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Samsung Electronics said Monday it has made a breakthrough in developing mobile technology for fifth-generation networks, though it expects it will take years until the service is brought online for subscribers.三星电子(Samsung Electronics)周一回应,该公司在研发第五代移动通信技术上已获得突破性进展。但该公司预计运营商开始落成这项技术还须要几年的时间。
The South Korean company said it has found a way to transmit large volumes of data using a much higher frequency band than conventional ones in use, which would eventually allow users to send massive data files at a much faster speeds through their mobile devices, practically without limitation.三星电子回应,该公司早已寻找一种利用比目前用于的传统频段更高的频段传输大量数据的方法。这种方法最后容许用户通过移动设备以比以往更快的速度传输大量数据,完全不不受速度限制。The technology could easily gain fans among phone users routinely sending and receiving large amounts of data. With 5G networks, for example, users would be able to send super-high-definition movie files in a matter of seconds, according to Samsung.这项技术有可能精彩取得那些常常发送到和接管大量数据的手机用户的注目。
三星说道,比如在5G网络下,用户仅有用几秒时间就可以传输一部超高清电影文件。The fastest wireless technology in operation -- 4G or long-term evolution -- has yet to be widely adopted world-wide, and the next immediate phase for the standard is likely to be a shift to 4.5G networks, analysts say. Many networks still employ 3G.目前投放运营的速度最慢的4G无线技术(也称之为"长年演变技术")仍未在全球范围内普遍使用。
分析师说道,4G标准的下一步有可能是向4.5G网络改变。目前很多网络依然使用3G技术。Samsung has eyes on commercializing 5G technology by 2020, matching a recently set target by the European Union. The EU announced earlier this year a plan to invest 50 million euros in research to deliver 5G mobile technology by 2020.三星计划到2020年前构建5G技术的商用,这和欧盟最近原作的标准相符。
欧盟今年早些时候宣告了一项计划,即投放5,000万欧元的研发资金,以便到2020年需要拿走5G移动技术。Many mobile operators are still transitioning to 4G wireless technology and they would have to be as swift in deploying the next-generation wireless data networks for the transition to 5G to materialize as planned, analysts note.分析师认为,很多移动运营商还正处于向4G无线技术过渡性的过程中,它们必需像计划的那样很快部署下一代无线数据网络,以便此后能构建向5G过渡性。The competition for technology leadership in next-generation mobile communications development is getting increasingly fierce, and Samsungbelieves it will trigger the creation of international alliances and the timely commercialization of related mobile broadband services, the company said.三星回应,下一代移动通信研发中有关技术领先地位的竞争更加白热化。


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Crédit Mobilier of America
Crédit Mobilier of America krĕ´dĭt mōbĭlyā´, krādē´ [key], ephemeral construction company, connected with the building of the Union Pacific RR and involved in one of the major financial scandals in American history. Oakes Ames, Thomas C. Durant, and a few other influential stockholders of the Union Pacific organized the Crédit Mobilier under an existing Pennsylvania charter, which they took over. Acting for both the Union Pacific and for their newly created construction company, they made contracts with themselves. Oakes Ames, as head of the Crédit Mobilier, in 1867 assigned contracts to seven trustees to build the remaining 667 mi (1,074 km) of road for a total sum that brought profits variously estimated at from $7 million to $23 million. This process depleted generous congressional grants to the Union Pacific and left it under a heavy debt by the time of its completion in 1869. The scandal became political when Ames (a U.S. Representative), to forestall investigation or interference by Congress, sold or assigned shares of the Crédit Mobilier stock to members of Congress at par, although the shares were worth twice as much at the time. He wrote to Henry S. McComb, an associate, that he had placed the stock
where it will produce the most good to usand subsequently forwarded a list of Congressmen who had received or were to receive shares. Later friction between Ames and McComb facilitated the publication of these letters in Charles A. Dana's New York Sun in the midst of the presidential election campaign of 1872. A subsequent investigation by Congress badly smirched the political reputations of Vice President Schuyler Colfax, Senator James W. Patterson of New Hampshire, Representative James Brooks of New York, and others—most of all, of course, Ames himself. Ames and Brooks were censured by Congress, but there were no prosecutions.
See study by J. B. Crawford (1880, repr. 1969).
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2023, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
See more Encyclopedia articles on: U.S. History

subset: commoncrawl


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AP FACT CHECK: Harris Eligible for Vice President
CHICAGO (AP) — False claims that Kamala Harris is not legally eligible to serve as U.S. vice president or president have been circulating in social media posts since 2019, when she first launched her Democratic primary campaign.
On Thursday, after Harris was selected by Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden to serve as his running mate, President Donald Trump elevated the conspiracy while speaking to reporters from the White House podium.
A look at the claim:
THE CLAIM: Harris is ineligible to serve as vice president or president because her mother is from India and her father is from Jamaica. Trump said he "heard" the California senator doesn't meet the requirements, adding, "I have no if idea that's right."
THE FACTS: That's false. Harris was born on Oct. 20, 1964, in Oakland, California, according to a copy of her birth certificate, obtained by The Associated Press.
Her mother, a cancer researcher from India, and her father, an economist from Jamaica, met as graduate students at the University of California, Berkeley.
Since she was born on U.S. soil, she is considered a natural-born U.S. citizen under the 14th Amendment, and she is eligible to serve as either the vice president or president, Jessica Levinson, a professor at Loyola Law School, told The Associated Press Thursday.
"Full stop, end of story, period, exclamation point," Levinson said. Levinson added that it is widely accepted in the legal community that someone born in America is eligible for the U.S. presidency.
Trump was asked directly about the social media posts by a reporter Thursday. "I heard today that she doesn't meet the requirements," Trump said in response.
The false claims first started circulating on social media in 2019, during Harris' presidential campaign, and they were revived against last week, days ahead of her selection as Biden's running mate. Facebook posts falsely said she would not be eligible to take over for Biden, because her parents were both immigrants.
"I can't believe people are making this idiotic comment," Laurence Tribe, a Harvard University professor of constitutional law, told The Associated Press at the time. "She is a natural-born citizen and there is no question about her eligibility to run."
Trump was a high-profile force behind the so-called "birther movement" — the lie that questioned whether President Barack Obama, the nation's first Black president, was eligible to serve. Only after mounting pressure during his 2016 campaign did Trump disavow the claims.


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Connecting to Kids in the Digital Age
With instant communication, parents need to be mindful of getting a little too close
En español | When a lot of us were in college, keeping in touch with mom and dad usually meant a dutiful Sunday phone call home every week or two. Our parents remained mostly out of the loop as we found our way in the world, sometimes falling flat and getting up, staking out our own lives, declaring our independence.
See also: 11 tips for social networking safety.
Even as recently as 15 years ago, when email was just starting to revolutionize global communication, a friend remarked that she wouldn't use it to keep in touch with her college son. She didn't think it was fair to be a constant, lurking presence in his dorm room. "He needs some space and some privacy to find himself," she explained.
How quaint that seems now when parents and kids are connected by an electronic lifeline that never ends. Technological innovations have joined forces with social changes to create a communication explosion between parents and emerging adults in this new century.
Parents can lob email messages back and forth all day with their college students or recent grads. They can Skype to see a dorm room or a first apartment, meet new roommates, or vote on the choice of outfit for a first job interview. They can check in by mobile phone while kids are crossing campus between classes or exchange texts when kids are bored in a lecture or losing focus at a desk job. They can track their grown children on Facebook — if permitted, that is, "friended" — or follow their kids' blogs from across the globe. Surely all this communication is a boon to keeping the generations close.
But there are pitfalls, too. The digital tools that connect us can also constrict us. Parents' good-advice emails allow them to be in their grown children's faces nonstop. Children's texted requests may mean they don't figure things out for themselves. Lurking on Facebook may give parents more information than they need to have (photos of that raucous Saturday night party a young reveler would sooner forget by Monday). A grown child's blog post written in haste or to amuse friends can cause undue parental worry.
A blessing, a curse or a combination of both? Our guidelines can help parents make the best use of digital contact with emerging adults and sidestep the potholes:
1. Take cues from your grown child's development. Where young people are located along the road to independence affects their need to reach out. In the launching years, college-age children often still rely on parents' guidance in making decisions — what classes to take, how to open a bank account or resolve roommate troubles. The phone tends to ring more after a disappointment or during a crisis and decreases as grown children build their problem-solving skills or consult with their romantic partner or a newly formed network of friends. As young people progress through their twenties, becoming more settled, secure and self-reliant, communication may once again increase, comfortably initiated by either side.
2. Follow your child's lead. When your grown kids are first starting to set up their lives, it's usually best to let them set the pattern and pace of contact. Gradually, most parents develop a second sense about when their sons or daughters need a check-in or a thumbs-up and when they want to be left alone to puzzle things out on their own. Unmade or unanswered calls may just mean a child's life is happily full and attention is elsewhere, but they can also be a sign of trouble brewing or a crisis that has deepened into despair. Parents have to make a sensible judgment about each child and each situation. If a longer than usual silence suggests that a child is having a hard time, or if a recent call home has been particularly emotional, it might be time to followup with an email or text — "Just wanted to make sure you're OK" — or arrange a future call.
3. Get your own e-life. If you're the sort of parent who's tempted by a child's unlocked diary, then beware: the Internet is like one big, unlocked diary and needs to be treated with the same respect and caution. Sure, you can go on your student's college website and get all worked up about the blogs posted there. And if they'll have you, you can become "friends" with your grown kids (and their friends) on Facebook and follow every drama in their personal lives.
But even the friendliest snooping can become intrusion and threaten the all-important boundaries between you and your emerging adults. So it's better to focus on your own life, follow your own favorite blogs and use Facebook to reconnect with long-lost friends from your own colorful past.
However high-tech, digital communication with emerging adults remains a delicate dance between staying connected and letting go. Finding the right balance is a personal decision for every family and an important part of parenting 20-somethings.
Jeffrey Jensen Arnett is a research professor of psychology at Clark University and author of Emerging Adulthood: The Winding Road from the Late Teens Through the Twenties.Elizabeth Fishel is a widely published writer on family issues and the author of four nonfiction books, including Sisters and Reunion. They are working on a parents' guide to emerging adulthood to be published by Workman in 2012.
You may also like: Create a family facebook group.


