stallone's take as a stone-faced cop in "Cobra" and later directed him as a truck-driving arm-wrestler in "Over The Top." And he produced Charles Bronson's "Death Wish" — sequels two through five.
"Schlock is entertainment for the masses," he told The Associated Press in 1985. "It's fantasy. Storytelling without challenging the mind too much."
Golan, who died Friday, is survived by his wife and three children.
Born in pre-state Israel as Menahem Globus, Golan was a pilot and bombardier in Israel's War of Independence in 1948 and got an Oscar nomination for his film "Entebbe: Operation Thunderbolt," about the daring 1976 Israeli commando raid to rescue hostages held at an airport in Uganda. The only Israeli soldier killed in the operation was the commander of the elite Sayeret Matkal commando unit Yonatan Netanyahu, the older brother of current Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Along with his cousin and partner Yoram Globus, he established The Cannon Group production company, running it for a decade and turning it into a major force in international film production and distribution. The Golan-Globus films earned a reputation for being low-budget, high-violence movies in which tough guys blast away terrorists.
"The Delta Force," perhaps the most famous film Golan directed and produced, also was inspired by real-life events, based on the 1985 hijacking of a TWA jet to Beirut. Lee Marvin, in his last film, starred as Col. Nick Alexander, who leads a daring rescue mission against Arab terrorists to free a commandeered plane.
Chuck Norris, who also starred in "Delta Force" and the Golan-produced "Missing in Action" and its sequels, paid tribute to the filmmaker.
"Menahem's faith in me as an actor was the real reason for the breakthrough of my movie career," Norris told the Israeli YNet news site.
In Israel, Golan was a trailblazer who brought major films to the country and put it on the Hollywood map. Culture Minister Limor Livnat eulogized his as "Mr. Cinema."
"Golan was a colorful and special person who will forever be remembered in Israeli culture as one who cultivated Israeli actors and was, and always will be, a cinematic hero," she said.


text:
Concerts on Sundays at Noon
The Sundays @ Noon Concert Series take place in the beautiful Sculpture Gallery at the Hugh Lane Gallery.
The first concerts took place in October 1975 - The Complete Bach Violin Sonatas performed by Therese Timoney (violin) and Gillian Smith (keyboard). Funded by the Goethe Institut this mini-series eventually led to the establishment of a regular Sunday series.
This series of free weekly concerts continues to present the best of Irish and International music and musicians.
Concerts normally run from September to June and Admission is free.
(Audience members are asked to contribute €2 toward the costs. If you would like to make a larger donation to the concerts please email JLIB_HTML_CLOAKING for more information.)
The series is funded by Dublin City Council
and grant aided by The Arts Council


text:
Over 15 Million Engines and Transmissions
Toll Free 1-866-651-2992Great z4 Motors selections rely on great sources. There are over 100000 Salvage Yards in the US only. But can we trust all of them? We would only recommend companied who provide VIN of the Vehicle your engine is coming out of. Sharper Engines has been in this Business for over 30 years but we got online for last 10 years. The source of your engine has been nailed down. Trustworthy from the get go. Let's face it, it's easy to find an auto engine. Click, click and your browser gives you hundreds of thousands of options. However, getting a quality used Engine at the perfect price, one with a legitimate background or one that won't strand you on a busy highway a year from now depends on a good and reliable source. This is where we step in. Call us or Email us and you'll find out we have a very responsible team. we are family.
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text:
Across U.S., Veterans Day commemorations under way
Saturday marked the first of what will be three days of Veterans Day commemorations across the United States.
The holiday falls on a Sunday, and the federal observance is on Monday. It's the first such day honoring the men and women who served in uniform since the last U.S. troops left Iraq in December 2011.
It's also a chance to thank those who stormed the beaches during World War II — a population that is rapidly shrinking with most of those former troops now in their 80s and 90s.
At the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, a steady stream of visitors arrived Saturday morning as the names of the 58,000 people on the wall were being read over a loudspeaker.
Some visitors took pictures, others made rubbings of names, and some left mementos: a leather jacket, a flag made out of construction paper, pictures of young soldiers and even several snow globes with an American eagle inside.
