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November 2008
Brookings Blueprint for Obama and Congress
The Brookings Institution is as mainstream and prestigious as you get on the Democratic leaning side of Washington think tanks.
Its President is Strobe Talbott, a leading foreign policy adviser in the Clinton Administration and a long time friend of our former President and of our prospective Secretary of State.
Talbott served on Brookings' Partnership for the Americas Commission. On Monday he hosted a C-Span broadcast public presentation of its remarkable report entitled "Rethinking U.S.–Latin American Relations: A Hemispheric Partnership for a Turbulent World".
Their first recommendation on Cuba "that should be implemented immediately by the US government":
* Lift all restrictions on travel to Cuba by Americans.
Many of the proposals made in its Cuba section are not new to experts in bilateral relations, but their source is. The Commission, half from the US and half from Latin America and the Caribbean, eschews the usual judgmental rhetoric and focuses on addressing problems with a Hemisphere impact. The co-chairs are Ernesto Zedillo, Former President of Mexico and
Thomas R. Pickering, Former U.S. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs.
If the Obama Administration and Congress want a blueprint for how to proceed with Cuba, this is it.
Go here for the full text, Cuba section pp 28-30
A streaming video of the presentation can be seen on the C-Span archives and will be available on the Brookings website.
Overview:and recommendations below:
"The last section addresses U.S. relations with Cuba. Though this issue is of a smaller order of magnitude than the other four areas, it is addressed here because Cuba has long been a subject of intense interest in U.S. foreign policy and a stumbling block for U.S. relations with other countries in the hemisphere.
The report puts forward these recommendations for the next U.S. administration and Congress:
U.S.–Cuban relations:
* Lift all restrictions on travel to Cuba by Americans.
* Repeal all aspects of the "communications embargo†(radio, TV, Internet) and readjust regulations governing trade in low-technology communications equipment.
* Remove caps and targeting restrictions on remittances.
* Take Cuba off the State Department's State Sponsors of Terrorism List.
* Promote knowledge exchange and reconciliation by permitting federal funding of cultural, academic, and sports exchanges.
* Provide assistance to the Cuban people in recovering from natural and human-made disasters.
* Encourage enhanced official contact and cooperation between U.S. and Cuban diplomats and governments.
* End opposition to the reengagement of the international community with Cuba in regional and global economic and political organizations.
* Work with the members of the European Union and other countries to create a multilateral fund for civil society that will train potential entrepreneurs in management and innovation."
Rice, Obama & Clinton
What should we make of Jim Hoagland's semi-complimentary report that Secretary of State Rice proposed,
"moving toward a better diplomatic relationship with Cuba by upgrading the existing U.S. interests section in Havana�
It is not a bad thing that Secretary Rice tries to initiate a different approach to Cuba. It's more useful than former Secretaries of State seeing the light after they leave office (e.g. George Schultz and Madeline Albright now call for an end to the embargo).
However, upgrading the Interests Section won't matter much unless it abandons non-diplomatic intervention in support of regime change advocates.
More useful would be a change in Bush Administration policy re private initiatives to help Cuba recover from three hurricanes. All Americans should be given a general license to visit and donate funds to assist relatives and friends. US NGOs should be free to send humanitarian and reconstruction aid without time consuming and cumbersome Treasury and Commerce Department licenses.
The same step could be taken by the incoming administration. Obama already called for a hurricane related suspension of limits to Cuban American visits, remittances and aid packages, although that will be superseded if he keeps his pledge to completely end their restrictions. As with travel, it ill befits a post-racial administration to deny the same right to all Americans and to private aid agencies because of ethnicity or national origin.
Should Hillary Clinton become Secretary of State, she brings baggage on Cuba. Clinton's campaign strategy was to align closely with Bush travel restrictions and to place unacceptable preconditions on negotiations. During Bill Clinton's administration, her Cuban-American sister in law was an active and influential opponent of reform in US policy toward Cuba.
Hopefully Clinton (and Obama) will pay attention to former Secretary of State Albright's advice in her book Memo to the President Elect.
"We need a policy towards Cuba that is free from the political wrangling of the previous half century. The embargo may have served a purpose originally, but it has outlived its usefulness. It currently has no international support and little function except to provide a convenient justification for Havana's repressive policies. The United States has no license to dictate Cuba's future, and heavy handed attempts to do so will only sabotage those inside Cuba who are working for democracy and human rights. Our approach should be one of friendship towards the island's people and support for increased contacts between our two countries at every level. Cubans do not need us to point out that Castroism is an insufficient answer to the demands of the global economy. In the post-Fidel era, they will inevitably have to adjust. Let us encourage them to do so through increased political openness, but let us also deprive Castro's successors of the excuse of yanqui bullying." p 176
Readers who wish to encourage the President-elect to meet his rendezvous with history on Cuba can do so on the Obama transition site change.gov. Presumably someone will notice articulate personal comments by his campaign supporters and a total will be kept of what issues are roiling the grass roots.
Another way to express your opinion is by joining an on-line letter and by sharing this link with friends and colleagues. http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/obamacuba/
--John McAuliff
(picture, no doubt a photo shop montage, borrowed from www.nerve.com)
China, Russia & Brazil
Visits to Cuba by China's President (seen here in 2004), Russia's Prime Minister and Brazil's President illustrate that the Obama Administration delays at its peril setting a bold new course on Cuba. Even the Bush Administration in its final months may be having second thoughts.
Reuters reports that during a two day stopover,
"Chinese President Hu Jintao agreed to put off some of Cuba's debt payments and gave the island $80 million for hospital modernization and other projects…China is Cuba's second largest trading partner after Venezuela at $2.3 billion in 2007.â€Â
Next up in Havana is Russia's Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev who is reported by Reuters to have both economic and strategic goals, in part to counter the Bush Administration's adventurist policies in countries that were part of or dominated by the former Soviet Union.
Closer to home,
"Brazil will offer Cuba financial aid for industry, energy and infrastructure projects during a December visit by communist President Raul Castro …We'll discuss the production of buses, building roads, as well as oil investments," Marco Aurelio Garcia, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's foreign policy adviser, told Reuters.
Obama might ponder the implications of a remark made during the recent visit to Cuba by Lula, our non-Chavez role model, about his invitation to Raul
"to participate in the first meeting of Latin American and Caribbean nations, without interference from any other power."
--John McAulliff
Obama's Choice on Cuba
The struggle to influence the direction of the Obama administration on Cuba is underway.
A good article by Carol Williams in today's LA Times quotes Jake Colvin, Al Fox and myself about prospects for change by the new administration.
I developed the same ideas at greater length in an op ed in Sunday's Sun Sentinel
The contrary effort to influence Obama was expressed in Myriam Marquez' column in Sunday's Miami Herald. She boasts of CANF's influence and distorts Obama's position on family travel. She also echoes the CANF critique of US democracy funding, that it is not deployed effectively enough for purposes of subversion.
"With Democrats in control of the White House and Congress, the Cuban American National Foundation is sitting pretty after wandering the political wilderness for eight years....With Obama's win CANF is positioned to have immense influence on Cuba policy. What to expect? An aggressive policy to get more money to the opposition in Cuba....The U.S. embargo toward Cuba will rightly stay. The 2004 Bush restrictions on travel and remittances will go. Returning to the pre-2004 rules would mean Cuban Americans could travel once a year to see family instead of once every three years, and remittances could go up to $3,000 a year -- instead of the current $1,200 -- and open to all family members."
In fact, every Obama campaign statement about Cuba and the Democratic Party platform position clearly pledge "unlimited family visits and remittances" , not only return to the pre-2004 formula.
As far as I know, Obama has not spoken to the controversy over "democracy" funding, other than the skepticism expressed by his votes against TV Marti in 2005.
Yet Marquez assumes he will follow CANF's line that,
"the rules need to change so that money and equipment can reach the opposition -- just as it did during the Cold War for the Polish Solidarity movement."
She seems oblivious to both Cuban and Eastern European history. Poland and other communist regimes on the periphery of the Soviet Union were externally imposed and sustained. The Solidarity model is totally irrelevant to Cuba which is why many people who took advantage of the opening offered by Mikhail Gorbachev believe the US embargo and travel restrictions are counterproductive--and vote against them in the UN every year.
Vietnam and China are better analogies to Cuba. Whether admired or disliked, their revolutions were internally created and managed and have evolved on their own terms to market economies and greater personal freedom. (The US expresses criticism of their human rights records and political systems but does not presume to intervene in domestic debates.)
Sending direct aid to opposition personalities in Cuba hopelessly compromises their nationalist credentials and makes them vulnerable to prosecution as agents of a hostile foreign power, not unlike the attitude the US took to members of the US Communist Party in the 1950s. Buying into CANF's semi-soft regime change thesis also makes no sense if the new administration wants to develop the trust and mutual respect that are essential for successful negotiations.
CANF and others in Miami presume they should be part of any negotiations between Washington and Havana, but that is pure poison to serious talks. It would be like Bill Clinton inviting Nguyen Van Thieu and Nguyen Cao Ky to be part of the US-Vietnam normalization discussions. (Much after the fact Ky made his peace with Hanoi and has been back to Vietnam several times, to the great dismay of Vietnamese American extremists who still dominate community politics here.)
The full range of Cuban American opinion should be listened to by the new administration: the unconditional engagement voices, the soft intervention groups, and even the no-dialog forces. However, none of them should be given weight beyond their numbers in the whole US population and in the spectrum of public opinion which favors ending all travel restrictions by 2 to 1.
--John McAuliff www.ffrd.org
Contradictory Florida Results Enable Obama
Preliminary election returns suggest President-elect Obama has a greater range of maneuver on Cuba than anticipated.
How much of his substantial statewide margin of victory in Florida (see below) can be attributed to support from Cuban Americans who crossed over from McCain because they shared only his cautious position on family travel? All three Democratic contenders lost who advocated a partial reform of travel similar to Obama's, suggesting that was not as decisive an issue in the exile community as many hoped.
Does that mean that Obama might have done as well in Florida if he had advocated all travel, or even an end to the embargo? Do exit polls and analysis of the Presidential vote in Miami-Dade Congressional districts offer more insight?
Certainly Obama will owe nothing to the three hard line Cuban American Republicans returning to Washington. However, they and the Democracy PAC money will still play a strong role in the House and on key committees. Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz and other Florida politicians with state wide ambitions will remain leery of offending the organized Cuban American constituency.
A common sense US policy on Cuba even more clearly means removing it from special interest nationality politics, as the Executive Branch is better able to do than Congress, especially when the next Presidential election is four years away. We would still lack diplomatic relations and maintain unilateral embargoes against China, Vietnam and Cambodia if change had depended on the approval of their exile communities in the US.
Sequential actions by the White House and Congress can reinforce each other and create an atmosphere for fundamental common sense change in US-Cuba relations. The crucial first step is for the incoming Administration to follow the window opening logic of its campaign commitment to unrestricted Cuban American travel.
It must reject discrimination in the right to travel based on ethnicity or national origin and enable the broadest non-tourist travel possible under existing legal authority, as favored by two-thirds of Americans.
--John McAuliff
Florida Statewide
Obama / Biden 4,073,207, 50.9%
McCain / Palin 3,872,553, 48.4%
difference 200,654
District 18
Ileana Ros-Lehtinen 137,817, 57.7%
Annette Taddeo 100,929, 42.3%
District 21
Lincoln Diaz-Balart 132,861, 57.8%
Raul L. Martinez 97,184, 42.2%
District 25
Mario Diaz-Balar 127,059, 52.8%
Joe Garcia 113,495, 47.2%
Florida Department of State
Division of Elections
2008 General Election
(may not include absentee or provisional ballots)
Page Generated: 11/5/2008 1:55 AM