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- King Science & Technology Middle
- Homepage
Omaha Public Schools Highlights Progress of 2018 Bond Program
Four years after voters approved Omaha Public Schools' 2018 Phase 2 Bond Program, our district is getting ready to celebrate an important milestone.
Two new high schools and two new elementary schools will open in August 2022 to serve our students. At the same time, capital improvement projects and renovations at existing buildings have reached the finish line or remain on schedule for completion by fall 2023.
New schools include Forest Station Elementary, Pine Elementary, Buena Vista High and Westview High.
"They are beautiful and unique buildings that are built for collaboration and teaching our students to be engaged and responsible for their learning," explained Thomas Lee, Westview High principal.
As construction concludes on each, school leaders are focused on finishing touches before welcoming students.
"It's all about them," said Adriana Vargas, Pine Elementary principal. "[We want] what is best for our students. Planning for that is always very exciting."
A fifth new school, Bluestem Middle, is scheduled to open in August 2023.
The $409.9 million bond program includes 25 projects. In addition to our new schools, crews are updating mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems at more than a dozen existing schools.
Omaha Public Schools Construction Supervisor Brad Boganowski compared these systems to the human body. He says taking care of a building's health is just as important as taking care of the health of the people who use it.
"We are taking care of the heart, kidneys and lungs of the school. The health of the building translates to the health and comfort of the folks inside," Boganowski said.
Omaha Public Schools has taken many steps to plan for the five new schools.
- In 2019, our Board of Education approved new elementary and middle school boundaries.
- In 2021, our district finalized the new High School Student Assignment Plan to coincide with the opening of new schools.
- In 2021, our board also approved Omaha Public Schools College & Career Academies and Pathways, an evolution of high school programming.
"Our community showed their faith in us by giving us the bond to work with our kids and build outstanding educational environments for our kids," said Charles Wakefield, Omaha Public Schools' chief operating officer.
Wakefield noted that in addition to improving existing schools and building new ones, the Omaha Public Schools bond program benefits the community in other ways.
"We are very proud that over $40 million of that bond money went back to small and emerging businesses," he said. "That is a tremendous investment in our local economy, a tremendous investment in our local community."
See a complete overview of our 2018 Bond Program, including project timelines and scope of work.


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Barnes & Noble December Sales Weak
Bookstore chain Barnes & Noble Inc. (NYSE: BKS) reported this morning that nine-week same-store sales fell 8.2% compared with the same period in 2011. B&N reported sales for the nine-week holiday period beginning on November 1st. Total sales fell 10.9%.
Comparable store sales excluding sales of the company's Nook devices fell 3.1% compared with last year. The company attributed the decline to lower traffic in its bookstores.
The really bad news, though, is Nook sales. B&N has put a lot of eggs in its Nook basket, but sales suffered both from lower volume and lower average selling prices. For the nine-week holiday period Nook sales totaled $311 million, down 12.6% compared with the 2011 holiday shopping period. The company's CEO said:
We are examining the root cause of the December shortfall in [Nook] sales, and will adjust our strategies accordingly going forward.
This examination shouldn't take too long. B&N introduced two new Nook tablets in October and the CEO said at the time that demand for the new devices were at the highest level the company had ever seen. Competition from other tablet makers like Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL), Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT), Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG), Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN), and Samsung Electronics, among a host of others, was simply too much for Nook.
B&N also noted in October that digital content sales would help the company meet overall sales goals even though the 9-inch Nook was priced lower than Amazon's comparable Kindle Fire. Digital content sales for the holiday season did rise 13%, but that was not enough to overcome the low average selling prices and the low volumes for Nook devices.
The company says that Nook Media sales for fiscal 2013 - which ends in April - will total $3 billion, an estimate the company first made in October.
Shares fell initially on today's report, but have since moved higher, up 2.3% at $14.85 in a 52-week range of $9.35 to $26.00.
Paul Ausick
Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, Consumer Goods, Retail Tagged: AAPL, AMZN, BKS, GOOG, MSFT


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From the National Herald [Ethnikos Kirikas]:
GOA Priest's Salaries Reach New Heights
By Theodore Kalmoukos
Special to The National Herald
BOSTON – The salaries of the priests of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America have reached unprecedented heights. Base salaries have been reported at the levels of $150-170,000 and at least one priest receives $200,000 per year. The salaries of priests are among the two largest expenses in the annual budgets of parishes, along with the annual monetary allocation to the Archdiocese.
Over and above their salary, Archdiocesan priests receive generous benefits: housing and car allowances, medical insurance, social security payments, pension plans, conference expenses, including those associated with the biennial Clergy-Laity Congress and the retreats and meetings of the local Metropolis.
It is widely known that the Greek Orthodox clergy in the United States earn the highest salaries in the Orthodox Church worldwide, including the Church of Greece.
According to the official Clergy Compensation Plan for 2009, for priests with service up to:
five years the salary range is $47,232 – $63,960;
from six -10 years, $63,960 – $71,280;
11-15 years, $71,280 – $81,672;
16-20 years, $81,672 – $90,792.
21-25 years, $90,792 – $97,224.
26-30 years, $97,224 – $103,464.
31-35 years, $103,464 – $109,464.
For more than 35 years the range is $109.464 – $115,512.
The Plan also provides that: "a) The annual minimum increase in a clergyman's remuneration must include an annual cost of living increase beginning January 1 of each year. When using these remuneration ranges, the Parish Council should factor in the relative cost of living for its geographic area," and "b) In the event a parish provides housing by making available a parish-owned home, then an equitable and reasonable deduction adjustment should be made from the Salary and Housing Allowance figures above, based on the local fair market rental value of the home being provided."
The plan also provides that "in addition to the above, the parish must provide:
1) An automobile (which the parish purchases or leases) for use by the priest, with all related expenses paid by the parish.
2) Social Security/Medicare taxes (FICA/SECA equal to the maximum self-employment Social Security/15.3 percent of Salary and the Housing Allowance (or rental value of a parish home).
3) The monthly health insurance premium for the Archdiocese sponsored and approved Orthodox Health Plan, either single or family coverage, as appropriate. All clergymen of the Archdiocese are required to participate in the Orthodox Health Plan.
4) A minimum annual vacation of 15 days (2 weeks) to a maximum of five weeks, taking into consideration the clergyman's cumulative years of service to the Archdiocese.
5) Expenses for attending District/Metropolis Clergy-Laity Assemblies and Retreats, the Biennial Clergy-Laity Congress, Clergy Continuing Education programs and the Archdiocese Presbyters Council Retreat.
6) A three (3) month sabbatical leave for each six (6) years of service with the same parish." It is stated in the Compensation Plan that "all parishes are obligated to pay the monthly Archdiocese Benefits Contribution, which for the year 2009 is $475 starting on January 1, 2009. This includes parishes without a full-time priest.
Those parishes with more than one clergyman are required to pay $475 for each assigned clergyman. The Archdiocese Benefits Contribution is not a part of a priest's remuneration package." All that applies for married priests with wives and children also applies for celibate priests who serve in parishes. The above salary scale is not always observed by the local Metropolises. In many parishes, there are huge differences in salaries and benefits among clergy with equal experience. Some Metropolitans, in order to "take care of their own boys," allegedly put pressure on parishes to give the priests more money – in some instances, up to double the amount that the Archdiocesan salary scale calls for.
It is widely believed, erroneously, that priests are appointed to the parishes by the Chancellor of each Metropolis. It is actually the Metropolitan who makes the selection. There are many reports that the "unwritten laws of friendship and favoritism" prevail over education, experience and talent. In many instances of injustice, the Metropolitans are believed to "turn their head the other way."
The National Herald is in a position to know that there are priests with 50 and more years of continuous service in the same parish whose salaries do not exceed the amount of $50,000 annually, while there are cases of newly ordained priests with less than two years in the priesthood who were appointed with starting salaries of $80,000. After less than one year of service in their new parish, they reportedly demanded a $12,000 raise, threatening to leave the parish if their demands weren't met.
In one such instance, the priest was ultimately forced to leave the parish before completing two years of service, while the actions of the local hierarch caused dissension in, and the subsequent paralysis of, the parish. A priest who was appointed in the past two years to a prominent cathedral reportedly earns a base salary of $200,000, in addition to full benefits, while there are other clergy who live below the poverty line. It is also the case that the salary of many priests is much higher than, in some instances double and triple, the salary of the Metropolitans, which is around $80,000 thousand per year base salary plus all benefits and expenses paid. One of the main reasons so many converts are trying to join the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese as priests is the fact that the Archdiocese is considered the "golden fish of Orthodoxy," in other words, their parishes pay the highest salaries.
Above and beyond the high salaries and benefits there is, unfortunately, the unwritten custom of gratuities known as (τυχερά) that the faithful give every time family members partake of the sacraments of marriage or baptism, or call for a funeral service. The gratuities are like tips that customers give to waitresses and waiters in restaurants or to the bellmen of hotels. The Herald has in its possession documentation from parishes in New England indicating that there are parishes that send written instructions. There are also many reports about priests asking funeral directors to include their "tip" in the general expenses of the funeral. There are even cases where the relatives of the departed give clergymen a "tip" in cash, which the clergymen took without informing the relatives that they had already been paid through the funeral director.
The unfortunate custom of gratuities also applies to many hierarchs who receive $500 or more when they officiate at church services. They might not ask for it directly, but the priest plays the role of intermediary by recommending to the parish council that they "give something to the Bishop." By comparison, the salaries of Greek School teachers, who are also devoted professionals and perform a vital role in the community, are substantially lower. Their situation is chaotic and abounds with injustices because there is no formal salary scale.
The average monthly salary of an afternoon Greek School teacher is between $250 and $350, and for the day schools the salary range is $15-25 thousand annually. The teachers do not have health plans, and there are no pension plans. In Greece, the average salary for priests who have a degree in Theology from the Universities of Athens or Thessaloniki is between 850 and 1100 euros ($1210-1560), while a Metropolitan's salary does not exceed 1500-2000 euros ($2130-2840) monthly.
They also receive "tips" when they perform various services such as funerals, memorials, weddings and baptisms, which can sometimes double than their regular annual salary. The priests and the Bishops in Greece are paid by the government, and are considered state employees.


