text:
Contact the EpiPen4Schools Programs
Phone: 973-845-7600
Fax: 973-718-4328
Learn more about the EpiLocker®, storage unit to store the EpiPen 2-Pak® and/or EpiPen Jr 2-Pak® cartons.
EpiPen® (epinephrine injection, USP) 0.3 mg and EpiPen Jr® (epinephrine injection, USP) 0.15 mg Auto-Injectors are for the emergency treatment of life-threatening allergic reactions (anaphylaxis) caused by allergens, exercise, or unknown triggers; and for people who are at increased risk for these reactions. EpiPen® and EpiPen Jr® are intended for immediate administration as emergency supportive therapy only. Seek immediate emergency medical help right away.
Use EpiPen® or EpiPen Jr® Auto-Injectors right away when you have an allergic emergency (anaphylaxis). Get emergency medical help right away. You may need further medical attention. Only a healthcare professional should give additional doses of epinephrine if you need more than two injections for a single anaphylactic episode. EpiPen® or EpiPen Jr® should only be injected into the middle of your outer thigh (upper leg), through clothing if necessary. Do not inject into your veins, buttocks, fingers, toes, hands or feet. Hold the leg of young children firmly in place before and during injection to prevent injuries. In case of accidental injection, please seek immediate medical treatment.
Rarely, patients who have used EpiPen® or EpiPen Jr® may develop an infection at the injection site within a few days. Some of these infections can be serious. Call your healthcare professional right away if you have any of the following at an injection site: redness that does not go away, swelling, tenderness, or the area feels warm to the touch.
Tell your healthcare professional about all of your medical conditions, especially if you have asthma, a history of depression, thyroid problems, Parkinson's disease, diabetes, high blood pressure or heart problems, have any other medical conditions, are pregnant or plan to become pregnant, or are breastfeeding or plan to breastfeed. Be sure to also tell your healthcare professional all the medicines you take, especially medicines for asthma. If you have certain medical conditions, or take certain medicines, your condition may get worse or you may have longer lasting side effects when you use EpiPen® or EpiPen Jr®.
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Faculty Feedback Project
A Faculty Feedback Project is an alternative to the end-of-the semester student evaluations for obtaining input on teaching and learning. Such a project includes some method for obtaining feedback during the semester as well as at the end. Listed below are a variety of activities and tools faculty can select to obtain feedback. Faculty are encouraged to adapt these to meet their needs. In addition, we have included issues to consider when selecting feedback activities, guidelines for how to gather the feedback from students, and suggestions for interpreting and responding to student feedback.
- Faculty Feedback Project Proposal Form (PDF File)
- Brief Overview of Faculty Feedback Project Activities (PDF File)
- Issues To Consider When Selecting and Administering Feedback Activities
- Guidelines For Facilitating The Process of Gathering Feedback From Students
- Suggestions for Interpreting And Responding To Student Feedback
- Small Group Instructional Feedback (SGIF) or Small Group Instructional Diagnosis (SGID)
- Classroom Assessment Techniques (CAT's)
- 2-Way Fast Feedback
- Electronic Mail Feedback
- The Classroom Critical Incident Questionnaire
- The Quick Course Diagnosis (QCD)
- Teacher-Designed Feedback Forms
- Small Group Feedback Forms
- "A Letter to The Teacher"
- Test Feedback Questionnaire
- References
Center for Teaching Excellence
TLC Building
400 N. Capitol, Suite 324
Lansing, MI 48933
Phone: (517) 483-1680
Email: firstname.lastname@example.com
Additional contact information
Open Hours
Monday - Friday: 9 am - 5 pm
To send an APPLEGRAM online,
fill-out the Applegram form.

subset: commoncrawl


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T-SQL Tuesday is a recurring blog party, that is started by Adam Machanic (Blog | @AdamMachanic). Each month a blog will host the party, and everyone that want's to can write a blog about a specific subject.
This month the subject is "Cloud Atlas". If you want to read the invite, please click the image below to go to the party-starter: Jorge Segarra (Blog | @SQLChicken).
For me, this will be a quick entry on my part to participate. I have a mixed bag of feelings about the Cloud and the buzz-wordiness that implies.
Disaster Struck
One of my biggest concerns with the cloud is the gloom and doom that has been felt by a client after a bout of corruption struck their database. The person on staff responsible for backups did a fantastic job of ensuring the database was backed up on a daily basis. That is not the doom and gloom sadly.
This particular case turned sour after corruption hit the database. The web application no longer connected to the database. The data was corrupt. The database was inaccessible. The client was distraught and sweating bullets. The client and the employee new not what to do so they sought me out to get some help.
After an assessment, we determined that the database needed to restored from backup. All of the backups were done fastidiously – to the cloud. The backups were only accessible through a specific application and the process required copying the backup from the cloud down to the server via the application. The process is pretty easy, right?
The recovery of the database took an entire week! The copy down through the application from the cloud was destructive to the business to say the least. The company had little to no chance of surviving being out of business for the outage caused by this scenario.
On the more positive side, there may be a silver lining to the cloud for many people. I have done more than my share of successful Cloud migrations. I have also seen many applications work very well from the Cloud.
One benefit to me personally about the Cloud is the ability to quickly spin up resources or even servers. Much like a VM farm, I can request more resources for a Server during specific workload times. And I can also dial down the gauges a bit when the workload is less intense.
I really like the idea of spinning up a machine in a matter of a few clicks and minutes. When SQL 2014 released CTP2, this was fantastic. I know several people took advantage of this ability and began playing with CTP2 almost immediately after the announcement of the CTP2 release.
Is the cloud right for you? I can't say. I have had success and failure related specifically to the cloud that might not have happened in a less "nimble" environment. The decision to move to the Cloud is frequently the decision made by somebody other than the technologist that must support the technology and the decision. If you are moving to the Cloud, you may succeed and enjoy it or you may fail and hate it. Your mileage will vary.


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February 28, 1958 - March 16, 2013
Greenville, NY
Marilee J. Paling Adamkovich of Greenville, NY and formerly of Sussex, NJ, passed away on Saturday, March 16, 2013, surrounded by her loving companion and family. She was 55.
The daughter of Marjorie L. Paling (nee Green) and the late Warren H. Paling, she was born on February 28, 1958 in Sussex, NJ.
She is also survived by her son, Jaysen Cseh and wife, Tanya of Westtown, NY; brothers: Warren Paling and wife, Christine of Sussex, William (Butch) Paling and wife, Kat of Middletown, NY, and sister, Madge McIntyre of Lexington, VA; four nephews, two nieces, one great nephew, one great niece and her loving companion, Barry Filipowski.
Marilee graduated from Sussex County Vocational Nursing Program. She worked as a private duty nurse taking care of many babies and children with serious health issues. She loved children, antiques, gardening, cooking and her animals.
As per Marilee's wishes, a private gathering was held upon her death and there will be no services.
The family requests, in lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to Compassionate Care Hospice Foundation, 350 Sparta Ave., Bldg B, Suite 2, Sparta, NJ 07871.
The family wishes to thank St. Anthony Community Hospital Staff, Westchester Medical Center, Dr.'s Sean Tejerati, Carmelo Puccio and Compassionate Care Hospice nurses and staff especially, Noreen and Sylvia, for the excellent care and support during Marilee's illness.
Funeral arrangements are under the direction of the T.S. Purta Funeral Home; to send a condolence online, or for directions, please go to www.purtafuneralhome.com


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You can't get GTA V on Steam today, but you can get GATV, a pack of downloadable content for Saints Row 4 that seems to have been created just to troll Rockstar.
The developers at Volition have always had a cheeky sense of humour, and this is pretty much the perfect prank: unbeatable promotion for their open-world game on release day for the world's biggest open-world game. The DLC is free for today only too.
Saints Row publisher Deep Silver has even paid to promote the tag #GATV on Twitter today, leading to a lot of confused reactions:
D-day for gamers!! #GATV is out today! Did you get the game at midnight? http://t.co/gkLw4iWIic pic.twitter.com/HA8p91tZmx — Marysabel Huston CNN (@hustonCNN) September 17, 2013
Hahaha. #GATV is trending - Guess people love Grand Auto Theft 5. — Metafron (@MetaFlame) September 17, 2013
what's #GATV I thought it was Grand Theft Auto — ITS ME JANINE (@janinepho) September 17, 2013
Why is GATV promoted by saints row? — Torn (@spikeymikey0302) September 17, 2013
The fact that "GATV" is trending leaves me little hope for humanity. There are FOUR letters to abbreviate this game, and you can't manage it — Zac Zavakos (@Z_Squared_ZnZ) September 17, 2013
Saints Row is promoting "#GATV"… Like… Y'all spelled it wrong… AND it's a separate game… I don't understand. pic.twitter.com/ZA2ujFsnfN — Snowflame ただ神話 (@arikwactor) September 17, 2013
I think that no one has realised that #GATV is misspelled is what's wrong with society. — Chris Lewis (@ColeWorldChris) September 17, 2013
I almost thought #GATV was #GTAV Saints Row is desperate for attention lol — At Eaze (@AtEaze808) September 17, 2013
How is #GATV #1 trend, it's misspelled �� smh — ≫ I S A I A H ≫ (@HashtagIsaiah) September 17, 2013
SMH indeed. SMH indeed.


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Podcasted: Sunday, 11 August 2013 - Sunday 18 August 2013
In the Preface of The Tyranny of God, I explain that before we get into discussing religion, we need to know what our Natural History is. We must begin from the very start to establish that we are all working on the same page, so to speak. Chapter 1 of the book is titled Cosmology. Cosmology is the study of the origins and eventual fate of the universe. I begin Chapter 1 with the Big Bang, because this is how far back human knowledge goes. So here it is, for you, this Sunday 11th of August 2013, Chapter 1 of The Tyranny of God.
This is our very first Reasonism Podcast. Today, I want to share with you a conversation I recently had with a Baptist Pastor. He is visiting from the Philippines with a relative of mine, whom he was grooming to become his assistant. We had a chat about the general state of affairs here in Australia. I was telling them how Australia has been doing fine economically but how recently, the demand for Western Australia's mining resources have begun to decline as a result of the reduced demand for China's goods world-wide. Slowly then the conversation progressed to what he thought was going on in the world. Because he is a Pastor, I expected somewhat of a religious tinge to the way he would read current affairs. I did, however, not expect it to be as bizzare as it turned out to be.
According to Matthew 1:18-25, Mary became pregnant with Jesus while she was engaged (but still unmarried) to Joseph. After Joseph found out about the pregnancy, he wanted to break off the engagement. But then an angel came to him in a dream, told him about Jesus, and persuaded him to go through with the marriage. Did other members of his family initially disapprove of his activities?
According to the gospels, Mary became pregnant with Jesus through a divine action. Luke 1:26-35 says that the angel Gabriel visited her beforehand and told her that "the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you." And Matthew 1:18 says "she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit." Is there a natural explanation?
Readers of the gospels are often puzzled by a short passage at Matthew 27:52-53, which comes just after the description of Jesus' death on the cross. The passage says that some dead holy people returned to life and came out of their tombs, then went into Jerusalem, where many inhabitants of the city saw them. Because the King James translation refers to these resurrected people as "saints", this event is sometimes called "the resurrection of the dead saints". How can we explain this mysterious passage in the Gospel of Matthew?
The crucifixion of Jesus took place at a site near Jerusalem called Golgotha. But exactly where was it located? Golgotha is the biblical name for the place where Jesus was crucified. It was probably a small hill just outside the walls of ancient Jerusalem. According to Christian tradition, it was within the area now occupied by the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. But some biblical scholars doubt that this is the correct location.
After Jesus ascended to heaven, many of his followers stayed in Jerusalem and gathered into a closely-knit group that became known as the Nazarenes. According to Acts 1:13-16, the group initially had about 120 members, including Jesus' mother Mary and all of his brothers. The two main leaders were Simon Peter and the oldest brother of Jesus, who was called James the Just. During an early meeting a man named Matthias was chosen to replace the traitor Judas Iscariot in the inner circle of the twelve primary disciples.
Was the original ending of this gospel accidentally lost? Was a new ending added later? Ancient copies of the Gospel of Mark can have several different endings. The shortest ending is found in the oldest manuscripts, all of which stop at verse 16:8. Most later manuscripts contain some additional verses, not always the same, which were apparently added to the gospel at later points in time. Excluding minor variations, these later additions created three new endings. The authors of these new endings didn't identify themselves.
Can people be possessed by demons? In ancient times many people believed that evil spirits can enter a person's body and take control of it. This was a common explanation for conditions such as epilepsy and madness. In modern terminology this "madness" probably referred to certain mental disorders such as schizophrenia and delirium. Even today, we still don't fully understand what causes these conditions. Ancient people, who had even less understanding, frequently put the blame on evil spirits.
According to some estimates, early Christians wrote at least twenty gospels that weren't included in the bible. Many of these non-biblical gospels apparently disappeared later, although it's possible that copies of some of them still survive at unknown locations. Luckily, several that appeared to be missing have been found again in modern times. But some are still missing, and could be permanently lost.


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DPD: Bodies found in trunks linked to website
Murder victims all women in their 20s
DETROIT – An investigation is underway after two bodies were found burned inside a vehicle on Detroit's east side.
Detroit Police Chief Ralph Godbee held a public safety announcement Monday afternoon. The chief said Sunday's deaths were related to the deaths of two Detroit women found in a car trunk on Dec. 19 on Promenade Avenue. All four deaths have been ruled homicides.
Godbee said that three of the four women were involved in an adult dating service listed at Backpage.com.
On Sunday, Detroit firefighters responded to a call on a fire at Lannette Street and Queen Street at about 1 a.m. The two bodies were found inside the trunk of a burning Buick LeSabre, which was inside the garage of a home.
The bodies were burned beyond recognition, police said. However, police said the bodies were of a 28-year-old woman and a 29-year-old woman and that the women worked for an escort service listed at Backpage.com.
"We have tentative identifications," Godbee said.
On Dec. 19, 23-year-old Renesha Landers and her 24-year-old cousin, Denesha Hunt, were found dead in the trunk of Landers' 2009 Chrysler 300 parked between abandoned houses on Promenade Avenue near Chalmers Street.
"At this time we are awaiting the medical examiner's final report on both incidents relative to the proximate cause of death of all four individuals," Godbee said. "Three of the four females have a connection to a website titled www.Backpage.com."
The chief said adult dating services are listed on the site. The site is a place to buy and sell things and also has personal ads.
"We implore people to be careful and always let someone know exactly when and where that intend on meeting this person or persons, which should be in a public place," Godbee said. "Our sole purpose is for the public to be cognizance of this website when engaged in adult activities."
Copyright 2011 by ClickOnDetroit.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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Hans James Hansen
March 14, 1957-April 17, 2013
Pleasanton, California
Contact the submitter
Hans James Hansen, 56, of Pleasanton, passed away on April 17 surrounded by his family. Hans was born to Howard and Virginia Hansen in Pleasanton, where he lived his entire life except for his years away at college. He met his wife Jill at Amador and they were married for 35 years. In his thirties, he became a Christian, which became the cornerstone of his life. His belief was the source of his incredible strength and optimism through his years of illness. Hans was a brilliant engineer, earning many patents, and truly enjoyed going to work every day. He will be remembered for his fantastic sense of humor and ability to make friends wherever he went. He is survived by his daughter Katrina (Seth) High of Boulder, CO, his son Aaron (Barbara) Hansen of Coronado, his daughter Sarah Hansen of San Francisco, and his daughter AnnMarie (Nicholas) Smith of Woodland Hills. A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. on Saturday, April 27, at Cornerstone Fellowship in Livermore. Donations in Hans? name may be made to Hume Lake Ministries (www.humelake.org) or to Gospel for Asia (www.gfa.org).


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Verta Taylor Award Statement
Dr. Taylor's career is characterized by courageous and innovative scholarship, innovative teaching, and selfless mentoring that is evident throughout the field today. One of Dr. Taylor's major contributions has been bringing gender into social movement studies and in connecting gender and sexuality studies. She did this, not just by her work on the women's movement (Survival in the Doldrums), but also by a study of a movement by women that didn't look like what we thought a women's movement would be. Rock-a-by Baby: Feminism, Self-Help, and Postpartum Depression, her archival, observational, and interview study of the social movement started by women who mobilized around feeling that their postpartum depression was misunderstood and ignored, forced both the field of social movements and gender scholars to rethink some of their assumptions. It didn't fit many gender scholars' assumptions when women saw self-help groups, medicalization of their problem, and seeing postpartum depression as a sex-specific biologically-based affliction as empowering. The social movements literature took note too, when they had previously ignored most movements of women, focused on movements directed against the state (this one wasn't), and, for decades, ignored the role of emotions in favor of "cooler" concepts such as resources, interests, and "political opportunity structures." In this movement, expressing anger at doctors was key. The book also made contributions to the sociology of culture and sociology of emotions.
Her most recent book, Drag Queens at the 801 Cabaret, winner of the Sex and Gender Sections distinguished publication award in 2005, is about female impersonators. It is a qualitative study of their performances and off-stage life. In an innovation, she used focus groups of mainly heterosexual, conventional, non-cross-dresssing audience members from the performances to see how the transgressive aspects of the performances affected their thinking about gender. Her current project is on the social movement for gay marriage rights. Throughout her extraordinarily productive career, Taylor has brought an open mind and fresh perspectives to everything she has studied. She has mainstreamed gender into the field of social movements and brought more thinking about social movements and sexuality to the sociology of gender.
As an educator and mentor on gender issues, Taylor is also impressive. She was won many teaching awards at both Ohio State University and UC Santa Barbara. She is also the co-editor of Feminist Frontiers, one of the best selling anthologies for introductory Women's Studies or Sociology of Gender courses, about to come out in its 8th edition. For each new edition, new articles are added. Through this effort, she has influenced generations of undergraduates.
Dr. Taylor is also an indefatigable mentor of graduate students, often publishing with students and helping them navigate the job market. Her efforts did not go unnoticed—she was awarded the 1995 SWS mentoring award. Today, many of her students are successful academics continuing to contribute to gender studies.


text:
100% secure payment system
Pay in US dollars
Over 3.5 million tickets sold
A COVID-19 update for our community. Read more
A COVID-19 update for our community. Read more
About Ticmate
From $ 91.00
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Our Best of Venice tour is perfect for visitors with only a limited time in Venice who wants to get a true taste of the city. See the most famous sites of the Venice, including St. Mark's Basilica and the Rialto Bridge.
- Enjoy a 2-hour 45 minutes walking tour in Venice
- Learn about the city's history and culture
- Skip the line to St. Mark's Basilica
- Enjoy a beautiful 30-minute gondola ride
- Get tickets to the famous terraces of St. Mark's Basilica
- Enjoy a guaranteed small tour group (max. 24 people)
The Best of Venice
As you wander the streets and piazzas of central Venice, your expert, the English-speaking guide will keep you entertained with stories about how Venice was built and how it became one of the world's oldest republics. Listen as your guide weaves tales about Venice's most famous residents, the parties that earned the city its name and the culture that has made it one of the world's most popular destinations.
The tour starts at one of Venice's must-see sights - the Rialto Bridge. Then we make our way through the narrow streets and over the tiny bridges as we make our way into the heart of the city.
You'll visit Marco Polo's house and hear about the Venetian son who went to sea one day and came back with stories of China and the world in the East that few had ever seen.
You'll encounter the lively piazzas of Campo SS Giovanni e Paolo and Campo Santa Maria Formosa, where Byzantine influences, Renaissance buildings, and modern structures tell the eclectic story of the city's development.
You'll see the Bridge of Sighs on the way to the final and most impressive stop - St. Mark's Basilica. After marveling over St. Mark's Square, we'll skip the long lines into St. Mark's Basilica. With less time waiting outside we'll have more time to admire the beautiful frescoes inside the basilica.
The tour also includes a trip up to the famous terraces of St. Mark's. Rarely included on guided tours, the terraces offer beautiful views over the piazza and plenty of opportunity to take photos.
Next, your guide will accompany you to the Gondola Station, where you'll begin our 30-minute gondola tour of the waterways with a real local gondoliere.
How do I get my tickets?
Shortly after your booking is complete your e-ticket will be sent directly to your email, just print it out and bring it on your tour.
Where does the tour begin?
The tour starts in front of the bronze statue of a man in Campo S. Bortolomio, on the San Marco side of the Rialto Bridge. Please be there 15 minutes before the tour starts.
How long does the tour last?
The tour lasts 2 hours and 45 minutes.
What language is the tour available in?
The tour is available in English.
Is there a dress code?
Yes, entrance into religious sites requires a strict dress code. Knees and shoulders must be covered for both men and women. City Wonders and Ticmate cannot be held responsible for refused entry due to improper dress.
Are there children's tickets?
Yes, children's tickets are available for children between age 4-14. Children under age 4 are free when accompanied by a paying adult.
Important information:
- Please do not bring large bags, tripods or backpacks on this tour. They are not permitted in St. Mark's Basilica and must be checked into the luggage storage area off-site. You may miss a portion of the tour for this procedure.
- The tour ends at the Rialto Bridge.
- The tour involves a fair amount of walking, and there are a number of steep steps on the terraces of St. Mark's Basilica. Comfortable shoes are recommended.
- We regret that we are unable to accommodate guests with wheelchairs or any impairments requiring special assistance. We are also unable to accommodate strollers or baby carriages on our group tours.
- Photography is permitted throughout most of the tour; however, photography is prohibited in St. Mark's Basilica.
- Some sites visited lack shade and can be hot under direct sunlight. We recommend bringing a hat, sunscreen and a bottle of water in warm weather.
Instant confirmation
Print out voucher
Running Time: 2 hours 45 minutes
Best of Venice Tour w. Gondola Ride
English helpdesk
Need help with your booking? We will gladly answer your questions.


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Intel Cancels Larrabee Retail Products, Larrabee Project Lives Onby Ryan Smith on December 4, 2009 12:00 AM EST
- Posted in
- Ryan's Ramblings
We just got off the phone with Nick Knupffer of Intel, who confirmed something that has long been speculated upon: the fate of Larrabee. As of today, the first Larrabee chip's retail release has been canceled. This means that Intel will not be releasing a Larrabee video card or a Larrabee HPC/GPGPU compute part.
The Larrabee project itself has not been canceled however, and Intel is still hard at work developing their first entirely in-house discrete GPU. The first Larrabee chip (which for lack of an official name, we're going to be calling Larrabee Prime) will be used for the R&D of future Larrabee chips in the form of development kits for internal and external use.
The big question of course is "why?" Officially, the reason why Larrabee Prime was scrubbed was that both the hardware and the software were behind schedule. Intel has left the finer details up to speculation in true Intel fashion, but it has been widely rumored in the last few months that Larrabee Prime has not been performing as well as Intel had been expecting it to, which is consistent with the chip being behind schedule.
Bear in mind that Larrabee Prime's launch was originally scheduled to be in the 2009-2010 timeframe, so Intel has already missed the first year of their launch window. Even with TSMC's 40nm problems, Intel would have been launching after NVIDIA's Fermi and AMD's Cypress, if not after Cypress' 2010 successor too. If the chip was underperforming, then the time element would only make things worse for Intel, as they would be setting up Larrabee Prime against successively more powerful products from NVIDIA and AMD.
The software side leaves us a bit more curious, as Intel normally has a strong track record here. Their x86 compiler technology is second to none, and as Larrabee Prime is x86 based, this would have left them in a good starting position for software development. What we're left wondering is whether the software setback was for overall HPC/GPGPU use, or if it was for graphics. Certainly the harder part of Larrabee Prime's software development would be the need to write graphics drivers from scratch that were capable of harnessing the chip as a video card, taking in to consideration the need to support older APIs such as DX9 that make implicit assumptions about the layout of the hardware. Could it be that Intel couldn't get Larrabee Prime working as a video card? That's going to be a big question that's going to hang over Intel's heads right up to the day that they finally launch a Larrabee video card.
Ultimately when we took our first look at Larrabee Prime's architecture, there were 3 things that we believed could go wrong: manufacturing/yield problems, performance problems, and driver problems. Based on what Intel has said, we can't write off any of those scenarios. Larrabee Prime is certainly suffering from something that can be classified as driver problems, and it may very well be suffering from both manufacturing and performance problems too.
To Intel's credit, even if Larrabee Prime will never see the light of day as a retail product, it has been turning in some impressive numbers at trade shows. At SC09 last month, Intel demonstrated Larrabee Prime running the SGEMM HPC benchmark at 1 TeraFLOP, a notable accomplishment as the actual performance of any GPU is usually a fraction of its theoretical performance. 1TF is close to the theoretical performance of NVIDIA's GT200 and AMD's RV770 chips, so Larrabee was no slouch. But then again its competition would not be GT220 and RV770, it's Fermi and Cypress.
Next, this brings us to the future of Larrabee. Larrabee Prime may be canceled, but the Larrabee project is not. As Intel puts it, Larrabee is a "complex multi-year project" and development will be continuing. Intel still wants a piece of the HPC/GPGPU pie (least NVIDIA and AMD get it all to themselves) and they still want in to the video card space given the collision between those markets. For Intel, their plans have just been delayed.
The Larrabee architecture lives on
For the immediate future, as we mentioned earlier Larrabee Prime is still going to be used by Intel for R&D purposes, as a software development platform. This is a very good use of the hardware (however troubled it may be) as it allows Intel to bootstrap the software side of Larrabee so that developers can get started programming for real hardware while Intel works on the next iteration of Larrabee. Much like how NVIDIA and AMD sample their video cards months ahead of time to game developers, we expect that Larrabee Prime SDKs would be limited to Intel's closest software partners, so don't expect to see much if anything leak about Larrabee Prime once chips start leaving Intel's hands, or to see extensive software development initially. Widespread Larrabee software development will still not start until Intel ships the next iteration of Larrabee, if this is the case.
We should know more about the Larrabee situation next year, as Intel is already planning on an announcement at some point in 2010. Our best guess is that Intel will announce the next Larrabee chip at that time, with a product release in 2011 or 2012. Much of this will depend on what the hardware problem was and what process node Intel wants to use. If Intel just needs the ability to pack more cores on to a Larrabee chip then 2011 is a reasonable target, otherwise if there's a more fundamental issue then 2012 is more likely. This lines up with the process nodes for those years: if they go for 2011 they hit the 2nd year of their 32nm process, otherwise if they launched in 2012 they would be able to launch it as one of the first products on the 22nm process.
For that matter, Since the Larrabee project was not killed, it's a safe assumption that any future Larrabee chips are going to be based on the same architectural design. The vibe from Intel is that the problem is Larrabee Prime and not the Larrabee architecture itself. The idea of an x86 many-cores GPU is still alive and well.
On-Chip GMA-based GPUs: Still On Schedule For 2010
Finally, there's the matter of Intel's competition. For AMD and NVIDIA, this is just about the best possible announcement they could hope for. On the video card front it means they won't be facing any new competitors through 2010 and most of 2011. That doesn't mean that Intel isn't going to be a challenge for them – Intel is still launching Carkdale and Arrandale with on-chip GPUs next year – but they won't be facing competition at the high-end too. For NVIDIA in particular, this means that Fermi has a clear shot at the HPC/GPGPU space without competition from Intel, which is exactly the kind of break NVIDIA needed since Fermi is running late.
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AnandThenMan - Friday, December 4, 2009 - linkWhich is quite surprising in retrospect. When AMD purchased ATI, it was heralded by many as one of the worst business deals of all time. Too expensive, ATI tech is not good enough, too much money to pay just to be able to offer a complete platform. (many believed AMD would outright give up doing high end discreet parts)
Yes Intel will be first with a CPU/GPU hybrid, but marrying such a terrible GPU to an excellent CPU yields a very unbalanced and strange piece of silicon. Sure, Intel could potentially improve their GPU, but how many years have we been hearing that was going to happen? Performance is still incredibly lackluster. Wasn't the whole idea of Larrabee in the first place? Get close to the class leading performance, or at least in the same universe.
Ironic how AMD ends being the only one out there with the tech to make a balanced Fusion type product. Reply
mutarasector - Saturday, December 12, 2009 - link"Which is quite surprising in retrospect. When AMD purchased ATI, it was heralded by many as one of the worst business deals of all time. Too expensive, ATI tech is not good enough, too much money to pay just to be able to offer a complete platform"
I remember the criticisms of AMD's aquisition of ATI very well. At the time, I too was a bit concerned - not because it was a bad idea for AMD to buy ATI, but it was a *bad time* to do so considering the legal entanglement with their suit against Intel. While AMD needed to become a complete platform vendor, the expense of chewing two big bites (aquisition + Intel suit) darn near choked AMD.
Strangely enough, the economy tanking may have actually worked to AMD's advantage with regard to the ATI aquisition because it forced AMD to focus on the mid level and low end market segments well ahead of Intel -- essentially beating a 'tactical retreat' and digging in there. ATI, the very thing that almost *choked* AMD is now the very corporate asset that is keeping AMD competitive with just enough cash flow/revenue stream to be able to withstand the losses AMD has had to suffer for as long as they have. Roll the clock ahead a few years, and a nice healthy settlement with Intel, and now there is hope for AMD to actually be able to work back to being competitive in the high-end market segment again - especially with the in-house manufacture limitation *gone* (allowing AMD to go completely fabless). Reply
mutarasector - Saturday, December 12, 2009 - link"Which is quite surprising in retrospect. When AMD purchased ATI, it was heralded by many as one of the worst business deals of all time. Too expensive, ATI tech is not good enough, too much money to pay just to be able to offer a complete platform"
I remember the criticisms of AMD's aquisition of ATI very well. At the time, I too was a bit concerned - not because it was a bad idea for AMD to buy ATI, but it was a *bad time* to do so considering the legal entanglement with their suit against Intel. While AMD needed to become a complete platform vendor, the expense of chewing two big bites (aquisition + Intel suit) darn near choked AMD.
Strangely enough, the economy tanking may have actually worked to AMD's advantage with regard to the ATI aquisition because it forced AMD to focus on the mid level and low end market segments well ahead of Intel -- essentially beating a 'tactical retreat' and digging in there. ATI, the very thing that almost *choked* AMD is now the very corporate asset that is keeping AMD competitive with just enough cash flow/revenue stream to be able to withstand the losses AMD has had to suffer for as long as they have. Roll the clock ahead a few years, and a nice healthy settlement with Intel, and now there is hope for AMD to actually be able to work back to being competitive in the high-end market segment again - especially with the in-house manufacture limitation *gone* (allowing AMD to go completely fabless). Reply
Technium - Saturday, December 5, 2009 - linkIntegrating Intel's GPU into Sandy Bridge is aimed mostly towards the low end (very low end) segment where FPS in Crysis are meaningless. Practically all the enterprise market and quite a lot of the retail market (desktop/laptop) can settle for a cheap GPU that can do anything but play new games, take zero space and very little power. This will also be the first time an integrated GPU is manufactured on the same process (32nm) as the CPU. Sandy Bridge's successor "Ivy Bridge" will be a 22nm part with even lower power and better performance.
My work PC is a laptop with Intel graphics and it does the job - connect OK to various screens and projectors.
The rant about the performance of the integrated GPUs is ridiculous - for proper game play you must buy a 100W or more GPU. You'll never ever get the same performance from a 5W part during the same generation. Since the game companies always aim towards the mid-high end segment, my statement holds. Reply
eddieroolz - Sunday, December 6, 2009 - linkI disagree about your assertion that the performance of IGP not mattering in the low end segment.
My laptop, an GMA4500 HP, struggles with heavy flash. The reason partially lies in the weak laptop CPU, but a lot of the lag does have to do with the crappy Intel IGP.
Elsewhere, we have the older X3100-based Macbooks which struggle even to play YouTube in standard definiton, or run a Java game at full speed. Again, those things are slowed down by the Intel solutions, as on a Ion-based system it wouldn't happen.
HD-movies also will benefit from beefier graphical solutions - just look at the difference between Ion and GMA4500. Reply
rs1 - Sunday, December 6, 2009 - linkExactly, gaming performance is no longer the only reason to want a decent GPU in your system. As Blu-ray drives and HD content continue to become more widespread, and as more applications start going the GPU accelerated route like Flash, the performance of the GPU is going to become more important, even for users who never play a demanding 3d game.
As I said above, the failure of Larrabee leaves AMD in a relatively strong position for the next couple of years. The only question is whether or not they'll be able to execute on it. Reply
AnandThenMan - Friday, December 4, 2009 - linkThis writeup has some odd assumptions. You are saying that the architecture itself is sound, but there is some hardware problem, presumably Intel cannot pack enough cores using current fab tech to make it competitive in traditional graphics?
Well if that's so, then the architecture is NOT sound. Waiting for a better process node is pointless, because your competition will move to a new one as well, combined with much better performance. If the architecture was truly solid, then it would be a competitive part if it was made today. Waiting to make the hardware viable and competitive is a losing battle because your competition never sits still, which is exactly what has happened to Larrabee as it stand today.
Larrabee is just not a good idea for traditional graphics rendering. Reply
Olen Ahkcre - Saturday, January 9, 2010 - link"Devil is in the details..."
Larabee looks good on paper, but working out the details is much, MUCH more problematic.
Which general means something is overlooked or the design is more complicated than it needs to be or they're taking the wrong approach to the problem.
In the case of Larabee concept, I think Intel is taking the wrong approach to problem.
GPGPU is in fact not about "cloud-computing" or stream-processors or compute-shaders... GPGPU is in fact largely a misnomer, (a red herring, if you will) which often causes a problem of aiming for the target.
What Intel or AMD or whoever wants to get ahead in next stage of the computer evolution is to build a faster floating-point processor. Which is EXACTLY what Nvidia has done... inadvertently, because the requirements for building a super-fast 3D accelerator requires huge amounts of floating calculations... and when Nvidia bought Aegia PhysX they stumbled on yet another piece of the next computer evolutionary stage, software/hardware physics engine... perfect for doing simulations scientific and otherwise.
Think about what is common in stream-processors and compute-shaders and supercomputing... number crunching... FLOPS (floating-point operation per second).
To put it in the simplest terms what they're aiming for is a massive floating-point processing unit array...
Why Intel shouldn't try to build a GPGPU is, in my opinion this...
They became too dominant in the CPU arena to the point of overlooking THE one major area that they could have excelled the field of supercomputers.... floating point processing and they lost sight of that target when CPUs for personal computers surpassed CPUs designed for super-computers and laps into complacency.
Floating-point calculations... as far as I know, the SSE (Streaming SIMD units) on multicore processors aren't coordinated to operate as a single unit... something for AMD and Intel to look into. The area might be worth looking into for various reasons I won't go into, yet.
The approach one I would recommend is looking to coordinating the SSE units on multicore CPUs from the software stand point and work back to how to improve the hardware design in the CPU for more efficient operating conditions.
The area of focus I would recommend (if I was making the choice) would be Blu-ray (1920x1080 resolution, H.264) decoding. With a the combination of 4-series integrated graphics device and a dual-core processor, there should be enough processing and memory bandwidth to play back Blu-ray movies without dropping any frames. At least that's my opinion anyways.
Why focus on Blu-ray... Blu-ray requires lots of computing power... and it's a more popular format than DVD (or it will be and why someone should start working on a solution now rather than later). Blu-ray movies don't play back all that well on a lot of laptops I've tested.
Another reason for Intel to work this out is Nvidia looks like they're going to take another chunk and/or create a new market segment... set top box sized computers using another flavor of their general-purpose GPU to play-back Blu-ray using dual-core ARM processors.
The area they've overlooked is how to improve computing power... their answer is just add more cores and hyperthreading.... all the while neglecting the SSE units, which could be utilized better.
I mean the whole processor idea could use some serious rethinking.
Set-top box media computers all the way up to supercomputers.
Various types of servers for example don't need floating-point processors at all... (file, print, search engines, databases, etc.)
Logistical analysis (like chess) doesn't require floating-pointing processors...
Intel needs to work out how to divide up the transistor real estate better...
System-on-a-Chip (SOC) up to discreet integer/floating-point units for supercomputing needs.
The number of ... aaahhh-hhhaaa!!!
Sorry for rambling on and on... I need to work out some of the details...
but what I see is several different flavors of overlapping CPU designs... targeted for various market segments...
Still working out the details...
The ideas are coming faster than I can sort out in my head much less type...
Well that's it for now... just some ideas to throw out there if anyone is interested. Reply
qcmadness - Friday, December 4, 2009 - linkThe 1024-bit ringbus could be the problem.
Remember when ATi put a ringbus in R520 and removed it in RV770?
I don't think chip-wide cache coherency is good either. Reply
Sahrin - Friday, December 4, 2009 - linkThis is exactly what I expected after that weird out-of-the-blue announcement of the suspiciously Larrabee-like 'cloud CPU' with '48' 'very simple x86' cores (read: mesh of 48 in-order x86 CPU's)
Too bad, the graphics market could use the competition (especially since nVidia seems prepared to cede control of the market to ATI).
I wonder if this has anything to do with the anti-trust (that is - probably not a good idea to invest a bunch of money entering a new market place when you're about to get fined billions of dollars and may be told at the end of a long an expensive development project that you can't release the product due to anti-trust sanctions)? Reply


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Patras Science Park Innovation Hubs
Patras Science Park has taken the initiative to set up and develop Innovation HUBs in the following selected research, technological and business sectors: • Nanotechnology • Aroma • Biohealth • Smart Cities • Cleantech Energy • Aeronautics • Blue Innovation Hub
The conception of innovation hubs is an important opportunity for the Region of Western Greece, as it aims to strengthen research, technological development, innovative ideas and cooperation with interested business partners. Patras Science Park with this initiative, aims to assist, where possible, to the reintegration of the Region through the penetration of the existing research / innovation ecosystem (which is highly developed in Western Greece) to industry's production, with the aim to increase competitiveness, create new jobs while limiting the phenomenon of brain-drain. Select one to see more:


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Designs and variants
The SKF assortment of super-precision angular contact thrust ball bearings for screw drives can accommodate virtually any requirement placed on support bearings for screw drives. SKF supplies three types of support bearings:
- single direction bearings
- double direction bearings
- cartridge units with a flanged housing
The main criteria used when selecting bearings to support screw drives are axial stiffness and load carrying capacity, running accuracy, speed, and frictional moment. Other factors to consider can be the moment stiffness of a bearing arrangement or the ability to cope with misalignment between the shaft and housing. Mounting and seal requirements also need to be considered. Table 1 provides an overview of the criteria and to what extent the different bearing series fulfil the requirements.


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Wednesday, June 24
The Greatest Golfer to Never Win a U.S. Open
Snead won a record 82 PGA Tour events, including seven majors. Sam's last victory came at the 1965 Greater Greensboro Open at the age of 52, also a record. But, like Phil Mickelson (to date), the Slammer never broke through at the U.S. Open.
Ben Hogan (4) and Byron Nelson (1) won five between them. It surely haunted Snead, who had several near misses at the national championship.
The late Bob Rosburg played with Snead in the 1955 U.S. Open.
"He said nobody can win the Open that's missed as many putts as I have," Rossie told me last October. "He had a phobia about the Open and I think that's why he never won."
One of those missed putts − a two-and-a-half footer − was on the final hole of an 18-hole playoff against Lew Worsham in the 1947 U.S. Open at St. Louis Country Club. Both players had short par putts.
"The putts were very close to the same length," wrote veteran golf writer and Snead biographer Al Barkow in the New York Times.
"Snead thought he was farther away, and prepared to play. But when he was standing over his ball and just about to make his stroke, Worsham stopped him and called for a measurement to see who, in fact, was away. It was his right to do so, and so officials brought out a tape measure. As it happened, Snead was farthest from the hole − 30 1/2 inches to Worsham's 29 1/2.
"After the delay of some five minutes, Snead missed his slippery downhill putt. Worsham made his, an easier uphill putt, and Snead was once again denied the only major championship he never won."
−The Armchair Golfer
1 comment:
- Andy at HomeofGolf.TV said...
Somehow Neil he could not transfer his voracious appetite for winning tournaments on the PGA Tour to the Majors. He managed to win his first major only after he had 27 tour victories to his credit. But if at the end of the career a professional golfer has 7 Major wins to his credit then he will go down in the annals of history as one of the better exponents of the golfing art. The only blot, if you may so, was that he never managed to win the U.S. Open. He later on went to write in his autobiography "whether it was some kind of a jinx or whatever, it seemed that whenever the USGA flag went up at the Open, so did my score".
A tribute to the remarkable spirit of this great athlete was the fact that he played the game actively even when he was more than 70 years old. While last year everyone was been talking about Greg Norman's remarkable third place finish as a 52 year old at the 2008 Open Championship, Sam Snead had in fact got a third place finish to his credit at the 1974 PGA Championship as a 62 year old. The eventual winner that year was Lee Trevino but he just finished three strokes behind. He attributed his remarkable athleticism even at an old age to his squirrel hunting days in his childhood in Ashwood.


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Rural women speak out about food insecurity
Today's global food insecurity destabilizes rural communities all over the world, impeding their access to food and affecting their ability to earn a livelihood. In partnership with the Huairou Commission and WOCAN, FAO held a series of twenty one consultations with hundreds of women and men in Africa, Asia and Latin America to better understand the direct impacts of food security on their lives and those of their families.
Today's global food insecurity destabilizes rural communities all over the world, impeding their access to food and affecting their ability to earn a livelihood. While both rural men and women suffer heavily from this situation, women, who are the traditional providers and preparers of food for their families and communities, tend to be disproportionately affected because of their lack of access to resources like credit, land, technologies and infrastructure, and as such, elaborate distinctive coping strategies.
FAO, in partnership with the Huairou Commission and Women Organizing for Change in Agriculture & NRM (WOCAN), held a series of twenty one consultations with hundreds of women and some men from women's groups in Uganda, Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, Cameroon, Benin, Ethiopia, India, Nepal, the Philippines, Pakistan, Nicaragua, Jamaica, Honduras, Guatemala, Peru, Argentina, Bolivia and Ecuador to better understand the direct impacts of food security on their lives and those of their families.
The participants voiced their perspectives on the root causes of food insecurity and talked of the consequences on their lives and their communities and of the initiatives and solutions they were devising to survive. Here is an overview of the discussions:
Rural women's perspectives on the root causes of food insecurity
High food prices and export and import policies
"The cultivation of traditional foods has decreased in favor of cash crops so we have less available food. But also, the prices for our crops have considerably dropped and our income from them does not allow us to spend more on alternative foods for consumption."
Participating woman farmer, Pakistan.
Across all regions, the first items rural women talked about as major causes of food insecurity were high food prices and reduced incomes, the rising costs for agricultural inputs, and current import and export measures. In Africa, the women deplored the fact that cheap imported foods have hurt local subsistence farmers, leaving them unable to compete and threatening their livelihoods. This was echoed by the women in Latin America, who also talked about the unfairly low prices smallholder farmers received from intermediaries for their produce. On the other hand, in Asia, women explained that because of their governments' growing interest in exporting agricultural products, especially cash crops, the cultivation of traditional nutritious foods grown for local consumption like pulses, wheat and rice, had fallen, causing a loss in food diversity and nutritional intake. Across all regions, the different measures taken are similarly hurting smallholder farmers and causing communities to rely on cheaper and less nutritious imported food.
"The way the climate is now, it confuses us. Before, we knew that mid March was the time we expected rain and after the rain had fallen, we could plant our crops. But at times rains started coming earlier… Now we will go and plant our crops and when the crops start giving shoots, a very harsh sun will come and destroy them, and so we are confused about the climate and we do not know when to plant."
Participating woman farmer, Cameroon
Climate change and damaging agricultural practices
Climate change is experienced as a major threat. In Africa, the women explained that the phenomenon was increasingly delaying the arrival of rain while prolonging the rainy season and causing destructive winds, landslides, bush fire, and deforestation, all of which were making farming very difficult and leading to the loss of crops. In Asia, the women explained that the cultivation of traditional crops previously relied on sustainable and ecological methods and questioned the growing dependency on harsh fertilizers and pesticides, saying that these methods had damaged entire crops, polluted the soil, air and sources of water and endangered biodiversity. This was also brought up in Latin America where some of the groups explained that transnational businesses were overusing agrochemicals and fertilizers and that they had seen birds and insects disappearing, which was degrading the soil. Many talked of falling into debt when their harvest was destroyed. They added that damaging natural capital was making economic activity impossible.
Lack of access to capital, land and property, and privatization
In all regions, and particularly in Africa, the women discussed their lack of access to capital, land, credit, and to property because of insufficient legal rights or customary laws, issues that were affecting their ability to produce and to earn an income. They also discussed the increasing privatization of land, where big companies were buying up arable land to produce cash crops. In Africa, this has been causing rural women to travel greater and greater distances to find available land and to be subjected to higher payments by landlords. The problem of land grabbing by governments was also discussed and seen as a big concern for food security.
"Without land we will die of hunger."
Participating woman farmer, Nepal
For example, the women in a group in Nepal explained that the government wanted their land to build a major thoroughfare. In Africa, the women also talked about the poor infrastructure that was preventing access to markets and leaving communities unable to sell or buy. The lack of machinery, technology and storing facilities also made it impossible to process and preserve foods.
Political instability and graft
In Latin America, political instability was cited as exacerbating food insecurity with a freeze on international aid in some cases, and in Africa, many women reported instances of graft, such as the sell of tainted seeds and fake pesticides on markets, which was worsening the situation.
Food insecurity affects rural women's lives and the lives of their families and communities
"The family responsibility lies on women so that she distributes all available food for her children, husband, and other family members. If some of the food items are left she will have it, if not she suffers from hunger."
Participating woman farmer, Ethiopia
Across all of Africa and Asia, rural women noted that they and their children were the hardest hit. Women, who are traditionally responsible for maintaining the food security of the household, tend to be the first to go hungry as they give their food to other family members first. They have also widely taken on additional work and diversified their income-generating activities on top of their existing responsibilities.
Between hunger, extra work and other effects of food insecurity, many of them said that they and others had fallen seriously ill. In general, food insecurity has had an important negative impact on people's health. In addition to malnutrition, children and adults have become more vulnerable to depression, illnesses have been aggravated, and participants spoke of increased levels of alcoholism. People living with HIV/AIDS have also been severely affected–without access to antiretroviral therapy and well balanced, nutrient diets the condition of many has declined rapidly.
The insecurity is also destabilizing relationships within households in many ways. In Benin, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, and Zambia, the women said that many men were either abandoning their families or migrating in search of work and income to send money back, leaving the women as the heads of households. Women and youth were also increasingly moving to cities or large scale farms to find work, leaving behind the children and the elderly.
"If some family needed support to obtain food, we used to help them. Now we do not have food in storage, so help between the people in the community has decreased. Finding enough food for one's own family has become the priority."
Participating woman farmer, Nepal
In Africa, participants explained that instances of women being dispossessed of their land and property by in-laws or other groups were on the rise, and in Asia, many were trapped in a circle of debt and had been forced to sell personal belongings.
The women also explained that the social fabric of communities had deteriorated. The difficulties were so great and had been lasting for so long that people were no longer able to help each other and robberies and other illegal activities were on the rise. Sexual violence and prostitution were also worsening, increasing women's exposure to HIV and AIDS and other health problems.
"If a woman becomes poor, the household suffers, children will not go to school, they will not have good paid jobs, the health of children suffers too, the family remains poor and we end up with a community of illiterates with no skills and no money."
Participating woman farmer, Ghana
In all regions, women expressed very deep concerns about having to take their children –especially girls—out of school because school fee money was needed to purchase food or because they needed their children to go to work to earn an income or to help with household tasks. They said that children in school were also having problems learning because of malnutrition. In Africa, young girls were being more often forced into early marriages as their families could no longer feed them.
How rural women cope with the situation
"Most households could not afford onions in our village. One woman in the village had access to some land and water, but she did not have the money to invest in crops. Together, other women from the village bought seeds to grow onions on the available land. As a result, many households have access to onions. It would not have been the case if we had not put together our resources."
Participating woman farmer, India
Throughout all regions, rural women have been extremely industrious and inventive in coming up with solutions to soften the blow of food insecurity on their families and communities. In Asia, Africa and Latin America, rural women have organized collective farming initiatives to return to a greater cultivation of traditional food crops using traditional methods of farming including the use of manure as fertilizer and of ash as seed preservatives. They have started to share land and seeds, and the costs of expenses such as tractor services to plow the fields in order to maximize harvests. They have been devising farming methods to grow crops on depleted soils or with less water, such as the use of logs to channel water to the crops.
With the help of grassroots organizations, they have also created savings groups and credit collectives. For example, in India, the participants explained that they had created the Thankot Women's Savings and Credit Cooperatives, which have been a reliable resource for women to cope with rising food prices. They have also diversified their sources of income, such as selling crafts, and formed business partnerships.
"We have introduced a food bank. This is generally a place where we bring an agreed share of food for storage during the harvesting seasons. During the drought, this has been our safe haven. Many families have benefited from this initiative."
Participating woman farmer, Kenya
In Kenya and Ghana, rural communities have created food banks to store produce, allocating portions to the neediest families and developing canning techniques to prevent the food from perishing.
In Asia, women have organized local actions to support the prioritization of crop production for local consumption and to sell to local villages before selling to large markets. In Ecuador, Latin America, women's movement and indigenous movements jointly organized actions to push for the repeal of laws going against their economic, political and cultural rights, and to create new laws that better protect them.
Everywhere, the participating women called for support from local organizations and from the government with social protection programmes.
In Asia, the women asked for local organizations to support communities with crop management, diversification and training on new techniques and for the government to help with irrigation mechanisms, family planning and with the organization of gender networks to share knowledge and education. This was also the case in Africa, where women also wished governments would better support their land ownership rights and their productivity through better agricultural mechanization, subsidized inputs like fertilizers and better access to technologies and credit.
In Latin America, the women asked for governments to support stores where producers can trade directly with consumers without intermediaries, to provide special loans for agro-ecological production, and to improve access to land and credit.
"To avoid depending on rain fed crops, I risked my meager savings and drilled a borehole. I have been able to irrigate my vegetables and my household spending has considerably decreased."
Participating woman farmer, Kenya
In all regions, women also recommended that governments modify their trade strategies to better support local production.
Across the regions, the combination of poverty and the lack of social structures have compelled women to build their own support networks to protect themselves and their families from the impacts of food insecurity. While these women's courage in recognizing that they and their communities must become increasingly self reliant, and their resourcefulness in devising coping strategies that have shielded their families from many hardships, the discussions have made clear that they cannot alone face food insecurity and that more support is needed from governments in the form of social protection schemes that will decrease vulnerability to transient shock while mitigating the risks of future crises.
SOURCE: FAO at the United Nations
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WOMEN globally talk about food insecurities in rural areas
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Behind the Scenes with a Food Trucker: Your Questions Answered
Three months ago, Southern California's first Filipino food truck, The Manila Machine, rolled onto the streets of Los Angeles. Besides answering the general question of "What is Filipino food?" the launch of our truck has also elicited a number of more specific queries.
In addition to the few questions raised from some of my previous posts for Serious Eats, The Manila Machine inbox has been flooded with inquiries in regards to the food trucking business. I've been asked everything from "Where do you go to the bathroom?" to "How does one start their own food truck?"
So seeing as this is my final food trucker post on Serious Eats, I figured I'd answer some of the most frequently asked questions of me and The Manila Machine. The following questions were all raised from actual blog comments, real emails, and in-the-flesh customers walking up to The Manila Machine. Hopefully my answers can demystify some of the more arcane acts of food trucking--like where I take a wizz.
A Few Questions from Serious Eaters
Question: via @mh275: "where do you go to the bathroom???????"
Answer: I don't. At least not during a shift. Seriously. Things are so hot and hectic on a food truck that there is little time to even think about visiting the little boy's room. And remember, I'm in an enclosed box standing in front of a sizzling griddle, a bubbling fryer, and a steamy steam table--I do a lot of sweating, thus reducing the need for a bathroom break.
Q: via @HamburgerHelper: "And now having read a second posting here about how hard the work is and the downsides of running a food truck, is there any upside besides having people enjoy your food? I am truly curious, are you making a good living, or just getting by and hoping to do bigger and better things? For all the hard work and terrible hours, you deserve to be paid well for what you give the community who anxiously awaits the truck. Just wondering what you get out of this besides the satisfaction of knowing you provide the community a good service. And THANK YOU!"
A: Honestly, HamburgerHelper, the only REALISTIC upside to operating a food truck is indeed having people enjoy our food. As I've mentioned in previous posts here, food trucking is an incredibly competitive and difficult endeavor in Los Angeles. Granted, we've only been in business for three months, and things are going relatively well, but it is really and truly grueling work. Of course, we'd like to do bigger and better things, but right now, we are focused on serving the best food we can. As hokey as this might sound, I'm just glad people are learning about Filipino food--and for me, there is great satisfaction in that.
Q: via @phillamb168: "Is it weird that I think this sounds incredibly fun? I do have the same question as HamburgerHelper - how's the pay?"
A: It's not weird at all that you think food trucking sounds like fun, phillamb168. A lot of it is fun. I mean, I'm actually living out some crazy dream of mine by cooking the food of my culture for a living--crazy! As far as how the pay goes, first take into consideration all the food costs, the labor costs, the truck lease and maintenance costs, and then factor in that you have to split your profits with however many business partners you have. Yes, if all goes well, the pay can be good, but you shouldn't get into the food trucking business for money alone.
Random Questions Asked by Customers at the Truck
Q: "Is anything on your menu healthy?" (Yes, this really happened. Someone actually walked up to a food truck and perhaps wanted a bowl of bulgar--not that there's anything wrong with that.)
A: Actually, everything on our menu is made with quality ingredients. Sure, we serve chopped pig's face, pork belly, and spam, but everything's good in moderation, right?
Q: Are you guys actually Filipino?
A: Um. Yes.
Q: When are you going to serve beer?
A: Probably never. Serving alcohol from a vehicle is perhaps illegal in many places--even in Los Angeles.
Frequently Asked Questions via Email
Q: How did you conceptualize your menu?
A: The Manila Machine menu is the result of two food bloggers (myself and my business partner, Nastassia) brainstorming and cooking and brainstorming and cooking. Nastassia and I exchange ideas and taste test any concept or recipe before serving anything from our truck.
As far as the sweets on the truck go, Nastassia makes a mean calamansi tart, leche flan, and pan de sal bread pudding, among many other tasty goodies.
And many of the savory dishes on our menu originated from my own recipes that have appeared on my food blog. Everything from the lumpia, to the pork belly adobo, to the sisig, to the beef tapa on The Manila Machine Menu have all appeared on my blog in one way shape or form over the years.
Q: How much does it cost to start up a food truck business?
A: Before starting The Manila Machine, I asked the same question of other food truckers and the answers I received ranged from $15,000 to $80,000 for initial startup costs. And yes, I can confirm that range:)
Start up costs for food trucks in Los Angeles vary greatly. It all depends on if you lease or buy your truck, and on what kind of food you'll be serving. But in short, starting a food truck business is not as "cheap" as you may think. Of course, starting a food truck is less expensive than starting a restaurant, but a great amount of capital is still needed. Money aside, the cost in time and sanity alone is ginormous--I've aged 5 years in the last three months, and I'm also now completely nuts.
Q: I want to start a food truck of my own. Can you just give me a few words of wisdom and advice before I do so?
A: This is perhaps the question I get asked the most in regards to food trucking (besides where I go to the bathroom). And it's a good question to ask.
Before launching The Manila Machine, I also asked this same question of other food truckers. And you know what the overwhelming answer was? Nearly everyone I asked advice for said something along the lines of: "Don't do it. Don't start another food truck. The work is too hard. Keep your life and enjoy what you have."
I'm not kidding. That was the advice I was given. And for everyone else that asks me for that same advice, I'll also say the same thing: "Don't do it. Don't start another food truck. The work is too hard. Keep your life and enjoy what you have."
OK. So if you still want to go against that sage advice, and if you're anything like me and the many other crazy "nouveau" food truckers out there, at least heed the following:
- Understand that starting a food truck business will be THE hardest thing you will ever attempt (this is coming from someone who has no professional cooking experience and has never worked in a restaurant). You will never see your family. You will likely dream/have nightmares about prepping meat, angry customers, random ingredients, and anything else involved with your new venture. You will have some bad days.
- Don't start a food truck business expecting to make a million bucks, or hoping to meet Tyler Florence in various cities across the country. Of course, I want my own business to be successful and profitable--but there's more to it than that. Understand that you must have a lot of passion for the food you will be serving. Believe in your concept, and have faith that people will enjoy your food. There really and truly is something special about feeding people and putting smiles on their faces. You will have some good days.
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This was actually made a while ago, in May I think.....
It all started when a dear friend, Putu, contacted me and asked me if I would like to make a cake for her birthday, and of course I would!!! without a doubt! She knew what she wanted, and that made it a lot easier for me. She knew she wanted an Indonesian cheese cake, and she showed me a picture of a green cake that she liked.
Green is her favorite color (obviously :D), and I have become a green-fan these past few years. You see, green is used to be my least favorite color, but once my adult life had started, the love for green has been growing stronger and stronger in me :P. It was a little hard to copy the picture she gave me, not just because the picture was small and I couldn't see the detail and everything, but it's also because my lack of skill to do cake decorating :(. I was never an expert nor I was into cake decorating, like making a perfect basketweave cake with buttercream roses, making small fondant figurines, and all that. But it's not me if I just gave up and say I can't ;).
The pictures of the cake here may look simple, and it is simple. I've never said that she asked for too much or anything, in fact, she was nothing like that. She said just do what I can do, if I can't do roses, then that's fine (she's just a sweetheart :) ). The original pic had a lot more green buttercream roses and more buttercream leaves. Since I don't trust myself to make buttercream roses (plus the weather was too hot to hold my buttercream stiff enough to make the roses), I attempted for fondant roses instead. The side wall is just a simple green-colored fondant to make a smoother finish on the cake, or more like to cover my imperfect skill to smooth out the sides :P.
Overall, of course mine didn't look anywhere close to the original picture, but at least I tried my best and there are still lots of room for improvement.


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The moody, desolate affair that is Journey isn't an obvious choice for a hip-hop remix, but it's got one anyway. Don't worry. It's been tastefully done.
Raheem Jarbo, aka Mega Ran, is solely on production duties here (so no rapping), remixing four tracks from Austin Wintory's amazing score and putting the resulting EP up for free download on Bandcamp.
Journey: A Hip Hop Excursion [Bandcamp]


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Forest Whitaker is a distinguished artist and humanist. He is the founder of PeaceEarth Foundation, co-founder and chair of the International Institute for Peace, and the UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for Peace and Reconciliation. A versatile talent, Forest is one of Hollywood's most accomplished performers, receiving such prestigious honors as a Best Actor Academy Award for his performance in The Last King of Scotland, as well as a Best Actor at the Cannes Film Festival for Bird.
Over the past decade, he has dedicated most of his time to extensive humanitarian work, feeling compelled by his social awareness to seek ways of using the film medium as a means of raising peoples' consciousness. To that end, he produced the award-winning documentary Kassim the Dream, which tells the touching story of a Ugandan child soldier turned world champion boxer; Rising from Ashes, which profiles Rwandan genocide survivors' attempt to qualify for the Olympics riding wooden bicycles; Serving Life, which focuses on hospice care for prisoners at Louisiana's Angola Prison; and the Peabody Award-winning Brick City, which offers an unvarnished peek at inner-city life in Newark, N.J.
Whitaker was the 2007 recipient of the Cinema for Peace Award, and he currently sits on the board of the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities. In addition, he serves as a Senior Research Scholar at Rutgers University, and as a Visiting Professor at Ringling College of Art and Design, too.
Besides the aforementioned films, Forest's impressive resume' includes The Great Debaters, The Crying Game, Panic Room, Platoon, Ghost Dog, Mr. Holland's Opus and Good Morning Vietnam. Here, he talks about his latest outing as the title character in Lee Daniels' The Butler, a decades-spanning sage chronicling the life and career of an African-American who served eight presidents in the White House.
Kam Williams: Hi Forest, I'm honored to have this opportunity.
Forest Whitaker: Oh, no, it's a pleasure just to talk to you, Kam.
KW: What interested you in The Butler?
FW: It's an amazing story. And the script was beautiful in the way it followed this man who served eight presidents and portrayed his love for his family, as well as the love between him and his son. So, I saw it as offering a great challenge and opportunity. And I thought that Lee [director Lee Daniels] would do a wonderful job with the script as a filmmaker, so that was an attraction as well. And I had wanted to work with Oprah, so all of that came together to afford me this tremendous opportunity.
KW: Did the film's father-son relationship resonate with you when you reflected upon your relationship with your own dad?
FW: Yes, it's hard to always understand and appreciate your father when you're coming up, especially since my dad had three jobs when we moved to L.A. So, he was always working. Plus, coming from the South, from Texas, he had a certain way of disciplining that made it hard for me to appreciate, at the time. You don't fully appreciate the reasons why or the sacrifices that were being made until a later age. In some ways it did parallel the journey of ultimate appreciation that we see in the movie of me towards my son and my son towards me.
KW: How did you prepare for the role of Cecil Gaines?
FW: I trained with a butler coach for quite some time. And I studied the history and, of course, tried to make that a part of my own emotional understanding of the time period and the presidency. In terms of the aging process, I particularly had to work on movement and mannerisms. I also tried to understand the dialect and speech patterns. And I worked on how I could communicate my thoughts more clearly without words. I wanted to fill myself up enough so that you would be able to feel my thoughts, even in scenes where I would say nothing.
KW: That hard work paid off. I cried about a half-dozen times during the film.
FW: It's very moving because it deals with so many primal issues: loss, degradation, even joy. Lee painted a picture that allows you to get in touch with many different emotions.
KW: True. Attorney Bernadette Beekman asks: What was it like acting opposite Oprah?
FW: Oprah just really committed completely to the movie. She was startling, at times, in how deeply she was into the authenticity of the scenes. For instance, there was a big emotional moment that wasn't shown completely in the film where she screamed and fell to the ground, letting out a piercing wail that went through my bones. It had me trying to figure out how to comfort her, because it's hard to find the proper emotion to respond to pain that overwhelms.
KW: Editor/Legist Patricia Turnier says: You are a great director, in addition to of course being an excellent actor. Personally, I love biopics, like where you played Charlie Parker in Bird. Is there a story about an icon that you would like to direct and star in?
FW: Yes, there's a film I've been developing about Louie Armstrong that I'd like to direct and star in. I wrote the script and really believe in it. I think it's something I'll probably do next year, although I haven't made a final decision about whether I should direct it or not. It's a really special story.
KW: Leah Fletcher asks: How did it feel, when you were just breaking into the industry, to receive such a glowing acknowledgment from a seasoned and respected actor such as Sean Connery for your work in The Crying Game?
FW: Leah, I didn't even know 'til now that Sean Connery had commented about my work in The Crying Game. A lot of Brits believe that I was British for quite some time after that film. So, I can see how Sean Connery might have said something. That's nice.
KW: Harriet Pakula-Teweles says: You produced the extraordinary Fruitvale Station. Is this a new role you see for yourself?
FW: The truth is, I produce one or two movies every year, both independent and studio films. I'll continue to produce. In fact, I have a documentary that just came out about the Rwandan National Cycling team called Rising from Ashes.
KW: I loved it!
FW: Oh, you already saw it. Great!
KW: You can check out my review at Rotten Tomatoes. Bernadette also says: You are a true Renaissance Man. Besides acting, you write, direct, narrate and produce. You're like a latter-day Oscar Micheaux.
FW: Oscar Micheaux reshaped the Black Film Movement. Those are some great shoes to fill. I can only take that as a compliment. Thanks, Bernadette. That gives me something to live towards, because it's a lot.
KW: Director Rel Dowdell, who has made two low-budget films, including Changing the Game last year, would like to know how he can pitch you about a project.
FW: I have my company, Significant Productions, in Los Angeles. And I also have a company called JuntoBox Films Select, a crowd-sourcing film site which we produce movies out of. We just finished one with a first-time filmmaker, called Sacrifice. And we're about to do another one in a month or so. Rel can reach out to either one of those companies.
KW: Is there any question no one ever asks you, that you wish someone would?
FW: [Chuckles] I can't think of one.
KW: The Sanaa Lathan question: What excites you?
FW: Two things: The success of my children, and the work for social justice that I do with my foundation.
KW: When you look in the mirror, what do you see?
FW: I see someone who is continuing to try to build his connection with the rest of the world.
KW: If you could have one wish instantly granted, what would that be for?
FW: That everyone could recognize themselves in the face of the other people that they see.
KW: The Kerry Washington question: If you were an animal, what animal would you be?
FW: Either a leopard or an eagle.
KW: The Ling-Ju Yen question: What is your earliest childhood memory?
FW: My dad teaching me to ride a bike at about 5 or 6.
KW: The Anthony Mackie question: Is there something that you promised to do if you became famous, that you still haven't done yet?
FW: No, and my goals have expanded.
KW: The Viola Davis question: What's the difference between you are at home as opposed to the person we see on the red carpet?
FW: I'm the same person, just with different clothes on. I'm the same.
KW: The Anthony Anderson question: If you could have a superpower, which one would you choose?
FW: I'd be a spreader of love.
KW: The Gabby Douglas question: If you had to choose another profession, what would that be?
FW: I'd either be a natural healer or a teacher.
KW: The bookworm Troy Johnson question: What was the last book you read?
FW: Solutions Focus.
KW: The Judyth Piazza question: What key quality do you believe all successful people share?
FW: Passion!
KW: Harriet also asks: With so many classic films being redone, is there a remake you'd like to star in?
FW: The Audrey Hepburn-Albert Finney film, Two for the Road.
KW: What advice do you have for anyone who wants to follow in your footsteps?
FW: Always tell yourself that you want to continue to grow, and you'll be more connected to growth.
KW: The Jamie Foxx question: If you only had 24 hours to live, how would you spend that time?
FW: With my family.
KW: Thanks again for the time, Forest, and best of luck with The Butler, and I hope to talk to you about your upcoming independent project.
FW: Sure, Kam, and thanks again for supporting Rising from Ashes.


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The Daily Bell adopts an "elite methodology" that it had previously blasted
After their Alexa.com ranking tanked, the gold bug site the Daily Bell shot the messenger in calling Alexa's ranking system an "elite methodology."
Well, look who's adopted an "elite methodology" now. As of November 8, 2012, none other than the Daily Bell, itself, has adopted one, by installing Alexa's paid service, "CERTIFIED PRO," on their servers.
This from the same site that claimed it had received 17 million monthly page views, without providing any evidence whatsoever for such a bold claim, considering other sites with far higher rankings report that amount of traffic in an entire year.
For how much longer will the majority of those in the alternative research community who frequent that site continue to let such claims and contradictions go unchallenged? Is it just entertainment for most people?


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When Freeland resident John Shinneman first meets with a client to discuss a piece, nothing exists except for an idea and some rough lumber.
Shinneman, owner of JCS Woodworking Studio, is a furniture designer and cabinet maker.
His work is featured in the 10th annual Woodpalooza event by the Whidbey Island Woodworkers Guild.
Woodpalooza aims to provide an alternative to mass-produced furniture and wood art by showcasing the talents of woodworkers on Whidbey Island.
The free event features 20 artists and will be held noon to 5 p.m. daily from Aug. 31 to Sept. 2 at the Whidbey Island Center for the Arts.
An opening reception will be from 6-9 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 30.
Shinneman was attracted to furniture making and design in the early '80s.
"I was always building with my hands," he said.
He was originally schooled as an architect but was later hired as a draftsman in a cabinet shop.
He soon became the foreman and learned that furniture and design are connected skills, he said.
Shinneman ended up carving out a career in design and cabinetry making, opening his own studio in Freeland in 1986.
When the economy crashed in 2008, cabinet making came to a standstill and most of his work centered on furniture making.
It has since balanced out, he said.
Shinneman describes his style as rooted in tradition, but with a contemporary approach.
Furniture making gives him more artistic freedom, he said.
For Shinneman, his greatest pleasure is to see clients add something to their lives that gives them aesthetic pleasure and meets their functional needs.
"That's what drives me. Being able to solve clients problems and give them solutions," he said.
Most people don't understand what goes into making a piece of furniture, he said. Shinneman begins with discussing ideas with clients.
He then provides drawings and miniature models to give an understanding of the design.
Then he takes the design and cuts out all of the components, sands and applies multiple coats of finish to the piece.
"It's going to take some time but you won't be looking to replace it," he said.
From a spiral staircase to a hobbit door, Shinneman designs what clients need even if it means he has to build the machine to make it.
One client brought in an image from a vintage staircase with spiral rails. He didn't know how to make that, so he made a new machine that would.
Shinneman also personalizes furniture. He recently built a dresser for a poet and included a line of the client's poetry on the dresser.
He's tied to the traditional trade and practice of furniture making, trying to respect where the materials come from and not be wasteful.
"I want to express the material at the highest level I can and have the highest quality of product," he said.
Shinneman will show one piece at the show — an occasional table made of walnut and maple woods.
The table includes a cabinet using the negative space under the top.
He enjoys designing functional pieces for smaller spaces, he said.
Shinneman also likes meeting with people and teaching them what it takes to make each piece of furniture. It's a great opportunity to socialize with others in the field, he said.
"It's amazing to see the creative skills on the south island," he said. "It's impressive and inspiring to see other ways they approach a creative challenge and resolve it."
"Sometimes we get settled in our ways and it's nice to get a tug to freshen up," he said.
Shinneman has been part of the Whidbey Island Woodworkers Guild for 10 years and has entered a piece into the show almost every year.
He said the event has received marvelous growth over the years, especially since the move to the space at Whidbey Island Center for the Arts last year.
He said the move stepped up the presentation for the show.


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President Barack Obama's call for modest reforms of the National Security Administration's massive data collection program was met with skepticism from both the right and the left on the Sunday news shows.
Obama stayed vague in his Friday address, but proposed limiting the NSA's ability to collect and review phone calls and electronic communications of millions of people around the world.
"He sounded like a political figure attempting to strike the right balance," conservative Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan said on ABC's This Week. "The speech ultimately was unsatisfying."
Liberal political commentator Tavis Smiley voiced frustration for another reason. Of the spying programs, Smiley said, "You cannot convince me how the dots connect to make us safer."
NSA talk permeated all five Sunday shows, three of which included an interview with House Intelligence Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Mich. Rogers suggested NSA leaker Edward Snowden may have been aided by the Russian government.
"Let me just say this. I believe there's a reason he ended up in the hands, the loving arms, of an FSB agent in Moscow," Rogers said.
ABC's This Week secured a rare interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Putin told host George Stephanopoulos that Snowden, who is currently living in Russia, is welcome to attend the upcoming Olympics in Sochi.
Putin also defended a new Russian law that makes it illegal to display "gay propaganda" in front of children. Before Americans criticize Russia, they should first look inward, he said.
"In some of the states in the U.S., homosexuality remains a felony," Putin said.
Several states still have sodomy laws on the books, and a few specifically prohibit gay sodomy. But they are unenforceable and have been for a decade after the Supreme Court ruled the laws unconstitutional.
Putin's comment misrepresents the reality in the United States, where many states have legalized gay marriage or passed anti-discrimination laws that cover sexual orientation, said Dale Carpenter, a University of Minnesota constitutional law professor.
"It's much bigger than just sodomy laws," he said. "But if you want to focus on just that, it's a whole lot more complicated than saying the states have felony laws. That just hardly scratches the surface."
Putin also defended the Russian law by saying that it's not a crime to be gay in Russia, as it is in many other places in the world.
In Russia "all people are absolutely equal regardless of their religion, sex, ethnicity, or sexual orientation," he said, while "70 countries of the world have criminal liability for homosexuality."
According to the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association, 76 nations consider being gay a crime. Nearly half of those countries, 36, are in Africa.
But it's a stretch for Putin to say all people in Russian are "equal."
In June 2013, Putin signed a law banning promotion of "non-traditional sexual relations" toward minors, a prohibition on so-called "homosexual propaganda." The Russian law places stiff fines on individuals and companies that promote homosexualtiy in front of children, whether in public or through media or the Internet. Critics say the law essentially bans homosexuals from speaking out in public. The scope of the law is broad, and it's not clear how it will be enforced.
Same-sex relationships are not recognized in Russia. Same-sex couples also cannot adopt and lesbians cannot undergo artificial insemination to have children. Employers are not banned from discriminating based on sexual orientation. Gay pride parades are also banned and have been going back to 2005.
Staff writers Steve Contorno and Katie Sanders contributed to this report. Aaron Sharockman is the editor of PunditFact.com.
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