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Plus Blog
April 21, 2015
Barrow's new book.
Ever wondered why diamonds sparkle? Or why an egg is egg shaped?
John D. Barrow, mathematician, cosmologist and boss of Plus, explores the answers in a public talk at the Bradford Literature Festival on Sunday May 17. Taking us on a 100-step tour through art forms as various as sculpture, literature, architecture and dance, he reveals what maths can tell us about the mysteries of the worlds of art and design. (To get a taste, read Barrow's Plus article Where to stand to look at sculptures)
The talk is from 11am to 12pm at the City Library in Bradford and admission is £6. You can book tickets here.
April 1, 2015
You do modular arithmetic several times every day when you are thinking about time. Imagine, for example, you're going on a train trip at 11pm that lasts three hours. What time will you arrive? Not at 11+3 = 14 o'clock, but at 2 o'clock in the morning. That's because, on a 12-hour clock, you start counting from the beginning again after you get to 12. (On a 24-hour clock, you start again after you get to 24.) So, on a 12-hour clock you have:
4 + 9 = 1,
and so on. When you are subtracting hours, you do the same but backwards:
4 - 7 = 9
You could play the same game using other numbers, apart from 12 and 24, to define your cycle. For example, in modular arithmetic modulo 5 you have
4 + 2 = 1
These sums can be a little tedious to work out if you're counting on your fingers, but luckily there is a general method. Let's say you're doing arithmetic modulo some natural number p and you're looking at some other natural number x. To find the value of x modulo p (the value of x on a clock with p hours), compute the remainder when dividing x by p: that's your result.
This also works when x is negative (noting that the remainder is defined to be always positive). For example, for p = 12 and x = -3 we have
-3 = (-1) x 12 + 9,
so the remainder is 9. Therefore -3 modulo 12 is equal to 9. (If you use the modulus function in some computer languages you have to be a little careful though, as some return a different value for negative numbers.)
If you want to add or subtract two numbers module some natural number p, you simply work out the result, call it x, in ordinary arithmetic and then find the value of x modulo p.
There is clearly something very cyclical about modular arithmetic. Whatever number p defines your arithmetic, you can think of it as counting forward or backward in clock with p hours. To put this in technical maths language, modular arithmetic modulo p gives you a cyclic group of order p. You can find out more about group theory in this article and about modular arithmetic on our sister site NRICH.
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March 27, 2015
One way to start getting your head around groups, those slightly scary abstract structures that belong to the field of algebra, is to think of a 12-hour clock. You can add hours on this clock, for example
2 o'clock + 4 hours = 6 o'clock 8 o'clock + 5 hours = 1 o'clock 3 o'clock + 12 hours = 3 o'clock
and so on. One thing to notice here is that however many hours you add, the answer is always going to be a number between 1 and 12. In this sense, addition on a 12-hour clock is closed: it never gets you out of the 1 to 12 land.
Another thing to notice is that adding 12 hours gets you back to where you started (it's the same as doing nothing): for any starting time a, we have
a + 12 = a.
This is why you could equally well write 0 for the number 12 in our clock-world.
A third interesting feature is that when you have added some number a of hours, you can get back to where you started by adding another 12 - a hours. For example, starting at 1 o'clock and adding 7 gives
1 + 7 = 8.
and then adding another 12 - 7 = 5 hours gives
8 + 5 = 1.
So adding a and then 12 - a is the same as doing nothing (or, equivalently, adding 12).
Taking a small step into abstraction, we can describe our 12-hour arithmetic as follows. We have a set S (which consists of the numbers 1 to 12) and a binary operation that combines any two elements of S to give a third (the operation is addition modulo 12 in our example). The set and the operation satisfy the following three rules:
There is also a fourth rule satisfied by our set and operation:
Move the slider to rotate the 12-gon.
There are many other structures that also satisfy these rules. As an example, think of a regular 12-gon, as the one pictured on the left. You can rotate this shape clockwise around its centre by 30 degrees and what you end up with is the same shape as the one you started with. The rotation is a symmetry of the 12-gon. Now let our set S consist of all the clockwise rotations through multiples of 30 degrees. So that's 30 degrees, 60 degrees, 90 degrees, etc, all the way up to 330 degrees and, finally, the full turn. (All of these are symmetries of the 12-gon.) Think of adding two rotations as doing one after the other: so the rotation through 60 degrees plus the rotation through 90 degrees equals the rotation through 150 degrees.
This structure forms a group. Addition is closed because when you follow one clockwise rotation through a multiple of 30 degrees by another, the result is also a clockwise rotation through a multiple of 30 degrees. There's also an identity element, namely the rotation through 360 degrees. For every rotation there is an inverse rotation, so that combining the two is the same as doing the identity rotation. For example, the inverse of the rotation through 30 degrees is the rotation through 330 degrees.
In general, a group is a set S of elements together with a binary operation that satisfies the four rules above. Our two examples here are finite groups in that the set S has finitely many elements. But there are also infinite groups. You can try to convince yourself that the set of whole numbers (including the negative ones) with the operation of addition forms an infinite group.