Alfred A. Atwood, 65, of Chattanooga, Tenn., was visiting the wall for the first time.
"I've just never been able to do it," Atwood said of visiting the memorial, which was completed in 1982.
Atwood, who later became a police detective, said he knows a number of people on the wall, but the one name he wanted to find Saturday was his friend Ronald L. Wright. The two had grown up together, and when Atwood decided to join the Marines at 18 there was no stopping Wright, Atwood said.
Wright died in 1968 when he stepped on a land mine, Atwood said, and Wright's mother always blamed him for her son's death. He's never been able to bring himself to visit his friend's grave, he said.
On Saturday he found Wright's name on panel 44E, row 60, and he ran his fingers over it, shaking his head.
"I'm still in the blocking stage. I want to go somewhere and sit down and think a minute," he said after seeing Wright's name. "All I can see when I was touching and reading his name was his mother's face telling me I got her son killed."
A half-dozen women of various ages knitted intently near a pile of hand-made scarves while frail, silver-haired men sat waiting for a chance to tell their war stories Saturday as tourists and veterans filed into the National World War II Museum in New Orleans.
The museum planned a series of events to celebrate the Veterans Day weekend.
The knitters had gathered to commemorate 1940s homefront efforts to supply World War II troops with warm socks and sweaters.
Nearby, Tom Blakey, 92, of New Orleans sat behind a small table with two grainy black and white photos of his younger self, one standing at ease in uniform in 1942, the other aboard a motorcycle in 1944. Also on the table were pictures of a bridge on the Merderet River in Normandy — a bridge that he and fellow members of the Army's 82nd Airborne fought to secure as the D-Day invasion unfolded in 1944.
Blakey pointed with gnarled fingers at a map of the landing site and said holding the bridge was key to keeping German forces away from Utah and Omaha beaches.
"If we'd a let them get to Utah and Omaha, the men on those beaches would have been in bad shape," he said.
Blakey regularly takes part in oral history programs at the museum, an opportunity he relishes.
"What the hell else would I do with my life at this time?" he said.
At the National Cemetery in Bourne, Mass., on Cape Cod, about 1,000 people including Cub Scouts and Gold Star Mothers gathered on a crisp fall day for a short ceremony.
They then spread out to plant 56,000 flags amid the cemetery's flat gravestones, transforming the green landscape into a sea of fluttering red, white and blue.
Until last year, the cemetery did not permit flags or flag holders on graves. That changed under pressure from Paul Monti of Raynham, Mass., whose son, Sgt. 1st Class Jared Monti, was killed by Taliban fighters while trying to save a fellow soldier in 2006 in Afghanistan. He was awarded the Medal of Honor for his valor and is buried at the Bourne cemetery.
Paul Monti led a brief ceremony Saturday where the pledge of allegiance was recited, Miss Massachusetts sang the national anthem and a dedication was read.
In the Mojave Desert in California, veterans plan to resurrect a war memorial cross that was part of a 13-year legal battle over the separation of church and state.
The Sunday ceremony on Sunrise Rock follows a lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union that argued the cross was unconstitutional because it was in the Mojave National Preserve.
The Supreme Court intervened in 2010 and directed a court to consider a land swap, leading to a settlement that transferred Sunrise Rock to veterans groups in exchange for five acres of privately owned land.
Henry Sandoz, who cared for the original cross as part of a promise to a dying World War I veteran, will re-dedicate a new, 7-foot steel cross on the same hilltop.
Thousands of spectators are expected to line Fifth Avenue for New York City's Veterans Day Parade on Sunday.
Former Mayor Ed Koch is the grand marshal for the parade, which will run for 30 blocks, starting at 26th Street.
Also marching will be the Navajo Code Talkers, who transmitted coded messages during WWII, and other veteran groups.
Some participants in the parade are collecting coat donations for Superstorm Sandy victims.
The theme is "United we Stand" and the parade marks the 200th anniversary of The War of 1812.
The parade begins at 11:15 a.m. after a wreath-laying ceremony at the Eternal Light Monument at 24th Street. Bleachers and a reviewing stand are located at Fifth Avenue and 41st Street.
