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New Titles from the German Bible Society
We are happy to announce that our ongoing partnership with the German Bible Society (GBS) brings a new selection of the world's finest scholarly Bibles and original language texts to Accordance. The first round of these releases was announced just two weeks ago with the first installment of the BHQ, then last week with the long-awaited Nestle-Aland (27th ed.) tagged Greek text with sigla, and the critical apparatus. These are just the first of several new releases planned in the coming weeks.
In addition to the NA27, we will also offer the UBS Greek New Testament (4th ed.) with tagging and critical apparatus. On the Old Testament side we will have the BHS tagged text with sigla and apparatus, the apparatus for Rahlf's Septuagint, and the apparatus for the entire Vulgate.
We will also have the Gospel of Thomas, Coptic and Greek text with English and German translation, and commentary, and the revised Barclay Newman Greek-English dictionary (typically included in the back of the UBS Greek text).
For those with a passion to study the original texts of the Bible, these are sure to be must-have resources for your Accordance library. In order to see the full breakdown on these new titles and their pricing, check out our news announcement, and stay tuned to the blog for future posts on the availability of these new titles with more 'first look' videos.
Archived Comments
Hansoo Jin
When will the UBS be made available for purchase?
Rick Bennett
Hansoo, we can't give an exact date yet, but it should be within the next couple weeks. We will announce it here on the blog (and by extension FB, Twitter and the Forums).


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iVivity Selects Mentor Graphics Ethernet Intellectual Property Family for iDiSX State Machine Architecture
WILSONVILLE, Ore., March 22, 2007 – Mentor Graphics Corporation (Nasdaq: MENT) today announced that iVivity, a leader in I/O and application processors for networking and storage applications, has selected Mentor Graphics' 10/100/1000 Mbps and 10G Ethernet Intellectual Property (IP) cores for the iVivity iDiSX architecture. Mentor's industry-leading Ethernet IP family was chosen due to its robust characteristics, including standards-compliance and ease of integration.
The iVivity iDiSX processor is the industry's only proven hardware state machine architecture that delivers full 10Gbps line rate throughput regardless of packet size with optimized power management providing easy integration and lower costs for next generation Ethernet-networked products, such as servers, switches, storage and networking appliances. iVivity products serve as fundamental building blocks for leading networking technologies, such as voice, video and data networks.
"We chose Mentor Graphics Ethernet IP based on their seamless integration of the IEEE 802.3 standard in the PCS and MAC layers. Mentor's IP provides us with a relatively small pin count connectivity solution to the physical layer device," stated Ben Sum, senior staff engineer at iVivity. "Low latency and larger frame size support is another important feature we found with Mentor's IP, which allows our design to process the frame efficiently in the storage environment."
The iDiSX hardware-based TCP acceleration provides the highest performing platform for designers to build on, without impacting the host or associated applications. This provides higher levels of throughput with feature-rich applications, critical for today's LAN/WAN Ethernet networked environments.
"We are enabling leading companies like iVivity to provide better solutions for their customers with our standards-based IP," stated Bill Martin, Mentor Graphics IP Division general manager. "Ease of integration, standards compliance, technical support and responsiveness to customer needs, are just some of the many benefits in using a qualified IP provider, but ultimately, our IP helped facilitate iVivity's goal of optimized network performance with minimized impact on system resources." For more information on Mentor's Ethernet IP products and product portfolio, go to the company website: www.mentor.com/IP or contact Mentor Graphics local sales representative at 1-800-547-3000.
About Mentor Graphics
Mentor Graphics Corporation (Nasdaq: MENT) is a world leader in electronic hardware and software design solutions, providing products, consulting services and award-winning support for the world's most successful electronics and semiconductor companies. Established in 1981, the company reported revenues over the last 12 months of about $800 million and employs approximately 4,250 people worldwide. Corporate headquarters are located at 8005 S.W. Boeckman Road, Wilsonville, Oregon 97070-7777. World Wide Web site: http://www.mentor.com/.
About iVivity
iVivity is a leading developer of innovative, multi-protocol acceleration silicon for both the networking and storage markets. iVivity products provide the fundamental building blocks to facilitate networking technologies, including voice, video and data, enabling the emergence of a true unified network. iVivity's patented hardware-based technology provides wire speed throughput performance independent of packet size, with minimal latency, power and size, while having the lowest impact on host system resources. iVivity integrates this highly-scalable, hardware state machine into a multi-core processor design, with standards based software that eases integration, accelerates adoption and reduces time to market for OEM manufactures. iVivity is a privately held company headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. For more information about iVivity and its products please visit the company's Web site at www.ivivity.com.
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subset: commoncrawl


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Boston bombing suspect could face death penalty
- Decision-making process would start with criminal charges
- Defense lawyers could challenge decision
- Attorney General Eric Holder would make final ruling
The Boston Marathon bombing suspect could face the death penalty, former prosecutors, defense attorneys and a capital punishment expert said Saturday.
Federal prosecutors and state law enforcement counterparts in Boston are starting the process of filing criminal charges against Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, the naturalized American citizen from Cambridge arrested Friday night in the bombing that killed three, wounded dozens and chilled the nation with the worst terrorism case on U.S. soil since the 9/11 attacks nearly 12 years ago.
But former prosecutors predicted the biggest legal decision facing prosecutors was already clear.
"I would be shocked if it's not a death penalty case," said Michael Sullivan, a former Massachusetts U.S. attorney. "You look at the statute that gives you the highest level of potential punishment."
Tsarnaev is likely to be charged under federal law, because the federal government has more legal and investigative resources and Massachusetts does not have a state death penalty statute, the former prosecutors said. Saying there's "no way that this is going to be a state case," Sullivan added that "the federal interest would not be satisfied by a state prosecution."
The federal prosecution process typically starts with the filing of a legal complaint with an affidavit outlining probable cause for criminal charges. Next, Tsarnaev would have to be presented before a federal magistrate judge. Because he's in a Massachusetts hospital, the judge could be brought there. Barring extraordinary circumstances, his appearance should occur by Monday.
After that appearance, prosecutors would have 14 days to obtain an indictment from a federal grand jury.
Given the now-notorious circumstances of the bombing, Tsarnaev could theoretically be charged with use of weapons of mass destruction resulting in death, said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, a non-profit organization that researches capital punishment.
That statute and other federal charges can be punishable by execution, said Dieter, who also predicted "there's a good likelihood" the government would seek the death penalty.
Current Massachusetts U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz and her staff are expected to decide the specific federal charges filed against Tsarnaev. If the charges are death penalty-eligible, she would make a recommendation to Attorney General Eric Holder.
He would review the recommendation, as would a panel at the main Department of Justice office in Washington — and defense lawyers would have an opportunity to submit arguments at both reviews. Holder would then issue the final decision, the final step in a process that Dieter said would likely entail "some months of consideration."
"A case like this, I would think there would be no problem" to get Department of Justice approval to seek the death penalty, said Alexander Bunin, the former top federal public defender in New York's northern district. "There certainly isn't any reason I could think of that it wouldn't be authorized."
Nancy Hollander, a past president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, similarly theorized that prosecutors would seek execution "if the death penalty applies under federal charges that are brought."
Even if Tsarnaev pleaded guilty, a federal jury would have to decide on the death penalty.
However, Dieter stressed that the Washington decision-making process would weigh potential mitigating factors, such as Tsarnaev's relatively young age and his mental state.
Although Timothy McVeigh was executed for the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, Dieter noted that federal prosecutors declined to seek the death penalty against Unabomber Ted Kaczynski or for Eric Rudolph, the so-called Olympic Park bomber captured in 2003 who confessed to a string of attacks across the southern U.S. during the 1990s. Instead, prosecutors agreed to guilty pleas and life sentences for both.
More recently, Jared Loughner, the Arizona gunman who shot then-U.S. representative Gabrielle Giffords and others in a 2011 attack, was sentenced to seven consecutive terms of life in prison after he pleaded guilty in federal court.
"These cases were federal cases, and all of them resulted in life sentences ... after initial thoughts about the death penalty," Dieter said.


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Find out what makes our story unique by exploring our interactive timeline.
Discover cocoa's fascinating journey from a tropical rainforest to a delicious chocolate bar that melts in your mouth.
Learn about our company, meet our staff & board, and get to know a few of the cocoa farmers who co-own Divine.
From award-winning chocolate to an innovative business model that champions farmers, we're committed to doing business differently.
More Links
Divine Chocolate was established in 1998 by a co-operative of cocoa farmers in Ghana that owns 44% of the company and shares in its profit.
Discover new products, read exciting announcements, and more!
Sharing chocolate means spreading joy. Check out our latest giveaway & find out how to win!
You'll enjoy Divine Chocolate even more after reading the stories of farmers who ggrid the cocoa inside each bar.
We love bringing people together using the power of chocolate. Find out what we're planning next & read highlights about what we've done!
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Discover Divine Organic
Bgridse through our inspiring collection of recipes, and share what you make using the hashtag #MakeSomethingDivine!
Campfire treats, cool cocktails, and cookies for your picnic basket! Enjoy our summertime favourites.
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Explore the meaningful ways Divine has made a difference in farmers? lives over the last two decades.
Read more about Fairtrade & how it empowers farmers to take control and build sustainable futures for themselves, their families, and their communities.
Learn more about the cocoa farmers' co-operative in Ghana that co-owns Divine Chocolate.
Find our own press releases and check out where Divine has been mentioned in the news!
Bgridse a selection of useful articles, essays, links, and more to help you learn more about Divine Chocolate as a company and the chocolate industry as a whole!
Explore our range of delicious boxed chocolates great as a gift or to share after dinner with a loved one.
Displaying 1-6 of 6 products
It has always been our aim to source as many Fairtrade ingredients as possible for
our products, thereby delivering benefits to more farmers around the world and
offering an expanding range of exciting flavours to chocolate lovers like you!


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Join the weekly Classic Castle set review discussion. Please post your opinions on the set play ability, piece selection, design, etc. Which sets stand up to our catapult of critique and which ones crumble in shame!
This week's set is 8813 Battle at the Pass.
Battle at the Pass was released in 2006 for Knight's Kingdom II. Five knights of Morcia defend their towers, wall, and gate with falling axes and boiling oil. Five rogue knights attack with their siege tower, catapult, and battering ram.
A weapons cart, skeleton, and various accessories are included. With over 30 weapons, this set has more weapons than any other mid-sized castle set.