It's interesting to note that two groups can consist of different objects and involve different operations but still have the same structure. By an unbelievably lucky coincidence, the two groups we have seen so far are an example of this. In our clock face example above, adding one hour corresponds to turning the clock hand clockwise through a twelfth of a turn — that's 30 degrees. Adding b hours corresponds to turning the hand through b twelfths of a full turn — that's b x 30 degrees. In fact, the elements of the clock face group (the numbers 1 to 12) behave under their modular addition in exactly the same way as the elements of our 12-gon rotation group do under their own notion of addition. If, in our clock face group, a + b = c, then you know immediately that in the rotation group the rotation through a x 30 degrees followed by the rotation through b x 30 degrees gives the rotation through c x 30 degrees. And vice versa. The two groups are said to be isomorphic. (See here for a technical definition.) Mathematicians often find that a group that arises in one context is isomorphic to a group they know from a very different context.
This table represents a group called the Klein 4-group.
This is why it can make sense to think of a group, not as made up of rotations or numbers or some other explicit type of objects, but as a collection of abstract objects (we can use letters to denote these objects) that combine in a particular way under the binary operation. You can keep track of how they combine in a table, such as the one on the left. To see the result of the sum f + g, find the cell corresponding to row f and column g. Its entry is h, so f + g = h. The symbol e in this table stands for the group identity.
The group described by this table is known as the Klein 4-group. It's isomorphic to the symmetry group of a rectangle, writing e for the identity symmetry (doing nothing), f for the reflection in the horizontal axis, g for the reflection in the vertical axis and h for the rotation through 180 degrees. Using this abstract representation, you can describe groups that are isomorphic, even if they arise in very different contexts, in one go. That's the power of abstraction!
March 26, 2015
In our Researching the unknown project we explored what physicists at Queen Mary University of London get up to. As part of the project the designer Charles Trevelyan produced these four beautiful posters, which are our images of the week. Feel free to download and print them out, to adorn your classroom, bedroom or wherever you'd like to see them! Simply click on the images to download a pdf.
This poster accompanies our article From dust to us.
This poster accompanies our article String theory: From Newton to Einstein and beyond.
This poster accompanies our article What is cosmology?
This poster accompanies our article Life after the Higgs boson.
Click here to see previous images of the week.
March 18, 2015
A solar eclipse observed in Australia in 2012. Image: Davidfntau.
On Friday March 20, between around 9:25 GMT and 10:41 GMT, people in the UK will be able to witness a partial eclipse of the Sun! It's the first one since the total eclipse in 1999 and there won't be another one until 2026.
A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon moves in front of the Sun, blotting parts of it out and casting its shadow on the Earth. Some parts on the Earth will see a total eclipse, in which the Moon completely blocks the Sun, giving a great view of its outer atmosphere called the corona.
On Friday only a narrow path a few hundred kilometres wide will see a total eclipse. The only two landmasses in that path are the Faroe Islands and the arctic archipelago of Svalbard. In the UK the Sun will only be partially obscured to varying degrees: Edinburgh will see 93% of the Sun blotted out, Lerwick in the Shetland Isles 97%, and London 85%. In London the eclipse will start at 8:25GMT, peak at 9:31GMT and end at 10:41. Times vary slightly in other parts of the UK, with things happening earlier the further West or South you are.
The geometry of an eclipse. In the region called the umbra, bounded by the small yellow circle, people see a total eclipse. In the penumbra, bounded by the larger yellow circle, people see a partial eclipse.
But even when the eclipse is only partial, there are still interesting things to look out for. You might see dark spots on the Sun — sunspots — which are caused by the magnetic field of the Sun dimming its light output. You might also be able to observe the outline of the Moon's surface, with its mountains and valleys. If you're somewhere where the sunlight passes through tree foliage, you'll see lots of images of the eclipse projected on the ground and other things around you, as the holes in the foliage act as pin hole cameras.
Pinhole images on a car during the 1998 eclipse in Guadeloupe.
It's really important that you don't look at the Sun directly, not even while it is being eclipsed, as this can seriously damage your eyes. Even sunglasses aren't good enough protection. But even if you haven't got specially produced eclipse viewing glasses, chances are there is something in your house that will help you view it. A colander and a piece of paper, for example. Standing with your back to the Sun, let the light pass through the colander onto the paper to see lots of images of the eclipsed Sun appear. You could also use a mirror to reflect the light onto a wall, or build your own pinhole camera. See this lovely booklet, produced by the Royal Astronomical Society, to find out more.
Now all we need is a clear sky!
March 17, 2015
Were you stuck in traffic on your way to work or school this morning? Then you might take consolation in the thought of yourself as a tiny experimental subject in the giant petri dish of the UK's motorways, contributing your data points to a greater understanding of traffic flow.
Our image of the week shows a heat map of the traffic on a clockwise section of the M25 (junction 9 to junction 14) showing the speed of cars as a colour, from pale yellow for around 80 mph to red for stationary, as they pass along this stretch of road on a typical Monday. The image was created by Richard Gibbons, from the University of Cambridge's Computer Laboratory. It is based on data collected by the Highways Agency from MIDAS (the Motorway Incident Detection and Automatic Signalling) system, archived minute by minute since 1997 at loop detectors every few hundred metres under many UK motorways.
The diagonal red stripes streaking down the image from the left to right between 7am and 11am are driver's commuting pain manifested in data. A driver's path through the data will start at the bottom and move upwards as they passed along the motorway and to the right as time passed. And if they passed junction 9 at, say, 7.30 in the morning, they would have hit red stripe after red stripe, like striking the incoming wave fronts as you try to swim out from a beach.