A few hundred people attended a Veterans Day parade Saturday in downtown Atlanta.
Roger Ware, 68, walked down the sidewalk wearing his old Air Force flight suit and a patch that read, "Viet Cong Hunting Club." He was in the service nearly 24 years, including two tours in Vietnam from 1968 to 1972 as a crewman on a C-130 gunship. He said the military is more respected now than when he returned home from Vietnam. Ware said the Sept. 11 terror attacks probably changed how the country views its armed forces.
"It just wasn't a good time and right now we're kind of riding on the tails of the troops who served in the Middle East," he said.
Farther down the road, veterans Ronald McLendon, 73, of Kennesaw, and Randy Bergman, 59, of Cartersville, were working as parade marshals. McLendon said when he returned from Vietnam, he was spit on by protesters in San Francisco. He was in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and was deployed to Vietnam from 1967 to 1968.
He described the parade as a chance to receive a public thank you.
"You've got to remember that today everyone in the military is strictly volunteer," McLendon said. "So there's a lot of guys getting out there, getting shot in Iraq and Afghanistan that volunteered to be in the military."
Squads of high school ROTC students marched in uniforms, chanting as they went along the street.
Bergman said he would reluctantly support sending young soldiers to fight if it was necessary for national defense. He was unsure how and whether the U.S. should end its military involvement in Afghanistan.
"How many lives have we already put over there? And are we going to pull out and say, 'We lost.' I look back to Vietnam and see the same thing," he said.


text:
Vail temporarily bans pot businesses
Vail, CO Colorado
VAIL, Colorado – The town of Vail isn't going to consider any applications for marijuana businesses or private marijuana clubs for at least six months.
Vail Town Council members decided Tuesday to temporarily ban marijuana establishments so the town can further study where such establishments should be allowed, if at all. Under new Colorado law, municipalities "may prohibit the operation of marijuana cultivation facilities, marijuana product manufacturing facilities, marijuana testing facilities, or retail marijuana stores through the enactment of an ordinance."
Town attorney Matt Mire said the town needs time to study the state regulations before revisiting the discussion to decide next steps.
"We didn't want to jump the gun and get ahead of the state on it," Mire said.
Amendment 64, which voters approved in November, legalizing recreational use of marijuana in Colorado, is something municipalities around the state are trying to address.
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Private pot clubs have popped up in Denver and Boulder that claim to operate legally under Amendment 64. Owners of those clubs have told the media that the new law permits someone to provide a private space for people to smoke marijuana.
The Fruita City Council voted this week on a moratorium on private pot clubs, also citing the need to wait for more state regulations and legislation on the issue. The Boulder Daily Camera reported that Fruita is expected to formalize a more lasting ordinance in February, since the emergency ordinance passed this week is only valid for 61 days.
The city of Greenwood Village has also developed a strict interpretation of Amendment 64, limiting possession and usage and restricting use or transportation on public property, including parks, trails, streets and sidewalks.
Mire said the Greenwood Village ordinance covers a lot of ground – he suspects many city departments, from police to fire to zoning, had a say in writing the law.
The town of Vail could decide to allow the private clubs and not the commercial stores or vice versa, or they could choose to ban them both, although the town cannot prohibit what Amendment 64 legalized: The personal use, possession and limited home-growing of marijuana in Colorado for adults 21 years of age and older.
If the town does allow commercial businesses, there will likely be a Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR) election in the future asking voters for a tax on pot.
"(The Vail Town Council) will have the right to not allow the businesses in town, but they still can't stop the possession," Mire said.
The town also approved on first reading an ordinance that matches Vail code to Amendment 64. For example, Vail's code currently makes possession of marijuana illegal, which needs to be changed to coincide with state law.
"That (ordinance) was a cleanup," said Town Manager Stan Zemler. "When a statewide statute passes, we have to bring our regulations into compliance."
The town is expected to approve the ordinance on second reading at its Feb. 5 meeting.
Assistant Managing Editor Lauren Glendenning can be reached at 970-748-2983 or firstname.lastname@example.com.
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