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You'd think I'd get tired of this, wouldn't you? Alas, the fight does wear me down, but I must persist.
My good friend and colleague, the legendary Professor Paul Ehrlich of Stanford University, as well as his equally legendary wife, Anne, will be joining us in Adelaide for a brief visit during their annual southern migration.
Apart from just catching up over a few good bottles of wine (oh, do those two enjoy fine wines!), we have the immense privilege of having Paul appear at two events while he's in town.
I'm really only going to be talking about the second of the two events (the first is a Science Meets Parliament gig with me and many others at the South Australia Parliament on 12 November): a grand, public lecture and Q&A session held at Flinders University on Wednesday, 13 November.
Haven't heard of Paul? Where have you been hiding? If by some miracle you haven't, here's a brief bio:
Paul Ehrlich is Bing Professor of Population Studies Emeritus, President of the Center for Conservation Biology, Department of Biology, Stanford University and Adjunct Professor, University of Technology, Sydney. He does research in population biology (includes ecology, evolutionary biology, behavior, and human ecology and cultural evolution). Ehrlich has carried out field, laboratory and theoretical research on a wide array of problems ranging from the dynamics and genetics of insect populations, studies of the ecological and evolutionary interactions of plants and herbivores, and the behavioral ecology of birds and reef fishes, to experimental studies of the effects of crowding on human beings and studies of cultural evolution, especially the evolution of norms. He is President of the Millennium Alliance for Humanity and the Biosphere and is author and coauthor of more than 1100 scientific papers and articles in the popular press and over 40 books. He is best known to his efforts to alert the public to the many intertwined drivers that are pushing humanity toward a collapse of civilization – especially overpopulation, overconsumption by the rich, and lack of economic, racial, and gender equity. Ehrlich is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Entomological Society and the Beijer Institute of Ecological Economics, and a member of the United States National Academy of Sciences and the American Philosophical Society. He is a Foreign Member of the Royal Society, an Honorary Member of the British Ecological Society and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society. Among his many other honours are the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Crafoord Prize in Population Biology and the Conservation of Biological Diversity (an explicit replacement for the Nobel Prize); a MacArthur Prize Fellowship; the Volvo Environment Prize; UNEP Sasakawa Environment Prize; the Heinz Award for the Environment; the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement; the Heineken Prize for Environmental Sciences; the Blue Planet Prize; the Eminent Ecologist award of the Ecological Society of America, the Margalef Prize in Ecology and Environmental Sciences, and the BBVA Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Ecology and Conservation Biology. Prof Ehrlich has appeared as a guest on more than 1000 TV and radio programs; he also was a correspondent for NBC News. He has given many hundreds of public lectures in the past 50 years.
I hope your jaw just dropped.


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Improving Avs host Oilers
Following a pair of confidence-building victories, the Colorado Avalanche take aim at their first three-game winning streak of the season on Tuesday night as they host an Edmonton Oilers club that is concluding a two-week road trip.
The Avalanche got a goal and three assists from Matt Duchene in Friday's 6-2 win over visiting Chicago, ending the Blackhawks' historic 24-game season- opening points streak.
That win snapped a three-game slide for Colorado and was the club's second in eight games, but the Avs made it two in a row thanks to some late heroics from Duchene.
After picking up a first-period power-play goal, the 22-year-old winger scored the winner in a 3-2 overtime victory over the San Jose Sharks with just tenths of a second left on the clock.
The goal stood following a review.
"This feels awesome, at first I did not think it was going to count," said Duchene. "It was a good play by three guys who made it happen and I was just able to club it in. We're getting great, big efforts from everyone."
P.A. Parenteau assisted on both of Duchene's goals and Ryan O'Reilly also lit the lamp. Semyon Varlamov made 36 saves, giving Colorado a chance to post a perfect three-game homestand tonight.
The Avalanche will look to do so against the Oilers, who close out a nine-game road trip and are also coming off a huge win over the Blackhawks.
Edmonton handed mighty Chicago its second straight defeat with a 6-5 decision on Sunday. The Oilers scored four times in the first period and led 6-4 after 40 minutes despite giving up four goals in the middle frame.
The Blackhawks pulled within one 7:06 into the third period, but Yann Danis made 10 saves on 11 shots in the frame as the Oilers held on.
Danis came into the game when Devan Dubnyk suffered an upper body injury near the midpoint of the second period. Dubnyk, who stopped 11-of-13 shots faced, was hurt on a collision in net, though head coach Ralph Krueger said afterwards he showed no signs of a head injury.
Sam Gagner scored twice in the win, while Taylor Hall and Ryan Whitney had a goal and an assist each. Shawn Horcoff and Mike Brown each scored once to help the Oilers put the brakes on a five-game skid and improve to 2-4-2 on their road trip.
Edmonton had been shut out in each of its previous two games.
"This was huge for us," Hall said of the win. "We know that we're going to have to start winning some games and stringing together some wins if we want to get a playoff spot."
Edmonton has won two of three versus the Avalanche this season, wrapping a pair of home wins around a 3-1 loss in Colorado on Feb. 2. It was the Oilers' third straight defeat in Denver.


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The United States is considering aiding Libya with the destruction of its chemical weapons stockpile, but Department of Defense officials are expressing reservations about spending the department's limited threat reduction funds on a potentially expensive project.
In December 2003, Libya pledged to eliminate all elements of its nuclear and chemical weapons programs and soon thereafter acceded to the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), which prohibits states-parties from developing, producing, or using chemical weaponry. (See ACT, March 2004.) During an initial inspection in March 2004, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), the CWC's implementing body, verified Libya's declared stockpile of 23 metric tons of mustard gas and more than 1,300 metric tons of precursor chemicals. The CWC requires Libya to destroy both by April 29, 2007, although Libya has requested an extension.
Libya has already destroyed more than 3,500 unfilled aerial munitions and received permission from the OPCW to convert a former chemical weapons facility at Rabta into a pharmaceuticals plant. (See ACT, October 2004.)
James Tegnelia, director of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), told reporters March 30 that, based on initial estimates, U.S. assistance for destroying the weapons could cost more than $100 million. That would represent a substantial slice of the Defense Department's budget for implementing the Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR) program to dismantle weapons of mass destruction programs in the former Soviet Union and elsewhere. For fiscal year 2007, President George W. Bush has asked Congress to provide $372 million for the program. (See ACT, March 2006.)
By comparison, the United States expects to give Albania about $20 million in assistance over two years to destroy its 16 metric tons of chemical agent. (See ACT, December 2004.)
Peter Flory, assistant secretary of defense for international security policy, told Congress April 5 that any destruction project would be "fairly expensive" because the weapons and materials are stored in a remote location in the desert, about 600 kilometers from Tripoli, Libya's coastal capital. Speaking at a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities, he said that transporting these weapons would almost certainly be necessary. "Where these things are now does not have any water, and chemical [demilitarization] is a very water-intensive process." He also noted that temperatures during the day often reach 140 degrees Fahrenheit at the location, which was not disclosed for security reasons.
The choice of destruction method and the issue of transporting the chemical agent to a more suitable location will have an effect on the final costs. A joint team of officials from DTRA and the Department of State has visited Libya and is in the process of drafting a report on possible options.
Given the technical challenges, both Tegnelia and Flory expressed reservations about using limited CTR funds for this project, especially given the other projects competing for funding, particular in the former Soviet Union. "We have to consider what are the opportunity costs of doing that particular bit of work," said Flory, who also stated that any decision should carefully consider the conditions of the munitions, their proliferation risks, and the technical challenges.
"In the end, meeting the Chemical Weapons Convention responsibility is the Libyan government's responsibility," Tegnelia added.
But Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), who chaired the April 5 hearing, said, "It would seem that the Cooperative Threat Reduction program is the most logical candidate" to bear the costs of the destruction. Cornyn said that Congress in December 2003 authorized the use of CTR funds outside of the former Soviet Union "with the specific example of Libya in mind."