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Washington Youth Soccer President Doug Andreassen received the Golden Scarf before the Houston Dynamo match. Sounders FC Insider Tony Ventrella caught up with Andreassen on the pitch after the ceremony.
Single match tickets for the 2015 season are now available.Buy Now
S2 kicks off in USL action in 2015 at Starfire Sports.Read More
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Things Aaron Sorkin Forgot To Tell Me: My Life Is Fraught With Danger
As someone who has lived in our nation's capital for some time now, I understand that danger is real. Danger lurks in every forgotten backpack, every moving van that attempts to drive up Capitol Hill, each Governor's plane that accidentally flies into restricted airspace and that reporter you met while drinking heavily at a house party. In The West Wing, hardworking White House staffers were constantly in danger from terrorists – both foreign and domestic – crazy people and the White House Press Corp. But our heroes in the Bartlet Administration usually had some idea why their lives were in danger, or at least someone told them eventually why their lives had been in danger. They had to write speeches! Give briefings! Have long heart-to-heart walk and talk sessions around the West Wing to reveal their true feelings… before it was too late!
Not so much for us lowly inhabitants of DC. Our lives are constantly in danger and no one will ever tell us why. Law enforcement officers are forever directing me: "Cross the street!", "Unload this train," "Walk around this single strand of caution tape for no apparent reason and don't dare ask me why." Am I ever given an explanation? Noooooooo. Once I was explaining this peculiar set of circumstances to someone in front of the White House and was cut off mid-sentence and told, "We have to evacuate the area." When inquired as to why, I was met with cold silence.
Turns out there were a few things about danger in the swamp that Aaron Sorkin forgot to tell me. And no, I don't mean West Nile. That is a whole other blog.
1) The Metro is a hotbed of vigilante justice.
We have already covered my confusion at the fact that no one on The West Wing ever took the Metro. That being said, there are some Metro shenanigans that I'm sure the President and his staff would have at least heard about. Everyone in DC knows that if you see something, you say something. Someone leaves their reusable Whole Foods bag on the Metro, you say something. Someone is transporting a large box and walks away from it, you say something. Someone leaves their backpack next to you on the seat and walks off the train car, you pick it up and throw in off train while shouting, "YOU FORGOT YOUR BAG!" It's a code that is equal parts concern for the well-being of others and survival of the fittest. It's not perfect, but it keeps us safe.
2) Your plans are constantly being foiled by things being locked down.
Now you may be thinking, "Stefanie they do get locked down in The West Wing. Don't your remember the beginning of Season Three?" and you would be right. But they get locked down in the White House. That seems like reasonable place to get locked down. You know where else you can get locked down in DC? Anywhere! You can get locked down in your dorm, house, or office without any explanation. Four city blocks can get locked down on a Tuesday. And if you combine foreign Heads of State, a Nuclear Summit and the Convention Center, the entire city will be locked down for a week. No one in The West Wing ever got a call from their roommate saying, "The police have locked us down and we might have to get evacuate. What should I grab for you?" but I have. I mean, I'm just saying.
3) Sirens constantly interrupt your phone calls.
Washington DC has the loudest sirens – ever. Every day you overhear people saying "Hold on. There is a siren. Wait…okay what did you just said? Why yes I will accept your job offer Senator." Just how often do you hear sirens in Washington, DC? All. The. Time. When you put the Secret Service, US Capitol Police, FBI, Metropolitan Police Department, Homeland Security Uniformed Police, Transit Police, Housing Authority Police, and the Fashion Police in 10 square miles, there is a siren every 2 minutes. On The West Wing people are constantly wandering around DC having outside meetings with Congressman, Diplomats, and other world leaders and they aren't interrupted once with the shrill sounds of sirens. It is as quiet as a library. I, however, can't walk from Starbucks across the alley to my office without it sounding like an air raid.
4) You might be a little paranoid.
As a life long Californian I should know the signs of an earthquake. Do you know how many earthquakes I have experienced? Dozens. I recite earthquake protocol in my sleep. Find a doorway, desk, or strong table, cover your head and wait for the shaking to stop. I worked for the American Red Cross in college. It was my job to stay calm in the face of natural disasters. When DC experienced an earthquake, was I calm and collected? Absolutely not. The building started to shake and I ran down the stairwell and went outside. That is the absolute worst thing you can do in an earthquake. And why did this happen? Because I thought it was a bomb. Living in DC for the better part of a decade has made me so paranoid that I couldn't identify an earthquake. Maybe it's time to move.


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16 November 2005
The Themes and Styles of Ralph Ellison
Ralph Ellison has proven himself through his novel The Invisible Man to be the leading black author of the twentieth century. Although he had written many short stories and essays collected in the book Shadow and Act, The Invisible Man is his only novel. With this one novel, Ellison earned himself the 1953 National Book Award and acclaim by the African American community for so accurately portraying the struggles a black American had to face in the 1930s. The writing style of Ellison is not typical of the writing style of other black authors of his time period like Baldwin or Wright. His Americanized writing style can be better compared to Melville, West and Faulkner. The Invisible Man contains excellently placed underlying themes and symbolism to accurately describe the narrator's struggles to find himself in both American society and black society.
Ellison loves the American language. Following the progress of the American language, Ellison admires Twain's southern speech, the Mississippi dialect of Faulkner and Jones' vernacular locations. He is sensitive to black speech especially by calling it "our own version of English." American language shows directness, flexibility and imagery to the Negro presence (Tuttleton 296). Overall, Ellison's perspective shown in his works is very personal. He concerns himself with more personal matters than social. He has tried hard to protect and prove his distinctness, his difference from various predefined ideas of his identity. He refuses to be defined by race in his works. He states his race proudly but will not allow assumptions to become his identity. Ellison proves he is not like "them" but a unique individual who has escaped "their' limitations (Gibson 315).
Everything an author could want from a novel can be found in The Invisible Man. Humor, suspense, black and American history (where Ellison's imagination brings forth truth from the...