These stripes are the wave fronts of a stop and go wave, the infuriating pattern of repeated stopping (red) and starting (yellow) that is well known to both motorists and traffic modellers. This is a kind of shock wave that moves back through the traffic, opposite to the direction the cars are travelling. This can be easily seen in the heat map: one starts around junction 12 and moving backwards down the motorway as time goes on.
Click here to see previous images of the week.


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subset: commoncrawl


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Book your room at Albuquerque Marriott
Get an overview of this hotel3.5-star Albuquerque hotel in Uptown with free parking
Located in Uptown, this hotel is within a 10-minute walk of Winrock Shopping Center and ABQ Uptown. Coronado Center and Tingley Coliseum are also within 3 mi (5 km).
Hotel Features
This smoke-free hotel features a restaurant, an indoor pool, and an outdoor pool. Free WiFi in public areas and free self parking are also provided. Other amenities include a 24-hour fitness center, a bar/lounge, and a business center.
Room Amenities
All 411 rooms provide WiFi, wired Internet, and room service. Guests will also find coffee makers, free weekday newspapers, and hair dryers.Would you like to give us feedback? Share it! Opens in a new window
Albuquerque Marriott2101 Louisiana Blvd Ne Albuquerque NM 87110
Hotel Amenities
Hotel Amenities
In addition to an indoor pool, Albuquerque Marriott provides an outdoor pool and a 24-hour fitness center. The hotel offers a restaurant. A bar/lounge is on site where guests can unwind with a drink. High-speed wired and wireless Internet access is complimentary.
This 3.5-star property offers access to a business center and meeting rooms. Event facilities measuring 16000 square feet (1440 square meters) include conference space. This business-friendly hotel also offers gift shops/newsstands, concierge services, and laundry facilities. Complimentary self parking is available on site.
Albuquerque Marriott is a smoke-free property.
- 24-hour fitness facilities
- Free WiFi
- Free wired high-speed Internet
- Conference space size (feet) - 16000
- Conference space size (meters) - 1440
- Number of meeting rooms - 21
- Number of buildings/towers - 1
- Concierge services
- Conference space
- Business center
- Express check-in
- Express check-out
- 24-hour front desk
- ATM/banking
- Dry cleaning/laundry service
- Number of floors - 17
- Bar/lounge
- Elevator/lift
- Gift shops or newsstand
- Laundry facilities
- Meeting rooms
- Total number of rooms - 411
- Porter/bellhop
- Restaurant
- Safe-deposit box at front desk
- Free self parking
- Smoke-free property
- Indoor pool
- Outdoor pool
- Wedding services
- Breakfast available (surcharge)
Family Friendly Amenities
- Family Hotel
- Outdoor pool
- Indoor pool
- Free Wi-Fi
- Rollaway/extra beds available
- Laundry facilities
- Refrigerator (on request)
- Cribs/infant beds (complimentary)
Available in all rooms: Wireless internet access ( US$14.95 per day ), Wired internet access ( US$14.95 per day )
Available in some public areas: Free WiFi , Free wired high-speed Internet
Free self parking
Room Amenities
- Free cribs/infant beds
- Connecting/adjoining rooms available
- Premium TV channels
- Pay movies
- Air conditioning
- In-room climate control (air conditioning)
- Free weekday newspaper
- Coffee/tea maker
- Refrigerator (on request)
- Shower/tub combination
- Free toiletries
- Hair dryer
- Iron/ironing board
- Daily housekeeping
- Rollaway/extra beds available
- Room service (limited hours)
- WiFi (surcharge)
- Wired high-speed Internet access (surcharge)
Where to Eat
Buffet breakfasts are available for a surcharge and are served each morning.
Cielo Sandia - This restaurant specializes in American cuisine and serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Guests can enjoy drinks at the bar.
Room service (during limited hours) is available.
Nearby Things to Do
An indoor pool and an outdoor pool are on site. Other recreational amenities include a 24-hour fitness center.
The recreational activities listed below are available either on site or nearby; fees may apply.
- Golfing nearby
- Downhill skiing nearby
- Snowboarding nearby
- Mountain biking nearby
- Hiking/biking trails nearby
- Ski equipment rental shops nearby
- Golf lessons available nearby
Hotel Policies
Check-in time starts at 3 PM
Minimum check-in age is 21
Check-out time is noon
Payment types
- Pets not allowed
You need to know
Extra-person charges may apply and vary depending on hotel policy.
Government-issued photo identification and a credit card or cash deposit are required at check-in for incidental charges.
Special requests are subject to availability upon check-in and may incur additional charges. Special requests cannot be guaranteed.
Optional extras
- Fee for buffet breakfast: USD 11.50 per person (approximately)
- Fee for in-room wireless Internet: USD 14.95 per day (rates may vary)
- Fee for in-room high-speed Internet (wired): USD 14.95 per day (rates may vary)
Hotel Name
- Albuquerque Marriott
- Albuquerque Marriott Hotel
- Marriott Albuquerque
- Albuquerque Marriott Hotel Albuquerque
We should mention
The property has connecting/adjoining rooms, which are subject to availability and can be requested by contacting the property using the number on the booking confirmation.