text:
What Midwives Want from Their Clients
Editor's note: This article first appeared in The Birthkit, Issue 5, Spring 1995.
Subscribe to Midwifery Today Magazine
- Honesty
- Legal Status
- Protocols
- On Time
- Obligations
- Pay
- Trust
This list was written by a certified midwife and contains suggestions and input from midwives across the United States.
Be honest
One would think that this would go without saying, but unfortunately, it does not. Not only does this quality stand as the first and foremost obligation of a woman to her midwife (and the midwife to her client, of course), but it permeates all the other qualities listed below, as well. Without honesty there can be no trust, and without a trusting bond between midwife and client, there can be no safe working relationship.
There are many reasons why a woman would be untruthful. Perhaps a woman has had several abortions and has not told her husband. If an oral history is taken with the husband present, she may hide the information from her midwife. A woman may be too embarrassed to let her midwife know that she has herpes. Or perhaps she has learned from interviewing other midwives that she has a certain risk factor that would preclude a homebirth. She may think that if she hides the information from the present midwife, she can get the homebirth she wants. But there are dangers inherent in these scenarios. Each woman has the right to choose her birth place and attendant. Conversely, midwives have the right to choose their clients according to self-imposed limits and protocols. Some midwives do not hesitate to take women who have had multiple abortions or who have herpes; others do not feel comfortable doing so. Most midwives will not assist at the delivery of twins or breeches; others do not take VBACs. And there are some conditions for which few midwives would agree to be the primary caregiver, such as pre-existing medical/health problems which require the care of an OB. In these cases, the midwife might be able to co-manage your care with her backup doctor.
Unfortunately, there are some women who so desperately desire a homebirth and/or midwifery care that they are willing to do almost anything to get it. This is unfair and potentially dangerous to everyone involved. If you have any medical condition or significant past OB history, you must tell your midwife, even if other midwives have turned you down. Without thorough knowledge of your history, the midwife cannot make safe decisions regarding your care. Remember, however, that what one midwife may not feel qualified to handle, another may feel perfectly comfortable handling.
If you have special requirements or requests of a midwife, such as religion, lifestyle, philosophy, education/training or legal status, make these clear during the initial phone contact and ask if she can meet them. There is no point in signing up with a midwife only to discover later that there is something about her that you find unacceptable. Most midwives know other midwives in their area, and can refer you to another who might better suit your needs.
Know and respect the legal status of midwives in your community
In states in which midwifery is illegal, you must do everything in your power to protect your midwife from prosecution. This may mean not giving her name to certain doctors, not putting her name on the birth certificate, not mentioning her name to friends and relatives who do not support your birth choices, and more. If this is not acceptable to you, then choose a CNM who can work legally in your state.
Agree to abide by the midwife's protocols
The safest midwife is the one who knows her own limitations and does not exceed them. Of course, these limits change as she gains more experience, either becoming stricter or more lax as she sees fit. But they are her limits, and no one has the right to try to get her to change or exceed them.
If she does not feel qualified, comfortable or experienced enough to handle a situation, then it may well be dangerous for her to do so. It is disappointing to be turned down, transferred out or transported from the place and personnel you planned for your baby's birth, but no midwife wants to endanger the health and safety of mother or baby for any reason.
Protocols cover more than just delivery choices, however. They also apply to the ways in which your midwife handles your pregnancy. Most midwives rely on good nutrition as their main ally in preventing complications. But they also have other tools available to them, such as herbs, homeopathics, chiropractic, accupuncture or allopathic medications to treat problems that may arise. She may order certain tests from a lab to screen her clients for potential medical problems. These are all procedures that you may wish to discuss with her before you hire her as your caregiver. Once you are working with her, it is unfair to refuse tests or procedures which she has stated her protocols require.
Be on time for appointments
Most midwives want to see clients once a month through 28 weeks, once every two weeks from 28 to 36 weeks, then once a week until delivery. Extra visits may be scheduled under certain circumstances. If you must be late for an appointment, call. This allows the midwife to either tell you to come in as soon as possible; come in later in the day; or reschedule for another day. Whatever she decides, she will know when to expect you, and she can plan some other way to fill your missed appointment time. This of course, also applies if you must cancel an appointment. And, unless you are experiencing an emergency or personal/family crisis, if you cancel less than 24 hours before your appointment time you may be expected to pay for the missed visit. Even if your midwife does not ask for payment, offer it. It shows her that you acknowledge and appreciate that her time is valuable.
Please honor your midwife's prenatal visit schedule. Most midwives are willing to be flexible when scheduling appointments, but they need uninterrupted family time, too. Many midwives schedule regular or occasional evening or weekend appointments and will do their best to accommodate their clients' work schedules. However, that doesn't mean a client should ask for an appointment at any time that is convenient. If you had chosen a doctor for your prenatal care, you would have been seen during regular office hours. Extend the same courtesy to your midwife.
Ask your midwife what her policy is for accepting phone calls at home, and how late you can call her. If your question is not urgent, call during normal business hours (usually 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays). Of course, your midwife will accept an emergency call from you at any time.
Understand and meet your obligations to your midwife
Most midwives require their clients to become knowledgeable about pregnancy, labor, delivery, midwifery care, homebirth preparation, parenting, basic childcare/first aid, and other subjects by reading and/or attending classes. This basic information is necessary for you to become a responsible partner in your own health care; you cannot give an informed consent if you are uninformed. If you know what normal is, you won't become frightened unnecessarily. And more important, you will be able to immediately report to your midwife anything outside of normal, so that she can move quickly to take care of it. In addition, if you know ahead of time how your midwife handles various complications, her actions will allay your fears rather than add to your anxiety.
Most midwives also require their clients to meet certain physical requirements regarding the birth site. These may include having running water available and a way to boil it; having a telephone or other communications device; maintaining a certain level of cleanliness; and having certain supplies on hand. If the midwife arrives for your birth and these obligations are not met, it could jeopardize the health of mother or baby. If you are having difficulty meeting any of these requirements, discuss it with your midwife as soon as possible so that other arrangements can be made well ahead of the due date.
Pay your midwife what she asks
There are a few spiritual communities that still provide for their midwives by paying for housing, food, vehicles and other needs. But most midwives charge for their services. Fees may range from a barter of goods, to a sliding scale, to a set fee. Whatever it is, if you engage the midwife's services you need to honor your obligation to pay her fee. If a client does not pay for services rendered, she is robbing the midwife of money she needs to meet her own family's expenses.
It is best if you and your midwife can agree in advance on a payment schedule. Some midwives ask for a deposit up front; some ask for a minimum amount payable at each visit; others ask that the full fee be paid by a certain date; some practitioners offer a discount if the fee is paid early or require a penalty if it is paid late; still others will accept barter for some or all of their fee.
Of course, we all occasionally have emergencies which stretch our budgets. If such an event occurs, call your midwife and renegotiate your payment plan. Do not expect her to absorb the cost of your financial emergency by not paying her. And please, do everything in your power to pay the full fee before your baby is born.
While a national study comparing doctor/midwife care has found that midwives spend 10 times as many hours with their clients during the course of pregnancy, labor, delivery and postpartum, you would be hard-pressed to find a midwife who is paid what any physician is paid. Most midwives charge between one-quarter and one-half the fee charged by doctors in the same area. And there is an even greater savings to consumers seeking a homebirth, because unless there is an emergency, they don't have a hospital fee to pay. So, if you can, give your midwife a bonus above her normal fee: if she offers a sliding scale, pay the upper fee for your income bracket; buy her a nice gift; offer her your services, whether it's mending a fence or typing letters for her. This not only helps to compensate her for those who have not paid, but allows her to offer her services at reduced rates to women of more modest means.
Trust in birth and in your midwife
If you have been honest with your midwife, a bond of trust will develop during the prenatal visits. She will trust you to accept her advice and information, and you will trust your midwife to help you to make those decisions that are in the best interest of you and your baby. The more you and your midwife honor and respect one other, the more each of you can just relax and allow the birth to unfold naturally. This, of course, means that you need to trust in birth as well. If you believe that the birth process can work without medical intervention, then it probably will. But not always.
Dutch midwives have a saying, "Nature is not always mild." Just because you do everything "right," there is no absolute guarantee that you will have a perfect birth and perfect baby. Sometimes birth needs technical assistance. Sometimes a baby is born sick or malformed. Sometimes a baby dies, regardless of what the mother did prenatally to ensure a healthy birth. You must be willing to accept responsibility for your decisions and actions and not assign "blame" to another. No one has all the answers: not doctor, nor midwife, nor you. Together, you and your caregiver make the decisions that affect your pregnancy, labor, delivery and postpartum. But the final responsibility is yours.
All of the above suggestions apply whether you birth at home, at a birth center or in a hospital. If you act responsibly throughout your pregnancy, labor, delivery and postpartum, then the chances are greatly in your favor for having a positive experience.
Happy birthing and bright blessings!