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'The Epicurious Cookbook': the cookbook an online community built
On the food website Epicurious, a recipe for a Double Chocolate Layer Cake wears a blue ribbon. The ribbon signifies that the coffee-scented, ganache-frosted cake is one of the top-ranked Epicurious recipes of all time. With 1,525 member reviews at last count, that's no small feat. The Epicurious recipe collection consists of approximately 200,000 member recipes and more than 30,000 professionally created recipes from magazines such as Gourmet and Bon Appétit, and chefs such as Dorie Greenspan and Thomas Keller.
Epicurious editor-in-chief Tanya Steel and her team of food editors took on the formidable task of reviewing these recipes and selecting the more than 250 "best-loved four-fork recipes" included in The Epicurious Cookbook (Random House, 2012) – the first cookbook for the digital brand. Steel says when culling the recipes, a modern and seasonal viewpoint was important in the recipes they chose for the book.
"We have recipes dating back from the '40s on our website, which is so cool," Steel says. "We have recipes from Gourmet from 1946, and House & Garden, but what we wanted to do is choose recipes that really reflected how we eat and cook today." In Steel's opinion, we're eating healthier than ever before and are more sophisticated in the recipes we choose. Gone are the days of the-more-ingredients-the-better mentality, today's home cooks look for recipes that don't call for too many ingredients. Steel points out that sometimes the best recipes are the simplest, giving the example of "tomato, basil, olive oil, you're done."
Another key factor in recipe selection was the Epicurious algorithm that determines which recipes get four forks – the maximum member rating on the site. According to Steel, four-fork recipes have two things in common: "They have to be, first and foremost, delicious, and they have to be eminently doable by all strata of cooks." And then there were recipes, like the Double Chocolate Layer Cake, that they knew they just had to include.
"When I read [the reviews] I think this is why I love what I do because it's all about being a community and people talking about the personal connections they have with specific dishes," Steel says. "[The Double Chocolate Layer Cake] in particular has reviews like 'I made this for my kid's first birthday and my anniversary.' Very sweet stories are connected to some of these foods so those were some of the recipes that we chose as well, all of which are highly rated."
The recipes in the cookbook are presented according to season with the more than 60 home cook recipes bearing a "member recipe" label. All of the recipes were tested and re-tested, and Steel notes that the member recipes were put to the same laboratory testing and editing processes as the professional recipes. "I think what makes our recipes so successful is that they have been tested so many times," Steel says. "And they've been tested by the community, and the community is adding their knowledge to it. And also the way that they're written – they're written very sequentially, stating all of the obvious factors."
One of Steel's passions is teaching children about healthy eating and how to cook. She explored the topic in her first cookbook, which she co-wrote with Tracey Seaman, Real Food for Healthy Kids (Cookbooks, 2008). First Lady Michelle Obama's office became aware of the book and Steel's involvement in Epicurious, and contacted her to help promote Let's Move, the First Lady's campaign to end childhood obesity in the United States. As part of the campaign, Steel and a colleague conceived a healthy lunch recipe contest for kids, with the prize being the first-ever Kids' State Dinner at the White House.
They received 1,200-1,300 submissions from as far away as India, which they pared down to two entries from each state and the four territories. After tasting 108 dishes in several hours, Steel and her colleagues chose the 54 winners and invited them to Washington for the dinner on August 20, 2012. "The kids were announced like they are at State Dinners. So it was literally like, 'Jacob, 9, Ohio,' and Jacob and his mom would walk through. There was a press pool and everybody was taking pictures. It was so cute," Steel says with a laugh. Not only did the winners meet the First Lady, but President Barack Obama crashed the party and shook everyone's hand.
There are many recipes in The Epicurious Cookbook that Steel recommends for cooking with children. In particular, she feels that baking is a great thing to do with little children as they can pour, stir, measure and use the spatula. She recommends recipes such as Banana Bread with Chocolate Chips and Walnuts (a member recipe) as well as breakfast recipes like French toast, pancakes and burritos. "The more you can actually get them involved in the process the better off you are, as long as you have a little bit of humour and patience," Steel says. "It's not going to be perfect and it might not taste exactly the way you want it, but the point is to get in there with your kid and really have fun. Make it a memory."
Excerpted from The Epicurious Cookbook (Random House, 2012) by Tanya Steel and the editors of Epicurious.com Copyright © 2012 by Tanya Steel and the editors of Epicurious.com. Excerpted by permission of Appetite by Random House, a division of Random House, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Roasted Squash, Chestnut and Chicory Salad with Cranberry Vinaigrette
With tender acorn squash, salty pancetta, a pungent and tart vinaigrette, and bitter chicory, this hearty salad is layered in flavour and texture. It will take you through all of winter, and would fit perfectly on most holiday buffets. You can use other winter squashes, including butternut, and bacon or prosciutto can easily stand in for the pancetta.
Yield: makes 6 servings
1 (2-pound) acorn squash
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus additional for greasing pan
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 cup peeled whole chestnuts, cut into thirds (from a 7- to 8-ounce jar)
4 (1/4-inch-thick) slices pancetta, cut into 1/4-inch dice (6 ounces total)
1/4 cup fresh cranberries, finely chopped
1 tablespoon dark brown sugar
1/4 cup water
2 tablespoons whole-grain mustard
3/4 pound chicory (curly endive), trimmed and torn into 2-inch pieces (10 cups)
1. Put the oven rack in the middle position and preheat the oven to 450°F. Line a large shallow baking pan with foil and coat generously with olive oil.
2. Cut off the stem of the squash, then put cut side down and halve lengthwise. Discard the seeds, then cut the squash into 1/2-inch-thick slices. Peel if desired with a paring knife and transfer the slices to a bowl. Add 1 tablespoon olive oil, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper and gently toss to coat. Arrange in a single layer in the lined baking pan and roast until golden, about 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and turn the squash over with a spatula. Add the chestnuts to the pan in an even layer, and continue to roast until the squash is golden and tender, 10 to 15 minutes. Keep warm, covered with foil.
3. Cook the pancetta in a dry 10-inch heavy skillet over high heat until browned, about 4 minutes total. Transfer the pancetta with a slotted spoon to paper towels to drain, reserving the fat in the skillet.
4. Reheat the pancetta fat over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking, then add cranberries and brown sugar and stir once to combine. Remove from the heat and add the water, stirring and scraping up browned bits from bottom of skillet.
5. Transfer the cranberry mixture to a medium bowl and whisk in the mustard, remaining tablespoon olive oil, remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt, and remaining 1/4 teaspoon pepper.
6. Toss together the chicory, roasted acorn squash, and chestnuts. Just before serving, toss with dressing and sprinkle with pancetta.
Beef Short Ribs Tagine with Honey-Glazed Butternut Squash
This thick Moroccan stew gets its name from the conical earthenware pot traditionally used by North African cooks and known for producing moist, tender meats and vegetables. Here you can accomplish the same effect by slow-roasting beef short ribs in a pot at 325°F. The best part is that the short ribs can be prepped up to two days ahead of time.
Yield: makes 8 servings
5 tablespoons olive oil
1 pound onions, chopped
16 (3- to 4-inch) pieces meaty beef short ribs, any tough membranes trimmed
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1 1/2 cups dry red wine
1 cup prune juice
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 ounces pitted dates, diced
2 ounces dried pears, diced
1 tablespoon honey
Honey-Glazed Butternut Squash (recipe follows)
Fresh parsley, for garnish
1. Preheat the oven to 325°F. Heat 3 tablespoons oil in a heavy large Dutch oven or flameproof casserole over medium-high heat. Add the onions and sauté until browned, about 20 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the onions to a large bowl. Season the short ribs with salt and pepper. Add 1 tablespoon oil to the pot and add half the short ribs. Brown on all sides, about 10 minutes, then transfer ribs to the bowl with the onions. Add the remaining 1 tablespoon oil to the pot, then the remaining ribs and brown on all sides, about 10 minutes. Transfer to the same bowl.
2. Whisk the flour into the drippings in the pot. Whisk in 2 cups broth, and bring to a boil, scraping up browned bits. Mix in the remaining 2 cups broth, the wine, prune juice, tomato paste, and spices. Return the ribs to the pot, arranging close together on their sides in a single layer if possible. Add the dates and pears; add the onions and any juices. Bring the liquid to a boil. Cover the pot and place in oven. Bake until the ribs are tender, about 1 hour 45 minutes.
3. Using tongs, transfer the ribs to a large bowl. Strain the cooking liquid into a medium bowl, pressing on the contents of the strainer. Freeze the liquid until the fat rises to the top, about 30 minutes. Spoon off the fat and return liquid to the pot. Add the honey and boil until the sauce is thick enough to coat a spoon and is reduced to 3 cups, about 12 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Return the ribs to the pot, spooning the sauce over to coat.
4. Rewarm the ribs over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally. Mound the ribs on a platter. Top with the squash; garnish with parsley.
Honey-Glazed Butternut Squash
Yield: makes 8 servings
1/4 cup olive oil
2 medium butternut squash, peeled and cut into 3/4-inch cubes (about 6 cups)
1/4 cup honey
Heat the oil in a heavy nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add the squash, cover, and cook until just tender and beginning to colour, stirring occasionally, about 12 minutes. Add the honey and toss until squash is glazed. Season with salt and pepper.
Spiced Pumpkin Layer Cake
Foolproof and moist, this cake is suitable for birthdays or other celebrations. Tip: It's better to underbeat the frosting than overbeat it for a frosting that's easier to spread.
Yield: makes 12 servings
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 3/4 teaspoons ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup (packed) light brown sugar
1 cup canola oil
4 large eggs
1 (15-ounce) can pure pumpkin
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon grated orange peel
3/4 cup raisins
3/4 cup sweetened flaked coconut, plus additional for garnish
1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, at room temperature
10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 tablespoon dark rum
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
4 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar (measured, then sifted)
Special equipment: 2 (9-inch) round cake pans
1. Position the rack in the centre of the oven and preheat the oven to 350°F. Butter two 9-inch-diameter cake pans with 1 1/2-inch-high sides. Line the bottoms of the pans with parchment; dust with flour.
2. Sift 3 cups flour, the baking powder, baking soda, spices, and salt into a medium bowl. Using an electric mixer, beat both sugars and the oil in a large bowl until combined (mixture will look grainy). Add the eggs 1 at a time, beating until well blended after each addition. Add the pumpkin, vanilla, and orange peel; beat until well blended. Add the flour mixture; beat just until incorporated. Stir in the raisins and 3/4 cup coconut. Divide the batter between the pans and smooth the tops.
3. Bake the cakes until a tester inserted into the centre comes out clean, about 1 hour. Cool the cakes completely in pans on a rack. Run a knife around the cakes to loosen. Invert the cakes onto racks; remove parchment. Turn the cakes over, rounded side up. Using a serrated knife, trim the rounded tops of the cakes to level them.
1. Using an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese and butter in a large bowl until smooth. Beat in the rum and vanilla. Add the sugar in 3 additions, beating just until the frosting is smooth after each addition (do not overbeat or frosting may become too soft to spread).
2. Place one cake layer, flat side down, on a platter. Spread half of the cream-cheese frosting over the top to the edges. Top with the second cake layer, trimmed side down. Spread the remaining frosting over the top (not sides) of cake. Sprinkle additional coconut over.


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Loch Fyne Hotel & Spa
01499 302980
Here at Crerar Hotels, we are doing what we can and we're in good company ... the spirit of hospitality has been here for everyone before, and will be now and forever.
Loch Fyne Hotel & Spa, Inveraray, in Argyll and Bute, is a four star AA awarded hotel and a must stay whenever you are visiting the west coast of Scotland.
The hotel has been awarded the top hotel choice on TripAdvisor for the past six years running, and was awarded a 2018 Certificate of Excellence, which was the fifth in a row. Consequently, Loch Fyne Hotel & Spa was inducted in to TripAdvisor's Hall of Fame.
At the edge of the wee idyllic toon of Inveraray, with uninterrupted views of Loch Fyne and beyond to the Cowal Hills, this popular hotel sees the return of many loyal guests time and time again, all down to the quality of service and the warm welcome from Joanna Whysall, General Manager, and her team.
Loch Fyne is the longest sea loch in the west coast of Scotland at 65km, and is connected to the sound of Jura by the Crinan Canal. The area is renowned for its seafood and hand dived oysters, which when in season, you can feast on whilst dining in the hotel's AA Rosette awarded restaurant.
In addition to eating these and other fine local Scottish delights during your stay, there are plenty of attractions and retailers nearby such as Inveraray Jail, Purdies Soap Shop and Inveraray Castle – as well as the all year Christmas shop, The Christmas Dove, off the High Street!
Guestrooms are traditional and comfortable. Many feature loch views and all have that little twist of tartan. All rooms provide a welcome tea tray, en-suite bathroom and flat screen TVs with Freeview.
Some of the most popular break types at Loch Fyne Hotel are our spa breaks. There are several to choose from such as a taster one night spa getaway, to a rejuvenating and revitalising three night indulgence break. Also included in our spa breaks are use of the leisure club. Spa breaks are available all year round and can be booked right here online at the best prices along with some of our other smashing deals.
In addition to the leisure short breaks and hotel deals, Loch Fyne Hotel & Spa has meeting space ideal for corporate groups. Overnight delegates can spend an intense day meeting, then a lazy evening in the spa followed by a six course taster private dining experience. The hotel can also accommodate team building activities on-site.
Find us...
Drive into Inveraray from Tarbet or Oban, head through the town centre, past Inveraray Jail. Loch Fyne Hotel & Spa is placed on the right hand side of the road, facing the loch. Find our walking maps here.


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DailyDirt: Pricing Ain't Easy
from the urls-we-dig-up deptSometimes the prices of products are mysterious -- or just don't make much sense. Why is gasoline sold per gallon to nine-tenths of a cent? How can rare artwork really be worth millions of dollars? Sometimes, pricing puzzles can stump economists, but more often than not, there's a well-known economic explanation that's just not very intuitive. The invisible hand works in strange ways, and here are a few examples.
- JC Penny may be learning a tough economic lesson from its fair and square pricing strategy -- "shrouding" prices is a deeply-ingrained retail practice and consumers have adapted to it. Getting out of the brutal commodity clothing market is a hard, uphill battle... especially if you can't/don't offer customers truly unique products or services. [url]
- Orbitz is admitting to sending Mac users to more expensive hotels (maybe not against their will). It's part of a pricing experiment based on data mining consumer behavior online -- Apple computer users tend to pay more for hotels, so why not show them the pricier hotels they're already looking for? [url]
- An everyday example of price discrimination can be seen in a vending machine. When the cheap snacks sell out, people may pay more for late night victuals. [url]
- The list price of college has been rising incredibly over the last decade, but not everyone pays full price. There's a growing gap between what the average student actually pays for college and what universities say tuition is. [url]
Filed Under: college, economics, price discrimination, pricing, shrouding, tuition
Companies: apple, jcpenny, orbitz


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Paul Revere's ride through the night is one of the more famous moments in early American history. He famously warned everyone that "The British are coming! The British are coming!" I know, this is a very rough segue but, as you may know, Ohio State is transitioning to semesters, effective summer 2012. The first MAcc class that will be affected by this switch to semesters will be the class admitted for autumn 2012.
If you are part of this group, what does this mean? The biggest change is that Ohio State's school year will start much earlier than in the past. For example, 2011 autumn term begins on September 21. In 2012, autumn term will begin on August 22, a full month earlier than the start of autumn 2011. The Fisher MAcc program has already incorporated this earlier start with its application deadlines. If you submit a complete application by the applicable deadline, you will be reviewed for autumn 2012 admission. In addition to starting the academic year sooner, the academic year will end sooner. For example, spring 2012 commencement will occur on June 11, 2012. Compare this to 2013 spring commencement on May 5, 2013.
If you have any questions on this or anything else, please let us know.


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This NEW product you are browsing has been inspected by our certified technicians to ensure that it meets factory specifications. It is guaranteed to be in perfect working order but it is sold in "AS IS" condition (for example, the box may be torn, etc) and returns will not be accepted. Please contact us with any questions BEFORE placing an order.
We accept PayPal and all major credit cards. We do our best to describe each item we are selling to the best of our ability. Bear in mind that the Item is sold as-is with no warranty. Use the "contact us" page to request additional info or images on this product.
Made for serious play.
Now there's a notebook PC made for the way you play. In fact, the HP Pavilion dv7 comes with software that lets you start playing right out of the box. With amazing graphics, audio, and video, plus a wide array of options, the HP Pavilion dv7 Entertainment series notebook delivers power and performance to match your fast-paced lifestyle.
It's always showtime.
Exclusive HP MediaSmart software gives you instant access to the music and movies you love. Immerse yourself in videos, games and 3D graphics on the high-definition 17.3" diagonal HP BrightView LED display. Look your best in any light with the HP TrueVision Webcam and sound great with integrated dual-array digital microphones for improved noise reduction. With the large hard drive, you can store volumes of data, movies, and music.
Intel Core i5-450M processor with 4-way Multi-Task Processing makes it faster to work on multiple applications at the same time by allowing each core of your processor to work on two tasks simultaneously. When your PC needs extra performance, the new Intel Turbo Boost Technology automatically speeds up your processor.
Impressive inside and out.
The Pavilion dv7 notebook offers style with substance, featuring a sleek aluminum chassis etched with the stream design. The integrated fingerprint reader and HP SimplePass Identity Management software give you a quick, easy and secure way to access your favorite websites with a single swipe. Built for longevity with higher-quality components, the Pavilion dv7 also includes a comfortable, responsive island-style keyboard. An easy-to-use, oversized ClickPad supports multi-touch gestures to keep you operating at maximum efficiency.
Do it all at the speed of life.
The latest mobile processors provide the performance you need. Longer battery life makes it last. With integrated WiFi you?ll never feel out of touch. To make the best use of your time, HP QuickWeb launches the web and frequently used apps within seconds at startup, while one-touch keys launch the applications and functions you use most. And if you hit any bumps along the way, HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection can help save your valuable information.
Hear all the music.
With Beat Audio, your PC can finally unlock the sounds that musicians and producers spend hours perfecting in the mixing booth. Engineered in collaboration with music industry veterans, Beats delivers studio-quality playback through line-out to headphones or external speakers. The built-in HP Triple Bass Reflex Subwoofer boosts audio played through the dv7's Altec Lansing speakers. Whether you?re enjoying tracks from your own collection and Rhapsody within HP MediaSmart or checking out new tunes with Pandora Internet Radio, you'll hear the difference. You'll also see the difference with high-definition content from integrated partners such as HuluTM, Netflix and Roxio CinemaNow.


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Items where Centre is "British Geological Survey (BGS)" and Year is 1964
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Publication - Report
Loudon, T. Victor. 1964 Computer analysis of orientation data in structural geology. Northwestern University, 129pp. (Office of Naval Research Geography Branch ONR Task no. 389-135, Contract no. 1228(26) technical report) (Unpublished)


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A single English Box topiary ball presented in our burlap wrap ready for delivery Auckland wide
A gardeners delight
Approx. 50cm height
Greater Auckland delivery ONLY
All prices are in New Zealand Dollars.
Due to the seasonal nature of flowers and the incredible variety available which is reflected inthe designs throughout our web pages, should a bloom within one of our many designs not be available it will be substituted with one of equal beauty and value.
Same day residential delivery guaranteed within greater Auckland if order received by 1.30 pm
Same day Saturday delivery guaranteed if order placed by 9.30 am
Same day business delivery guaranteed if order received by 9.30 am
Same day Business deliveries within Auckland received after 9.30 am may incur express delivery fees.
Rural, National and International deliveries incur additional fees, we will advise you via email of this cost before your order is sent.
We currently do not offer a Sunday delivery service
Flower careHere are a few simple care suggestions to help you obtain maximum pleasure from your flowers
Hand tied posies and bouquets
- Carefully unwrap your flowers. The stems of your bouquet will be enclosed in a wet wrap to maintain freshness during delivery? This should be removed.
- With a sharp knife or scissors, cut about 3cm off the flower stems. Always cut flower stems on a sharp angle to produce a larger area for water a absorption.
- Place your flowers in a clean vase filled with fresh water.
- Every 3 or 4 days the stems of your flowers should be re-cut and the water in the vase refreshed.
- For flowers which are already arranged into a container it is important to add water daily.
- Remove the water source from the base of the Rose stems.
- With a sharp knife or scissors, cut about 3cm off the Rose stems. Always cut flower stems on a sharp angle to produce a larger area for water absorption.
- Place your Roses in a clean vase filled with fresh water. This should be topped up on a daily basis.
- If a Rose should wilt, re-cut the base of the stem and place in 3cm of boiling water for about 30 seconds (no longer). Then place the Rose in a deep container or lie in a bath filled with fresh cold water.
- Dirty water in vessel.
- Sitting on top of the T.V, it gets too hot.
- Being placed in a draught or in direct sunlight.
- Leaves left on stems which will be under water. This can promote growth of bacteria which pollutes the water.
- Fruit. The ethylene fruit produces seriously reduces flower life.


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By Fred Alvarez
If Evan White '06 were to squeeze his education onto video, like one of those 15-second clips composed for his social media platform, Viddy, the highlights would look something like this:
Lutheran youth board president in high school. CLU freshman homecoming prince. And creator of his own public relations firm – Evan White PR – before graduating from CLU with a communication degree.
Good stuff, but just look at the footage he is compiling these days.
White, 29, got in on the ground floor two years ago of the launch of Viddy Inc., one of the earliest and largest mobile video sharing apps on the Web.
Hailed by many in the tech world as the Instagram of video, Viddy has amassed more than 50 million unique users and is tapping celebrity power – the site is studded with video tidbits from the likes of Rhianna, Snoop Dogg and Justin Bieber – to push its platform.
White serves as "chief evangelist" for the booming Venice Beach–based enterprise, and it's his mission to build buzz for the social video site while growing its fan base in an increasingly competitive market. It's likely that one, but only one, of these apps will become a household name.
If anyone is up to the task, it's Evan White, master of buzz.
After all, he once helped a client barter from a single red paperclip all the way to a house, trading up for items that included a hand-sculpted doorknob, a recording contract and a movie role. (The client got a book and movie deal out of that one.)
And he managed to launch a thriving business on the idea of wearing the T-shirts of company sponsors and using social media to advertise their wares.
As White surveys the rough-and-tumble landscape of social video, he sees Viddy on track to win the scramble for users, noting the celebrity backing and recent infusions of capital by investors including Goldman Sachs and Twitter founder Biz Stone.
"Knowing that all of these big names have bet on Viddy says a lot about who we are as a business and the value of our product," said White, who is an equity partner in the enterprise, now valued at nearly $400 million.
"The end goal is we need more people and we need more people to use our service more often," White added. "I want people to think Viddy when they think of smartphone video."
White was born with an entrepreneurial gene.
Growing up in Spokane, Wash., he worked as a soccer referee as a teenager, saving his paychecks to buy his first car. He shoveled snow and raked leaves, and used money from those jobs to buy better equipment so that he could get more work and earn more money.
He arrived at Cal Lutheran as a business major, but eventually shifted to communication and marketing, and graduated with honors.
White's professors remember him as a curious and energetic participant in the life of the school, a leader in his classes whose probing questions and passion for learning kept teachers on their toes.
"Evan is certainly bright, motivated and energetic. His mind is always working, and he is filled with ideas," said professor Sharon Docter, chair of the Communication Department and White's teacher and academic adviser. "I am not at all surprised by Evan's success. He was born to do this."
Toward the end of his CLU experience, White turned an internship for a PR company into a position as a senior account executive. He found himself balancing a corner office, a secretary and a boss with the demands of being a full-time student.
He said he learned a lot. Most importantly, he learned that he wanted to work for himself, and launched his own PR firm.
White's projects ranged from the quirky to the sublime.
He helped a company purchase the naming rights to a town as it was launching in the U.S. market, and helped a client sell his entire life (house, car and food in the fridge) on eBay, following a divorce.
He drummed up celebrities for a Starbucks campaign to provide relief for victims of the 2010 Haiti earthquake.
And he helped launch the live streaming platform Ustream, drawing national attention to a live video feed of a batch of newborn Shiba Inu puppies. As the live stream went viral, the puppies appeared in the pages of the New York Times and People and on air at CNN, NBC Nightly News and the Today Show.
"My mandate by the CEO of Ustream was to make us a household name," White said. "In the end, millions of people ended up watching these puppies do what puppies do."
As White tries to pull off something still bigger for Viddy, he has kept working for one PR client: actor and comedian Bill Cosby, who tapped White's expertise to help bring his worldwide celebrity to social networks and the online world.
Viddy's style is simple and short. Users shoot video snippets of 15 seconds or less on their mobile devices and use tools to add filters, music and other effects. The videos can be uploaded to a variety of social networks including Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
The service built its early user base on iPhone and iPad products, but late last year it added an Android app, and within about a month it had 1 million Android users.
These are heady times in the video-sharing world, with all eyes watching for social media's next breakout hit following Facebook's $1 billion acquisition last spring of the photo-sharing app Instagram.
Against that backdrop, a bevy of competitors have arrived on the scene, including Twitter's recent launch of its own video-sharing app.
So where does Viddy stand? Time magazine named its website one the 50 best of 2012, and the company made a slew of year-end lists of "top tech companies to watch in 2013."
White notes that Viddy recently turned down a multimillion-dollar offer to buy the company, expressing the belief of its founders and its now 32 employees that there are brighter days and bigger paydays ahead.
"The first time I played with the service, I was sitting on the beach and I shot a quick video and uploaded it from the beach," said White, adding that the technology is so simple that his mother is a regular user.
"I had never done that before, and I thought, 'This is brand new, this is mobile, and this is really sexy, cool technology,'" White said. "I spend my days talking to all of these content creators who show every day how Viddy is so powerful for their lives. This is a way to really leave your mark on the world."
In the end, that is White's goal as well.
He has small goals, such as paying off his student loans before he is 30. And larger ones, including buying a home for his mom.
But then there are those goals that have to do with giving back, whether it's contributing to the Big Brothers organization, which helped guide him as a youth, or providing scholarship help at his alma mater CLU.
"I was the beneficiary of wealthy individuals who gave scholarships to Cal Lutheran and who helped kids do good things," he said. "I was one of those. Now I want to be able to make dreams come true."
Fred Alvarez is a high school history and journalism teacher who lives in Ojai. For more than two decades, he was a staff writer for several daily newspapers, including the Los Angeles Times and the San Diego Union-Tribune.


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text: Sijun Forums :: View topic - Contest for Digital Artists Log in to check your private messages Sijun Forums Forum Index >> Archive : Sep99 - Dec00 View previous topic :: View next topic Author Topic : "Contest for Digital Artists" Kusanhagijunior memberMember #Joined: 23 Oct 1999Posts: 42Location: Dallas, TX Posted: Wed Oct 27, 1999 12:12 am Well, I won't beat around the bush. I am going to hold a contest at http://www.animeextreme.com for a new logo. I hate the logo I made (just plain type dressed up and filtered a few times)and to be honest, web design is my forte, digital art a hobby. So if anyone wants to win some cool stuff look at the page on or about November 1st and I will try and have the contest details and prizes listed. Before anyone flames me over the artistic quality of the site, I am redesigning it now, and know full well how much it sucks. I did the thing you are looking at a year ago, and have at least enough sense in my head to know when my own work sucks. caio! ------------------ Kusanhagi Back to top digitalghostjunior memberMember #Joined: 27 Oct 1999Posts: 10 Posted: Wed Oct 27, 1999 1:15 pm sounds cool :-) Back to top imdakingmemberMember #Joined: 22 Oct 1999Posts: 321Location: USA Posted: Wed Oct 27, 1999 2:04 pm Sounds cool, let us know when it is up =) Hey, I already have ideas in my head on how to do this logo... Any good anime artists msg me, 10316852 and Ill help with the text... we can split the winnings http://members.tripod.com/imdaking take a look if ya want. Back to top Display posts from previous: All Posts1 Day7 Days2 Weeks1 Month3 Months6 Months1 Year Oldest FirstNewest First Sijun Forums Forum Index -> Archive : Sep99 - Dec00 All times are GMT - 8 Hours Page 1 of 1 Jump to: Select a forum Digital Art----------------Digital Art DiscussionWork in ProgressGallery/Finished Work Miscellaneous----------------Random MusingsArchive : Sep99 - Dec00 You cannot post new topics in this forumYou cannot reply to topics in this forumYou cannot edit your posts in this forumYou cannot delete your posts in this forumYou cannot vote in polls in this forum Powered by phpBB © 2005 phpBB Group


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On October 31st and November 1st we attended the Southeastern Animal Fiber Fair (SAFF) in Fletcher, NC.
It's a huge event with hundreds of vendors. I was overwhelmed with the amount and variety of fiber available.
The first day was Halloween, so Ireland had fun getting candy.
There were soooo many vendors... I was amazed and in a daze
The artwork ...
And yarn bowls... (This one is mine)
And baskets... (This one is mine)
More at the fair
And fiber arts... This lady is amazing with needle felting
I took a beginner spinning class and my very first skein of handspun wool is the one on the left of course.
Here is a pic of most of the things I bought. Michael surprised me with the Gerschubie yarn. I was yarn drunk, and by the second day still had not bought any. I just couldn't make up my mind. I guess he was tired of me walking around in circles so he walked around by himself and showed up with the yarn.
I also bought a drop spindle and some roving
We all had a lot of fun... even Michael. We stayed in Asheville (which is one of my favorite places), and took Ireland trick or treating in the country club neighborhood. Michael even offered to buy me a spinning wheel. I just might get one.
I will definitely return to SAFF again.
Enjoy your Sunday✌


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The information below applies to you if you are travelling with a battery-powered mobility aid such as a wheelchair or scooter.
This section does not apply to portable battery-powered medical devices such as CPAP or Personal Oxygen Concentrators.
Electric Wheelchair/Scooter Information Form
If you're travelling with a battery-powered mobility aid (e.g. wheelchair or scooter), please:
- Complete and print two copies of our online Powered Mobility Aid Information FormOpen PDF file (PDF file, 137 KB)
- Affix one copy of the form to your mobility aid. It will serve as a useful handling guide.
- Keep the other copy for yourself and have it available in case the one affixed to your mobility aid comes off and gets lost.
If you do not feel comfortable printing and completing the form from home, you may request a form at the airport and complete it there. If possible, bring a picture of your mobility aid so that it can be attached to the form.
Cargo Door Size Restrictions
Battery-powered wheelchairs must be loaded and stowed upright. The height and width of the wheelchair must not exceed the maximum height and width of the cargo hold door, per aircraft type.
Not all battery-powered wheelchairs fit through the cargo hold door of every one of our aircraft. If you're travelling with your own battery-powered wheelchair, we invite you to view our fleet pages for some of the maximum cargo door dimensions on our smaller aircraft.
We also strongly recommend that you contact Air Canada Reservations in advance to provide the dimensions of your wheelchair for verification purposes. We will make every effort to accommodate your wheelchair: this may include changing your booking so that you are travelling on an aircraft with a cargo door large enough for your wheelchair. Please note that for operational reasons, the aircraft type may change without notice.
Disassembly and Reassembly
Some battery-powered mobility aids require disassembly. Whenever possible, bring along:
- Any instructions that could help us with the disassembly and re-assembly of your battery-powered mobility aid, should such manipulations be required.
- The tools normally used to disassemble/reassemble your mobility aid.
We invite you to print and bring along the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority (CATSA) list of mobility aids and medical itemsOpens in New Window that are permitted through airport security checkpoints. Included in this list are the tools used to disassemble/reassemble a mobility aid.
We must inspect the battery label to verify if it is spillable or non-spillable.
We may need to remove and pack batteries separately if:
- Your mobility aid is powered by spillable batteries and we must tilt it while loading or stowing due to the size of the aircraft, or
- The battery is not secured to your mobility aid.
Although most major airlines accept wheelchairs operated by non spillable batteries, policies for spillable batteries vary from one carrier to another. If you are travelling on a codeshare flight, you can learn more about the specific policies of Air Canada's Star Alliance and other airline partners by visiting their websites.


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New York is known as the City that never sleeps, and, the Big Apple. Today's Nice Price or Crack Pipe '64 New Yorker is painted black which seems appropriate considering the city's unofficial dress code, but will its price have you saying I'M WALKIN' HERE, I'M WALKIN' HERE?
Unsurprisingly, yesterday's Maserati Quattroporte walked away with a 68% Nice Price win. I say unsurprising because any time someone says fifty-five hundred and Maserati in the same breath - and they're not talking about a repair bill, or a Biturbo - it's a pretty good deal.
One thing that Italian had - in spades - was presence, what its angular designer clothes, and cow-rich interior. The fact that its size makes it look like something the Italian Navy lands-a da-planes on helps too, but it's nothing compared to today's contender.
The New Yorker nameplate goes waaaay back, originally appearing as a special package on the pre-war Imperial. After the war it became a distinct model, slotted below the Imperial, and, by the 1950s, received its styling from one of the era's most flamboyant designers. In the fifties and early sixties the American dream was to live in an all-glass house, listen to jazz on your quadraphonic sound system, drink martinis at lunch, and have a car styled by Virgil Exner. An apprentice of Raymond Loewy, and having previously penned for Studebaker, Exner was a good choice to give Chrysler's top models their stand-out flair.
Exner's influence is demonstrated on this 1964 New Yorker pillarless station wagon but this would mark the the last year for both the designer's work and the body style at Chrysler. Painted an elegant black - which is claimed the factory spray job - the 122-inch wheelbase and 215-inch overall body is an imposing sight. The seller says that the car has been in the family for more than 48 years, the entire time owned by his grandfather.
Gramps has done a miraculous job preserving this 4,250-lb behemoth over that time and its 109,000 miles, as it is described, and appears, as being in as-new condition. Look at the white vinyl on those mesa-like split bench seats - there's not a sag nor discoloration anywhere. It's as though over its life, no one has so much as farted within twenty yards of it. The remainder of the interior- carpet, headliner, and two additional benches, are equally clean, and the level of '60s styling detail is astounding - square steering wheel anyone?
Outside it's much the same, the paint showing no sign of age nor the chrome - of which there is plenty - exhibiting a total lack of clouding or pitting. The roof rack looks like something tourists view city sights from and draws down into a pair of clever hand holds bracketing the rear glass. Even the rubber moldings and weather seals are said to still be as supple as a virgin's thighs - well, maybe not described exactly in that manner, but you get the picture.
Powering this survivor is a 413 cubic inch Wedge, an engine good, when new, for 340-bhp. Backing that up is a Torqueflite automatic, but it's not actuated by a lever, preferring to have its buttons pushed in being told which direction is desired.
Back in the day, Chrysler advertised the optioned-out New Yorker as the world's most complete car, and this one could easily take the title of most complete survivor due to its Dorian Gray appearance. The question remains however, would anyone be the world's most complete fool for paying twenty five large for it?
You decide!
San Francisco Craigslist or go here if the ad disappears.
H/T to Rollo Grande for the hookup!
Help me out with NPOCP. Click here to send a me a fixed-price tip, and remember to include your commenter handle.


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I know this is jumping the gun a bit, but has anyone spotted these, or maybe more important, are there many of us out there with memberships to Sam's that have even started checking?
I'm wondering if I should just get a membership now and start hunting...
She said she thought it might be a good addition and she said she almost got one for herself.
Do the figures come with any accessories/weapons?


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The Quality of Mercy Is Not Strnen
Don't look now but the Yankees are in 2nd place.
Yep, and just think, they may soon be at .500! Oh noz!
Their pace is relentless and scary. Somebody hold me.
Man, did Callahan dish it out with his "Pathetic in Pinstripes" column this morning or what?
Abso-effin-lutley I totally enjoyed this line: "You want to know why the Yankees had to get Clemens? Because they didn't get Schilling, Beckett or Matsuzaka" Ouch.
So when an MSM guy like Callahan rips on the Tankees, do you think he gets bombahded with angry fan emails the way bloggahs do?
Are you kidding me? Right now the servahs at thesauras.com are working reving their CPUs as a couple hundred hair-gelled Neanderthals in velour track suits attempt to find some "big words" for their "Yankees r da winnerz youseguys and youse Red Sawx are da suck" missives.
Ah, yes, the infinite monkey theorem.


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Republicans are very aware that they have a serious messaging problem. So aware, in fact, that the Republican National Committee on Monday released a voter outreach guide designed to appeal to a wider demographic of voters – namely, minorities, women and the poor – to help "grow the Party and improve Republicans."
The GOP -- which now wants to be known as the "Growth and Opportunity Party" -- after surveying more than 2,600 voters across the nation, acknowledged that everyday Americans often describe Republicans as "scary," "narrow-minded," "out of touch," and as a party composed of "stuffy old men."
"Public perception of the Party is at record low. Young voters are increasingly rolling their eyes at what the Party represents, and many minorities wrongly think that Republicans do not like them or want them in the country. When someone rolls their eyes at us, they are not likely to open their ears," states the introduction of the report, which specifically notes Mitt Romney's use of the term "self deport" during the 2012 election as an example of rhetoric that could put off potential voters.
The Republican leadership, on the national level, clearly knows the party must appear to be a more compassionate and inclusive group to survive. But lawmakers continue to espouse support for policies that go directly against the mission outlined in the new RNC report.
1. "The Republican Party must be the champion of those who seek to climb the economic ladder of life. Low-income Americans are hardworking people who want to become hard-working middle-income Americans. Middle-income Americans want to become upper-middle-income, and so on. We need to help everyone make it in America."
The fallout from Romney's infamous "47 percent" comments has obviously had a lasting impact on GOP leaders. Because if the 2012 election proved anything, it's that lower-income Americans don't want to vote for a man who believes they are self-pitying and "dependent" on government.
And yet, even after entering sequestration, GOP leaders continue to say they won't consider new revenue as part of any deficit reduction plan. And the budget proposal championed by the party, authored by House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan, has been consistently criticized for slashing funding for social safety net programs – which primarily aid the poor – while simultaneously lowering the marginal tax rate for the wealthiest Americans.
At least 66 percent of the cuts found in the Ryan plan would come from programs that serve people of limited means, according to a recent analysis from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Even though the budget has no chance of advancing past the House, Republicans continue to support it.
2. "For the GOP to appeal to younger voters, we do not have to agree on every issue, but we do need to make sure young people do not see the Party as totally intolerant of alternate points of view. Already, there is a generational difference within the conservative movement about issues involving the treatment and the rights of gays – and for many younger voters, these issues are a gateway into whether the Party is a place they want to be."
Republicans have undoubtedly realized that ostracizing voters because of their sexuality will only accelerate their party's extinction. This year, dozens of high-profile Republicans signed an amicus brief in support of same-sex marriage with the Supreme Court, while last week the U.S. Senate's first Republican spoke out in favor of marriage equality.
But the party is still far from embracing LGBT equality. Republicans continue to spend millions of dollars defending the Defense of Marriage Act, the federal law that defines marriage solely a union between a man and woman. Party leaders (such as House Speaker John Boehner, who just last weekend said he "can't imagine" ever supporting gay marriage) have also strongly objected to including benefits for same-sex couples in any potential immigration reform legislation.
Plus, there are the issues that directly affect young voters, like affording a college education. The 2014 Ryan budget would freeze Pell Grants at their current levels, instead of keeping up with rising tuition rates, at $5,645 per student for the next 10 years. It would also categorize those grants as discretionary spending (meaning, it would be susceptible to cuts). About $800 from each Pell Grant now comes from mandatory spending.
3. "Our candidates, spokespeople, and staff need to use language that addresses concerns that are on women's minds in order to let them know we are fighting for them."
Republicans in Congress continue to overwhelmingly support overturning the contraception mandate in the Affordable Care Act, which allows women to receive co-pay free contraception through their healthcare provider. That opposition still persists, even though access to quality contraception has been found to boost a woman's overall income (because she will not be forced to take time off for one or even multiple pregnancies) and is undoubtedly the best way to prevent abortions.
However, on top of making it more difficult for lower-income women to obtain contraceptives, GOP lawmakers on the state level continue to either propose or enact numerous provisions that seek to severely restrict access to abortion services.
Republicans also recently blocked the Paycheck Fairness Act, legislation aiming to promote equal pay for equal work, and held up the passage for the Violence Against Women Act for more than year. The GOP's main complaint against VAWA was that it offered protections to Native American women and the LGBT community.
4. "The African American community has a lot in common with the Republican Party, and it is important to share this rich history. More importantly, the Republican Party must be committed to building a lasting relationship with the African American community year-round, based on mutual respect and with a spirit of caring."
It stands to point out that many of the cuts to social safety net programs established by sequestration (i.e. cuts to food stamps, day care subsidies) largely affect the African American community, according to government data. Of the approximately 15 percent of the population living under the federal poverty line in 2010, the U.S. Census reports 27.4 percent of that group was comprised of African-Americans.
The RNC recommendations, however, don't center on the GOP's economic policies that appear to negatively influence black voters. Instead, the RNC said it should focus on "establishing a presence" in African American communities and organizations and put a larger focus on promoting the professional advancement of black Republicans.
Interestingly, after multiple Republican-led states enacted laws that aimed to limit or abolish early voting – most suspected it was because minorities (who lean Democrat) were most likely to take advantage – the RNC on page 21 said it must push for early, absentee and online voting and "acknowledge the trend as future reality, utilizing new tactics to gain victory on Election Day."
It's also impossible to forget that, only last month, Republicans went to the U.S. Supreme Court in their quest to eradicate a key provision of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
The law, possibly the most important package of civil rights legislation enacted in the U.S., outlawed discriminatory voting practices that had been responsible for the widespread voter disenfranchisement of African Americans in the South.
But less than 50 years after its passage, Alabama lawmakers are attempting to strike down a provision that requires the federal government to sign off on voting law changes in states proven to have an extensive history of voter discrimination -- even though that very power was used to strike down biased voting laws as recently as the 2012 election.


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Annual documentation that lets people have a look into the priorities of Republican gubernatorial candidate BRUCE RAUNER and his wife, DIANA, may not be available for a while.
The Rauner Family Foundation, as a charitable trust, files tax forms appropriate for private foundations, and those forms become public.
The tax year for the trust, as noted on filings in recent years, is the calendar year. That makes May 15 the due date for the report covering 2013.
However, MIKE SCHRIMPF, spokesman for the Rauner campaign, said the foundation got a six-month extension. That means that, if the extension is used to its full advantage, the return might not be filed until shortly after the Nov. 4 election.
"Extensions are filed every year for the foundation," Schrimpf said. "All the information needed to complete the return (is) not available by May 15."
He said the Form 990 "will be released as soon as it is ready," and he noted that past ones are available online.
Returns from past years show donations such as a total $525,000 the Rauner foundation gave to the Illinois Policy Institute between 2009 and 2012. There's been at least $850,000 since 2009 to Rauner's alma mater, Dartmouth College. The Rauners provided funding for the Rauner Special Collections Library at the college in Hanover, New Hampshire, Schrimpf said.
Bruce Rauner is on the board of Noble Network of Charter Schools in Chicago, and the foundation has donated at least $900,000 to the network since 2009.
There was a combined $700,000 in 2011 and 2012 to Donors Trust, an Alexandria, Virginia-based organization that, its website says, is "explicitly devoted to supporting organizations that promote liberty." It also says it is designed to "encourage philanthropy and individual giving and responsibility, as opposed to governmental involvement, as an answer to society's needs."
Rauner has told me he views Donors Trust as "a conservative organization that's donated to a number of different causes around the country."
And there has been a combined $200,000 to the Roger Baldwin Foundation, which is a sister organization of the American Civil Liberties Union and has fought for, the ACLU website says, things including abolition of the death penalty in Illinois, enactment of civil unions and lobbying on behalf of "reproductive rights."
There's plenty more — as the foundation in 2012 alone gave more than $5.7 million.
Another writer
Speaking of the Illinois Policy Institute, there's a new reporter at its offshoot called the Illinois News Network, which offers articles and commentary to newspapers across the state at no cost.
BRADY CREMEENS lives in Lincoln. His bio says he is a graduate of the University of Illinois Springfield, with a bachelor's degree in communications-journalism, and of Lincoln Christian University, with a bachelor's in theology.
JACKSON ADAMS, who was another reporter on staff, has left the organization. Springfield-based SCOTT REEDER is also with the service and is billed as the policy institute's "journalist in residence."
I've expressed in past columns the trouble I have with the Illinois Policy Institute having an offshoot called "Illinois News Network." JOHN TILLMAN, CEO of the institute, has said the institute's mission is "advancing free-market and liberty-based public policy solutions." I think media outlets should clearly mark the link to the institute if using the news service.
Tillman, of the Chicago suburb of Golf, donated $5,000 to Rauner's campaign on the same February day that the group's executive vice president, KRISTINA RASMUSSEN of Springfield, gave $1,000.
When I brought up my thoughts to Tillman, he said the news network follows the Society of Professional Journalists' code of ethics. He wondered about disclosure of the union affiliation of reporters at The State Journal-Register, where staffers, including me, are members of United Media Guild, and wondered if I would also question stories produced by the Chicago Sun-Times because Rauner is also a former investor in that business. (Rauner hasn't given to the policy institute since becoming a candidate.)
I guess I'll let readers decide.
Bishop in Ward 2
WILLIAM "BILLY" BISHOP III, who says he's not satisfied with the way things are going in his neighborhood, says he's in the running for Ward 2 alderman.
One problem, he said, is lack of good activities for young people.
"The kids have nowhere to go," said Bishop, 52. "They're learning things you learn on the street corner. We need youth centers. We need modern facilities. We need more jobs. We need more businesses."
Bishop has established a political fundraising committee for the purpose of the aldermanic run, and he said he's set on making the race.
"Count me in," he said, because there is "too much that needs to be done. If nothing else, I'll start the debate (and) maybe a bunch of other people will get into it."
Asked about possibly taking on Ward 2 Ald. GAIL SIMPSON and her performance in office, Bishop said he's concentrating on his own race. He said it doesn't make a difference to him who gets in the contest.
He said there should be a change in leadership, and he'd like to see "more men from my community step up and see if they can get some things done."
Bishop is co-founder of the nonprofit One In a Million Inc. and the annual Juneteenth celebration in Springfield's Comer Cox Park, which celebrates community unity and marks the day in 1865 when Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas, to inform slaves of their freedom following the Civil War.
Bishop, who now has a sound production company, served on the Prairie Capital Convention Center's board, filling out the term of an ailing board member but later losing his bid for a full term in 2001 to JEANETTE GOZA. He also lost a Democratic primary race for Sangamon County Board in 1996. He became a Republican for a time and says he conferred with friends on both sides of the political aisle as he contemplated his coming aldermanic run. He's consistently voted in Democratic primaries since 2004, which, he notes, is when President BARACK OBAMA was running for U.S. Senate.
"I kind of followed him all the way to the presidency," Bishop said.
Simpson, 60, hasn't revealed her political plans, not disclosing if she's running for another term as alderman or for another office.
"The more people that run for elective positions in the city of Springfield, the better served the citizens of Springfield will be," she said.
Simpson also voted in Republican primaries in the past, including 2002, but has voted in Democratic primaries since 2004. City offices are officially nonpartisan.
McAnarney run?
Meanwhile, TARA McANARNEY, who served a single term on the Springfield Park Board from 2005 to 2009, says there are people who would like to see her run for Ward 8 alderman. She's a Democrat, and the incumbent, KRIS THEILEN, is a Republican.
McAnarney, 37, said she was leaning against a run, but "I'm not going to close the door to anything."
She is a teacher at Pilates Studio of Springfield.
Theilen, 40, works for the state's commerce agency.
"I pride myself on the fact that I have been able to assist people all across Ward 8," Theilen said. "I don't think anyone has ever had reason to accuse me of making it about politics. However, if somebody is wanting to run, that's their choice. I enjoy what I do, and I do intend to run for re-election."
Contact political columnist Bernard Schoenburg: 788-1540, firstname.lastname@example.com, twitter.com/bschoenburg.
Correction: Billy Bishop lost a Democratic primary race for Sangamon County Board in 1996. The county was wrong in a previous version of this article.


text:
Last week I provided a T-SQL challenge involving a table called DailyVisits that holds information about daily visits to a website. Your task was to identify, for each day, certain statistics compared to the previous day, like how many visits there were, how many visitors were added, how many removed, and how many remained. You can find the puzzle details here. I'd like to thank all those who submitted solutions including Peter Larsson (Peso), Alejandro Mesa, simran and Tomaz Kastrun.
To test the performance of the solutions I populated the DailyVisits table with about 180,000 rows using the following code:
-- large set of sample data for perf tests
-- about 180,000 rows
@from AS DATE = '20110101',
@to AS DATE = '20110630';
TRUNCATE TABLE dbo.DailyVisits;
INSERT INTO dbo.DailyVisits WITH (TABLOCK) (dt, visitor)
SELECT dt, CAST(number AS VARCHAR(10)) AS visitor
FROM dbo.GetDates(@from, @to) AS D
CROSS APPLY (SELECT number, ABS(CHECKSUM(NEWID())) % 2 AS rnd
FROM master..spt_values
WHERE type = 'p'
AND number BETWEEN 1 AND 2000) AS A
WHERE rnd = 1;
I also added the following index:
CREATE UNIQUE INDEX idx_visitor_dt ON dbo.DailyVisits(visitor, dt);
Part of the difficulty in addressing the task was that there was no assurance for visits every day; technically, it is possible to have zero visits in some days, and then there are no entries for such days in the DailyVisits table. But you had to include days without visits in the output if they fell in the input range of dates. In the puzzle's comments section you can find that simran and Tomaz Kastrun addressed this difficulty by using either a loop or a recursive query to loop through the dates in the input range.
Simran's Solutions
Simran used in one solution a loop and in the other recursion to iterate through the dates in the input range and then used subueries to calculate the different measures. Both solutions ran over a minute against the larger set of sample data.
Tomaz Kastrun's Solutions
Tomaz Kastrun used recursion in his first solution to create the dates in the input period. In his second solution he used master..spt_values as alternative to an auxiliary table of numbers, and based on the numbers generated the dates in the input period. Then in the second part of the solutions, Tomaz joined the set of dates produced in the first step with DailyVisits twice, using left outer joins—once for current date, and second time for previous date. Then he use expressions checking counts of each measure by looking at current vs. previous elements. Both solutions ran over a minute.
GetDates Functions
Alejandro, I and Peso used a helper table called GetDates that generates a set of dates within an input range. Here's the function's definition:
-- definition of GetDates function
IF OBJECT_ID('dbo.GetDates', 'IF') IS NOT NULL
DROP FUNCTION dbo.GetDates;
CREATE FUNCTION dbo.GetDates(@low AS DATE, @high AS DATE) RETURNS TABLE
L0 AS (SELECT c FROM (VALUES(1),(1)) AS D(c)),
L1 AS (SELECT 1 AS c FROM L0 AS A CROSS JOIN L0 AS B),
L2 AS (SELECT 1 AS c FROM L1 AS A CROSS JOIN L1 AS B),
L3 AS (SELECT 1 AS c FROM L2 AS A CROSS JOIN L2 AS B),
L4 AS (SELECT 1 AS c FROM L3 AS A CROSS JOIN L3 AS B),
L5 AS (SELECT 1 AS c FROM L4 AS A CROSS JOIN L4 AS B),
Nums AS (SELECT ROW_NUMBER() OVER(ORDER BY (SELECT NULL)) AS rownum
SELECT TOP (DATEDIFF(day, @low, @high) + 1) DATEADD(day, rownum - 1, @low) AS dt
FROM Nums
ORDER BY rownum;
-- test function
SELECT dt
FROM dbo.GetDates('20110601', '20110608') AS D;
Alejandro's Solutions
Here's Alejandro's first solution (call it Alejandro 1):
Run time: 55 seconds.
Description (by Alejandro): My approach was to generate the Cartesian product between visitors and dates in the range, which could be very expensive if there are many visitors, or many dates, or both. Then doing an outer join with the table to flag each row as visit or no visit. Finally a self join to compare current and previous visit to calculate if current visit was added, removed, or remained, and grouping by date.
Solution code:
@from AS DATE = '20110101',
@to AS DATE = '20110630';
-- self join
SELECT DISTINCT visitor
FROM dbo.DailyVisits
SELECT dt
FROM dbo.GetDates(@from, @to)
CASE WHEN DV.visitor IS NULL AND DV.dt IS NULL THEN 0 ELSE 1 END AS visit_cnt
dbo.DailyVisits AS DV
ON V.visitor = DV.visitor
AND D.dt = DV.dt
SUM(ISNULL(A.visit_cnt, 0)) AS numvisits,
SUM(CASE WHEN A.visit_cnt > ISNULL(B.visit_cnt, 0) THEN 1 ELSE 0 END) AS added,
SUM(CASE WHEN A.visit_cnt < ISNULL(B.visit_cnt, 0) THEN 1 ELSE 0 END) AS removed,
SUM(CASE WHEN A.visit_cnt + ISNULL(B.visit_cnt, 0) = 2 THEN 1 ELSE 0 END) AS remained
ON A.visitor = B.visitor
AND A.dt = DATEADD([day], 1, B.dt)
Alejandro also proposed a second solution (call it Alejandro 2) that uses window functions called LAG and LEAD that aren't yet supported by SQL Server, but are planned to be supported in SQL Server Denali:
@from AS DATE = '20110101',
@to AS DATE = '20110630';
SELECT dt AS cur_dt, visitor,
CASE WHEN DATEDIFF(day, LAG(dt) OVER(PARTITION BY visitor ORDER BY dt), dt) = 1 THEN 1 ELSE 0 END AS prvbit,
CASE WHEN DATEDIFF(day, dt, LEAD(dt) OVER(PARTITION BY visitor ORDER BY dt)) = 1 THEN 1 ELSE 0 END AS nxtbit
FROM dbo.DailyVisits
SELECT dt,
COUNT(CASE WHEN dt = cur_dt THEN 1 END) AS numvisits,
COUNT(CASE WHEN dt = cur_dt AND COALESCE(prvbit, 0) = 0 THEN 1 END) AS added,
COUNT(CASE WHEN dt <> cur_dt AND nxtbit = 0 THEN 1 END) AS removed,
COUNT(CASE WHEN dt = cur_dt AND prvbit = 1 THEN 1 END) AS remained
FROM dbo.GetDates(@from, @to) AS D
ON dt IN(cur_dt, DATEADD(day, 1, cur_dt))
GROUP BY dt;
Performance remains to be seen in the future. As for the logic of the solution, the LAG function returns a value from the previous row in the partition based on the given ordering, and LEAD returns a value from the next row. The solution defines a CTE called R where in addition to the existing info from DailyVisits it computes two flags using LAG and LEAD indicating whether the current visitor had a visit the day before and day after, respectively. Then the solution performs a left outer join between the set of dates in the input range obtained from the GetNums table and R. Finally, in the outer query, the solution analyzes the flags to determine the needed statistics.
Itzik's Solutions
Here's my first solution (call it Itzik 1):
Description: The solution performs a full outer join between two instances of DailyVisits—one representing the current row and the other the previous row. The join predicate is: CUR.visitor = PRV.visitor AND CUR.dt = DATEADD(day, 1, PRV.dt). The solution then performs a left outer join between the set of dates in the input range obtained from GetDates (call it D) and the result of the aforementioned full join. The join predicate is: D.dt IN (CUR.dt, DATEADD(day, 1, PRV.dt)). The solution then groups the rows by D.dt, and computes the desired statistics by analyzing the details in the current vs. previous rows.
Solution code:
@from AS DATE = '20110101',
@to AS DATE = '20110630';
SELECT D.dt,
COUNT(CUR.visitor) AS numvisits,
COUNT(CASE WHEN CUR.visitor IS NOT NULL AND PRV.visitor IS NULL THEN 1 END) AS added,
COUNT(CASE WHEN CUR.visitor IS NULL AND PRV.visitor IS NOT NULL THEN 1 END) AS removed,
COUNT(CASE WHEN CUR.visitor = PRV.visitor THEN 1 END) AS remained
FROM dbo.GetDates(@from, @to) AS D
( dbo.DailyVisits AS CUR
FULL JOIN dbo.DailyVisits AS PRV
ON CUR.visitor = PRV.visitor
AND CUR.dt = DATEADD(day, 1, PRV.dt))
ON D.dt IN (CUR.dt, DATEADD(day, 1, PRV.dt))
GROUP BY D.dt;
In my second solution (call it Itzik 2) I also used the LAG function that is planned to be supported in SQL Server Denali. Here's the solution's code:
@from AS DATE = '20110101',
@to AS DATE = '20110630';
SELECT dt, visitor,
CASE WHEN DATEDIFF(day, LAG(dt) OVER(PARTITION BY visitor ORDER BY dt), dt) = 1
THEN 1 ELSE 0 END AS prvbit
FROM dbo.DailyVisits
SELECT dt,
COUNT(*) AS numvisits,
SUM(1-prvbit) AS added,
SUM(prvbit) AS remained,
-- removed = prev numvisits - cur remained
CASE WHEN DATEDIFF(day, LAG(dt) OVER(ORDER BY dt), dt) = 1
THEN LAG(COUNT(*)) OVER(ORDER BY dt) - SUM(prvbit) ELSE 0 END AS removed,
0 AS filler
GROUP BY dt
SELECT dt, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1
FROM dbo.GetDates(@from, @to) AS D
WHERE dt NOT IN (SELECT dt FROM dbo.DailyVisits)
SELECT dt,
CASE WHEN filler = 0 THEN removed ELSE
LAG(numvisits) OVER(ORDER BY dt) END AS removed
The CTE C1 uses the LAG function to compute a flag (call it prvbit) that indicates whether the visitor had a previous visit the day before.
The CTE C2 unifies the results of two queries. One query groups the rows from C1 by dt, and computes based on the prvbit flag how many daily visits there were, how many added and how many remained. To calculate how many were removed you can subtract from the previous day's number of visits the current day's remained number. To get the previous day's number of visits, the solution uses the LAG function again. The solution then queries the GetDates function returning all dates from the input range that do not appear in DailyVisits, and unifies the rows with the result of the grouped query. The code assigns a flag 1 to the rows from GetDates indicating that those are filler rows, and the flag 0 to the rows in the result of the grouped query to indicate those aren't filler rows.
Finally, the outer query queries the CTE C2, and computes in filler rows the removed attribute using the LAG function a third time. The number of visits in the previous day is the number of removed visits in the filler row.
Performance is yet to be seen, but I suspect the query will perform quite good.
Peso's Solution
And the best saved for last! Peso's solution ran only 2 seconds against the large set of sample data. It is very clever and creative, and I enjoyed very much following its logic. Here's the solution code followed by Peso's description of the solution:
@from AS DATE = '20110101',
@to AS DATE = '20110630';
;WITH cteSource(dt, NumVisits, Added, Removed)
SELECT dt,
SUM(NumVisits) AS NumVisits,
SUM(Added) AS Added,
SUM(Removed) AS Removed
SELECT DATEADD(DAY, f.DayDelta, w.dt) AS dt,
FROM dbo.DailyVisits AS w
(1, 0, -1, 1)
) AS f(DayDelta, NumVisits, Added, Removed)
WHERE w.dt BETWEEN DATEADD(DAY, -1, @From) AND @To
) AS d
WHERE dt BETWEEN @From AND @To
GROUP BY dt,
SELECT dt,
SUM(NumVisits) AS NumVisits,
SUM(Added) AS Added,
SUM(Removed) AS Removed,
SUM(Remained) AS Remained
SELECT dt,
SUM(NumVisits) AS NumVisits,
SUM(CASE WHEN Added = 1 THEN 1 ELSE 0 END) AS Added,
SUM(CASE WHEN Removed = 1 THEN 1 ELSE 0 END) AS Removed,
SUM(CASE WHEN 1 IN (Added, Removed) THEN 0 ELSE 1 END) AS Remained
FROM cteSource
GROUP BY dt
SELECT dt,
0 AS NumVisits,
0 AS Added,
0 AS Removed,
0 AS Remained
FROM dbo.GetDates(@From, @To)
) AS d
GROUP BY dt;
Peso's description:
This was an interesting challenge because it had a "make it or break it" logic which was not that obvious at first glance. My beta query (in my head) used a JOIN which I think most of you used too. But when you think of the actual problem in this challenge, it's about "carry-forward" from one day to next.
What does this mean, in terms of logic and performance? Well, if the problem is to carry forward some values from one day to the next day, which is the fastest way to get the final values for the two dates? It's not by joining, because an efficient self-join need extremely well built indexes and even when they are in place, SQL Server optimizer still need to seek out the very next day. And here is another catch by using an index; what if there is no next day, as in the example code given in this challenge?
A better approach is to calculate the next day! Doing this you avoid self-joining and can enhance performance both in terms of speed and resource utilization. I have dissected my final solution into 5 sections and 1 non-recursive CTE and I will explain the idea and usage for each section below.
Section A:
To have anything to work with, you must get something out from dbo.DailyVisits source table; the dates and the visitors. This is no secret and an absolute must.
Section B
Here is the first optimization trick because here is where you calculate the next day value, rather than seeking it out by self-joining. This also enables the solution to be a "one-pass only" solution which I prefer. The DayDelta is a number to add to the real date value; 0 means same day and 1 means next day according to how DATEADD work. The next optimization trick is to work with the visit count and here I used a value of 1 for the real days and 0 for the calculated virtual next date.
By doing this I can easily just SUM this column to get the correct count for NumVisits result. I use the same technique for the Added and Removed column; use +1 and -1 to sum in a later stage. The third optimization trick is to not calculate Remained at this point. I will get back to Remained in Section D.
Section C:
Here is the major performance gain. Since the clustered index on the dbo.DailyVisits table is on dt column, I can use this to get a nice SEEK operation from the table. And the primary WHERE clause needs to deal with the calculated date values so I want the rows from the day before the earliest day, to the last day. This is because I want the calculated next day to be included in the beginning of the interval.
Common Table Expression cteSource:
Is this section, I simply sum up all NumVisits, Added and Removed values by dt. The trick here is to group by the visitor too, to avoid the costly distinct aggregate operation. For this resultset from cteSource I will later apply another group by and then only over dt column. More about that in Section D. Here I also apply the secondary WHERE clause to remove the real row containing the date before the earliest date and the calculated next date which occurs after the latest date.
Section D:
To avoid the distinct aggregate I apply two group by's; first over both dt and visitor columns and the second over dt column only. This is the first trick in this section and proved to be very efficient and removes the need for a sort operation in the execution plan. The second trick is to wait to calculate the Remained column until now. If you understand that if there was no difference in Added and Removed value for the visitor at any given day, the visitor must have kept/remained his presence.
Section E:
The first trick is to have this section to deal with missing dates in the source table. Here I use a very efficient function written by Mr. Ben-Gan to get the full interval. The second trick is to use 0 as value for all columns, because if the row for that date is missing, there cannot be any movement either in terms of Added, Removed or Remained.
Final query:
Now the solution is very simple. Just add Section D and Section E and sum the column values.
The query is very fast. I tested on a sample table with about 120,000 random rows and my solution used about 2 ms CPU vs 4400 ms CPU for the JOIN solution; it also used only 10 reads vs. about 800,000 reads for the JOIN solution.


text:
Database UpdatedPosted in Facebook , Kerri , Updates
The Italian Surname Database updated today. Another 100 names have been added or modified. And don't forget to check out a success story on Kerri's blog about how she met a relative she never knew about which started with a Google search and the Italian Surname Database!
We also hit a milestone this month with over 400 likes on the Italian Surname Database Facebook page. Lot's of interesting posts being added so if you haven't already been you should check us out. You never know who you might meet.
Happy Searching!


text:
Digging Into Data > Home: "Now going into the third round of the competition, the Digging into Data Challenge has funded a wide variety of projects that explore how computationally intensive research methods can be used to ask new questions about and gain new insights into our world. To encourage innovative research from across the globe, Digging into Data is sponsored by ten international research funding organizations that are working together to focus the attention of the social sciences, humanities, library, archival, information, computer, mathematical, and statistical science communities on large-scale data analysis and its potential applications."
'via Blog this'


text:
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Gear Wrench Ratchet Wrench Sets (Good Deal!)
Here is a great deal on Gear Wrench ratchet wrench metric and standard size sets.
Ive never owned Gear Wrench, but I have heard good things about their tools.
They have a Life Time Guarantee at Sears and Advance Auto so let's see.
I like how they come with a wrench rack to keep everything organized, but I do worry about the Flex Head. I don't want it crapping out on me, but I've looked on the net and nobody has complained about it yet.
29 piece ratchet wrenchs with flex heads for $239.99!
http://www.sears.com/gearwrench-kdt9...SPM1136462133093 Z28, 383, PI 3200, Strange 12 bolt, 3.73, Strange coilovers, suspension, and going 24X... for three years or so.


text:
It will take a lot more than a few links in an email to reporters to cause a federal judge to sanction Samsung and throw out the Korean company's defense, according to a new report.
In a ruling late Thursday in the Apple v. Samsung alleged patent infringement trial, Judge Lucy Koh denied the motion filed by Apple. The motion wanted the court to sanction Samsung for providing excluded case evidence to the media and dismiss its defense to its patent claims, according to AppleInsider. Koh continued that Apple's request was "frivolous at every level."
Apple claimed that Samsung should be sanctioned because its leaking of suppressed evidence could sway the trial jury.
U.S. & World
News from around the country and around the globe
Samsung responded to Apple's motion with a statement:
Apple's request is an affront to the integrity of the jury. Apple proceeds on the groundless assumption that the jury, already instructed by the Court not to read media accounts, will violate the Court's instructions and do precisely that. As explained in the Quinn declaration, Apple's premise is factually unfounded and contrary to settled law. Nowhere does Apple even address, let alone refute, these points.
The trial is already shaping up to be a very entertaining one.


text: A breakdown of what is and isn't included with your insurance coverage. iStockphoto By the editors of Kiplinger's Personal Finance Updated for 2017 Your homeowners policy will pay to fix damaged property or rebuild all or part of your home after a covered loss. It also may entitle you to things such as reimbursement for additional living expenses or loss of rental income when you or someone renting part of your house has to move temporarily because of damage to the living quarters.QUIZ: Does Insurance Cover That? The coverage on losses other than the house itself are generally figured as a percentage of the coverage on the house. For instance, with most basic policies, your personal property is automatically insured for 50% to 70% of the house amount. (More coverage is available on many policies -- see the discussion of replacement cost for household contents.) That 50% to 70% is in addition to the insurance on the structure, not part of it. Sponsored Content How Policies Differ There are homeowners policies for houses, for condo and co-op apartments, even for renters. The major forms of house policies, called HO-2 and HO-3, offer similar protection on most points. The crucial differences lie in the number of perils against which your home and property are insured. Covered perils. A homeowners policy will normally compensate you for losses to the building and personal property only if the damage is caused by a peril named in the policy. This isn't a major worry because the named perils are pretty comprehensive. Homeowners policies don't cover damage from floods or earthquakes, and generally don't cover sewer or drain back-ups, for instance. You have to buy that coverage separately. Advertisement Not all the policies that insure against a particular peril necessarily provide the same degree of protection, so ask the agent to walk you through the coverage. When you're looking for a policy to cover items such as pictures, antiques, furs and musical instruments, you might do better by buying additional insurance in the form of riders than by purchasing a homeowners policy with more blanket coverage. Insurance payback and the 80% rule. Insurance companies compute payments for homeowners policy losses in two ways. Replacement cost covers what it would cost to rebuild your home if it were destroyed or to replace items in it. Actual cash value takes depreciation into account and pays only the current market value of the loss. Thus, your three-year-old sofa that cost $2,000 new might be worth only $800 in a cash-value policy. A replacement-cost policy would reimburse you for the cost of a comparable new sofa. Because homes are rarely destroyed, it's possible to save a little on your premiums by insuring the place for less than it would cost to rebuild the whole thing. As long as the face amount of your policy equals at least 80% of the insurance company's estimated cost to rebuild (excluding land, which isn't covered), you are fully covered for complete or partial losses -- up to the policy's limits. If you have a $160,000 policy on a home the company estimates will cost $200,000 to rebuild and you suffer $20,000 in damage from a kitchen fire, you will be reimbursed for the full $20,000, minus your deductible. If the house burns to the ground and it costs $200,000 to rebuild, your coverage will stop at $160,000. But insuring for less than full replacement value can be a false economy because of the way insurance companies compensate for partial losses. Say you buy coverage for 80% of the home's value but as prices for labor and building materials rise, that same amount would cover only 70% of the cost of rebuilding. Even if you insured your home for 100% replacement value a few years ago, you may need to brush the cobwebs off your policy. A policy feature called inflation guard protects you by automatically raising your policy limits in step with rising prices. Insurance agents have access to cost-index figures you can use to help update the replacement value. When you compute the required amount of insurance, remember to eliminate the estimated value of the land, excavations, foundation, underground pipes and similar building components not likely to be damaged. Advertisement Extended replacement cost coverage. In the past, many insurers guaranteed that they would pay whatever it cost to rebuild your home in the event of a total loss. Now you'll probably need to buy extended replacement-cost coverage, which usually pays an extra 20% to 30% above your policy's limits. That's especially useful after a disaster, when labor and material costs often rise, pushing the cost to rebuild higher than your policy limit. A building code endorsement. If your home suffers major damage, the cost to rebuild may rise if you must meet updated building codes. You could come up short even with guaranteed- or extended-replacement coverage. Many insurers offer an "ordinance or law" endorsement that pays a certain amount toward that additional cost. SEE ALSO: 10 States Most at Risk of Disaster Coverage of expensive belongings. Most homeowners policies cover jewelry, art and collections, but they may cover only their depreciated value and will probably impose a dollar limit, such as a total of $2,000 to $3,000 total for jewelry. To fully cover those items, you'll need to pay for special coverage (a rider, floater or endorsement).