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Haggard-looking eyes are another of those realities of the modern world. Whether we're working excessively long hours fueled by too much caffeine, wrestling with chronic insomnia, or simply stressed out beyond measure, our peepers tend to clearly reflect lack of sleep and composure. If you're tired—literally—of puffy rims, crow's-foot wrinkles, and dark margins, consider the arsenal of RoC Eye Products, all of which set to work immediately on reducing these external symptoms and casting a refreshed gleam to your eyes. They fill the void unaddressed by general facial moisturizers and treatments, being designed specifically to those tender and delicate areas around the lids that take such a beating from exhaustion and irritation.
The creams belonging to the RoC Eye Products line are gentle enough to roll in to your morning and nightly cleansing and moisturizing regimen. They possess a roster of ingredients meant to smooth and even out skin. Retinol, for example, is an exfoliating form of vitamin A that attends to those photodamaged areas reflecting long exposure to ultraviolet radiation. Make RoC Eye Products part of your day, and give your tired eyes a little pampering.
To tend to the eye area, you need products that are gentle on this soft, easily irritated part of the face. Applying RoC Eye Products delivers in this respect, requiring only a restrained massage to promote absorption.
RoC Retinol Correxion Eye Cream rejuvenates the margins of your eyes with an acutely formulated and hypoallergenic treatment. It is used to perceptively reduce, in the space of 12 weeks, creases, wrinkles, and crow's-feet, and, in four weeks, mitigates puffiness and evens out the eye-margin tone. It can be used once or twice a day, in the morning and/or the evening, by applying the cream in small patches around the eye and massaging these slowly so they become absorbed. For the first two weeks or so, use the cream every other day to allow your skin time to adjust; then, increase this to a point you're comfortable with. You can use the cream on its own or in tandem with your preferred facial moisturizer.
In 2009, the RoC Multi-Correxion Eye Treatment took the Self Healthy Beauty Award in "Best Eye Cream," and you can see for yourself why it garnered this honor. This cream targets puffiness, lines, and dark circles, restoring a more even-toned, youthful-looking character to your skin in eight weeks. The secret is a robust formula that includes Vitamin C, which works to reinvigorate epidermal tone; Retinol, which helps smooth over creases and trigger cell turnover; and antioxidants, which neutralize free radicals. In the morning and evening, apply RoC Multi-Correxion Eye Treatment cream in little dots within the vicinity of your eyes and softly rub them into the skin. This product can be readily used under makeup.


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Get those precious memories off your digital camera and into your life! This Pandigital PANR8008DW digital photo frame makes it easy to enjoy your favorite digital pictures without a computer! Email all your photos directly to the picture frame so you can share them instantly with no complicated setup or subscription fees.
This stylish Pandigital PANR8008DW digital photo frame features 1 GB of internal memory and a 6-in-1 built-in card reader that lets you enjoy thousands of images on its 8-inch LCD screen!
Make your life better. Order this Pandigital PANR8008DW digital photo frame today!
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Very Nice
By OldSchool1948
from Fort Washington, MD
About Me Semi-pro Photographer
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Comments about 8'' Pandigital PAN8008DW 1GB 800x600 Digital Photo Frame w/Remote Control (Burgundy Wood) - Receives Emailed Photos!:
I received this as a Christmas present and couldn't be happier. I downloaded approximately 250 med-res JPGS, sat back and enjoyed the slide show. You can also play music. The picture quality is excellent. I would definately recommend this to others.
Bottom Line Yes, I would recommend this to a friend
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Started out with mixed emotions about this 2009 Estrella Chardonnay. In fact, I thought I would give it 3 Corkscrews up until the point that I sat down at the computer and changed my mind settling on the 4 Corkscrews I ended up awarding. Now behind my reasoning. I was shopping in the local wine section and seeing the same old wines I see there every time I visit the store. Same prices as well with most of the stuff I've been buying around the $11-12/bottle range. Much to my surprise the Estrella was on a lower shelf and displayed a price of $4.99. Yes you read that right, $4.99! Now if you're like me the first thing that pops in your head is that this must be some crappy wine? Why else would it be priced so ridiculously low? Fortunately for the good folks at the vineyard, I'm one who will take a chance on a cheap wine in hopes that I can find an undiscovered jewel. I don't know that I can put this one in the jewel category but it is worth every cent I paid for it and then some. On the nose this wine displays lots of fruit and, how's the best way to put this, "thickness". Now I know you're saying "How can you smell thickness?" Well, you just can! Maybe bold or strong might be better words but I'm staying with "thickness". Darkish yellow in color my first taste revealed strong apple flavor and honeydew melon. A little bit of oak but not overpowering. The "thickness" I noticed on the nose was evident on the palate as well. If you don't like a bold, really tasteful Chardonnay, stay away from this one because it packs a lot of flavor in each sip. I wasn't really crazy about the finish as it had a little burn to it. If not for the $4.99 price I would have given this 3 Corkscrews but the most excellent price was what put me over the edge to 4 Corkscrews. I highly recommend this one if you can find it anywhere from $4.99 - $6.50/bottle. Sit Long, Talk Much, Laugh Often, Drink Wine.
I picked this one up at our local Wegmans having never heard anything about it. It was an act of faith as its retail price was $12.99/bottle and just about every Pinot Noir I've ever had at that low of a price point sucked! Every once in awhile you find a jewel in a lower priced wine and this is just such a jewel. My only hope is that it stays undiscovered for awhile as I'm sure once the word gets out on this wine the price is likely to shoot up. I opened it and allowed it to breathe for about 30 minutes. Not that 30 minutes is some magical number it just so happened that soon after I opened it #1 summoned me to attend to one of my many honey-dos on the old honey-do list and it was 30 minutes before my chore was complete. I poured that first glass and took a good look under the lights to see how "rich" it appeared. Not a deep ruby red like you see in Cabernet's, and some Pinot Noirs, but a medium bodied red. I've noticed that cheaper Pinots seem to be light red in color and easy to see through. Not scientific at all this peering through the glass but something I've found to be a good indicator. On the nose I picked up a little clove, cherry and maybe just a touch of vanilla. I took my first drink and slowly swirled. On the palate I noted that this was just bursting with all kinds of fruit. Cherry, strawberry, raspberry and even a little plum came to mind. A very smooth finish to say the least. I didn't taste any tannins at all. #1 was right behind me in tasting this one and also proclaimed how much she liked it. After I told her the price she liked it even more and promptly dispatched me to buy more the next day before the price went up. Haven't given a 5 Corkscrew rating in some time but this one made it easy. Sit Long, Talk Much, Laugh Often, Drink Wine, especially this one!
Just a quick post regarding the Orange County, Virginia Wine-Wings-Wheels two-day event that will be held on October 22 & 23. Beautiful country and well worth the trip if you're looking for something to do that weekend. Sit Long, Talk Much, Laugh Often, Enjoy Life, Drink Wine!
I don't usually do a lot of reviews on champagne, or sparkling wine as it's known from countries other than France, but we had the Jaume Serra Cristalino at a recent milestone birthday party, yours truly, and I just had to jot a few lines about it. We ended up buying a case of this for the party and only had one bottle left by the end of the night. We had purchased equal amounts of red and white wine and this sparkling one was the favorite of all who attended. Light yellow color this wine is very lively when first poured. Make sure you use an appropriate stem to allow it to fully open up and to get the best flavor this wine has to offer. On the nose I picked up a slight amount of yeast with green apple and tangerine. On the palate more fruit, the green apple made another appearance, along with a slight hint of lime and possibly passion fruit. Not as dry as other sparkling wine's I've had, that's a good thing in this case, and a finish that is nice but doesn't linger. We had this with a variety of heavy finger foods and by itself as the night wore own. An informal canvas of this wine had it rated at 4 Corkscrews which I easily concur with. It retails for about $7.00 a bottle so definitely won't break the bank. Pick this one up for your next party or whenever you just want to enjoy a nice glass of cham, I mean, sparkling wine! Sit Long, Talk Much, Laugh Often, Enjoy Life, Drink Wine and a little Champagne every once in awhile.
Just found out that a new winery has opened in our area. The Little Washington Winery in Little Washington, Virginia sounds like it will be a nice one and I plan to do a review just as soon as I can get out there. I've eaten at The Inn at Little Washington and it is truly an experience everyone should have before they die. We got a tour of the kitchen after dinner at it was just an incredible set up. It is definitely destination dining. Have a great weekend. Sit Long, Talk Much, Laugh Often, Drink Wine!
Tonight's review is of a 2010 Cielo Pinot Grigio Delle Venezie from Italy. We picked this one up for $8.00/bottle at The Grapevine in Warrenton, Virginia. I was looking for a wine that would stand up on its own as well as one that we could have with fish, chicken or something similar. Can't say I uncorked this one as it has the screw top that we're seeing on more and more wines. Very light gold in color on the nose this one showed hints of apricot and grass. Once I poured and allowed it to warm up just a little I tasted more of the apricot and other citrus, maybe lime, with a little hint of spice. Nice and crisp wine, a little dry but not too much, and a nice, easy finish. I ended up drinking this with a baked potato with just a touch of butter and a smattering of sharp cheddar cheese and it went together wonderfully. I originally gave this one 3 Corkscrews but after further consideration bumped it up to 4 Corkscrews due to its' great price and excellent flavor/acidity combination. Sit Long, Talk Much, Laugh Often, Drink Wine!
As a print and e-newsletter subscriber to Virginia Wine Lover Magazine I get a monthly edition mailed to the house as well as a newsletter that hits my inbox on occasion. This latest edition had a link to hosting a Virginia Wine Tasting Party along with a variety of forms that can be used in planning and hosting the party. A great idea that could be used with Virginia wines as well as any other regions you might want to include. #1 and I attended a wine tasting party several years ago and it was a blast. Come to think of it we really need to have another one at our house soon. Check it out and let me know if you have a party. I'd be glad to pass on what you and your guests discover. Sit Long, Talk Much, Laugh Often, Drink Wine!
Now that I'm active again I wanted to mention that October is Virginia Wine Month. It's an annual promotion that highlights the many vineyards in our state as well as restaurants and retail stores that sell and promote those wines. There are almost 200 wineries and 22 wine trails in the Commonwealth of Virginia to explore. I plan on visiting several of those wineries and posting about them in the coming weeks. We've actually got some really good wines being made in Virginia and hopefully I can bring some of those to your attention. Sit Long, Talk Much, Laugh Often, Try Virginia Wines!
Just a short post but I came across a site that ranks wine blogs based on a variety of criteria such as valuation, Google PageRank and monthly traffic. 365corks came in at #175 which was surprising based on the neglect I've given to the site over the last year. That's all changed as I plan on devoting as much time as I did when I first started and hope to break into the Top 50 next year. If you'd like to take a look for yourself check out Cellarer.com . Sit Long, Talk Much, Laugh Often, Drink Wine!
We had this wine, a 2010 24 Rivers Chardonnay from South Africa, to serve at our party last night. This wine came out before the Barco and it's a good thing. I might have given up drinking wine altogether if I'd started with the Barco. An affordable wine, picked this one up for about $8.00, it was worth the price and a good find. On the nose a little oak and peach was exhibited. Once on the palate more of the toasty oak was noted and more of the peach with a little vanilla thrown in. Smooth finish made for an enjoyable glass of wine. I gave it 3 corkscrews for overall drinkability. Sit Long, Talk Much, Laugh Often, Drink Wine.
Had a get together at the house last night and this was one of the wines we had bought to try out. The 2010 Barco Viejo Chardonnay from Chile can be picked up for around $6 - 7 per bottle. Way too sweet and not a wine I will ever have in the house again. I had two glasses of it, I was hoping the second would be better than the first, wrong, and had a pseudo hangover that called back to memory a time when I had three glasses of Yellowtail and felt like a zombie the following day. There's just nothing I can say about this wine other than to steer clear of it. I gave it 1 corkscrew which, if you know my rating system, means head for the nearest sink with this and make sure it doesn't come in contact with a wine glass. Sit Long, Talk Much, Laugh Often, Drink Wine (just not this one)!
After much deliberation I came to the conclusion that 365corks.com needed a new look. Well, this is the look I decided on. I think it's much easier to read, the photographs "pop" off the page much better, and I've got more room to write and add other items of interest. Let me know what you think.
After a long lay off from the old wine site here, I'm coming back with a vengeance. Last night #1 and I had the opportunity to attend a wine dinner at The Ashby Inn in beautiful Paris,Virginia. Now we've never stayed at this lovely little B & B but friends of ours have and just rave about it, and the setting and grounds are exquisite. This wine dinner featured the wines of the Qupe' vineyard located in California's Central Coast. To be honest with you I wasn't familiar with this vineyard and their wines but I'm glad I've discovered them. They are definitely not in the under $10 category but more of a special occasion wine with the majority of them in the $17 - $55 range and topping out at $100 for one of their Syrah's. If you're ever in the Washington, D.C. area it is well worth the trip west, about 40 miles or so, to have a meal in this quaint inn and experience the peacefulness of the surrounding countryside. Now more about the dinner and the wines that accompanied each course:
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Wind farm thrusts remote desert town into future
OCOTILLO, Calif. The nation's quest for more green energy is set on a collision course in this town on the edge of the windswept Imperial Valley desert.
Construction has started on an array of 112 wind turbines that will arise on three sides of Ocotillo by mid-2013.
With blades swirling more than 400 feet into the sky, the wind farm will supply utility customers in San Diego and southern Orange counties with enough electricity to power as many as 125,000 coastal homes.
The project is part of a broad slate of large-scale solar and wind installations that will tie into a major new electrical transmission line — the Sunrise Powerlink — leading east from San Diego for 117 miles.
The Sunrise line, scheduled for completion this month after 1½ years under construction, places a new premium on the Imperial Valley's unrelenting sunshine and one of California's few untapped wind corridors.
But in Ocotillo, plans for wind turbines — with their low-frequency hum and nighttime flashing aircraft beacons — have forged stark divisions among desert dwellers accustomed to isolation, fathomless vistas and dark starry nights.
Front-yard banners in Ocotillo, about 70 miles from San Diego, heap shame on the Bureau of Land Management for granting a 30-year right-of-way that will place windmills within half a mile of some homes.
"Everything I moved out here for they want to take away," said Jim Pelley, whose front porch will have an unobstructed view of the construction.
Indian tribes who trace their ancestry to the area have scoured the scrublands in recent weeks for unmarked cremation and archaeological sites, with one tribe challenging the power plant in court.
Others in the area see a rare opportunity to attract construction jobs, and to play a small role in the nation's quest for energy independence.
Caryn George, 52, who was laid off at a nearby gravel mine amid a weak construction economy, said the project's advantages over fossil fuels and the potential for a local economic boost outweigh the negative impacts on the nearby desert.
"Sometimes you have to think for the greater good. I know that sounds totally cheese-ball," George said. "They're coming. ... Let's do the best we can."
Where it descends the eastern slope of San Diego County into the Imperial Valley, the serpentine Sunrise Powerlink could eventually give rise to a half-dozen industrial-scale wind projects, backed by large U.S. and international energy concerns.
Pattern Energy, a privately held developer of wind projects stretching from Canada to Chile, leads the pack.
At Ocotillo, it already has begun carving roads into the desert soil — within view of the shimmering lattice of new transmission towers.
Other wind prospectors include Iberdrola, the second-largest developer of wind projects in the U.S. and the world's leading provider of wind power.
The Sunrise line also promises to free up grid capacity for wind turbines on the high plains of Baja California.
The coupled expansion of wind power and transmission lines are an emerging trend in the U.S. wholesale power industry, says Jon Wellinghoff, chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which ensures the dependability of the nation's bulk-electricity system.
"Most of the most economically viable energy — certainly for wind — is in remote locations that need transmission to deliver it," Wellinghoff said.
He — along with Cabinet secretaries at the departments of Energy, Agriculture and Interior — are seeking ways to speed permitting for power lines leading to renewable energy.
That's just one facet of government support behind the exponential growth of the U.S. wind industry over the past decade.
At Ocotillo, plans for big wind are perched atop layers of incentives for green energy: the use of public lands, federal tax credits, state clean-energy mandates and possibly a development bank loan backed by the U.S. and Mexican governments.


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|Kramer selected for 9News Stock Market interview
|Written by Holyoke Enterprise
HHS senior Caitlyn Kramer was interviewed by Gregg Moss on the Channel 9 morning news Monday, Nov. 19 in Denver. Kramer and four others were selected out of approximately 5,000 students throughout Colorado to share why they are "stock stars" and what they have learned about the stock market during an investment simulation.
The selection process included students answering several questions about what they have learned about the stock market. This opportunity was provided by the Colorado Council for Economic Education's Stock Market Experience investment simulation.
Following the television interview, Moss took students through the television station, showing how, behind the scenes, the news is recorded.
He introduced students to weather forecaster Amelia Earhart, who had students help her create the sequence to reporting the weather. She also took students to the "back patio" while she taped the weather forecast.
It was amazing for the students to see how so few people are responsible for running and reporting the news!
HHS senior Caitlyn Kramer (center) is pictured with Erica Fukuhara (at left) and Gregg Moss (at right) while visiting the 9News station in Denver after being selected for an interview for her high school Stock Market investment simulation experience.
Kramer learned about investing through Kristina Ham's introduction to business class at Holyoke High School. The entire class continues to participate in the Stock Market Experience online investment simulation.
The class is split up into teams, and each team receives 100,000 virtual dollars. Through this simulation, students are able to purchase and sell their own stocks. The experience allows students to learn how Wall Street works and gain valuable math and investment skills.
Erica Fukuhara is the key contact for Stock Market Experience and was responsible for setting up the student interviews at 9News.
Kramer, Ham and Teresa Kramer (Caitlyn's mother) traveled to Denver Sunday afternoon, Nov. 18 for the Monday morning interview.
Interviewing at 9News was an educational and fun experience for Kramer.
Holyoke Enterprise December 13, 2012


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Since its foundation in 1993, this e-journal has been dedicated to the rapid dissemination of high quality research in mathematics. All topics related to differential equations and their applications (ODE's, PDE's, integral equations, functional differential equations, etc.) can be submitted for publication. Research articles are refereed under the same standards as those used by the printed journals. Proceedings of conferences and long expository papers (monographs) are accepted at the discretion of the special issue editors. Manuscripts should be formatted as LaTeX files and submitted electronically to any EJDE editor (ONLY ONE editor, please). Please use EJDE submission as the subject line. See the instructions to authors for more information.
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Among the monographs, we offer free access to the textbook Hilbert Space Methods for Partial Differential Equations by R. E. Showalter. See also the monographs by Chicone & Swanson; Bostan; Escobedo et al; Gorban; Wang; Squassina; Hafstein; Brooks & Schmitt.
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The next series of hurdles is unlikely to be as propitious. Hamburg and her staff must begin to fix a drug approval process many patients, doctors, drug developers, and investors—even regulators—consider to be in need of repair. Inefficiency at this agency has profound consequences: foremost to public health, and also to our country's ability to maintain our global leadership in drug development.
Let me be clear: The problems I'm discussing have nothing to do with the work ethic or talent at FDA. To the contrary, I've dealt with dozens of smart, hard-working staff members there over the years who are dedicated to improving public health. But even with the best intentions, regulators are stymied by deeply flawed processes and systems. To name a few:No fixed term at the top. FDA has had five commissioners in the past 10 years alone. How can we expect effective leadership when the commissioner changes every couple of years, subject to political whims? A fixed term of, say, six years, would go a long way to correcting this flaw.
Seemingly capricious decision-making. Too many companies developing new drugs run aground when the rules change or the goal posts shift at the eleventh hour. In 2006, the FDA surprised three companies presenting at an advisory committee meeting on their antibiotics for bacterial sinusitis or community-acquired pneumonia. The companies had spent millions of dollars and years of effort on their clinical trials based on previously accepted standards—and now, the standards have changed. All of the drugs were rejected and all three companies went out of business.
Poor communication. Even when a procedural change is legitimate, information often fails to reach companies with drugs under review. It is also difficult to have any informal exchanges with FDA, so that even questions that might readily be addressed in a phone call can require months of waiting for a formal meeting or conference call to be scheduled. Meanwhile, drug development programs languish.
Excessive risk-aversion. All stakeholders in healthcare agree that patient safety is paramount. But the balance of benefit versus risk at the FDA has moved dramatically toward risk aversion. No surprise here. With the media sensationalizing the risks not just of medications but of everything from drinking water to tricycles, and Congress grilling FDA staffers repeatedly before the cameras, regulators have received a clear message: the safest route is to heap on new requirements and delay approvals. Yet the risks of delaying patient access to drugs that might help them are not taken into account.
Narrow application of accelerated approval. FDA has the ability to speed approval of new medications that address serious conditions with unmet medical needs. However, accelerated approval has been applied primarily to drugs for HIV and cancer, while many other serious conditions don't benefit from this process.
Too little patient input. Congress often hears from patients desperate to see new drugs approved, but their voices don't carry significant weight in the review process.
No advocacy for innovation. The U.S. has the world's most nimble infrastructure for medical advancements, but at FDA there is no mandate to promote innovation. FDA's mission statement should highlight the importance of innovation, and a Chief Innovation Officer should be appointed to ensure that FDA processes take this into account.
Industry Gripes
Biotech companies have grown increasingly alarmed by the impact of these regulatory shortcomings. A survey of biomedical CEOs in California released last month shows that eight in 10 CEOs believe the FDA approval process is slowing growth of their companies and threatens growth in the medical technology sector. Three-quarters of those surveyed said problems at the agency place U.S. biomedical leadership in jeopardy.
Another influential constituency is voting with its feet: venture capitalists who, historically, have funded small companies developing many of the most promising experimental drugs. Last fall, the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) and its partner organization, the Medical Innovation and Competitiveness Coalition, released a survey of 156 VC firms that account for about $10 billion in venture backing for medical startups. Thirty-nine percent said they had cut spending on life sciences in recent years, and another 39 percent expected to do so in the future. Asked why, nearly two-thirds of companies cited regulatory uncertainty and risk-aversion at FDA. Eighty-six percent said that, in coming years, first commercialization of some products they backed would occur in other countries.
It's also troubling that many respondents said they expected to see investments in treatments for diabetes and obesity plummet. These are two of the biggest contributors to healthcare costs, morbidities, and death in this country. Yet it's easy to see why investors would head for the exits. FDA has rejected three obesity drugs in the past six years, one of which was recommended by the agency's own advisory panel. At the same time, FDA has markedly increased the requirements for demonstrating cardiovascular safety of new drugs for diabetes.


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Tyler Consolidated
d. Brooke 25-17, 25-15
WELLSBURG - Torrye Cline had 12 assists, three digs and nine points as Tyler Consolidated defeated Brooke.
Shay Yonaley finished with two digs and four points while Sydney Reed had six points for the Silver Knights.
Allison Wable also chipped in six kills for Tyler.
Tyler Consolidated d. Buckeye Local 25-8, 25-12
WELLSBURG - Wable finished with 10 kills and three points as Tyler Consolidated beat Buckeye Local.
Sydney Reed finished with 13 points and four digs while Torrye Cline led the Silver Knights with 11 points and 12 assists.


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We're happy to announce the availability of Zimbra Collaboration Suite 4.5.10.
There are 70 Bugs/Enhancements in this release.
Some noteworthy ones include:
Perdition security fix noted in the Forums Announcement:
Bug 21129 - Possible memory leak in calendar js
Bug 20568 - Clamav update to version 0.91.2
Bug 21351 - Outlook will generate a Visual C++ runtime error
Bug 20285 - iSync: Duplicate Calendar entries
We encourage all users to upgrade to the lateest release to take advantage of the enhancements and bug fixes.
Network Edition Customers can find the Release Notes in the Support Portal: and can find the downloads here: http://www.zimbra.com/products/downloads.html
Open Source Edition Customers can find the Release notes here: http://www.zimbra.com/community/documentation.html and find the downloads here: http://www.zimbra.com/community/downloads.html
As always, we strongly recommends that users perform a FULL backup before and after the upgrade.
The Zimbra Team


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Finally, a new Greek interim government is being formed, and the Greeks may feel relieved that their hardship brought by the Greek austerity measures will be over soon! That would certainly be a wishful thinking as personified by the Greek adage: "The day-dreaming and the miracle are not compatible!" There would certainly be no miracles or quick fixes, and I honestly don't see anything getting better until at least the year 2015 for both the protesters and for those whose lifestyles have been degraded by cuts and reductions in their salaries, benefits, and pensions.
The premise? The new government of Lucas Papademos won't be able to change or improve anything in Greece because it will be like a new driver in a sputtering old car. In short, nothing will change until that old car, Greece, be overhauled and start to run smoothly. And the austerity measures passed by the Papandreou government are the parts and the accessories that will do that but in the long term, not on short order! Lucas Papademos, therefore, will just preside over the overhaul of those Greek fixes, while the European Union inspectors will be watching him to make sure that the fixes are done according to the signed agreements before the European loans to pay for are disbursed. Even then, life in Greece won't go back to the past times of plenty because Greeks would have to pay then for the accrued "overhaul loans" which would be massive – even after the 50% haircut loss on Greek bonds by European banks.
Unfortunately, Greeks also need to overhaul their culture too. They have lived on the hog -borrowed money- for too long, and their current misery shall give them pause and thinking not to fall into a similar trap again. But I doubt if they will learn anything, because living on the hog has become a "badge of honor and ingenuity" that is deeply ingrained in their culture. Greeks pride themselves as Europeans, and they try to support that notion with a flashy and upgraded lifestyle that the Greek Domestic Product output cannot support. Worse yet, the Greeks cannot get out of some bad social habits that were inherited from the Turks during the 368 years of Greek occupation by the Ottoman Empire – like loafing on the job and bragging socially about to promote their intelligence level and social status.
Let's hope that the current crisis in Greece, and the ordeal and sacrifices that will be made to re-float the country, will also serve as a re-education of the people on how they live and on how they select their leaders. In short, Greeks have to learn to live conservatively; rely only on the output of Greek products and services, and vote for politicians that promise them "stability and growth." Politics is "who gets what and how," and I am sure many of them have bragged to their friends and in their social circles on "what they had gotten and how" from their politicians on borrowed money until Greece started sinking! Now their bragging has been replaced by misery, and they had better think twice before they ask their politicians for an encore. The adage "Be careful what you wish; You may get it" must guide their decisions from now on. Otherwise, history would certainly repeat itself! Nikos Retsos, retired professor