text:
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text:
Gov. Wolf's budget proposal Tuesday called for a modernization of State Stores to generate $185 million in additional annual profit by fiscal 2018.
The dramatically increased profits would be used to make payments on a $3 billion bond issue designed to help close the $30 billion gap in the Pennsylvania Public School Employees' Retirement System, according to Wolf's plan.
Under it, the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board, endangered by Republican talk of privatizing the system, instead would have a monumental task – assuming it gains General Assembly approval.
Based on the system's profitability in the year ended June 30, gross revenue from the state's 600-plus wine and spirits outlets would have to soar to $5.7 billion in fiscal 2018 from $2.3 billion in fiscal 2014 to generate an additional $185 million in profits.
Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/business/20150307_Wolf_s_state_store_plan_an_ambitious_cocktail.html#rm8GTPsAek3O34kS.99


text:
We all have different opinions on everything. Let's discuss how we feel about general topics here.
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17-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Thursday, June 13, 1912: I guess I've forgotten.
Her middle-aged granddaughter's comments 100 years later:
My sour cherries are getting ripe and I made an old-fashioned cherry pie. Grandma mentioned picking berries on June 10—but hasn't mentioned cherries. I wonder if cherries ripened this early in 1912.
Here's the recipe I used to make the pie:
Old-Fashioned Cherry Pie
Pastry for 9-inch two crust pie (see pie pastry recipe in previous post)
1 cup sugar
2/3 cup flour
4 cups fresh pitted sour cherries
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
Heat oven to 425 degrees. Stir the sugar, flour, and almond extract into the cherries. If the mixture is very juicy add additional flour. Turn into pastry-lined pie pan. Make a lattice top crust and flute edges. Brush crust with a small amount of milk; sprinkle with sugar. Bake in oven for 10 minutes; then reduce heat to 350 degrees. Bake an additional 20 to 30 minutes or until crust is lightly browned and juice just begins to bubble.
I made my own pie crust dough using the recipe that I previously included in the post for Rhubarb Sponge Pie. I doubled that recipe since I basically needed two crusts for this pie.
For the lattice top crust, I cut the dough into strips about 3/4 inch wide and laid them on the top of the pie. I try to lay every other one perpendicular to the previous one—but the lattice never ends up being woven exactly right. I never worry much about that because the pie tastes so awesome.


text: On Sun, 2009-11-01 at 22:25 -0500, Joe Landman wrote: > Robert Horton wrote: > > Hi, > > > > I'm looking for some recommendations for a new "scratch" file server for > > our cluster. Rough requirements are: > > > > - Around 20TB of storage > > - Good performance with multiple nfs writes (it's quite a mixed workload > > so hard to characterise further) > > - Data security not massively important as it's just for scratch / > > temporary data. > > > > It'll just be a single server serving nfs, I'm not looking to go down > > the luster / pvfs route. > > > a) what network fabric (IB, 10GbE, GbE, ...) Currently using the GigE network for the NFS traffic. There is a DDR Infiniband network in place for the MPI traffic which could potentially be used for storage, however my impression is that the current bottleneck is the disk io (or iops) rather than network, so I'm not sure that this would be worth the mucking about. > b) roughly how many simultaneous writers ... large block streaming, or > small block random? How much sustained IO (MB/s) do you need to support > your worker machines? The jobs typically use 32 nodes with 8 processes on each node, so I guess ~250. Averaged over 5 minutes, maximum IO is around 15MB/s read and 0.5MB/s for write, however I've seen short periods of around 30MB/s write. The problem, basically, is that under certain heavy IO conditions which I haven't managed to reliably reproduce, the whole machine becomes very slow, in some cases making interactive work pretty much impossible. Hence the desire to move the storage off the headnode. > > c) looking to build it your self or buy units that work? > Preferable the second option, although I've not completely ruled out building something.


text:
Bàcum /performing and visual arts
We are a producer company of Dance, Music and Multimedia shows that work, from 2010, to offer new performing proposals. Offer a glimpse into the future, without losing the essence of the past, to build their own language, close and decipherable by the general public.
We strive to make craftsmanship and careful in all our projects, getting to the essence of things, involving ourselves in every project for, from there, to build a solid and consistent structure.
We like challenges, innovate, invent, propose, suggest, share, surprised, excited,..