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MOVIEmeterSEE RANK
Down 840 this week
Barbary Coast Gent (1944)
Passed | | Comedy, Western | September 1944 (USA)
Honest Plush Brannon is a con-man thrown out of the Barbary Coast in San Francisco in the 1880s and headed for the gold rush region of Nevada. He discovers a real mine which lead to several complications.
Director:Roy Del Ruth
Writers:William R. Lipman (story), Grant Garett (story) (as Grant Garrett) , 4 more credits »
Stars:Wallace Beery, Binnie Barnes, John Carradine | See full cast and crew »


text: At Fairview Elementary School in Auburn Special Needs students are being accepted and valued through an annual school talent show. This is the 6th year for the program which features acts from students and teachers alike. Teachers and staff have worked hard to build a culture of acceptance among the student body and it really shows. The audience was thrilled to see all the acts. They really cheered and supported their peers on stage. Principal Kathy Folan says this is one of the most anticipated and cherished events of the school year.


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By Ernesto Menéndez-Conde
Filip Dujarcel is a Belgian architect who also approaches photograph, creating imaginary buildings through montages of hundreds of images taken from actual architectural projects. In his Untitled (2009) the building seems to challenge the law of gravity and viewers may wonder if this structure would be possible in the actual life, as suggested in the verisimilitude achieved in the manipulated image. Young American artist Matthew Jensen works with pictures he finds in Google Earth, giving them the look of shots gathered during a road trip all over the United States. In Jensen's work pictures taken outdoors are not the sources for online images, but the other way around. Jensen posits the question about how we should define the term 'experience' in a world heavily mediated by technology. Google Earth becomes the starting point from which the artist produces the resemblance of an actual trip and the experience of browsing the web seems to replace the visit to actual spaces. In an uncanny picture about potential horrors related to genetic experiments, Bradley Rubinstein depicts a girl with dog's eyes. In The Valley (2012), by Kelli Connell, two women, who appear to be twins due to photographic manipulation, stare at their skins as if their flesh were landscapes to explore. In this, Connell superimposes the notion of incest over a homoerotic relationship. When I Grow Up I Want To Be A Cooker (1998), a video by British artist Maria Marshall, features images of a child smoking. The video is obviously disturbing, but viewers are aware that these are just visual effects, comparable to the ones we see in contemporary films. So, there is not outrage since the artist is merely manipulating images.
The above-mentioned are some works from the collective show After Photoshop. I would have expect this provocative curatorial project at MoMA or the New Museum, but the show is on view at the second floor Metropolitan Museum in a space which, during the last few years, has been devoted to contemporary photography.
Just in front of this hall there is a 'black cube'. It is the first time I have seen these types of dark rooms at the Met. British artist James Nares (b. 1969) screens his hour-long video Street. It is a slow motion film about outdoors spaces in Manhattan, turning the proverbially accelerated rhythm of everyday life in New York's streets upside down. According to the artist, he intended "to give the dreamlike impression of floating through a city full of people frozen in time."1 The use of slow motion for suggesting dreamlike impressions has been frequently used in films, at least since Pedro's nightmare in the Mexican film Los Olvidados (1950), by Luis Buñuel. But, unlike the cinematographic convention, Nares doesn't depict someone having a dream. Instead of the vantage point of a particular character, the spectator seems to assume the viewpoint of the camera, putting viewers in the position of the dreamer.
It seems he also aims to leave aside the realm of the unconsciousness, and oneiric images, in order to take shots from the everyday life. The slow motion helps him to enhance some motifs that suggest a dreamlike environment. First, there are images of flying. At some point we see a man drop a cigarette to the floor. The slow motion produces the effect of an object moving in the air. We also see small bubbles slowly floating among pedestrians, and birds flying, suddenly disrupting the flow of people in the streets. Secondly, there are portraits. Nares grasps particular faces among the crowds. We see their countenance, which usually reveals some anxiety, like grimaces frozen in time. There are also characters that stare directly at the camera, helping to produce the dreamlike impression described by the artist.
Hands play a relevant role in these portraits. Nares takes advantage of slow motion in order to explore the expressiveness of hands. We frequently see characters pointing to a direction. There are gestures of people trying to say something. In his video, even the act of holding a cellular phone, or taking a picture with a small digital camera becomes meaningful.
Another dreamlike feature is the coexistence of multiple temporalities. The travelling of the camera goes faster than the slow motion images we see in the shots. In the video some characters from the group are motionless in an expressive posture, while the camera keeps recording movements of other pedestrians. The slow motion also helps to notice how surrounded we are by commodities, advertisement, and merchandizing. The overwhelming presence of the shop windows, stores, restaurants, and neon lights are features that configure our contemporary streets. We are so accustomed to them that we may fail to realize how invasive they are, and how much we are integrated to this visuality brought by the advertisement industry and the market.
All these visual effects help to produce a concomitance between the Street with After Photoshop, at least in the sense that Nares manipulates his video in ways that are as contemporary as the ones employed for the artists in the collective show. Both curatorial projects, in their conjunctions, gave me the impression of being at a museum of contemporary art. This rarely happens to me at the Met, although the museum regularly exhibits contemporary artists. There is, for instance, an entire hall devoted to the art of the seventies and eighties, in which you can find works by artists like Anselm Kiefer, Susan Rothenberg, and Martin Puryear. The controversial Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living (1991), by Damien Hirst, was on view from 2007-2010, along with a sculpture by Anish Kapoor, and the sculptures on the roof are contemporary. But instead of giving me an impression of being in touch with the present, these pieces at the Met aim to isolate the selected contemporary artists, and connecting them with the historical past, as if they were highly consecrated figures that already deserve a place among Pollock, Picasso or Matisse.
Nares does the opposite. In two collateral halls, he includes a seemly chaotic set of artworks from the collection of the Metropolitan Museum. The pieces belong to different historical moments. Thus, an Egyptian relief from over 3500 years ago, coexist with a drawing of a pedestrian by Edgar Degas, a big painting by Philip Guston, Roman sculptures and short films from the early 20 Century.
The artist decontextualizes the past, and presents these pieces as antecedents of his own work. This jumble helps viewers to enjoy Nares' Street. The artist creates analogies between a Roman sculpture of a hand holding a small box, and contemporary passersby holding cellular phones, or between someone signaling in A Group of Men by the so-called Master of the Large Brush Drawing and people indicating in Nares' video. Birds in Street are comparable to Harold Edgerton's experimental shots of a hummingbird taken with a high speed camera (1947), whereas a window shops in his video evokes to the one in an early 20 Century movie.
But these collateral shows not only help to pay attention to certain leitmotifs in Street, but also allow us to see the new, by contrast with artistic productions from the past. In The Museum in the Age of Mass Media, German art critic Boris Groys argues that contemporary museums are institutions in which art has opportunities to make visible the values of the new, not by comparisons with mass-media productions, but through a dialogue with the cultural heritage from the past.1 Nares takes advantage of this feature, which is inherent to contemporary museums.
There is a small sign on the wall informing visitors about the show next door, At War With the Obvious, by American photographer William Eggleston. These are pictures in which the artist renders unconventional views of everyday life. This sign also helps curators to propose continuity between Nares' show –which is also at war with the obvious- and Eggleston's work. By associating Street with its collateral shows, there is a spatial continuity, which seems to connect the museum with our present in ways that are rather uncommon at the Met.
1Groys, Boris. The Museum in the Age of Mass Media, 2004. In http://www.ranadasgupta.com/notes.asp?note_id=25


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(1) Where an application under this section alleges that irreparable injury could result from domestic violence if an order is not issued immediately without prior notice to the respondent, the court may grant an ex parte temporary order for protection, pending a full hearing, and grant relief as the court deems proper, including an order: (a) Restraining any party from committing acts of domestic violence; (b) Restraining any party from going onto the grounds of or entering the dwelling that the parties share, from the residence, workplace, or school of the other, or from the day care or school of a child until further order of the court; (c) Prohibiting any party from knowingly coming within, or knowingly remaining within, a specified distance from a specified location; (d) Restraining any party from interfering with the other's custody of the minor children or from removing the children from the jurisdiction of the court; (e) Restraining any party from having any contact with the victim of domestic violence or the victim's children or members of the victim's household; (f) Considering the provisions of RCW 9.41.800; and (g) Restraining the respondent from harassing, following, keeping under physical or electronic surveillance, cyberstalking as defined in RCW 9.61.260, and using telephonic, audiovisual, or other electronic means to monitor the actions, location, or communication of a victim of domestic violence, the victim's children, or members of the victim's household. For the purposes of this subsection, "communication" includes both "wire communication" and "electronic communication" as defined in RCW 9.73.260. (2) Irreparable injury under this section includes but is not limited to situations in which the respondent has recently threatened petitioner with bodily injury or has engaged in acts of domestic violence against the petitioner. (3) The court shall hold an ex parte hearing in person or by telephone on the day the petition is filed or on the following judicial day. (4) An ex parte temporary order for protection shall be effective for a fixed period not to exceed fourteen days or twenty-four days if the court has permitted service by publication under RCW 26.50.085 or by mail under RCW 26.50.123. The ex parte order may be reissued. A full hearing, as provided in this chapter, shall be set for not later than fourteen days from the issuance of the temporary order or not later than twenty-four days if service by publication or by mail is permitted. Except as provided in RCW 26.50.050, 26.50.085, and 26.50.123, the respondent shall be personally served with a copy of the ex parte order along with a copy of the petition and notice of the date set for the hearing. (5) Any order issued under this section shall contain the date and time of issuance and the expiration date and shall be entered into a statewide judicial information system by the clerk of the court within one judicial day after issuance. (6) If the court declines to issue an ex parte temporary order for protection the court shall state the particular reasons for the court's denial. The court's denial of a motion for an ex parte order of protection shall be filed with the court.
[2010 c 274 § 305; 2000 c 119 § 16; 1996 c 248 § 14; 1995 c 246 § 8; 1994 sp.s. c 7 § 458; 1992 c 143 § 3; 1989 c 411 § 2; 1984 c 263 § 8.]
Application -- 2000 c 119: See note following RCW 26.50.021.
Severability -- 1995 c 246: See note following RCW 26.50.010.
Finding -- Intent -- Severability -- 1994 sp.s. c 7: See notes following RCW 43.70.540.
Effective date -- 1994 sp.s. c 7 §§ 401-410, 413-416, 418-437, and 439-460: See note following RCW 9.41.010.
Child abuse, temporary restraining order: RCW 26.44.063.
Orders prohibiting contact: RCW 10.99.040.
Temporary restraining order: RCW 26.09.060.


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Catholic cemetery suffers $250K in vandalism
Catholic World News - August 03, 2010
Vandals damaged 30 graves at a Cincinnati Catholic cemetery before dawn on August 1, causing an estimated $250,000 in damage. It was the second act of vandalism in a month. The first, third, and fourth bishops of Cincinnati are buried in the cemetery; their graves were not disturbed.
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text:
Save The Date! February 27, 2015
Early Childhood Neurobiological Development and Its Effects on Language, Learning, and Mental Health
Register by February 24th, 2015.
Featured Speaker: Jane Clarke
Jane Clarke, Ph.D., SLP/SpEd, IMH-IV
Infant Mental Health Mentor, Consultant and Trainer
Jane Clarke, PhD, is the Co-Director of the First Judicial District Infant Team and is a consultant and trainer for other Infant Teams in New Mexico. She teaches Advanced Clinical Seminars in Infant Mental Health at the UNM-CDD with her colleague, Deborah Harris, LISW. Her background is in Speech-Language Pathology, Special Education and Infant Mental Health. Jane has extensive assessment and intervention experience with high-risk families, regulatory-sensory processing disorders and prenatal drug exposure, and is endorsed by the New Mexico Associations for Infant Mental Health as a level 4 Infant Mental Health Mentor. In addition, she has completed the Advanced Circle of Security Assessment and Treatment Protocol; is certified as a Train the Trainer in Dr. Bruce Perry's Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics; is a member of Dr. Allan Schore's Berkeley, CA study group; and maintains ongoing reflective supervision in the DIR model through the Profectum Foundation.


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Simple MemorandumThis quest was marked obsolete by Blizzard and cannot be obtained or completed. Read the Simple Memorandum and speak to Thran Khorman in Coldridge Valley.
|Simple Memorandum (Provided)
DescriptionWhile you were helping me out, this memorandum was given to me to pass on to you. Take some time to read it when you have a chance. I'm thinkin' it came from the warrior trainer Thran. Take a gander at it and go find him inside Anvilmar when you've a chance.
GainsUpon completion of this quest you will gain:
- 40 experience
- 75 reputation with Gnomeregan


text:
The Glendale Latino Assn. announced its Woman of the Year, Man of the Year and Organization of the Year for 2012.
The following members will be presented with a Community Award on Feb. 23 at the La Cañada Flintridge Country Club.
Gary Montecuollo, Man of the Year, is the chief of police for Glendale Community College.
He served with the Glendale Police Department for 30 years, working in criminal investigations, tactical investigations and personnel administration.
Montecuollo was hired by Glendale Community College in September 2011 as its new chief. Since his arrival, he has organized committee task forces to address emergency preparedness and work with at-risk students. He updated the mass notification system and coordinated active shooter training as well as other advanced training for his staff. He continues to teach as an adjunct faculty member in the Administration of Justice program. In one of his community relations classes, Montecuollo encourages his students to volunteer in the community as he does for programs such as the Downtown Dash, Derby Day and Relay for Life.
The Organization of the Year is Sadd-Velazquez-Higashi-Shammaa, Certified Public Accountants & Advisors
John Sadd and Mike Velazquez merged their two firms to form Sadd-Velazquez-Higashi-Shammaa over two years ago.
They provide tax, financial and retirement planning for business owners, professionals and real estate investors.
Sadd and Velazquez are longtime friends and Glendale residents. Outside of their work at the firm, they are involved in community organizations such as the Kiwanis Club of Glendale, the Community Foundation of the Verdugos, the Glendale Educational Foundation, GAR Serves, Glendale Youth Alliance, Glendale Arts and the Glendale Latino Assn., among others.
The Glendale Latino Assn. was formerly the Glendale Hispanic and Professional Organization, established in 1991 by Isabel Ibarra.
The organization's mission is to improve access to education by awarding scholarships to Latino students seeking higher education. It also brings profesional Latinos of Glendale together to enhance those businesses and relationships.
Visit www.GlendaleLatinoAssociation.com for more information.
--Mercy Velazquez, immediate past president of the Glendale Latino Assn.


text:
Step back, move forward
Although Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is credited by many for coining the term "fiscal cliff," its first mention was in The New York Times — in 1957 — according to CNN Money. In those days, the phrase referred to homeownership.
Bernanke turned it into a political buzzword, however, when he used that now-ominous phrase to warn against what will happen on Jan. 1, 2013, if Congress and the White House can't bridge the gap between debt and funding necessary for traditional programs that benefit the middle class and, in many cases, save the poorest among us from a life of near-constant want.
To be unable to do so is not the ideal way to celebrate a New Year.
So here's an early but much-needed resolution for Washington:
Knock it off. Stop with the partisan bickering and the playground-worthy "my dad can beat up your dad" chitchat. Cease and desist on the threats and dire predictions and get your act together.
Because it's going to take compromise, not political posturing, to save the day.
Both sides, Republicans and Democrats, are going to have to give up something to get something that's for the good of the entire country.
First, Republicans, most specifically those aligned with the thinking of House Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, are still stubbornly holding continued tax relief for the middle class hostage with the determination to avoid tax increases for the wealthy.
They should, instead, take a cue not just from President Barack Obama's victory on Nov. 6, but from the findings of that night's exit polls: The majority of Americans think that the wealthy among us should pay more in taxes.
But wait, insists Speaker of the House John Boehner: Those are the "job creators," they're the people who will save us all by making possible what we need most. So where were all these job creators in the past few years of rising unemployment? Sitting on their profits rather than investing in their companies — and the country — by hiring.
Back to our history lesson, we turn to the summer of 2011, when Obama and Boehner tried to work out a compromise. During debt negotiations, Obama tentatively agreed to increase Medicare premiums and later boost the eligibility age from 65 to 67, according to The Washington Post. He was also willing to use a less-generous formula for automatic increases to Social Security. But the talks failed. It was back to square one.
On Feb. 29, 2012, Bernanke spoke before the House Committee on Financial Services. He tried to put the fear of God into nonbelievers: "Under current law, on January 1st, 2013, there is going to be a massive fiscal cliff of large spending cuts and tax increases. I hope that Congress will look at that and figure out ways to achieve the same long-run fiscal improvement without having it all happen at one date."
But it was no-go for Republicans, led by the tea party faction, as they pinned their hopes on a Republican White House.
Soon the 2012 election came into play. Even the day after the election, Boehner was still saying that Republicans "would be open to additional revenue" but only if it was "the right kind of revenue." And increased taxes on the wealthy were not, in Republicans' view, "the right kind" of revenue.
After what we will call a time of "reflection," Boehner softened his position, saying "We're ready to be led, not as Democrats or Republicans, but as Americans."
Speaking directly to the president, Boehner added, " We want you to succeed. Let's challenge ourselves to find the common ground that has eluded us."
It's good advice, if Republicans mean it and Democrats take it, too.
For some of them are being as hard-line on their priorities as Republicans are on theirs. And we've got to come to a place where each side can give a little but retain what is most important.
Just when we were feeling pessimistic about that, we came across the words of Jared Bernstein, a former White House economic adviser who said, "It's reasonable to put entitlements on the table but in such a way that protects economically vulnerable people who depend on them."
He notes that is a much larger group than many people might realize, adding that the median income of a Medicare beneficiary is $22,000 per year.
Democrats must be willing to accept some revisions that would strengthen Social Security and Medicare — if the poorest among us are not harmed.
Of course, there are still plenty of people who would object to any changes in those needed programs, and we can understand their views. We're going to be among them in fewer years than we like to admit. But to avoid further erosion of our economy, we must be willing to accept that changes must be made to preserve programs that provide a true safety net to many and a welcome and necessary helping hand to many more.
Simply put: Revisions to benefit programs that do so much needed good for so many can be on the table if additional revenue from those who can best afford it has a seat there as well.
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text: http://askubuntu.com – I am having a problem connecting to wired connection from router. I used to have 11.10 where I tried to establish DSL connection. I tried it doing through the terminal using some pppoeconf commands. When I reboot my system, under the Ubuntu loading sign, I saw messages like configuring network; wait 60 seconds more for connection, etc. Then after 2-3 minutes, Ubuntu home screen appears. When I tried to connect with my wired connection, it always says disconnected even if there is a wired connection. Then I went to network and tried to connect from there, but I was unable to do so. The w (HowTos)


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The official blog of San Francisco's Imperial Tea Court, home of world-renowned traditional Chinese teahouses and the finest Chinese tea and teaware
Sunday, March 14, 2010
2010 Tea Harvest Update
Word comes from China that the 2010 tea harvest is underway! They're picking tea now in Zhejiang and Yunnan, with none of the harsh weather issues that challenged the 2009 crop. Roy is receiving daily updates and will leave for China shortly after completing the transaction for his California tea-farm-to-be. We'll soon be providing more details on the outlook for your favorite spring varietals.
Posted by Virginia at 12:00 PM
Labels: 2010 tea harvest, yunnan, zhejiang
1 comment:
- Anonymous said...
- March 17, 2010 at 9:01 AM
Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)


text:
View Record Details
|Pub. Type
|Book Section
|Patterns of concordance between hair assays and urinalysis for cocaine: Longitudinal analysis of probationers in Pinellas County, Florida
Mieczkowski, Tom
Newel, Richard
|Book Title
|The Validity of Self-Reported Drug Use: Improving the Accuracy of Survey Estimates
|Pub. Year
|he objectives of the study were to evaluate the general reactions of probation officers and probationers to the collection of hair samples, to compare the outcomes of the hair samples with the outcomes of urinalyses (which the probationers undergo routinely), to note and react to differences in the prevalence as indicated by the two assay types, and to assess the general monitoring potential for hair assays in a correctional setting. In general, hair assays showed an increased capability of detecting cocaine exposure when compared to urinalysis; the detection of cannabis was problematic for hair. Collection of hair samples was not difficult and cooperation of the probationers was quite good. Probation officers appeared to prefer the use of hair specimens to urine specimen collection, and appeared enthusiastic about the potential use of hair analysis in their routine monitoring of clients, The article includes discussion of the possible interpretation of study outcomes as they bear on the potential utility of hair analysis in various field settings. source
|Harrison, Lana; Hughes, Arthur
|United States Department of Health and Human Service, National Institutes of Health, National Institute on Drug Abuse
|Place of Publication
|Rockville, MD
|NCJ No.
Related Studies
This publication is related to the following dataset(s):


text:
There's an interesting question on the OTN database forum at present – why does an update of 300,000 rows take a billion buffer visits. (There are 25 indexes on the table – so you might point a finger at then initially, but only one of the indexes is going to be changed by the update so that should only account for around an extra 10 gets per row in a clean environment.)
The answer to the question hadn't been reached by the time I wrote this note – and this note isn't intended as a suggested cause of the issue, it's just an example of the type of thing that could cause an apparent excess of buffer visits. Here's a little bit of code I've just tested on 22.214.171.124 using an 8KB block size
drop sequence t1_seq; create sequence t1_seq; drop table t1; create table t1 as select rownum id, rpad('x',10) small_vc from all_objects where rownum <= 11 ; execute dbms_stats.gather_table_stats(user,'t1') select * from t1; pause execute snap_my_stats.start_snap update t1 set small_vc = upper('small_vc') where id = 11; execute snap_my_stats.end_snap
(The calls to the "snap_my_stats" package simply record the current contents of v$mystat joined to v$statname before and after the update and print the changes.)
The code simply creates a sequence and a table with 11 rows and no indexes, then updates one specific row in the table. However, where the "pause" appears, I start up 10 separate sessions to do the following:
column seqval new_value m_seq select t1_seq.nextval seqval from dual; update t1 set small_vc = upper(small_vc) where id = &m_seq; pause exit
So when I hit return on the pause for the first session, there are 10 separate active transactions on the single block in my table, one for each row except row 11. (And now you know what the sequence was for.)
Here's a subset of the statistics from v$mystat after my update statement – remember, all I've done is update one row in one block using a tablescan:
Name Value ---- ----- session logical reads 45 db block gets 3 db block gets from cache 3 consistent gets 42 consistent gets from cache 42 consistent gets from cache (fastpath) 3 consistent gets - examination 39 db block changes 7 consistent changes 13 calls to kcmgrs 26 calls to kcmgas 1 calls to get snapshot scn: kcmgss 7 redo entries 3 redo size 764 undo change vector size 236 data blocks consistent reads - undo records applied 13 active txn count during cleanout 20 table scan blocks gotten 1
Note the last statistics – just one block accessed by tablescan – compared to the session logical reads at 45 buffer visits.
That 45 buffer visits comes from 3 current (db) block gets and 42 consistent gets.
Of the 42 consistent gets 39 are examinations, which – in the absence of indexes and hash clusters are visits to undo blocks
The 39 undo visits are to find 13 undo records to apply, and 26 visits (to undo segment headers) to find 13 transaction SCNs.
What you're seeing is one session doing (relatively speaking) a lot of work to hide the effects of other sessions which have not yet committed their transactions. (This was only a quick test, so I haven't examined why the larger figures appear in multiples of 13 rather than multiples of 10 – the number of other transactions – and since this note is just trying to demonstrate a concept I won't be looking into it any further.)
If you have a number of "non-interfering" transactions – i.e. transactions that don't actually lock each other out – on a single table then you could find that they spend more time hiding each other's work than they do doing their own work.
The numbers change significantly if I commit the 10 transactions (but wait until they've all executed, so they are all active at the same time) before I do the update to the 11th row.
The numbers changed even more surprisingly when I forgot to collect stats on the table in my initial example of the test.
For those looking to the next upgrade – here's an early warning from Oracle:
ANNOUNCEMENT: Deprecating the cursor_sharing = 'SIMILAR' setting (Doc ID 1169017.1)
"We recommend that customers discontinue setting cursor_sharing = SIMILAR due to the many problematic situations customers have experienced using it. The ability to set this will be removed in version 12 of the Oracle Database (the settings of EXACT and FORCE will remain available). Instead, we recommend the use of Adaptive Cursor Sharing in 11g."
The rest of the note contains some interesting information about the behaviour and side effects of this option – which may also help you debug some library cache issues if you're currently running with this value set in 11g.
Here's a nice example on the OTN database forum of Dom Brooks looking at the evidence.
Conclusion: the code should probably do a "distinct" in an inline view before calling the function, reducing the number of calls to the function from 71,288 to 3,429.
Footnote: There may be other efficiency steps to consider – I'm always a little suspicious of a query that uses "distinct": possibly it's hiding an error in logic, possibly it should be rewritten with an existence subquery somewhere, but sometimes it really is the best strategy. There's are some unusual statistics names coming from autotrace in the OP's system – I wonder if he's installed one of Tanel Poder's special library hacks.
Following on from yesterday's post on consistent reads, I thought I'd make the point that the way you work can make an enormous difference to the amount of work you do. Here's a silly little demo (in 10.2.0.3):
drop table t1 purge; create table t1 (id number, n1 number); insert into t1 values (1,0); insert into t1 values (2,0); commit; execute dbms_stats.gather_table_stats(user,'t1') execute snap_my_stats.start_snap begin for i in 1..1000 loop update t1 set n1 = i where id = 1; end loop; end; / execute snap_my_stats.end_snap set doc off doc Output - 10.2.0.3 (some rows deleted) Name Value ---- ----- opened cursors cumulative 11 user calls 6 recursive calls 1,068 recursive cpu usage 7 session logical reads 4,041 CPU used when call started 7 CPU used by this session 7 DB time 6 db block gets 1,030 db block gets from cache 1,030 consistent gets 3,011 consistent gets from cache 3,011 consistent gets - examination 4 db block changes 2,015 change write time 4 free buffer requested 1,014 switch current to new buffer 1,000 calls to kcmgas 1,014 calls to get snapshot scn: kcmgss 3,009 redo entries 960 redo size 295,160 undo change vector size 111,584 no work - consistent read gets 1,004 table scans (short tables) 1,001 table scan rows gotten 2,002 table scan blocks gotten 1,001 buffer is pinned count 1,000 execute count 1,009 #
I've created two rows in a table, then updated one of them 1,000 times – using a table scan to do the update. I haven't yet committed my transaction. At this point I'm going to use a second session to run the same update loop on the second row in the table:
begin for i in 1..1000 loop update t1 set n1 = i where id = 2; end loop; end; / Name Value ---- ----- opened cursors cumulative 8 user calls 6 recursive calls 1,009 recursive cpu usage 170 session logical reads 965,999 CPU used when call started 172 CPU used by this session 172 DB time 173 db block gets 1,030 db block gets from cache 1,030 consistent gets 964,969 consistent gets from cache 964,969 consistent gets - examination 961,965 db block changes 3,016 consistent changes 1,001,000 free buffer requested 1,015 CR blocks created 1,001 calls to kcmgas 1,015 calls to get snapshot scn: kcmgss 3,008 redo entries 1,936 redo size 358,652 undo change vector size 111,608 data blocks consistent reads - undo records applied 1,001,000 cleanouts and rollbacks - consistent read gets 1,001 immediate (CR) block cleanout applications 1,001 active txn count during cleanout 2,000 cleanout - number of ktugct calls 1,001 IMU CR rollbacks 41,041 table scans (short tables) 1,001 table scan rows gotten 2,002 table scan blocks gotten 1,001 execute count 1,006
Many of the statistics are (virtually) identical (e.g. "execute count", "db block gets", "free buffer requested"); some show an increase by 1,000 (often from zero) – largely because we have to worry 1,000 times about cleaning out the current block and creating a read-consistent version so that we can check if it can be updated.
But the most noticeable changes are in the "CPU time" and "consistent gets" because of the 1,000 times we have to apply 1,000 undo records to the block as we create the read-consistent version of the block. The CPU time has gone from 7 (hundredths of a second) to 172 because of (roughly) 1,000,000 "consistent gets – examination". As I mentioned yesterday, this matches closely to "data blocks consistent reads – undo records applied" so we know why they are happening. Watch out in your batch jobs – if you have a lot of concurrent update activity going on a significant fraction of the workload may be the constant re-creation of CR clones.
However, there is another interesting detail to watch out for – what happens if I change the update execution path from a tablescan to an indexed access path:
create table t1 (id number, n1 number); insert into t1 values (1,0); insert into t1 values (2,0); commit; execute dbms_stats.gather_table_stats(user,'t1') create index t1_i1 on t1(id); -- Make indexed access path available.
Then with an index hint in my update code, I get the following effects (having done the same update loop on row 1 in the first session, of course):
begin for i in 1..1000 loop update /*+ index(t1) */ t1 set n1 = i where id = 2; -- indexed access path hinted end loop; end; / Name Value ---- ----- opened cursors cumulative 7 user calls 6 recursive calls 1,006 recursive cpu usage 11 session logical reads 2,036 CPU used when call started 11 CPU used by this session 11 DB time 11 db block gets 1,030 db block gets from cache 1,030 consistent gets 1,006 consistent gets from cache 1,006 consistent gets - examination 6 db block changes 2,015 free buffer requested 14 shared hash latch upgrades - no wait 1,000 calls to kcmgas 14 calls to get snapshot scn: kcmgss 1,004 redo entries 960 redo size 295,144 undo change vector size 111,608 index crx upgrade (positioned) 1,000 index scans kdiixs1 1,000 execute count 1,005
The difference is astonishing – where did all the 'create CR copy' activity go ?
I've pointed out before now that choosing a different execution plan for an update can have a big impact on performance – this is just another example demonstrating the point.
Here's a quick demo to make a point about consistent reads (prompted by a question on the Oracle-L mailing list):
SQL> drop table t1; Table dropped. SQL> create table t1 (n1 number); Table created. SQL> insert into t1 values(0); 1 row created. SQL> begin 2 for i in 1..1000 loop 3 update t1 set n1 = i; 4 end loop; 5 end; 6 / PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.
Note that I haven't issued a commit in this session, and all I've got is a single row in the table (and because it's my usual demo setup of locally managed tablespaces with uniform extents of 1MB using freelist management I know that that one row is in the first available block of the table).
How much work is a second session going to do to scan that table ?
SQL> alter system flush buffer_cache; SQL> execute snap_my_stats.start_snap SQL> select * from t1; SQL> set serveroutput on size 1000000 format wrapped SQL> execute snap_my_stats.end_snap --------------------------------- Session stats - 18-Apr 11:33:01 Interval:- 2 seconds --------------------------------- Name Value ---- ----- session logical reads 967 consistent gets 967 consistent gets from cache 967 consistent gets - examination 964 consistent changes 1,001 CR blocks created 1 data blocks consistent reads - undo records applied 1,001 IMU CR rollbacks 41
The snap_my_stats package is similar in concept to Tom Kyte's "runstats" or Tanel Poder's "snapper" program to capture changes in values in the dynamic performance views over short time periods. In this case I've deleted all but a few of the larger changes, and a couple of small changes.
The figure that stands out (probably) is the "session logical reads" – we've done 967 logical I/Os to scan a tables of just one block. The reason for this is that we've created a read-consistent copy of that one block ("CR blocks created" = 1), and it has taken a lot of work to create that copy. We've had to apply 1,001 undo records ("data blocks consistent reads – undo records applied" = 1001).
Most of those undo records come from individual accesses (which are of the cheaper "consistent gets – examination" type that only need a single get on the "cache buffers chains" latch) to undo blocks, following the "UBA (undo block address)" pointer in the relevant ITL entry of the table block, but since this is a 10g database the last few undo records come out of the "In-memory Undo" of the other session. Basically the cloning operation is something like this:
It is an interesting point that as the first session created undo records it would pin and fill undo blocks – so would only do a few current gets (one for each block) on the undo blocks it was using. As another process reverses out the changes in a CR clone it has to get and release each undo block every time it wants a single undo record … applying undo records introduces far more latch and buffer activity that the original generation of the undo.
It's worth knowing that there are three statistics relating to applying undo records:
transaction tables consistent reads - undo records applied Estimating "old" commit SCNs during delayed block cleanout data blocks consistent reads - undo records applied Creating CR clones rollback changes - undo records applied The result of a real "rollback;"
See this posting on comp.databases.oracle.server for a rough description of transaction table consistent reads; and this elderly posting highlighting a benefit of knowing about rollback changes.
The second step in the list of actions is: "Notice uncommitted transaction". It's probably worth pointing out that another part of the ITL entry holds the transaction id ("xid") which implicitly identifies the undo segment and transaction table slot in that segment that has been used to hold the transaction state. The current contents of that slot allow Oracle to determine whether or not (and when, if necessary) the transaction was committed.
I have some broken links in my old blog entries right now, so if you're looking for something, then download the whole zip file from here:
I have uploaded a .zip file (for Windows) and a .tar.gz file (for Unix/Mac). The scripts are all the same with differences in the CR/LF bytes in the files and the init.sql and i.sql which have some OS specific commands in them.
I also uploaded the latest PerfSheet there where I fixed an annoying bug which complained about some missing reference files when opening the file.
I plan to fix the broken links some time between now and my retirement.
Here's an example of a slightly less common data deadlock graph (dumped from 11gR2, in this case):
[Transaction Deadlock] The following deadlock is not an ORACLE error. It is a deadlock due to user error in the design of an application or from issuing incorrect ad-hoc SQL. The following information may aid in determining the deadlock: Deadlock graph: ---------Blocker(s)-------- ---------Waiter(s)--------- Resource Name process session holds waits process session holds waits TX-00010006-00002ade 16 34 X 12 50 S TX-00050029-000037ab 12 50 X 16 34 S session 34: DID 0001-0010-00000021 session 50: DID 0001-000C-00000024 session 50: DID 0001-000C-00000024 session 34: DID 0001-0010-00000021 Rows waited on: Session 50: no row Session 34: no row Information on the OTHER waiting sessions: Session 50: pid=12 serial=71 audsid=1560855 user: 52/TEST_USER O/S info: user: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX program: sqlplus.exe application name: SQL*Plus, hash value=3669949024 Current SQL Statement: update t1 set n3 = 99 where id = 100 End of information on OTHER waiting sessions. Current SQL statement for this session: update t1 set n3 = 99 where id = 200
The anomaly is that the waiters are both waiting on S (share) mode locks for a TX enqueue.
It's fairly well known that Share (and Share sub exclusive, SSX) lock waits for TM locks are almost a guarantee of a missing "foreign key index"; and it's also fairly well known that Share lock waits for TX locks can be due to bitmap collisions, issues with ITL (interested transaction list) waits, various RI (referential integrity) collisions including simultaneous inserts of the same primary key.
A cause for TX/4 waits that is less well known or overlooked (because a featrure is less-well used) is simple data collisions on IOTs (index organized tables). In the example above t1 is an IOT with a primary key of id. Session 34 and 50 have both tried to update the rows with ids 100 and 200 – in the opposite order. If this were a normal heap table the deadlock graph would be showing waits for eXclusive TX locks, because it's an IOT (and therefore similar in some respects to a primary key wait) we see waits for Share TX locks.
First, a reminder – my Advanced Oracle Troubleshooting v2.0 online seminar starts next week already. Last chance to sign up, I can accept registrations until Sunday :-)
I won't do another AOT seminar before Oct (or Nov) this year. More details and sign-up here:
I have rescheduled my Advanced SQL Tuning and Partitioning & Parallel Execution for Performance seminars too. I will do them in September/October. Unfortunately I'm too busy right now to do them before the summer.
Public Appearances:
And that's all the travel I will do this year…
Virtual Conferences:
I'll soon announce the 2nd EsSN virtual conference too ;-)
Free online stuff:
Perhaps in a month or so I will do another hacking session (I'll plan 2 hours this time, 1 hour isn't nearly enough for going deep). The topic will probably be about low-level details of SQL plan execution internals… stay tuned!
A recent question on the OTN database forum:
Can any one please point to me a document or a way to calculate the average number of rows per block in oralce 10.2.0.3
One answer would be to collect stats and then approximate as block / avg_row_len – although you have to worry about things like row overheads, the row directory, and block overheads before you can be sure you've got it right. On top of this, the average might not be too helpful anyway. So here's another (not necessarily fast) option that gives you more information about the blocks that have any rows in them (I picked the source$ table from a 10g system because source$ is often good for some extreme behaviour).
break on report compute sum of tot_blocks on report compute sum of tot_rows on report column avg_rows format 999.99 select twentieth, min(rows_per_block) min_rows, max(rows_per_block) max_rows, sum(block_ct) tot_blocks, sum(row_total) tot_rows, round(sum(row_total)/sum(block_ct),2) avg_rows from ( select ntile(20) over (order by rows_per_block) twentieth, rows_per_block, count(*) block_ct, rows_per_block * count(*) row_total from ( select fno, bno, count(*) rows_per_block from ( select dbms_rowid.rowid_relative_fno(rowid) as fno, dbms_rOwId.rowid_block_number(rowid) as bno from source$ ) group by fno, bno ) group by rows_per_block order by rows_per_block ) group by twentieth order by twentieth ;
I've used the ntile() function to split the results into 20 lines, obviously you might want to change this according to the expected variation in rowcounts for your target table. In my case the results looked like this:
TWENTIETH MIN_ROWS MAX_ROWS TOT_BLOCKS TOT_ROWS AVG_ROWS ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- -------- 1 1 11 2706 3470 1.28 2 12 22 31 492 15.87 3 23 34 30 868 28.93 4 35 45 20 813 40.65 5 46 57 13 664 51.08 6 59 70 18 1144 63.56 7 71 81 23 1751 76.13 8 82 91 47 4095 87.13 9 92 101 79 7737 97.94 10 102 111 140 14976 106.97 11 112 121 281 32799 116.72 12 122 131 326 41184 126.33 13 132 141 384 52370 136.38 14 142 151 325 47479 146.09 15 152 161 225 35125 156.11 16 162 171 110 18260 166.00 17 172 181 58 10207 175.98 18 182 191 18 3352 186.22 19 193 205 22 4377 198.95 20 206 222 16 3375 210.94 ---------- ---------- sum 4872 284538
Of course, the moment you see a result like this it prompts you to ask more questions.
Is the "bell curve" effect that you can see centred around the 13th ntile indicative of a normal distribution of row lengths – if so why is the first ntile such an extreme outlier – is that indicative of a number of peculiarly long rows, did time of arrival have a special effect, is it the result of a particular pattern of delete activity … and so on.
Averages are generally very bad indicators if you're worried about the behaviour of an Oracle system.
Steve Bamber has written up a case study of library cache latch contention troubleshooting of an Apex application with LatchProf. I'm happy that others also see the value and have had success with my new LatchProf based latch contention troubleshooting approach which takes into account both sides of the contention story (latch waiters and latch holders/blockers) as opposed to the guesswork used previously (hey if it's shared pool latch contention – is must be about bad SQL not using bind variables …. NOT always…)
Anyway, I'm happy. If you have success stories with LatchProf, please let me know!
As a second topic of interest, Laimutis Nedzinskas has written some good notes about the effect and overhead of Flashback Database option when you are using and modifying (nocache) LOBs. We've exchanged some mails on this topic and yeah, my clients have sure seen some problems with this combination as well. You basically want to keep your LOBs cached when using FB database…


text:
Anne Hidalgo
Paris mayor Bertrand Delanoe parades with Paris deputy mayor Anne... News PhotoAnne Hidalgo,Bertrand Delanoe,Bisexuality,Celebration,Fog,France,Gay Pride Parade,Homosexual,Horizontal,Illuminated,Lesbian,Mayor,Minority Groups,Month,Parade,Paris - France,Social Issues,TransgenderPhotographer LIONEL BONAVENTURECollection: AFP 2013 AFPParis mayor Bertrand Delanoe (C) parades with Paris deputy mayor Anne Hidalgo (3rdR) during the homosexual, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (HLBT) visibility march, the Gay Pride, on June 29, 2013 in Paris, exactly one month after France celebrated its first gay marriage. Sign (L) reads: 'Same families, same rights' and sign (C) reads: 'No equality without Assisted Medical Procreation (PMA in French)'. AFP PHOTO / LIONEL BONAVENTURE (Photo credit should read LIONEL BONAVENTURE/AFP/Getty Images)


text:
Our Services
- Asthma Center
- Allergy & Immunology
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- Ear, Nose & Throat (ENT)
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- Children's Opens Expanded Specialty Care Center in Erie
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For Immediate Release
R. P. Simmons Family Foundation Pledges $2 Million for New Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC Campus
Pittsburgh, Pa. - September 6, 2007 -
Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh Foundation announced today that the R. P. Simmons Family Foundation has made a pledge of $2 million over five years toward the capital campaign for the new Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC campus, scheduled to open in the spring of 2009.
"My wife, Ginny, and I have between us five children and 13 grandchildren whom we love dearly," said Richard P. "Dick" Simmons, head of the family foundation, adding that "we have seen firsthand the value of having such talented and dedicated medical professionals here when we needed them, and for the children who may yet need their help, we want to see that Children's will always be here."
Located in Pittsburgh's Lawrenceville neighborhood, the new facility is situated on 10 acres with 1.5 million square feet of usable space. Its design is based on input from physicians, nurses and families – to ensure it meets the unique requirements of pediatric health care providers and the patients they serve.
Roger A. Oxendale, Children's President and CEO, expressed his gratitude for the Simmons' gift, saying, "The rebuilding of our pediatric campus is a tremendous undertaking, and the hospital is thankful that someone of Mr. Simmons' leadership experience has endorsed our effort and that the whole Simmons family is supporting the new Children's Hospital significantly."
Since 1890, Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC has been a pediatric teaching hospital with a charitable mission, serving the western half of Pennsylvania. Children's provides family-centered care in more than 500,000 annual patient visits. Recognized among the elite pediatric facilities, Children's has been named one of 20 Child Health Research Centers by the National Institutes of Health, and among the top pediatric hospitals in the country by U.S. News & World Report and CHILD magazine.
Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh Foundation is the sole fund-raising arm of Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC. The Foundation exists to provide financial support for the hospital's mission of excellence in patient care, teaching and research. The Foundation is a public charity under 170(b)(1)(A)(vi) of the Internal Revenue Service Code and is an exempt organization under Federal income tax section 501(c)(3). Contributions are tax deductible to the extent permitted by law.
Marc Lukasiak, 412-692-7919 or 412-692-5016, email@example.com
Melanie Finnigan, 412-692-5502 or 412-692-5016, email@example.com
Carol Ashby, Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh Foundation, 412-692-3900 or 1-877-CHP-GIVE
Last Update
May 4, 2010
May 4, 2010


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Sameet Sreenivasan
Sameet Sreenivasan
I am a Research Associate at the Social and Cognitive Networks Academic Research Center (SCNARC) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. The topics I work on include investigations of peer-influence driven processes on social networks, studies aimed at uncovering community evolution on dynamic networks, mining the hierarchical relationships hidden within network datasets and devising metrics that quantify novel patterns within these sets.
I have previously worked on problems pertaining to optimal paths and optimal routing on complex networks, as well as on the structural robustness of networks. I also have publications on some topics in neuroscience. For more details, please see my publications page.


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A senior citizens housing complex in suburban Minneapolis is under fire after a staff social worker barred a woman resident from praying or discussing her Christian faith in the the building's commons area.
Ruth Sweats, a resident of Osborne Apartments in Spring Lake Park, was reportedly sitting in the commons area of the complex discussing a Bible passage with a friend, when the building's social worker, Rachelle Henkle, stepped into the scene and demanded that she stop. Sweats told World Net Daily that she and her friend were discussing the book of Revelation, specifically the passage that speaks about those who take the "mark of the beast," when Henkle walked up to the two and declared dramatically, "You can't talk like that here!"
When Sweats pointed out that her right to free speech was protected by the First Amendment of the Constitution, Henkle countered that such rights did not apply at the housing complex since it was funded by the federal department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), making it a religion-free zone.
Sweats promptly contacted Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a conservative legal advocacy group, which responded with a letter to the managers of the complex explaining that Sweats was well within her First Amendment-guaranteed rights. The First Amendment's Establishment Clause "is a restriction on government, not on private speakers," explained ADL legal counsel Matt Sharp in the letter. "Because Osborne Apartments is a private, non-profit corporation — not a government controlled entity — it is not bound by the Establishment Clause's prohibition on the government endorsement of religion. Indeed, Osborne Apartments is free to allow the residents to engage in religious discussion and prayer."
The website for the apartment complex states that it is a "tax-exempt, non-profit organization … managed by Ebenezer, which has provided quality services for older adults since 1917."
Click here to read the entire article.
Photo: A senior man and woman studying the Bible together on a sofa via Shutterstock


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ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) - Former boxer Christy Martin's ex-husband has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for trying to kill her.
A judge in Orlando sentenced James Martin guilty on Tuesday. He was convicted in April of attempted second-degree murder with a firearm and two other counts.
Prosecutors say James Martin stabbed his wife in the chest, sliced her in the leg and shot her in the back during a fight in their home in 2010.
James Martin's defense attorney had said his client acted in self-defense during the fight.
Prosecutors say Christy Martin had made clear to James Martin that she wanted to end their marriage for another woman, and James Martin had stalked his then-wife.
(Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)


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Welcome to Chesapeake Bay Aquatic & Physical Therapy
Chesapeake Bay Aquatic & Physical Therapy (CBAY) is a privately owned and operated outpatient physical therapy company. We have been proud to serve the communities of Bowie, Laurel and Severna Park, Maryland for over 12 years. In 2013, we opened two new offices in Lutherville-Timonium and Reisterstown.
All 5 of our locations feature state of the art equipment and offer rehabilitation inside warm therapy pools. We offer land and water-based therapies to treat a full range of outpatient physical therapy needs, including orthopedic care, pre and post-op care, arthritis and neurological disorders.
Direct Access:
Did you know? Maryland holds direct access legislation allowing patients to go directly to a licensed physical therapist without a physician's referral.
While state law allows direct access, some insurers may have additional requirements. To find out if your insurance company requires a referral for PT simply contact their customer service department.
Direct access to a physical therapist will allow you to be treated earlier, resulting in a quicker recovery and return to your normal activities. Your physician of choice can still be actively involved in your care just as your physical therapist of choice. For information on how this may apply to you, contact one of our offices or visit the American Physical Therapy Association website.
Our Team
We have some of the most amazing people working at CBAY. They are the reason Maryland doctors refer their patients to us. Click Here to meet our staff.
We offer land and water-based therapies to treat a full range of outpatient physical therapy needs. Click Here and to see everything we do.
News & Events
Learn about our upcoming events and seminars, industry news and insight and read original content by our team of physical therapists. Click Here
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text:
iPad 2 Launch Sales
The iPad 2's Big Launch Weekend
Like us on Facebook
Did you get your hands on an iPad 2? Check out all the info you'll need to get acquainted after the break.
- Here are my first impressions of the iPad 2. Stay tuned for a full review!
- You're probably going to want to protect your new tablet with a case, and good news — there are plenty to choose from including upscale and more affordable options.
- Speaking of accessories, check out our list of essentials.
- If you're still deciding on whether or not to buy, here are some things you need to know as well as a few features you may miss.
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text:
June 7, 2006
By Daniel J. Mitchell, Ph.D.
Assuming no unexpected surprises on the road
to confirmation, Henry M. Paulson Jr. of Goldman Sachs will soon be
America's next Treasury secretary. Some observers wonder why
Paulson agreed to leave a prestigious Wall Street position to serve
in the last couple of years of a lame-duck administration, but many
big policy decisions have yet to be made.
A strong Treasury secretary can wield enormous
influence. What remains to be seen, though, is whether Paulson
decides to get involved and fight on the right side. Some key
battles include:
Extending supply-side tax cuts. Paulson already
has a good track record on tax policy. He has favorably commented
on the pro-growth impact of the 2003 tax cut, particularly the
reduction in the double-taxation of dividends and capital gains.
With luck, this is a sign that he will vigorously push to make
these cuts permanent. In a competitive global economy, it's crucial
that America avoid mistakes that would increase the tax burden on
work, saving and investment.
Implementing dynamic scoring. It is difficult to
implement good tax policy in Washington in part because the
revenue-estimating process deliberately assumes that taxation
doesn't affect economic performance. This is preposterous, as
America's strong growth after the 2003 tax-rate reductions proves.
Economists have long urged that the revenue-estimating process be
modernized to reflect the fact that lower tax rates on productive
behavior yield some revenue feedback. This doesn't mean tax cuts
necessarily "pay for themselves," but it does mean that the revenue
consequences of pro-growth tax cuts can be much less than currently
Protecting the dollar. Paulson has made some
unwise statements suggesting that he doesn't believe in a strong
dollar. Indeed, this may be why financial markets didn't react
positively to his nomination. No nation has ever increased its
long-run prosperity by debasing its currency. Some protectionists
say a weaker dollar would reduce the trade deficit, but this
foolishly assumes that a trade deficit - which largely exists
because America is growing faster and has more income than our
major trading partners - is a bad thing.
Restoring fiscal sanity. The Treasury secretary
normally handles the tax side of the fiscal equation. While that is
more than enough to keep anyone busy, there is a desperate need to
get spending under control. The budget has ballooned by 45 percent
since George W. Bush became president, and most of the increase has
gone for domestic programs and departments that should be
abolished, not expanded. Putting the brakes on spending - and
figuring out reforms that will protect taxpayers from giant
increases in entitlement spending once the baby boomers retire -
are critical challenges. These decisions also have a big impact on
tax policy, since there's no way America can have a pro-growth tax
system if we eventually wind up with a French-size welfare
Steering international bureaucracies in the right
direction. One of the Treasury secretary's less visible
roles is to be the U.S. government point man in dealing with
bureaucracies such as the World Bank and International Monetary
Fund. These institutions are supposed to promote global growth, but
they generally use their influence to encourage statist policies in
the developing world. At a minimum, Paulson could insist that these
bureaucracies concentrate on policies - such as lower tax rates,
deregulation and spending reductions - that lower the burden of
Avoiding senseless regulation. The Treasury
Department has substantial regulatory authority. Sometimes this
power is used wisely, such as the current effort to rein in
scandal-plagued government-favored entities such as Fannie Mae and
Freddie Mac. In other cases, Treasury imposes heavy costs.
Anti-money laundering rules are a good example. They cost the
economy $7 billion annually and make it more difficult for poor
people to access the banking system. Yet Treasury continuously
makes these regulations more onerous even though there's no
evidence that they hinder crime in general or terrorism in
particular. Paulson lacks a track record on these issues, but his
association with some left-leaning environmental organizations
leads some to worry that he may not understand the valuable role of
cost-benefit analysis.
Henry Paulson can be a caretaker Treasury secretary if he wants to.
But one certainly hopes that a man with his resume has much bigger
goals. Being Treasury secretary for the world's most powerful
nation is a unique opportunity to create a lasting legacy for
America. From tax policy to entitlement reform, Paulson can play a
critical role in making the United States more competitive and
Daniel J.
Mitchell is the McKenna senior fellow in Political
Economy at The Heritage Foundation.
First appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer
Assuming no unexpected surprises on the road to confirmation, Henry M. Paulson Jr. of Goldman Sachs will soon be America's next Treasury secretary. Some observers wonder why Paulson agreed to leave a prestigious Wall Street position to serve in the last couple of years of a lame-duck administration, but many big policy decisions have yet to be made.
Daniel J. Mitchell, Ph.D.
McKenna Senior Fellow in Political Economy
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