text:
Federations simply bring in the sharding pattern into Windows Azure SQL Database as a first class citizen. Sharding pattern is used for building many of your favorite sites on the web such as social networking
sites, auction sites or scalable email applications such as Facebook, eBay and Hotmail. By bringing in the sharding pattern into SQL Database, federations enable building scalable and elastic database tiers and greatly simplify developing and managing modern
multi-tenant cloud applications.
Federations scalability model is something you are already greatly familiar with: Imagine a canonical multi-tier application: these applications
scale-out their front and middle tiers for scalability. As the demand on the application varies, administrators add and remove new instances of the front end and middle tier nodes to handle the variance in the workload. With Windows Azure Platform this is
easily achieved through easy provisioning of new capacity and the pay as you go model of the cloud. However database tiers have typically not provided support for the same elastic scale-out model. However with federations, SQL Database enable database tiers
to scale-out in a similar model. With federations, database tiers can be elastically scaled-out much like the middle and front tiers of the application based on application workload. Using federations, applications can expand and contract the number of nodes
that service the database workload without requiring any downtime!
Figure 1:
SQL Database Federations can scale the database tier much like the front and middle tiers of your application.
Federations bring a great set of benefits to applications.
Federations offer scale beyond the capacity limits of a single SQL Database. Using federations, applications can scale from 10s to 100s
of SQL Databases and exploit the full power of the SQL Database cluster.
Federations provide easy repartitioning of data
without downtime to exploit elasticity for best price-performance. Applications built with federations can adjust to variances in their workloads by repartition data. The online repartitioning combined with the pay-as-you-go model in SQL Database,
administrators of the application can easily optimize cost and performance by changing the number of databases/nodes they engage for their database workload at any given time. And no downtime is required for this change.
Developing large scale application is greatly simplified with federations; Federations come with a robust programming & connectivity model
for creating dynamic applications. With native tooling support for managing federations and with online repartitioning operations for orchestrating federation at runtime, federations greatly ease management of databases at scale!
Multi-tenancy provides great efficiencies by increasing density and cost per tenant characteristics. However a static decision on placement
of tenants rarely work for long tail of tenants or for large customers that may hit scale limitations of the single database. With federations application don't have to make a static decision about tenant placement. Federation provide repartitioning operations
for efficient management of tenant placement and re-placement. ...And can deliver this without any applications downtime!
Figure 2: Federation provide a flexible tenancy model.
Federations can help many types of database application to scale. Here are a few examples;
Many on premise application are developed with a single-tenant—per-database model. However for modern cloud applications a flexible tenancy
model is needed. Static layout of tenants require overprovisioning and with cloud infrastructures, single node solutions may be limiting in scaling to spectrum of all your tenants; from the long-tail (very small customers) and to large-head (very large customers).
With federations ISVs are not stuck with a static tenant layout. Federated database tiers can easily adapt to varying tenant types and workload characteristics and continue to grow as new tenants are acquired into the system.
Lets look at an ISV providing a customer relationship management sit. Some tenants start life small with a small customer portfolio and
other tenants may have a very large portfolio of customers. Some of these tenants may purchase the silver package and others upgrade to gold or deluxe editions as their sales activity grow. With federations, silver package tenants start life in small, multi-tenant
federation member, but can graduate to a dedicated federation member (a.k.a single-tenant-per-database model) when they upgrade to gold. With the deluxe package, tenants go to scale-out tenants over multiple federation members. Best part is, with federations
upgrades from silver to gold to deluxe require no downtime or application code changes!
Applications on the web face capacity planning challenges every day to handle varying and growing traffic. Peaks, bursts, spikes or new
flood of users... With federations, applications on the web can handle these variances in their workloads by expanding and shrinking the capacity they engage in SQL Database.
For example, imagine a web site that is hosting blogs, lets call the site Blogs'R'Us. At any given day, users create many new blog entries
and other visit and comment on these blogs. Every day some of these blogs go viral. However it is hard to predict which blogs will go viral any given day. Placing these blogs on a static distribution layout across servers means that some servers will be saturated
while others server sit idle… With federations, Blogs'R'Us does not have to be stuck with static partition layout. They can handle the shifts in traffic with federation repartitioning operations and they don't need to take downtime to redistribute the data.
As the workload grows, applications can continue to engage more nodes to provide unlimited scalability to the application from 100s of nodes that are available worldwide through the SQL Database. With the pay-as-you-go model of SQL Database combined with federations,
applications also do not need to compromise on the economics with big upfront investment in computational resources and grow over time with online repartitioning operations just-in-time.
Applications built with NoSQL technologies can also benefit greatly from federations in SQL Database. Federations bring a great set of the
NoSQL properties to the SQL Database platform such as the sharding pattern. With federations, SQL Database adapts an eventually consistency model while preserving local consistency with full ACID transactions in federation members.
Another great benefit of federations is to scale-out tempdb which is the lightweight storage option that come with every reliable SQL Database.
Each SQL Database is a reliable, replicated, highly available database. Federation members are simply system managed SQL Databases. With each federation member, applications also get a portion of the nodes TempDB. TempDB provides lightweight, high performance
local storage.
Federations provide all the power of the SQL Database for storing unstructured data or semi structured data through data types such as XML
or binary types.
These are just some of the examples of the NoSQL gene embedded in SQL Database through federations. You can find a detailed discussion of
this topic
Federation implementation is extremely easy to work with. Here are a few of the concepts that will be helpful in understanding federations;
Federations: Federations
are objects within a user database just like other objects such as views, stored procedures or triggers. However federation object is special in one way; it allows scaling out of parts of your schema and data out of the database to other system managed databases
called federation members. Federation object represents the federation scheme which contains the federation distribution key, data type and distribution style. SalesDB in figure 2 below represent a user database with federations. There can be many federations
to represent varying scale-out needs of subset of data – for example you can scale out orders in one federations and products and all its related objects in another federation under SalesDB.
Federation Root: Refers to the database that houses federation object. SalesDB is the root database in figure 3 above.
Root database is the central repository for information about distribution of scaled-out data.
Federation Members:
Federation use system managed SQL Databases to achieve scale-out named federation members. Federation members provide the computational and storage capacity
for parts of the federations workload and data. Collection of all federation members in a federation represent the collection of all data in the federation. Federation members are managed dynamically as data is repartitioned. Administrators decide how many
federation members are used at any point in time using federation repartitioning operations.
Figure 3: SalesDB is the root database with many federations.
Federation Distribution Key:
This is the key used for data distribution in the federations. In the federation definition, the distribution key represented by 3 properties:
Federation Atomic Unit:
Represent all data that belongs to a single instance of a federation key. An AU (federation atomic unit) contains all rows in all federated tables with the same federation key value. AUs are guaranteed to stay together in a single federation member and is
never SPLIT further into multiple members. Federation members can contain many atomic units. For example, with a federation distribution key such as tenant_id, atomic unit refers to all rows across all federated tables for tenant_id=55.
Figure 4: Federation Atomic Units
Federated Tables:
Refer to tables that contain data that is distributed by the federation. Federated tables are created in federation members and contain a federation distribution
key annotated with the FEDERATED ON(federation_distribution_key = column_name) clause when creating a table. You can find more details in the online documentation for the CREATE TABLE statement in SQL Database. In figure 5 below, federated tables are marked
light blue.
Reference Tables:
Refer to tables that contain reference information to optimize lookup queries in federations. Reference tables are created in federation members and do
not contain any FEDERATED ON annotation. Reference tables typically contain small lookup information useful for query processing such as zipcodes that is cloned to each federation member. In the figure below, reference tables are marked green.
Central Tables: Refer
to tables that are created in the federation root for typically low traffic or heavily cached data that does not need to be scaled-out. Good examples are metadata or configuration tables that are accessed rarely by the application. In the figure below, central
tables are marked orange.
Figure 5: Types of Tables in Federations. Federated tables are represented in
blue. Reference tables are represented in
and central tables are represented in
Online Repartitioning:
One of the fundamental advantages of federations is the online repartitioning operations that can be performed on federation objects. Federation allow
online repartitioning of data through ALTER FEDERATION T-SQL commands. By repartitioning Orders_Fed with a SPLIT operation for example, administrators can move data to new federation members without downtime and expand computational capacity from 1 to 2 federation
members. Federation members are placed in separate nodes and provide greater computational capacity to the application.
Figure 6: SPLIT operation creates 2 new federation members in the background and replicated all the data in the original source member to the new destination members.
For the walkthrough here, we'll be using the SQL Azure Management Portal. To go to the management portal you can click on the "Manage" button under SQL Database in the Windows Azure Management Portal OR simply visit your fully qualified SQL Database server
name in the browser with an HTTPS:// protocol header like
Creating Federations: To create a
federation in the SQL Azure Management Portal, you can click the New Federation icon on the database page.
Figure 7: Creating a federation.
You can use the following T-SQL to create a federation as well:
CREATE FEDERATION blogs_federation(id BIGINT RANGE)
You can find details of the CREATE FEDERATION statement in the
Windows Azure SQL Database documentation. Basically, CREATE FEDERATION creates the federation and its first federation member.
You can view the details of the layout of your federation in the federation's details page or using the following T-SQL:
SELECT * FROM sys.federations fed JOIN sys.federation_member_distributions fedmd ON fed.federation_id=fedmd.federation_id order by range_low
Figure 8: Federation's detail page.
Deploying Schema to Federations:
Federation object allow you to scale out parts of your schema to federation members. Federation members are regular SQL Databases and have their private schemas. To deploy schema to federation members instead of the root database, you need to first
connect to the federation member that you want to target. USE FEDERATION statement allow you to do just that. You can find details on the USE FEDERATION statement in
Windows Azure SQL Database documentation. Once you are connected to the federation member, you can deploy your schema to this federation member using the same create
object statements to create your objects like tables, stored procedures, triggers and views. To connect and deploy your schema, you can click the Query > New Query action on the federation member.
Figure 9: Actions on federation members in the federations detail page.
With federations you provide additional annotations to signify federated tables and the federation key. The FEDERATED ON clause is included in
CREATE TABLE statements for this purpose. Tables are the only objects that require special anotation. None of the other object can be deployed using the regular SQL Database T-SQL syntax. Here is a sample T-SQL CREATE TABLE statement that creates a federated
USE FEDERATION blogs_federation(id=-1) WITH RESET, FILTERING=OFF
CREATE TABLE blogs_tbl(
blog_id bigint primary key,
blog_title nvarchar(1024) not null,
) FEDERATED ON (id=blog_id)
Figure 10: Deploying schema using the online T-SQL editor
Scaling-out with Federations: Now that you have deployed your schema, you can scale out your federation to more members to handle
larger traffic. You can do that in the federations detail page using the SPLIT action in the management portal or using the following T-SQL statement:.
ALTER FEDERATION blogs_federation SPLIT AT(id=100)
Repartitioning operations like SPLIT are performed online in SQL Database so even if the operation take a while to perform, no application downtime is required while the operation is performed. You can find a detailed discussion of the online SPLIT operation
Figure 11: SPLIT action on a federation
Federation page also provides detailed information on the progress of the SPLIT operation. If you refresh after submitting the SPLIT operation,
you can monitor the federation operation through the federation page or using the following T-SQL;
SELECT * FROM sys.dm_federation_operations
Figure 12: Monitoring SPLIT action in the federation's detail page.
As the application scales, more SPLIT points are introduced. Put another way, as the application workload grow, administrators SPLIT federation
into more federation members. Federation can easily power such large scale applications and provide great tooling to help administrators orchestrate at scale.
Figure 13: Federation's detail page with full view of all federation members
All of the above operations can be performed through T-SQL as well. For a full reference of T-SQL statements for federations, you can refer to
SQL Database online documentation. You can also visit
my blog for a detailed discussion of federation topics.
The Quintessential SalesDB with Customer and Orders.
that will love SQL Database Federations? Here are a few…
Database Federations: Robust Connectivity Model for Federated Data
"NoSQL" Gene in SQL Database Federations
to Multi-Tenant Database Model Made Easy with SQL Database Federations
Pricing and Billing with Federations in Windows Azure SQL Database:
Introducing Fan-out Queries: Querying Multiple Federation Memebers.
Richard Mueller edited Revision 97. Comment: Replaced RGB values with color names in HTML to restore colors
Richard Mueller edited Revision 96. Comment: Removed (en-US) from title, added tags
patmas57 edited Revision 95. Comment: Branding updates
Fernando Lugão Veltem edited Revision 94. Comment: added toc
Ed Price MSFT edited Revision 1. Comment: Updated title case.
Thanks for this article about a great technology!
If you are referring to appliances here;
the answer is yes, federations is available in all Azure clusters.
Thanks Cihan. But would it work with SQL Azure Private Cloud - in other words, with SQL Azure Private Cloud, could we install Azure appliances in our own data centers and scale out to a large-ish scale? By "large-ish" I am talking about potentially replacing some of our OLTP SQL Servers that currently run about 5K transactions per second ea


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Jewish World Review Jan. 27, 2005 / 17 Shevat, 5765
George Will
Harvard hysterics
Oxford English Dictionary
Forgive Larry Summers. He did not know where he was.
Addressing a conference on the supposedly insufficient numbers of women in tenured positions in university science departments, he suggested that perhaps part of the explanation might be innate genetically based gender differences in cognition. He thought he was speaking in a place that encourages uncircumscribed intellectual explorations. He was not. He was on a university campus.
He was at Harvard, where he is president. Since then he has become a serial apologizer and accomplished groveler. Soon he may be in a Khmer Rouge-style reeducation camp somewhere in New England, relearning this: In today's academy, no social solecism is as unforgivable as the expression of a hypothesis that offends someone's "progressive" sensibilities.
Someone like MIT biology professor Nancy Hopkins, the hysteric (see above) who, hearing Summers, "felt I was going to be sick. My heart was pounding and my breath was shallow." And, "I just couldn't breathe because this kind of bias makes me physically ill." She said that if she had not bolted from the room, "I would've either blacked out or thrown up."
Is this the fruit of feminism? A woman at the peak of the academic pyramid becomes theatrically flurried by an unwelcome idea and, like a Victorian maiden exposed to male coarseness, suffers the vapors and collapses on the drawing room carpet in a heap of crinolines until revived by smelling salts and the offending brute's contrition?
Hopkins's sufferings, although severe, were not incapacitating: She somehow found strength quickly to share them with the Boston Globe and the "Today" show, on which she confided that she just did not know whether she could bear to have lunch with Summers. But even while reeling from the onslaught of Summers's thought, she retained a flair for meretriciousness: She charged that Summers had said "that 50 percent" of "the brightest minds in America" do not have "the right aptitude" for science.
Men and women have genetically based physical differences; the brain is a physical thing part of the body. Is it unthinkable is it even counterintuitive that this might help explain, for example, the familiar fact that more men than women achieve the very highest scores in mathematics aptitude tests? There is a vast and growing scientific literature on possible gender differences in cognition. Only hysterics denounce interest in those possible differences or, in Hopkins's case, the mere mention of them as "bias."
Hopkins's hysteria was a sample of America's campus-based indignation industry, which churns out operatic reactions to imagined slights. But her hysteria also is symptomatic of a political tendency that manifested itself in some criticism of President Bush's inaugural address, which was a manifesto about human nature.
This criticism went beyond doubts about his grandiose aspirations, to rejection of the philosophy that he might think entails such aspirations but actually does not. The philosophy of natural right the Founders' philosophy rests on a single proposition: There is a universal human nature.
From that fact come, through philosophic reasoning, some normative judgments: Certain social arrangements particularly government by consent attained by persuasion in a society accepting pluralism are right for creatures of this nature. Hence the doctrine of "natural right," and the idea of a nation "dedicated," as Lincoln said, to the "proposition" that all men are created equal.
The vehemence of the political left's recoil from this idea is explained by the investment political radicalism has had for several centuries in the notion that human beings are essentially blank slates. What predominates in determining individuals' trajectories nature or nurture? The left says nature is negligible, nurturing is sovereign. So a properly governed society can write what it wishes on the blank slate of humanity. This maximizes the stakes of politics and the grandeur of government's role. And the importance of governing elites, who are the "progressive" vanguards of a perfected humanity.
The vehemence of Hopkins's recoil from the idea that there could be gender differences pertinent to some cognition might seem merely to reflect a crude understanding of civic equality as grounded shakily on a certain identical physicality. But her hysteria actually expresses the left's ultimate horror: the thought that nature sets limits to the malleability of human material. Summers should explain this to her, over lunch, when he returns from camp.
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Hello fellow book lovers!
Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jamie @ The Broke and the Bookish.
Time for another Top Ten Tuesday and this week's theme is "Back To School" which can be anything from books you read in school or books you think should be required reading etc. So I decided to go with books I feel are required reading for any Sci-fi and Fantasy lovers out there!
I do have full reviews for each of these titles (which I am not going to link this time around) if you'd like to check them out!
These are also in no particular order and there are equal amounts of sci-fi and fantasy books here!
10.) A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab
This book is simply amazing and definitely something you should check out if you're a fantasy lover! Schwab weaves together some incredible world building and an action-packed plot focusing on a main character who has the magical ability to travel between the 4 parallel versions of London.
9.) The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness
This is technically sci-fi but while reading you don't get very many vibes of this except for the alien type creatures and some plot information you receive later on. It's sci-fi though trust me! This is about a boy living in a town of men who can all hear everyone's thoughts and when he learns a secret about said town he must flee for his life.
Very heartbreaking story but so, so good.
8.) Vicious by V. E. Schwab
Yes, another Schwab book! Basically if you're a lover of SFF then just check her out period! This book is probably my favorite of hers and it involves morally ambiguous characters and super powers, what more could you ask for? It's definitely a page turner!
7.) Illuminae by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff
This is one of those books that may not be for everyone but with the super unique formatting and the literal non-stop action I can't help but recommend it for all sci-fi lovers. It has everything from a self-aware AI to creepy space viruses! There really is never a dull moment.
6.) Stormdancer by Jay Kristoff
I honestly recommend this book ALL the damn time but here I am again with it! This book has such creative world building and the characters were amazing too, tons of plot twists, and plenty of action as well. All around amazing fantasy book with all of the fantasy elements I personally look for. Who doesn't love talking animal companions?
5.) Kingdom of Ash and Briars by Hannah West
Another fantasy book I recommend all the time which is also very underrated, it has some very unique world building along with four different retellings weaved into the plot as well (Hua Mulan, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, and Jane Austen's Emma). It's got some very heart warming and heart breaking moments for sure, overall amazing story though!
4.) The Diabolic by S.J. Kincaid
This is sci-fi but the political intrigue and plots are very reminiscent of fantasy as well, the pacing is insanely fast and there's non stop plot twists and action! You'll also love the complete badass main character, Nemesis, who pretty much just kicks ass the entire book. She's one tough cookie!
3.) Red Rising by Pierce Brown
If I were going to sum up why this should be required reading it'd just be me screaming because of how awesome this book is.
There are so many wonderful characters and it's like a much more brutal and violent version of the Hunger Games except in space….well Mars but you get what I mean.
2.) An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir
The world building is very Ancient Roman inspired, there's loads of action, fantastic characters, and plenty of shock worthy plot twists. This has all of the wonderful fantasy elements most of us look for and is extremely entertaining!
1.) Every Heart A Doorway by Seanan McGuire
Very short, sweet, and to the point this book is magical and actually has some great world building for how short the story is. It's about a home for "chosen one" children who have been kicked out of their magical worlds and must learn how to cope back in reality.
Have you read any of these books as well? What did you think?
Do you think these should be required reading for SFF fans?
What are some books you'd consider required reading for SFF lovers?
Let me know in the comments!


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One of my plans (I prefer that word to resolutions … a plan is something that is going to get done, right?) for 2014 is to blog at least once per week. Since January 1st, I've been reflecting on why I haven't done it in so long and have come to realize that it's because of that other 4-letter F-word … FEAR!
Along with my big desire to live a positive and drama-free life, comes a big fear of reading negative comments about what I write.
Serendipitously, my Facebook newsfeed was filled with quotes about that other 4-letter F-word this morning — the day I decided to write about it!
Amy shared: "Facing your fears robs them of their power." ~ Mark Burnett
Sue said: "Courage is one step ahead of fear."
Heshie noted: "Courage adds dimension to your life."
Eve wrote: "Fear fuels me!"
Maryellen posted: "Everything you've ever wanted is on the other side of fear." ~ George Addair
And … one of the 12 Gratitude Habits I created for Gratitude Boot Camp is Facing Your Fears.
So, here I come 4-letter F-word!
When I first started to blog years ago, I was taken aback by the negative comments that would come — always from anonymous posters. So, I stopped writing on-line. But, I stayed on-line. And, the attacks seem to have gotten worse. I'm always amazed and astonished at what, and who, people will lash out at in mean, and often downright evil, ways…
The 3 girls who were held captive, and tortured, for over 10 years in Ohio were called horrible names when they ventured out of their homes a short time after their release. The news of teenagers committing suicide, after being cyber-bullied, has become an all-too-frequent headline. And, already this year, a young girl was told to "go kill herself" because she tweeted that the earth was 2014 years old on New Year's Day (whether she was kidding or mistaken, is telling her to go kill herself really necessary?).
Even the people you friend on Facebook can surprise you sometimes with what they write. Thankfully, Facebook affords you the ability to connect with positive people and the power to unfriend someone, if they do write negative or mean comments on your posts.
So, while I'm not ready to go out and hold a snake, I am ready to face that other 4-letter F-word when it comes to blogging. I will write every week, from now on. If someone says something mean or negative … I'll read it, remind myself it's their issue, say a prayer for them, and gladly delete their post. After all, I'm grateful my life is happy and I'm not afraid to keep it that way!


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Ovechkin's goal in overtime lifts Capitals over Blue Jackets
WASHINGTON - Alex Ovechkin put in a rebound 1:34 into overtime Tuesday night, giving the Washington Capitals a 4-3 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Ovechkin's 14th goal of the season came when he was perched by the crease to stuff in the puck after Marcus Johansson's shot was saved by Columbus goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky.
Washington's Mikhail Grabovski sent the game to overtime by getting his stick on a loose puck with 1:45 remaining in regulation, capping a back-and-forth third period that awoke the Verizon Center crowd after a sleepy start to the game.
John Carlson and Joel Ward also scored for the Capitals, who have won five of seven and five in a row at home.
Braden Holtby made 24 saves.
Brandon Dubinsky, Jared Boll and Cam Atkinson scored for the Blue Jackets, who have dropped six of seven.
Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 30 shots.
Boll and Atkinson scored about three minutes apart after the Capitals had taken a 2-1 lead in the third period. Boll was upended into a near-cartwheel after his redirect of James Wisniewski's shot with 8:38 to play for his first goal of the season, then Atkinson beat Holtby on a breakaway with 5:41 remaining after Capitals defensemen Mike Green couldn't control the puck at center ice.
The normally energetic Capitals fans had trouble generating their usual frenzy for an early season, midweek game against a new rival from the Metropolitan Division, and much of the play on the ice was as subdued as the crowd.
A lethargic first period<0x2014> no goals, no penalties, few decent scoring chances <0x2014> gave way to some more interesting action in the second, when the Blue Jackets caught the Capitals sleepwalking through a power play. Dubinsky outhustled Troy Brouwer to the puck behind Washington's net and then was unchallenged as he skated in front and backhanded an easy shot past Holtby for a short-handed goal.
The Capitals' power play has been the best in the league (20 goals), but it wasn't much better on its next chance<0x2014> when the Blue Jackets were caught with too many men on the ice <0x2014> but Washington scored shortly after the penalty was killed. The play was all Martin Erat, who showed perseverance to reach around a defender and slide the puck to Carlson, who crashed into net while celebrating his fourth goal of the season.
The game came alive in the third when Ward got his ninth goal, surpassing his total from last season, while the Capitals were short-handed. Bobrovsky went behind the net to play the puck but had it hop past his stick and straight to Ward, who scored into an empty from the right circle.
NOTES: Dubinsky has two goals and five assists in his last four games. ... Columbus F Nick Foligno remains away from the team for personal reasons. ... Erat has scored more points (57) against Columbus than any other team.


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LOS ANGELES, Calif. - Carla Waller believes in promises. She was married for 37 years, held one job for 35 and never adopted a pet she didn't keep for life. Until now.
Waller and her husband Dennis moved to Las Vegas in 2006 and put $100,000 down on a $330,000 home. They adopted Jake, a 3-year-old, lean, shy Cocker spaniel. They both sold furniture on commission and thought they were set for retirement and beyond.
Dennis was diagnosed with terminal cancer in 2008 and died in 2009. Carla stayed home to care for him, but returned to work to make ends meet. She adopted Marilyn Monroe, a schnauzer-collie, to keep Jake company. A friend added Jewels the cat to the mix.
The recession stripped her home of a third of its value. Then health problems left her unable to work.
Foreclosure is just around the corner, said Waller, 67. "I know I'm a couple of months out. I can't do it anymore. I don't have the income," she said. "I'm done. There is nothing I can do now."
The hardest call she had to make was to Foreclosed Upon Pets, Inc., to arrange for homes for Jake, Marilyn and Jewels so she can move in with relatives.
"I am very depressed about it and very concerned about where they go because I took them for life and life is not what it should be," she said.
Waller's story is all too familiar to Everett Croxson, who founded Las Vegas-based FUPI (rhymes with puppy) in 2008.
Croxson, 59, a retired business consultant, was guided by hometown headlines.
— Nevada had the worst foreclosure rate nationally for 62 months until March.
— Nevada has the highest unemployment rate in the nation at 11.6 per cent.
— The Animal Foundation in Las Vegas runs the highest volume single-facility shelter in the country. It takes in close to 50,000 animals a year. Nearly two-thirds have to be euthanized.
In 2009, Croxson bought a five-bedroom home to use as a transition house for the pets. FUPI placed 348 pets that year.
In 2010, it was nearly 500; in 2011, 570; and this year it will be more than 600, Croxson said.
FUPI also works with the unemployed and those too ill or old to handle their pets, but about 30 per cent of their pets are foreclosures, Croxson said.
"Real estate agents or cleaning crews call all the time. Maybe they have found a couple of cats in a closet of a foreclosed home," he said.
In Arizona, which bumped Nevada from the top of the foreclosure rankings in March, the Lost Our Home Pet Foundation in Phoenix does similar work. Founded in 2008, it also relies primarily on fosters although it did open a small shelter in April.
There are about 40 animals in the shelter and 220 in foster care. More than 2,000 have been placed in four years, said founder-executive director Jodi Polanski.
As a mortgage loan officer, Polanski heard story after story, so she started the rescue in her spare time. There was too much work, so she became full-time director and now she and two employees work with 120 volunteers and fosters.
Lost Our Home runs a food bank and a temporary care program for dogs belonging to homeless entering shelters. The dogs are kept for 90 days so owners can get back on their feet.
In Arizona's Maricopa County, foreclosed homeowners have turned into renters. "Landlords can be pickier and not allow pets or they can require large pet deposits," Polanski said, forcing people to give up some or all of their animals. The problem will exist until people can qualify for home loans again, she said.
"The economy is looking better in a lot of places, but it's not better for the animals right now," Polanski added.
There is no charge to a person relinquishing an animal, but adopters pay $150 per animal at FUPI, $75 for cats and $195 for dogs at Lost Our Home. A vet's exam, sterilization, shots and a microchip are included.
Polanski said the worst part of her job is turning pets away. "We do have limitations. We have a waiting list. It breaks our hearts every day when there are pets we can't help," she said.
A few weeks ago, FUPI rescued two Shih Tzus from an elderly woman who was being transferred to a home for dementia patients. Their fur was so matted with feces, dirt and food, they had to be shaved.
"She loved her dogs, she just didn't know the state they were in," Croxson said.
In addition to its own placements, FUPI sends between eight and 14 Animal Foundation dogs to Canada each week, where a pet store chain houses and places them.
"It's absolutely helpful to our organization to have rescues like FUPI," said Carly Scholten, Animal Foundation's director of operations.
In addition to a website and weekly adoption events, Croxson is taking part in county meetings designed to find ways to place more animals, and he does a weekly radio show to recruit volunteers and talk about pets.
For Croxson, the worst part of helping is the loss, guilt and remorse he sees when owners say goodbye to their pets.
He works hard to find homes he believes would please them.
Waller told him Jake needs someone by his side, day and night. "He's an old person's dog, though he's great with kids. His favourite thing to do is lie at your side."
No matter what, she said, "I hope my puppies are loved as much as I love them."
— http://www.forecloseduponpets.org
— http://www.lostourhome.org
— http://www.animalfoundation.com


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This week's post is the one I've been waiting for. I think machine quilting is the best part of making a quilt, so I couldn't wait to get my Vintage Modern jelly roll quilt top finished and basted so I could start the fun! I quilted it using a serpentine stitch with my walking foot.
Before I started quilting, I tried out a few of my machine's decorative stitches to see how they would look. All of these can be done using a walking foot with the feed dogs engaged.
I used a 40 weight high-sheen polyester thread with a size 90 needle and used the same thread for both the top and bobbin.
This gives better results than using different colored threads.
Step 1 – Decorative Ditch Quilting
Be sure your needle plate has a wide enough opening to accommodate your decorative stitch and test it out first so you avoid broken needles.
Quilt along the seam lines in one direction in between your blocks, about 4 inches apart. The first pass took me 30 minutes.
This will secure the quilt and you can remove the pins as you go.
Next, make second pass in between each line of quilting. Now your quilting is about 2 inches apart and the quilt is starting to get some texture! I quilted parallel lines across the quilt. I did not mark any of these lines – I just used the seams as a guide and eyeballed it across the fabric where there was no seam to guide me. This is both liberating and fun!
This second pass took another 30 minutes so I'm just at 1 hour total quilting time. Not bad! At this point, this is enough quilting to hold your quilt together. However, I want more…
Step 2 – Adding More Quilting
My motto is that you can never add too much quilting to a quilt!
So I added another line of quilting in between each of the rows above. This was my 3rd pass and now the quilting lines are about 1 inch apart.
This took only another 30 minutes and I can't believe how fast this is going!
There is still enough room to add another row of quilting and do a fourth pass, so I decided, what the heck?
The fourth pass took 1 1/2 hours because I had now doubled the amount of quilting on the quilt, but I loved every minute of it!
I ended up with quilting lines about 1/2 inch apart over the surface of the quilt. Total quilting time was 3 hours and I used up a full 500 yard spool of Superior Highlights thread.
I love all the texture on the back!
So next week, we will finish our quilts, can you believe it? We will trim them up and bind to finish. I really can't wait to see how everyone's quilting turns out. Be sure to email me pictures of your progress, no matter where you are, so I can share with everyone else.
Here is the complete Jolly Jelly Roll Quilt-Along Schedule: