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The Craven Arts Council�s return to the renovated Bank of the Arts gallery on Middle Street arrives Friday morning, with a 10 a.m. ribbon-cutting and opening of a massive �Homecoming� exhibit.
The Craven Arts Council�s return to the renovated Bank of the Arts gallery on Middle Street arrives Friday morning, with a 10 a.m. ribbon-cutting and opening of a massive �Homecoming� exhibit.
The city�s largest gallery has been closed since the spring for more than $240,000 in renovations and updates which includes a $60,000 skylight 20 feet above the gallery floor.
The facility revamped the rear portion of the revival-style building � the 1913 First Citizens Bank � which was donated to the arts council in 1982.
The renovations allow for an expanded gift shop and display section, along with a new kitchen area, additional rest rooms and other amenities.
The $186,000 renovation portion of the project also built a new stairway to the second floor, where the original bank board room now houses the art council office with an indoor window view of the gallery. The works was done with an emphasis on history, down to the originally staircase railing.
The arts council has been housed at a historic Tryon Palace house on George Street during the renovations and held its exhibits at the Duffy Gallery in the North Carolina History Center.
The �Homecoming� exhibit will feature new work by more than 50 artists who have exhibited at the Bank of the Arts over the years, according to council director Carol Tokarski.
Tokarski, staff and volunteers have been busy moving back to their longtime home all week. On Wednesday, they were joined by artists as the process of putting up the new show was under way.
The show is large enough that it will be divided between the Bank of the Arts and the Duffy Gallery at the history center.
Tokarski said the council could not have maintained during the months of renovation began in March without the help and assistance of Tryon Palace.
The arts council will also have three new outdoor sculptures on site at the History Center grounds on South Front Street.
The $186,000 in renovations were made possible by the Harold H. Bate Foundation; The Cannon Foundation, the City of New Bern; Craven County Community Foundation; the Georgene Hannon Trust; North Carolina Main Street Program; Swiss Bear Downtown Development Corp.; and arts council members.
The skylight was a separate project, funded through a public campaign, �Light up the Arts.�
The 16-by-16-foot skylight is in the same space where a skylight existed when the bank was built 100 years ago. About a half-century ago, the original skylight was removed and the space covered.
Around the space below the light, the names of major donors and organizations, with gifts of $1,000 or more are etched for posterity.
They include the Harold H. Bate Foundation, the Cannon Foundation, the City of New Bern, Craven County Community Foundation, Georgene Hannon Trust, North Carolina Main Street Program and Swiss Bear.
A reception was held Thursday night for donors, headed by a $15,000 gift from First Citizens Banks. Donations of $2,500 came from the Craven County Community Foundation and The William B. & Sophie R. Gadzuk Endowment.
For information or to contribute, call the Craven Arts Council at 638-2577.
Charlie Hall can be reached at 252-635-5667 or firstname.lastname@example.com.


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text:
Strengthen Your Upper Body
You don't have to lift a lot of heavy metal to get jiggle-free arms and shoulders. Research has shown you can boost muscle strength by up to 30 percent in six weeks with resistance bands. "The bands provide all the resistance you need on both the upward and downward phase of the exercise," says physical therapist Todd Ellenbecker, coauthor of Strength Band Training (Human Kinetics, 2005).
Bonus: The arm, chest, shoulder, and upper-back exercises here also tone your abs by incorporating a stability ball or balancing element. Do two or three sets of 10 to 12 reps per move. Try the workout twice a week and you'll be showing off an ultra-toned upper body.
1. Lat Pull-Down
Fitness Focus: Back, Chest, Shoulders
- Tie the band around a sturdy object just above shoulder height, wrapping one end around each hand.
- Sit on a stability ball, abs tight and knees bent 90 degrees. Extend arms toward band, elbows straight, and maintain tension in the band at all times.
- Slowly pull elbows back toward body until hands are even with chest; hold for 3 counts, then slowly return to starting position, maintaining some tension with the band.
- Keep wrists straight at all times.
- Note: If you don't have a ball, stand with feet staggered.
2. One-Legged Elbow Curl
Fitness Focus: Biceps, Shoulders
- Secure one end of the band around a sturdy object at forehead level. Wrap opposite end around right hand, keeping arm in front at shoulder height (you may need to take a big step back to feel resistance).
- Lift left foot behind body, balancing on right leg. Slowly curl hand toward you; hold for 3 counts. Slowly release and return to starting position.
- Do all reps on right arm, then switch arms and legs and repeat.
- To increase the challenge, stand with one foot on an inflatable disk.
3. Chest Pull-Over
Fitness Focus: Chest, Upper Back
- Tie the band around a sturdy object at waist height.
- Lie with your shoulders and upper back on a stability ball, facing away from the band, with hips lifted and knees bent 90 degrees.
- Extend arms behind your head, holding one end of band in each hand with palms up, and tighten the band until you feel resistance.
- Slowly pull arms toward chest, keeping elbows straight; hold for 3 seconds.
- Slowly return to starting position and repeat.
4. Lateral Raise
Fitness Focus: Shoulders
- Stand on the middle of the band, feet hip-width apart, abs engaged.
- Cross the band in front of knees so that it forms an X, wrapping ends around each hand (thumbs up) with palms at hip level.
- Slowly lift and lower arms 4 inches up and down, keeping elbows and wrists straight but not locked, shoulders down.
5. Ball Push-Up
Fitness Focus: Chest, Triceps, Shoulders, Back
- Lie facedown in a full push-up position with knees and shins pressed into a stability ball, hands on floor under shoulders.
- Place band across upper back and shoulders, wrapping one end around each hand to create additional resistance through the upper body.
- Bend elbows 4 inches and lower chest toward floor; push back up to starting position.
- To make the move easier, place upper thighs on the ball.
6. Seated Dip
Fitness Focus: Triceps, Shoulders
- Sit in a sturdy chair with hands on the edge of seat, legs extended in front of you with feet together and flexed.
- Wrap the band in front of your shoulders and behind your neck, securing one end under each hand.
- Scoot butt off the edge of the chair and straighten arms, keeping elbows close to your sides. Slowly bend elbows to 90 degrees, keeping lower back close to chair seat.
- Hold for 3 seconds, then push up to starting position.
- To modify, keep knees bent at 90 degrees with feet flat on floor.
Target Your Bra Bulges
Q&A: What's the best way to target annoying bra bulge?
"I like the kneeling external rotation, which zeroes in on the mid to upper back," says Todd Ellenbecker. "It's also great for the rotator cuff."
- Get on all fours with band mostly under left palm and opposite end around right hand, wrists straight.
- Bend elbows slightly, looking down.
- Keeping elbow soft, raise right arm diagonally to shoulder height.
- Hold for 3 counts, squeezing shoulders, then lower to waist height without touching floor.
- Do 12 reps; switch arms and repeat.
- Do 3 sets total.
6-Minute Butt and Thigh Booster
Target your lower body with this quickie workout. "Since the muscles of the lower body tend to be stronger, use thicker or heavier resistance bands," says physical therapist Todd Ellenbecker.
Minute 0:00-1:00 Band Bridge
- Lie on back with middle of band stretched around waist and crossed behind you under lower back, knees bent and feet on floor.
- Grasp each end of band with hands aligned under shoulders (fingers pointing toward butt).
- Lift hips, bringing thighs parallel to floor and abs tight; gaze straight ahead.
- Continuing pressing hips up, working against band's resistance, for 60 seconds.
Minute 1:00-2:00 Chair Pose
- Stand in a half squat and loop the band around backs of thighs (near your butt), wrapping an end around each hand with feet hip-width apart, arms at sides.
- To increase the challenge, keep knees and feet together.
- Once you're crouching as low as you comfortably can, with body weight back in your heels, extend arms forward, palms down.
- Breathe deeply; hold for 60 seconds.
Minute 2:00-4:00 Single-Leg Bend
- Stand with the middle of the band under your right foot, right knee slightly bent, and lift left foot behind you.
- Hold one end of band in each hand at hip level.
- Slowly bend and straighten right knee 3 to 4 inches for 1 minute, keeping knee aligned with second toe, weight balanced over heel.
- Maintain tension in band throughout.
- Repeat for 1 minute; switch legs.
Minute 4:00-5:00 Repeat Band Bridge
Minute 5:00-6:00 Repeat Chair Pose
5 Sports to Sculpt Your Upper Body
|Calories Burned/Hour
|Shoulders, biceps, triceps, upper back
|648 (singles ) 405 (doubles)
|Biceps, triceps, upper back, chest
|243 (indoors); 648 (beach)
|Cross-Country Skiing
|Upper back, chest, triceps
|567 (light effort); 700 (vigorous effort)
|Chest, upper back, shoulders, arms
|486 (leisurely); 648 (moderate effort)
|Rock Climbing
|Shoulders, arms, chest, back
|648 (rappelling); 891 (ascending)
*All calorie counts are based on a 135-pound woman.


text:
Unique posters online!
SALE: 25% OFF ALL POSTERS!Valid until 7/6
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All our posters are printed on 240 g Multidesign Smooth White paper, which is a high quality uncoated paper from the Clairefontaine paper mill in France. The paper is archival quality, i.e. it does not yellow over time. All our posters are printed on paper bearing the FSC and EU Ecolabel environmental labels for responsible forestry.


text:
Large bridge-type machines in the ZEISS MMZ G line meet the highest demands: they feature the largest measuring range of all measuring machines offered by ZEISS and offer you unparalleled accuracy.
This makes the ZEISS MMZ G ideal for checking complex, extremely large workpieces, especially those with tight tolerances. ZEISS MMZ G measuring machines are used by manufacturers of printing machines, wind turbines and in mechanical engineering.
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|from 2.0 μm


text:
About my dream
"What on earth are you studying for?" I hesitated to answer my mum's question. Normally, I study general knowledge from newspapers, essay writing, and group discussions. However, I am afraid my mum does not understand about what I am doing for a study because she may think these are not practical study. So, I lightly answered, "Study is just study."
My dream is being a journalist. I do not exactly remember when I started having this dream. Anyway, I learned from the news that there are varieties of people around us who have different experiences; it fascinated me, so I would like to be newscaster. My dream has been given shape since I quit my short-term work. I had to stick to my work at least 9 hours or more, so I realized I should work what I really want. Since I submitted my resignation at my first company in 2009, I had had no full-time job. I am thirty years old this year. I spend most of my time in the library every morning. In the afternoon, I also have a study group or I teach for middle and high school students as their personal tutor. I also join for some activities such as a reporter, interviewer, and programme-maker. I thought that those careers helped me to be a journalist but in reality I could not pass the final step of the press test even though I applied as many as nearly eight times for a year.
There are so many friends around me, who already worked for almost five years. Compared with me they look like they are doing a great job. Some friends who work as a businessman encouraged me saying that 'you must be happy because you know exactly what you want to be'. Is it really a good thing? I sometimes think my dream is only a sticking point for having a job. I cannot avoid thinking I am old to have a challenge like having a dream whenever I fail for a final interview of the press. Nevertheless, I never give up my dream because I believe many drops make a shower, and I already collected lessons of experience somewhere along the line.
* For the original article in Korean: http://bit.ly/YnIeqh (by Na-ri Shin)


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|State Ethics Commission
|Docket Number:
Settlement In the Matter of Francis M. Magliano
Table of Contents
Disposition Agreement
This Disposition Agreement (Agreement) is entered into between the State Ethics Commission (Commission) and Francis M. Magliano (Mr. Magliano), pursuant to section 11 of the Commission's Enforcement Procedures. This Agreement constitutes a consented to final Commission order enforceable in the Superior Court pursuant to G.L. c. 268B, s.4(j).
On May 20,1986, the Commission initiated a preliminary inquiry into possible violations of the conflict of interest law, G.L. c. 268A, involving Mr. Magliano, the building superintendent for the city of Brockton. The Commission concluded its inquiry and, on July 29,1986, found reasonable cause to believe that Mr. Magliano violated G.L. c. 268A, s.3(b). Pursuant to G.L. c. 268B s.4(c), the Commission also authorized the initiation of an adjudicatory proceeding to determine whether there has been a violation. An Order to Show Cause issued on August 25,1986, initiating such a proceeding.
The parties now agree to the following findings of fact and conclusions of law:
1. From January, 1984 to the present. Carl D. Pitaro has been the elected Mayor of Brockton. As Mayor of the city of Brockton, Mr. Pitaro is a municipal employee as that term is defined in G.L. c. 268A, s. 1(g).
2. From January, 1984 to the present, Francis'!. Magliano has been the building superintendent for the city of Brockton. As building superintendent, r. Magliano is a municipal employee as that term is defined in G.L. c. 268A, s.1(g).
3. James C. Mihos is a resident of Brockton, Massachusetts. Since 1979, his family has owned a parcel of land on Pleasant Street in Brockton which is the proposed site of a new hotel project. (The land is owned by James and Peter Mihos, Trustees of the 167 Pleasant Street Trust.)
4. In the fall of 1984, Mr. Mihos entered into an agreement with Ocean Properties Limited, a Florida development company, to sell 7.3 acres of the 36 acre parcel on Pleasant Street to Ocean Properties Limited for development as a hotel project. Under the city of Brockton's zoning ordinances, the parcel was zoned for "Office Commercial" use, which did not allow for a hotel. The Mihos agreement with Ocean Properties Limited was contingent on Ocean Properties obtaining all the necessary permits, including a permit to allow a hotel to be built on the parcel.
5. In late March, 1985, Mr. Mihos met with Mr. Magliano in city hall to discuss the possibility of a hotel on this site. At this meeting, Mr. Magliano advised Mr. Mihos of the zoning issues and explained two possible options: a special permit or a zoning change by the city council. As a developer and citizen of Brockton, Mr. Mihos was aware of a prior proposed hotel project which failed to win support in the city partly because the project did not include a "name" hotel or conference facilities and a question had been raised concerning the quality of the construction. Consequently, Mr. Mihos requested Mr. Magliiano to set up a meeting for him with Mayor Pitaro to discuss the city's concerns regarding the quality of the construction and nature of facilities being proposed.
6. Shortly after the initial meeting between Mr. Mihos and Mr. Magliano, Mr. Magliano and Mr. Mihos met with Mr. Pitaro in city hall to discuss the proposed hotel project. In the course of this discussion. Mr. Mihos invited Mr. Pitaro and Mr. Magliano to accompany him to Florida to see other hotels developed by Ocean Properties Limited in order to observe the quality of construction and the type of facilities that this company developed, as well as to meet the personnel who would be involved in the Brockton project. Mihos also invited Mr. Pitaro and Mr. Magliano to bring their spouses tin the trip. While Mihos intended to pay for the costs of the trip, Mr. Pitaro ad Mr. Magliano originally intended to pay their own costs.
Page 274
7. Mr. Mihos obtained airline tickets through a Canton travel agency and paid $238.00 for each of the six round-trip coach fare tickets on April 3, 1985. Mr. Pitaro and Mr. Magliano previously had attempted to buy their own tickets through a different agency.
8. On Friday, April 12, 1985, the Pitaros, Maglianos, and Mihoses flew from Boston to Miami, Florida, arriving in Miami at approximately 1:30 pm. Mr. Mihos rented one car at a cost of $149.00 and the six drove to Delray Beach, arriving at their hotel at approximately 6 pm.
9. Mr. Mihos had also arranged to have all six members in the party stay at the Holiday Inn at Delray Beach in Florida, a hotel developed by Ocean Properties. The hotel accommodations (at a cost of $192.00 per couple for three nights) were paid for by Ocean Properties. While in Florida, the three couples shared the cost of their meals.
10. On Saturday, the Pitaros, Maglianos and Mihoses, driven and escorted by a representative of Ocean Properties, Ltd., examined several hotels, an office complex and a construction site all developed or being developed by Ocean Properties. On Sunday, after attending church, the six again joined one of the principals of Ocean Properties, Ltd. on his boat. On Monday, April 15,1985, Patriots Day and a legal holiday, the six drove back to Miami in the vehicle rented by Mr. Mihos and took a 12:20 pm. flight back to Boston arriving at approximately 3:30 p.m.
11. Prior to the Florida trip, Mr. Pitaro had publicly supported the construction in Brockton of a quality "name" hotel complex which would include conference facilities. Upon his return from Florida, Mr. Pitaro spoke publicly in support of the proposed hotel project on the Mihos parcel of land at public meetings, monthly press conferences and before various service groups
12. The proposal to rezone part of the Mihos' property to "General Commercial" was submitted to the City Council June 17,1985. It passed the Finance Committee and was the subject of public hearings before the Planning Board and Council Ordinance Committee before being passed by a 2/3 vote of the full City Council on October 15,1985.
13. The ordinance was presented to Mayor Pitaro on October 18, 1985. Pursuant to the Brockton city charter the Mayor has the authority to: (1) sign the amendment into law; (2) veto the amendment and return it to the Council with his objections, at which time it can still become law upon another 2/3 vote of the Council; or (3) take no action on the amendment, at which point the amendment becomes law within 10 days of it being presented to the Mayor. The Mayor signed the ordinance rezoning part of Mihos' land on October 18,1985, the same day it was presented to him.
14. As building superintendent, Mr. Magliano would be responsible for issuing building permit(s) for the hotel complex after reviewing the plans and specifications submitted by the developer and for ensuring the project was in compliance with the state building code and the local zoning ordinances.
15. General Laws chapter 268A, s.3(b) prohibits a municipal employee from directly or indirectly receiving for himself anything of substantial value, otherwise than as provided by law for the proper discharge of official duty, for or because of any official act performed or to be performed by him.
16. Based upon the facts and conduct set forth in paragraphs 1 through 14, above, Mr. Magliano violated s.3(b).
17. The Commission has found no evidence suggesting corrupt intent or an intentional or knowing violation of the law by Mr. Magliano. Based on the foregoing facts, the Commission has determined that the public interest would be served by the disposition of this matter without further enforcement proceedings on the basis of the following terms agreed to by Mr. Magliano: 1. that he pay to the Commission the amount of one thousand dollars ($1,000) as a civil penalty for his violation of s.3(b); 2. that he pay to the Commission the amount of $668.00 as forfeiture of the economic advantage gained; and 3. that he waive all rights to contest the findings of fact, conclusions of law and terms and conditions under this Agreement in this or any related administrative or judicial civil proceedings in which the Commission is a party.


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What is the Gauss-Markov theorem?
From "The Cambridge Dictionary of Statistics" B. S. Everitt, 2nd Edition:
A theorem that proves that if the error terms in a multiple regression have the same variance and are uncorrelated, then the estimators of the parameters in the model produced by least squares estimation are better (in the sense of having lower dispersion about the mean) than any other unbiased linear estimator.
This is pretty much considered the "big boy" reason least squares fitting can be considered a good implementation of linear regression.
Suppose you are building a model of the form:
y(i) = B . x(i) + e(i)
B is a vector (to be inferred),
i is an index that runs over the available data (say
1 through
x(i) is a per-example vector of features, and
y(i) is the scalar quantity to be modeled. Only
x(i) and
y(i) are observed. The
e(i) term is the un-modeled component of
y(i) and you typically hope that the
e(i) can be thought of unknowable effects, individual variation, ignorable errors, residuals, or noise. How weak/strong assumptions you put on the
e(i) (and other quantities) depends on what you know, what you are trying to do, and which theorems you need to meet the pre-conditions of. The Gauss-Markov theorem assures a good estimate of
B under weak assumptions.
How to interpret the theorem
The point of the Gauss-Markov theorem is that we can find conditions ensuring a good fit without requiring detailed distributional assumptions about the
e(i) and without distributional assumptions about the
x(i). However, if you are using Bayesian methods or generative models for predictions you may want to use additional stronger conditions (perhaps even normality of errors and even distributional assumptions on the
We are going to read through the Wikipedia statement of the Gauss-Markov theorem in detail.


text:
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|28 oz
|Torso Range:
|17 - 21 in.
|Pack Fabric:
|Pack Pockets (+ main compartment):
|We only ship this brand to US Addresses.
|Best Use:
|Mountain Biking
|Pack Capacity:
|15 Liters / 900 Cubic inches
|Trip Length:
|Frame Type:
|Hydration Capacity:
|50 - 100 oz
|Pack Access:
|Side, Top
CamelBak backpacks are designed and built to fit an array of body types and sizes. Adjustable should straps make their backpacks suitable for a torso size range, and that info can be found in the PRODUCT FEATURES and / or SPECIFICATIONS. You can use the steps below to determine your torso size.
CamelBak hipbelts are adjustable to accommodate most any wearer.
HOW to MEASURE TORSO SIZE
1. Put your chin to your chest and feel for the big bone protruding on your neck at the top of your spine. That's the C7 vertebra.
2. Feel your hip bone, the top part of this is your iliac crest. Find the spot on your back that is level with the top of this crest.
3. Have someone measure the distance between these two points, following the contours of your spine.


text:
Videogames development trade organisation Tiga has renewed its call for the UK government to support the industry with tax credits, following an HSBC report which identified several UK "gaming hotspots".
"HSBC is right to identify the UK video games sector as a success and an industry with the potential to be one of the country's most renowned industries", said Richard Wilson, CEO of Tiga.
The bank's report - The Future of Business: The Changing Face of Business in 21st Century Britain - is based on the answers of 500 entrepreneurs and business decision-makers from 17 UK cities to 10 "topical, future-focused questions".
Of the nine industry sectors considered, including robotics and cybernetics, gaming industry hubs were identified in Glasgow, Dundee and Edinburgh. Scotland's a world-class gaming industry, HSBC's report said, and includes companies ranging in size from micro-multinationals to one-man armies.
"If the UK is to continue to be an outrider for the videogames sector then the government must create an environment in which the sector can flourish", added Wilson.
For example, Wilson wants a tax system that encourages investment into gaming R&D and that ensures a healthy supply of suitably trained professionals.
But he also urged HSBC and other banks to support UK videogame developers "as they seek to expand their businesses to exploit commercial opportunities".
Back in April Tiga labelled the government's budget a missed opportunity to support the UK's gaming industry, mainly because it didn't feature the 20 per cent tax break called for by Wilson just days earlier.
Sponsored: Webcast: Discover and secure all of your attack surface


text:
It's been a rough week for Sum 41 frontman Deryck Whibley.
Whibley was attacked at a bar in Japan late Thursday evening, landing him in the hospital with a slipped disc in his back, according to Facebook updates from his bandmates.
On August 1 the band announced that they were canceling three shows after Whibley was diagnosed with a severe case of bronchitis.
U.S. & World
Initial news of the attack came early Friday morning on the band's twitter page. "Deryck Whibley was attacked in a bar last night by 3 unknown people. He is in the hospital now. Japanese police are looking into the matter," his bandmates tweeted.
A post to Facebook on Friday evening revealed that Whibley was well enough to play a show scheduled later in the day.
"Deryck Whibley Update: After an MRI scan, it appears Deryck has slipped a disc in his back once again. Despite doctor's instructions, he has decided to play today's show at Summersonic regardless. Sum 41 will perform at 3:40pm," the post read.
Sum 41 is in Japan to perform at the two-day Summer Sonic Festival in Osaka and Tokyo.


text:
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Peter Cogan describes how the skills of a physicist are always in demand at Bell Labs, although the research focus is now on telecommunications rather than fundamental physics
My fascination with physics began at age 14 when I read an online article about the curvature of the universe. I found it intriguing to learn that a single parameter, Ω, can tell us whether the universe is open, flat or closed, and thus whether it is likely to end with a big crunch or a whimper. This experience got me hooked on physics, and it played a big part in my decision to study the subject at university. However, reading that article also taught me the importance and power of the Internet as an educational tool – so you might say that, in a roundabout way, it helped lead me to my current job at Bell Labs, the research division of telecommunications giant Alcatel-Lucent.
After getting a joint-honours degree in mathematical and experimental physics at University College Dublin (UCD), I stayed on to do a PhD in UCD's high-energy-astrophysics research group. When I joined the group in September 2003, its members were heavily involved in constructing a new instrument, the Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System (VERITAS), at the Whipple Observatory in Arizona, US, as part of an international collaboration. As a result, I spent most of my PhD building, testing and operating the array of four 12 m telescopes as the various pieces of the project came together.
Working on VERITAS often required a certain amount of inventiveness, which has served me in good stead in my subsequent career. I recall a particular night in spring 2005 when we brought the first sub-array of two telescopes online. Because the drive system in one of the telescopes was malfunctioning, it initially looked like we would not be able to test the sub-array, even though the hardware and software for the array were ready. Our solution was to steer the broken telescope up to the required elevation of 45° manually, using an electric drill and a very large gear ratio. This manual procedure was normally only used in emergencies to stow the telescope in the event of drive failure close to sunrise. Such an event could be catastrophic, because the telescope's mirrors would act like a giant solar concentrator, vaporizing the camera and other delicate instruments.
Once the telescopes were aligned, we switched the system on for the first time. At first, it did not work – it never does – but after a quick study of the software we were able to trace the problem to a stray minus sign in the coordinate transformation code, which calculates the angles between the telescopes on the ground and the direction in which they are pointing. Once this was corrected, we tried again and succeeded in taking a data run. I analysed the results immediately, and it was a real highlight to see effects we had predicted from simulations actually appear in live data.
Making the transition
After I finished my PhD, I became a postdoc in the high-energy astrophysics group at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, where I led the VERITAS data-analysis effort. One of the aspects of this work that I liked most was the combination of working on software, hardware and science. On a given day at the VERITAS site, I might spend the morning debugging hardware issues with the control system, lunchtime attending a seminar and the afternoon developing analysis code and writing papers.
By the end of 2008, I was ready to return to Ireland, and I also felt it was a good time to expand my career prospects beyond astrophysics. Bell Labs has an incredible reputation in the history of 20th-century physics, so its Dublin research centre seemed like an obvious place to move to next. Founded in 2003 and partly funded by the Irish government through the Industrial Development Agency, the centre, known as Bell Labs Ireland, is involved in a number of research projects associated with the telecoms industry. These include designing low-cost, high-power antennas and studying ways of optimizing telecoms networks. This kind of work appeals to me because it requires many of the skills that make a physicist a physicist, like data analysis, problem solving and project management. So although the goal of the research is very different compared with astrophysics, many aspects of the job remain the same.
Bell Labs' parent company, Alcatel-Lucent, is one of the world's largest telecoms firms, and the headquarters of Bell Labs in the US occupies a sprawling campus in Murray Hill, New Jersey. The Dublin centre is relatively small in comparison, with about 30 researchers in total. However, that is changing thanks to Bell Labs Ireland 2, a new five-year round of funding that will see the lab expand to more than 70 dedicated researchers. The Dublin centre is also heavily involved in the emerging GreenTouch consortium – a group of network operators, universities and government agencies with the lofty goal of making networks three orders of magnitude more efficient within five years (www.greentouch.org).
The research team at Bell Labs Ireland is diverse, with engineers and scientists from almost every country in the European Union, plus Turkey, Russia, China, India and Iran. This melting pot of cultures and languages is a fascinating place to work and interact. Bell Labs is also quite a strong academic environment, which I must admit is not what I had expected to find moving from academia to an industrial lab. Researchers are encouraged to participate in the wider scientific community through collaboration, conference participation and by publishing journal papers. There are also regular seminars where people can present their current work.
Ingenuity in action
One of the most interesting projects I have been involved in at Bell Labs is the investigation of network-diagnostic data. This project has been done in collaboration with scientists at Trinity College Dublin and the National University of Ireland Maynooth, and its ultimate goal is to make broadband Internet services more reliable. Although the backbone is ultra-reliable, problems with installation, faulty ports and poor wiring in the customer's home can have a detrimental effect on the reliability and quality of broadband services. By analysing data on parameters such as the bit rate and signal attenuation over a period of time, we hope to determine remotely and automatically whether a broadband connection has a problem, and, if it does, what that problem actually is. This would have a massive impact on the quality of service that customers receive from their Internet service provider. In order to achieve this, we have been investigating the use of tools such as artificial neural networks and other multivariate algorithms, which are able to find correlations and dependencies that are otherwise hard to discern in multivariate data.
As a physicist working in industry, I have found that many of the skills I learned during my PhD and postdoctoral work are essential. In particular, the ability to manage projects, communicate, learn on the fly and critique ideas at a fundamental level have all been very important. While fundamental-physics research is not undertaken at Bell Labs Ireland, I have found that there is almost no area of research at Bell Labs where the skills of a physicist cannot be put to use.
About the author
Peter Cogan is a researcher at Bell Labs Ireland


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It was a tumultuous first year for Bill Smith. He had to face the reality of the face-of-the-franchise Torii Hunter leaving via free agency as well as annual Cy Young candidate Johan Santana making it known that he wanted to play in a larger market – preferably New York. In the first few months at the helm, Smith made two trades that would forever tarnish his reputation in Minnesota in the fan's eyes.
In November 2007, Smith dealt Matt Garza, Jason Bartlett and Eduardo Morlan to the Tampa Bay Rays in exchange for Delmon Young, Brendan Harris and Jason Pridie. In efforts to replace Hunter's right-handed stick, the Twins purchased the promising Young at a high price. Garza would help fortify the Rays rotation while Bartlett would boost the Rays defense in the infield. After receiving 16.2 wins above replacement from Garza and Bartlett, Tampa's shrewed front office would move the pair for more prospects and useful parts including Sam Fuld, Brandon Guyer, Hak-Ju Lee, Cesar Ramos and Adam Russell. Once the Twins were finished with Young (or rather Young finished with the Twins depending on who you are asking), Smith was only able to fetch Cole Nelson and Lester Oliveros. What's more is that the Twins wound up paying over $2 million more in salary for their return as well.
Meanwhile, the Santana trade was a poorly timed, poorly executed deal which is viewed as Smith swapping the cash cow for a pile of beans. While none of the beans amounted to much, Smith did manage to save over $10 million and only lost out on 1.2 WAR (only factoring in 2008 for Santana which would have been his walk year). At the time, reports came in that the Yankees and the Red Sox had better packages ready (with Jacoby Ellsbury and Jon Lester being some of the names bantered around), but both teams ultimately rescinded their offers (if those offers were legit in the first place). Comparatively, Gomez and company seemed like a sheer fleecing by the Mets and Keith Law's analysis had the Mets coming out on top:
"In the abstract, it's hard to accept dealing your marquee player and top trading asset without getting your partner's top young player in return, and that's what the Twins did. They did get back significant economic value in four young players, each of whom has under one year of big-league service and two of whom aren't even on the Mets' 40-man roster yet, so the Twins will have each of them under control for six full years of service. That return in exchange for just one year of Santana's services is reasonable. But premium players should fetch premium prices, because there's value to a club in having so much production coming from a single roster spot. And in this case, Minnesota GM Bill Smith did not get a premium prospect in return."
In hindsight, Smith failed to get that premium prospect and now most of the Santana bounty is scattered across baseball. Would have waiting until the trade deadline open more avenues or create more trade scenarios than the one he was pigeon-holed into prior to the season?
Even though the Santana-for-Gomez and the Garza-for-Young trades started his legacy off on the wrong foot, Smith and his team were able to piece together favorable trades after the more egregious ones. He grabbed Carl Pavano and Jon Rauch for a pittance. Orlando Cabrera and Brian Fuentes were also exchanged for little compensation. He landed JJ Hardy for Carlos Gomez. Those moves together provided the Twins with 6.2 wins above replacement and only "cost" the team roughly $10 million in added salary.
After the handful of trades that worked towards the Twins favor, Smith began to execute what would be considered two of the more painful and damaging trades to the organization.
At the trade deadline in 2010, the Twins bullpen was shallow and in need of a boost. They targeted the Nationals' closer Matt Capps. Capps, who was an All Star that season and performing well for the lowly NL East club, was far from a dominating arm. He was a step above Jon Rauch, whom the Twins acquired the year before at the waiver deadline for the flotsam known as Kevin Mulvey. Only instead of giving up a player of Mulvey's caliber, the Twins offered up Wilson Ramos – the Twins top prospect as well as the 58th overall by Baseball America. With little offensive help at the upper levels, the utter depletion of the team in 2011 exposed how badly they needed someone like Ramos. Ramos did quite well for the Nationals – both offensively and defensively. He hit .267/.334/.445 with 15 home runs in 425 plate appearances. Capps, meanwhile, who was re-upped for this past season, regressed hard and was beat around while earning $7 million. While the jury is still out because Ramos's career is just beginning, thus far the Twins have lost 3.1 wins above replacement and have paid over $8 million because of this deal.
While the intentions were never clear – payroll, performance, injury history, clubhouse mannerisms – the Twins decided that they needed to move on from shortstop J.J. Hardy. True, he had a shortened season in 2010 but his second-half numbers were indicitive of an elite player, not to mention at a very difficult to fulfill position. Whether it was his decision or someone else in the club's call, Smith sent Hardy and Harris to Baltimore for a pair of damaged minor league arms in Jim Hoey and Brett Jacobsen. HoeyJacobsen floundered a bit in the minors attempting to develop a secondary offering as well. Hardy, on the other hand, smoked pitches all over Camden Yards armed with health and a new approach to pull the ball. This move cost the organization 5.2 wins in 2011 but managed to save $6 million in salary in the process.
While there were some notably disastrous trades made, overall Smith managed to lose just 10.3 wins above replacement but saved the team $7.67 million after all the wheeling and dealing was done.
Here's the thing: It is hard to fully evaluate a GM's tenure. There are no encompassing metric which neatly ties in free agent signings, trades, minor league development and amateur draft in a budget-neutralized context. Because of this, it's hard to accurately compare the work of one organization to the next. Is saving almost $8 million in salary over the course of ten trades in four years good or bad? How about costing your team 10 wins over four seasons? Is that average for a GM?
Reviewing Smith's trade track record, it is not hard to see that he likely has done more harm than good. While he was proficient at adding pieces in-season, his ability to build for the future through trades was atrocious. It is this area that newly appointed general manager Terry Ryan was particularly successful at. During his first administration, Ryan managed to build a competitive franchise by trading off soon-to-be departing players and the excess fat. With a system that is currently bottom-heavy and holes abound on the major league roster, installing someone like Ryan who has been lauded for his ability to extract talent from other teams is the right decision for the Twins.


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10 Tips for getting involved in Protected Areas
- Contribute an article to the WCPA Update or PARKS. If you wish to share your experience with over 1500 of the world's leading protected area specialists and organisations, send an email to email@example.com
- Contact your Regional Vice Chair and ask if you can help with their regional and/or national activities; WCPA Steering Commitee Members
- Contact Chairs of the WCPA Task Forces or Theme Programmes, that match up with your interests (refer to Members Guide for contact details) and ask if you can help their activities;WCPA Steering Commitee Members
- Consider setting up an informal network within WCPA. For example, the WCPA informal network on Grassland Protected Areas was set up by Bill Henwood of Canada. Such networks should be set up through placing a notice in the WCPA Newsletter. While such networks are set up on the understanding that there would be no direct financial support from IUCN; WCPA can serve as a useful vehicle for facilitating contact between people interested in similar issues; send an email to firstname.lastname@example.com
- Advise the IUCN Protected Areas Programme or any member of the WCPA Steering Committee, about protected area issues that you feel should be addressed; send an email to firstname.lastname@example.com
- Participate in WCPA Regional Working Sessions held in your region, all of which are advertised well in advance in the WCPA Newsletter;
- Establish contact with the PA Staff working in the IUCN Regional or Country Office close to you to see if you can support their work in protected areas, and, where possible, respond to requests for advice and information; IUCN PA Staff
- Explore possibilities for secondments or volunteer for short periods of work with the Protected Area Programme in Switzerland. send an email to firstname.lastname@example.com
- Make contact with other WCPA members in other regions and countries. An updated WCPA Membership Directory is available online. We suggest that you take this with you when you travel and you make contact with members in other parts of the world (apart from anything else, it can be a good way to get improved insight on any protected areas you may visit while on holiday); and
- Initiate nominations for the Fred Packard Award through your regional or thematic vice chair (refer Members Guide).
There are, of course, many other ways in which you can be involved. However the onus, as in all volunteer networks, rests with you - the individual member. We urge you to get involved. We would also note that membership of WCPA is assessed at the time of each IUCN World Conservation Congress (previously the General Assembly) and that one of the criteria in deciding which members are re-invited is level of interest and activity.
We hope that many more members will get actively involved with WCPA over the next triennium.


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Evolver is a technology company serving the Federal, Commercial, and Legal markets that addresses client challenges in the present and transitions clients into the future by introducing efficient and effective IT solutions. Established in 2000, Evolver has successfully grown to be a trusted technology leader. Evolver's efforts and growth have been recognized by leading publications and organizations, including Inc. 5000 for five consecutive years, and most recently "Future 50" from SmartCEO. With a dedicated focus on client satisfaction, Evolver has proven its value time and time again, from managing day-to-day operations to skillfully navigating the implementation and support of new technologies. Evolver's core competencies are infrastructure, application development, cybersecurity, cloud, end-user support, data analytics and legal services.
We believe our employees are key to our success and continued growth. We attract and retain our diverse workforce by promoting a work-life balance with generous and flexible time off, competitive compensation and benefits, and a commitment to professional development. When you join Evolver, you join a community of talented and dedicated individuals whose abilities, skills, and actions contribute to the success of the company.
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There were a lot of bodies. Anorast slowly looked around the battlefield, noting the occasional fallen ranger, but seeing none of his immediate companions among the dead and dying orcs. The foul creatures were still visible, pushing against each other as they clambered and crawled back to their mountain homes, scared by the ferocity of their adversaries. The Mithril Knights were very fortunate to have Brondgast and his ursine transformation. And now Erinhue seemed to have some degree of control over his inner demon. Without a champion to match, no army would stand against those two. And they left a lot of bodies in their wake.
The old elf silently turned his eyes to the mountainous bastion above them. Rivulets of disturbed stones coursed down the trembling cliffs as the unseen beast stirred. Quickly looking around at the faces of his companions confirmed Anorast's suspicion. Eyes were not filled with fear, with anger, or with thoughtful calculation of odds and strategies, but instead with mourning and loss. The Mithril Knights looked to Carn-dûm, instead of to a fallen comrade on the bloody ground. What they all felt, the strange sad void within them, originated within the far mountain. There could only be one cause for their collective sorrow.
"You have lost a brother."
Listening to the Sickle's words within his mind, Anorast looked down at his sword. The blade had turned black, confirming the loss of one who bore armor crafted by its own creator. Dirk was gone.
"The dragon comes. It is not your destiny to slay this beast, that is for others to do."
Anorast didn't need to be reminded. Ever since they had learned what they needed in order to defeat their enemy Anorast had pondered how he could contribute. Now they knew what was coming and Anorast was ready.
"Thank you for bearing me, it is now time to pass me to another. Goodbye, shadow watcher."
Though the dragon hadn't emerged the knights looked about for shelter. All knew the stories of the great fire worms and their wild rampages. If it breathed fire down it could scorch the valley they stood in within seconds. With its claws it could slash through any steel armor, snap swords, shatter shields. But it fell to their small party to defeat this dragon. Anorast had determined only one role he could play in this battle. Whistling to his horse the elf sheathed his sword and focused within, to the faint glow of power he held, and to the various pieces of knowledge he'd accrued throughout his long life.
"Anorast, come, we must find shelter before the beast is free," Elenath called urgently as she took up her bow.
Anorast opened his eyes, smiling.
"Not today, Elenath," Anorast replied as his steed nudged his shoulder.
Anorast mounted and pulled a large cloth bundle from a saddlebag. Within was a heavy helmet with bright wings and a frightening mask, one of the battle helms of the Mithril Knights. Sighing, Anorast settled it upon his head. He regretted the necessity of wearing the heavy, cumbersome piece of armor, but he'd brought it from Mirkwood in case it might prove useful, and today it was perfect. From within himself Anorast started pulling his power outward, bringing it forth with ancient knowledge both magnificent and foul.
"I don't see that there's much of a plan here, my friends." Anorast looked around at his companions who had turned to see what the strange elf was doing. "Smaug was felled by his own weakness, but we don't have any way of finding a similar advantage over this dragon. I have faith Sir Dirk did not foolishly throw his life away, I believe his sacrifice will give us the edge we need. But we don't know what that is, and there's only one thing to do now."
"Lord Anorast, what are you doing?" Vanaladiel asked, fear in her voice.
"All I can do, I'm getting it's attention." Anorast dropped the mask of his helm. Strangely, the horrifying visage seemed alive, more than just steel. Even the wings were beginning to move, flaring out widely. The elf, now suddenly appearing much larger than ever, looked to Erinhue, Djazi, and the great form of Brondgast. "Kill him fast, would you?"
Taking one last moment to look at his fellow knights, wondered if any of them would fall. He looked long at each face. Tempest and Parador, Vanaladiel and Elenath, standing ready but not knowing what to do. The fated killers, Djazi and Erinhue, thoughtfully waiting for what fate might give them. Brondgast, waiting to be unleashed, and standing quietly, staring about the battlefield with tears in her eyes, their lost knight, Nin. Anorast's hand moved uncalled to his waist and he pulled the Sickle free.
"It's yours to carry once more, if only for a little while," Anorast said, holding the weapon, still in its leather bag, down to Nin. As she took it her face reflected the white light that glowed from Anorast's chainmail.
"Let's get this done."
Sending Firewind into a slow walk Anorast finished his last preparations. While it was wizards who could do battle with fire and the elements, the high elves who had traveled west had brought their own magic with them back to Middle Earth, and Anorast knew many of their secrets. Already he had brought forth light from his armor, imbuing it with his spirit, and bringing his helm to life. Upon his shield bright silver lines traced intricate, ancient designs, which had not been seen in Middle Earth since High King Gil-Galad had strode forward to fall before Sauron. When he drew Anguirel, the blackened blade was covered in lines of another heritage, showing similar origin, but burning red, with designs inspired by malice and cruelty. Anorast spilled forth all his power, not with the aim of destroying the dragon, but to draw it to him, to bring it down to the earth, to engage it, to distract it until his companions could find a way to slay it. He could see no other path to victory.


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Sister states with different traits
Longboard down to the beach, tuck into a shashlik, then luxuriate in a mud bath – the Baltic has so much to offer, you can't do it all in ten days. That didn't stop us tryinght
There is no best spot from which to view the city. At least, there is: on the 23rd floor of the Viru Hotel. It's just that for a very long time, people didn't know about it because all of the hotel's elevators, and even the stairs, only went to the 22nd floor: The top floor was reserved for the Russian intelligence service. When the spooks stood on the balcony enjoying a smoke, they had the most magnificent view of Estonia's pretty capital all to themselves.
Many of the contradictions so typical of the Baltic states can be found in Tallinn: romantic old towns, peasant life, young startups, enormous shopping malls – and many, often absurd, traces of foreign occupations. This is a special time of year, the brief intermezzo between summer, when the city is full of visitors, and winter, when it is covered in snow, like a sleeping fairy-tale city. It's the best time to explore the Baltic region, and that's what photographer Fabian Weiß and I intend to spend the next ten days doing.
In this part of the world, you can drive through the wilderness for hours – past woods, swamps, lakes – without seeing another soul. Here and there, a small settlement with a cell tower, a stork's nest and a swing set. The swings are the secret center of Estonian village life. Our first stop: a garlic festival in Jõgeva with music and dancing, a competition for the biggest bulb, shashlik and garlic beer. A vendor asks why we are here. "Lufthansa?" She laughs: "I have never been higher than the 10th floor." In Viljandi that evening, they're celebrating, too. Crowds have gathered to mark the 25th anniversary of the small town's independence. In 1989, the human chain stretched for 600 kilometers across the entire region. Every fourth inhabitant took part, and people sang. It all took place 25 years ago, but even the children know the songs today.
We spend the night in Tartu, a university town, before heading for Lake Peipus, the rural Baltic, and the kingdom of the Seto. The Russians defeated the Teutonic Knights here in 1242 after the northern Baltic region had been German for a very long time. Today, Europe's fifth-largest lake is a popular place for outings, but it has its dangers: A sign warns against going ice fishing unless your phone is charged! The boundary with Russia runs through the lake, but exactly where is disputed. Part of the road also briefly crosses Russian territory, which means stopping, getting out of the car or walking are strictly prohibited. So this is the outermost EU and NATO frontier: a small pine wood with a low wire fence that we could easily scale. There are benches on the Estonian side, but what could there be to see here?
We wander around one of the villages. The bus runs four times a day, but only if you call in first. A sign points the way to the post office, the doctor and the library, all of which are typically located in the same building. Värska and Petseri are at the center of Seto life. For centuries, this ethnic minority has lived in the borderlands, undisturbed by German or Russian occupiers. Aare and Rieka Hõrn, cultural ambassadors of the Seto, invite us into their cozy home for pancakes with sour cream and smoked meat so tender you could almost suck it through a straw. The couple have plenty of stories to tell, and the table is piled high with books, photos and recipes. In between courses, they serve us home-brewed spirits. Seto culture is a happy mix of orthodox Christianity and natural religion, and the Seto are proud of their independence. "We have learned to live outside borders," says Aare. Does he consider himself European? "Small units are more important to us. This is Setomaa. It's like Wales, or Swabia." He refills our glasses, always from the right, always clockwise. He doesn't join us at the table but instead sits beside it, in Seto tradition. We are unaware that the polite way to refuse more drink is to say: "It looks like water! Drink it yourself!" By the end of the evening we are quite tipsy, whereas our host is not.
Our next destination is the Gauja National Park. A bus stocked with groceries crosses our path, and Rita, the driver, flashes us a smile. She supplies half Estonia with food. We pass Valka, a border town, and the road turns into a track. We almost miss our next appointment, a tour of the Soviet bunker in Līgatne, from where the Russians intended to rule the Baltic states in the event of a nuclear war. Boney M and Mireille Matthieu records lie scattered around the common room. The underground bunker was built to shelter 250 people for three months. Today, it sometimes hosts adventure game events for adults, so not much has really changed.
I am surprised to discover how different the Baltic countries are. In the West, we tend to lump them all together. Estonia is Scandinavian. Lithuania, as I will find out later, has been strongly influenced by neighboring Poland. Latvia is home to a large Russian minority, nearly one third of the population, including the mayor of Riga. The relationship is peaceful but slightly tense. Anete, a Latvian photographer, shows us her city, the young Riga. "New things keep coming up," she says, "and disappearing again." If you want to open a small shop, you have to do it in the spring and hope that business thrives throughout the summer. That's the only way to survive the long Baltic winters when people prefer to stay indoors.
Something new always comes up, then disappears again
Our first stop is the former Kombināts Māksla factory. Sculptors and painters set up their studios here during the Soviet era, and artworks can still be found in some of the rooms. In the courtyard, we meet the brothers Sima and Pijus. They're in the middle of breakfast, which consists of coffee and Kārums soft cheese bars, a popular treat. The brothers have been jamming with a dozen other Baltic musicians since their arrival the day before. Later we spot them hunched over their computers, searching for a groove. By the end of the week, they will have put together an entire album for a project they call "Baltic Trail."
The air is filled with a sweet, pungent smell from the Laima chocolate factory close by. We stop for a noontime beer at Labietis, a small brewery, and sample White Aborigine, then Mēzs (which contains juniper). Not for the first time on this trip, I catch myself thinking how boring German beer is. Just a stone's throw away is the Localboards workshop, which makes skateboards out of Latvian wood. Curved longboards are their specialty, says cofounder Alberts Vieglins, a blond, curly-haired guy, who looks like he has stepped from the pages of a book of surf clichés. "They give a little, so that you feel like you're surfing on the asphalt," he explains. And they are entirely handmade. How does he know when a board is finished? "When it says: 'Let me out onto the street, man!'" A group of young women enter the shop. They take a seat and turn the music up. Groupies? Anete mockingly rolls her eyes. Yesterday's barbeque is still on the workbench, left over from the night before. It looks like there's another party planned.
We drive along the coast road, which glitters as though glass had been mixed into the asphalt. Or is it amber? Cars are parked across the road, and mushroom gatherers and berry pickers are heading into the woods. The sun casts patches of pale light onto the forest floor, where mosses and grasses weave a carpet of colors from white to red to bluish-green to purple between the slender birches. Nature is not awe-inspiring in this part of the world; its quiet magic affects you gradually. It's the same with the people: They are reserved, almost frosty, when you first talk to them, but by the fourth or fifth sentence they usually give you a smile that stays.
We arrive in Kolka, at the northwestern tip of Latvia, where the Gulf of Riga meets the Baltic Sea. Normally, the two currents are distinguishable by their different colors, but today, a bracing wind mixes everything up. We continue south, stopping at a former military zone near Irbene. The giant radio telescope there is a ghostly reminder of the country's Soviet past. Barbed wire juts out of the ground in the forest like plants that are impossible to uproot.
A ferry takes us to the Curonian Spit, a long, narrow strip of sand, half Latvian, half Russian, covered with dense trees. To get to the sea, you have to use the wooden walkways built above the dunes. We wander through Nida, the village where Thomas Mann spent his summers. Just past a sign saying "Kaliningrad 86 km," we see a magnificent elk cow. A police car has pulled up beside her and is trying to scare her off the road with loud bursts of its siren. The elk won't budge. Eventually, half-turning, she saunters back toward the woods at a maddeningly slow pace as if saying: "I'm going. But not because of you. Because it's what I want to do."
We meet Asta in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania. Her eyes are still slits after a short night. "Summertime is nonstop party time for us," says the young IT manager, gripping a bottle of the salty mineral water Vytautas. "This is the perfect cure for hangovers." In Vilnius they say you can always see two church towers, no matter where you are. Asta takes us to her favorite house of worship, the Church of St. Peter and St. Paul in the embassy district. Completely white on the inside, it has a model ship hanging from the middle of the ceiling, and two drums dating back to a battle with Russia. Demons, half-hidden in the plasterwork, grin down at visitors from between scenes from the Bible.
Summer is nonstop party time for us
There are more Catholics in Lithuania than in the other Baltic states, but natural religions are everywhere here, too. Heathen rituals are even gaining in popularity. "I think the person who built this church was a member of a cult," says Asta, "and only wanted it to look like it was Catholic." Next on the itinerary: Užupis, an artists' colony in the heart of the city, a kind of state within a state with its own constitution and its own government. I want to become a citizen. Asta makes all kinds of calls, but eventually she's successful, and Tomas Čepaitis, the Foreign Minister of the Independent Republic of Užupis, opens the door. I ask him what he was doing when we disturbed him. "Mushroom soup," he grunts, "I was making mushroom soup." He is a little bit peeved, and not so sure about the camera. In his hand he holds the constitution: 10 articles in postcard format, the souvenir shop version.
But then this disappointing news: "Anyone can be a citizen who subcribes to our ideals." What ideals? "Do not be victorious! Do not defend yourself! Do not surrender!" I was actually hoping for something official, something with a seal. He thinks for a minute: "You could be an ambassador." The inauguration ritual takes place in a gallery down by the river. There's a lot of pantomime involved. Wedding parties pass by outside as they do every Friday. They laugh and dance so loudly in the street that I can hear them later from the top of the university tower. So I become an ambassador, and the official document is mailed to my address in Berlin.
And back again
Originally, we had wanted to return to Tallinn the long way, but we absolutely have to go back to the bunker. On top of it, there's a spa, and this trip will not be complete without a mud bath. Leyla, a mountain of a woman, takes us in hand. At first, we feel a bit apprehensive, but she is a gentle giant. Shyly, she prepares our black, bubbling bath, and we relax, time passing at half the usual speed. Outside, we hear the others giggling. It doesn't often happen that two men from the West stop by and order a mud bath.
We drive back to Tallinn along the country's western coast. The beaches stretch as far as the horizon and there's nobody to be seen. We grab a couple bottles of rye beer and walk down to the water's edge. Tonight, great bonfires will blaze on every beach along the Baltic coast – one last time before the entire region goes into hibernation until next spring.
Addresses you'll like
Restorāns Vincents
Modern gourmet cuisine and Latvian tradition; one of the best restaurants in northern Europe.
Grybas House
Lithuania's first post-Soviet Union private hotel; family atmosphere, old-town location, nine rooms.
KGB-Museum im Hotel Viru
Experience the absurdity of the Soviet surveillance state here – and enjoy the best view across Tallinn.
Lufthansa Tipp
Lufthansa departs Frankfurt twice daily for Tallinn (TLL), Riga (RIX) and Vilnius (VNO). Visit meilenrechner.de to see how many miles you can earn.
These city tips are on Foursquare, too
Sebastian Handke
Sebastian Handke was born at a very early age. He spent his childhood in San Francisco and the heartland of Swabia. Once it was over, he earned his living as a director's assistant, a Flash developer, a musician and a journalist. These days, Sebastian is the editor responsible for Lufthansa Magazin Online.
Fabian Weiss
Fabian Weiss is a freelance photographer and a member of the photo agency LAIF. In his photo essays, Fabian explores the cultural changes taking place in our turbulent times, his intimate pictures and perceptive observations creating nuanced portraits of life within each individual culture. While on a teaching assignment with the international workshop series Publish Yourself! he produced entire magazines in record time. Fabian lives in Estonia and Germany, and works in the Baltic states, Eastern Europe and further east.
Our photographer was surprised to find dense jungle, broad bays and rugged cliffs right on the doorstep of Hong Kong. And no matter which nature trail he took, it always ended at an inviting food stand.


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The sharing economy is booming, transforming business models in markets across the world. From crowdfunding to peer-to-peer lending, from reselling and trading to co-working and talent sharing, collaborative creation and consumption are reinventing how business is done.
The ascent of this new economy is expected to be rapid. Sharing economy revenues in Europe and the U.S stood at $15 billion in 2014 and are expected to reach $335 billion by 2025, according to a report by PricewaterhouseCoopers. Asia's largest sharing economy market is China, where Think Tank, The National Information Center predicts that sharing economy revenues will grow at 40 percent a year over the next five years.
While awareness of the sharing economy is relatively low in Europe, there are high rates of awareness and participation in Asia and the U.S, 22 percent of American adults – 45 million people – have offered some product or service in the sharing economy. In China, 50 million people are working in the country's sharing economy, which is used by around 500 million consumers.
This insurgent business model has significant implications for logistics and deliveries. In its latest trend report "Sharing Economy Logistics: Rethinking Logistics with Access over Ownership" DHL explores the societal shift in consumption from owning goods and assets to sharing them, with a focus on the likely impact on the movement of goods and the last mile.
Drivers and bike riders are already using their own vehicles to make extra cash by dropping off goods and purchases to customers' homes. While in many countries crowdsourced and on-demand delivery is still largely focused on dining and takeout food. Companies such as Deliveroo and Amazon are paying the public to deliver goods in their local areas. Meanwhile, ride-sharing apps from organizations such as Uber are entering the delivery area.
Sharing economy platforms are making significant inroads into logistics. Some 41 percent of consumers in the U.S have used same-day, expedited, or on-demand delivery services. Established logistics players need to respond to shifting consumer preferences and capture opportunities created by the sharing economy.
As Ben Gesing, Project Manager, DHL Trend Research, says: "The logistics industry has a huge opportunity to support and help the sharing economy. We've seen a massive drop in transaction costs with the progression of mobile technology, but a hike in transportation costs of goods as they get purchased and shared many times over. Logistics can play a huge role in reducing the transportation costs and friction consumers face when shipping goods."
The report examines the technological and social drivers of the sharing economy. It points out that until recently, businesses tended to run on linear logic. As Gesing puts it: "Manufacturers manufactured, distributors distributed and customers purchased goods and owned them for their useful life." That consumption model is shifting to a situation where consumers are looking to have temporary access to goods rather than full ownership.
This is fueled by the new breed of digitally native companies that sit on top of the vast supply systems and make use of the digital user interface – predominantly on mobile devices – to help customers access goods and services.
The report points out that there has always been sharing – from lending friends records and books to borrowing the neighbor's lawnmower. With smartphones and the web, sharing can occur on a global scale with people you have never met before, rather than being limited to direct social networks in dense communities.
Many different technologies have driven this new economic model, such as mobile apps, digital payment, communications infrastructure, location services, GPS and soon the internet of things, driverless cars and better connected infrastructure. These transformative technologies began to appear just as the world entered the 2008 global recession and people were looking for ways of "sweating" their own assets and making some extra cash. That gave a huge boost to the likes of Airbnb (founded weeks before the financial crash occurred), Etsy and other sharing economy companies. But the trend has outlasted the recession and established a new way of doing business.
This represents a profound change, as Gesing explains. "If you look at things that define sharing economy companies, they are network based. Traditional businesses are asset heavy – they own physical hotels, they own machinery, trucks, and cars. Sharing economy businesses are asset light. They make it easier for people's existing stuff to be found by others. They typically only own the mobile and web user interface and are organizationally focused on the customer experience."
This new approach also redefines employment. The existing model has fixed labor costs with low-wage workers, specifically in logistics. In sharing economy companies such as Postmates or Shift, workers tend to be very technology oriented, are supplemented by a flexible, on-demand army of ordinary people doing the deliveries at any time of their choosing.
Businesses can take advantage of the opportunity that contingent labor can offer. Crowdsourced and on-demand labor can allow companies a staffing hedge against demand spikes and seasonality. For employees in both low- and high-skilled jobs, sharing platforms such as UpWork or Jodoh make it easier to find supplementary, primary on-demand or project-based employment.
Regulatory Challenges
One of the great challenges created by asset-light sharing economy companies is in legislation and regulation. Business innovation has outstripped the ability of regulators to keep up. There needs to be innovation not just in technology but in regulation as well.
The report also discusses what it calls "cooperative competition." For instance, farms have been sharing business-critical assets such as combines and harvesting equipment for some time. Now the FarmLink platform has more than 1,200 users, digitally booking, sharing and transporting farming equipment between farms that are in competition with each other.
A similar pattern is emerging in construction, with earth movers, cranes, digging equipment and dump trucks. Most construction assets are unused about 70 percent of the time, so with platforms such as Munirent or Yard Club, construction companies can rent out their assets, maximizing asset utilization and earning new revenue in the form of rental fees.
In asset-intensive industries, competitors are all sharing fixed costs. "The concept of shareable business assets is a really important development. Logistics companies always want to be as asset lean as possible, and so the concept of being able to share business-critical assets is potentially a huge cost-saving opportunity," says Gesing.
Machinery manufacturer Caterpillar is also an investor in Yard Club, taking a front seat in responding to customers and disrupting their own business in the process. Logistics professionals have a huge opportunity to do the same in their industry.
-David Benady for Delivered. The Global Logistics Magazine


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We're sure that five years of covering John Gibbons' goofy lineup machinations would grind away at the most pleasant and patient beat writers. Still, it's fun to see the evolution of Jeff Blair as he turns into the grumpiest of grumpy old men.
Blair's putative liveblogging of today's non-game versus the Yankees was pretty much just a series of pleas to the weather gods for rain so that he could get the hell out of there. Oh, and wishing for lightning to cause physical harm to the Yankees' pitchers, which we can understand.
We were going to get all sore about it, what with him at the ballpark and us stuck at the office, until it struck us that Blair was stuck at the office, begging to get out. So, you know, we feel his pain.
We're rooting for Blair to continue to devolve into something resembling a cantankerous old uncle. We half expect that at some point this season, we'll hear him yelling at the players from the press box to "get the hell off my lawn!"
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Blairsy - Too old for this shit
7 comments:
- Stoeten said...
Snappy the Turtle!
- March 4, 2008 at 3:37 PM
- Drew said...
How much longer before Blair moves into bruntian territory of features only. The baseball beat is below him.
- March 4, 2008 at 4:56 PM
Krusty the Clown
I expect him to blame it all on the percodan addiction
- March 4, 2008 at 5:20 PM
- sager said...
It wasn't Blair... it was the Percodan!
- March 4, 2008 at 5:50 PM
- Darren Priest said...
Of all the people to have a man-crush on...yeesh.
- March 4, 2008 at 5:53 PM
That pic of Blair reminds me of this guy
- March 4, 2008 at 9:16 PM
that pic looks like a promo shot for a "manager" from the World Wrestling Federation circa 1989.....he'd be right next to Slick, the Doctor of Style....
- March 4, 2008 at 10:13 PM
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The Wabash reunion classes of 1955 and 1965 cleaned up at the weekend-ending Big Bash Awards Brunch. (See photo album by clicking the link at the bottom of this page.)
The Awards Brunch capped a weekend packed full of activities attended by nearly 300 alumni plus spouses and children. Mitsuya Goto and Hal Lesh, both in the Class of 1955, came from Tokyo, Japan and Paris, France, respectively, to earn the honor of having traveled the farthest to attend Big Bash. Bastain Wonschik, Class of 2000, came all the away from Germany to join his classmates.
Claiming the 1909 Trophy Cup for having the highest percentage of his class return for Big Bash was Vaino Grayam, Class Agent for the Class of 1955. A total of 38 percent of the class returned for the 50th reunion.
The 1928 Attendance Trophy honors the class with the highest number of alumni returning for Big Bash. That award went to Peter Pactor and Jay Patterson, co-Class Agents for the Class of 1965, who lured 50 men from their class for the weekend.
The newest reunion award honors Edwin Robinson, Class of 1900, and Carroll Ragan, Class of 1901, who authored the school fight song, Old Wabash. Winning the Robinson-Ragan Award for Alumni Chapel Sing, an award based on memorization, attendance, and creativity, was the Class of 1955.
"The most special award we give during Big Bash Weekend is the Dorman Hughes Award," said Alumni Director Tom Runge '71. "It's an award that honors the late Dr. Dorman Hughes, long-time Class Agent for the Class of 1943, and goes to the class agent or class agents who, in the opinion of our staff, did the most work in organizing their reunion."
The Dorman Hughes Award was presented to 1965's Class Agents, Peter Pactor and Jay Patterson.
The final award presented at the Big Bash Awards Brunch was the Edmund O. Hovey Annual Giving Award, which is presented to the Class Agent whose class has the highest percentage of annual fund donors. Taking home the prize was the Class of 1955 with a 50 percent giving rate. Runge noted that the Class of 1965 had more donors (81) and a total of 46 percent.
"It was just a terrific weekend all around," added Runge. "From the colloquia sessions to Alumni Chapel Sing, our alumni had a great time on campus. It's our hope that they'll spread the word so that Big Bash '06 is bigger and better than ever."
In photo at top: Vaino Grayam '55 is honored by President Ford
In photo at bottom: Peter Pactor '65 is honored by President Ford


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Corey and I were all prepared for a regular edition of the "Call to the Bullpen" until an hour before we set to record when news of the Dodgers and Red Sox blockbuster broke.
We reacted, scrapped the usual format, and bring you in depth and comprehensive analysis of the trade and what it will mean for both teams and all the players involved.
We also talk Bill "Spaceman" Lee, Roger Clemens (Grumpy Old Aces) and Mike Trout's Road to the AL MVP award."
Click play on the player below to listen:
[powerpress url="http://www.midwestsportsfans.com/wp-content/uploads/podcasts/call-to-the-bullpen/call-to-the-bullpen-podcast-24.mp3″]
How to subscribe to and follow the MSF Podcast so you never miss an episode:
- Subscribe to the MSF Podcast on iTunes
- Join the MSF Podcast Email Digest and get an email whenever a new episode is posted.
- Follow @PodcastMSF on Twitter or via RSS to get random funny tweets and updates as soon as new episodes are posted.
- Download this episode in mp3 format for later: Right-click this link, then hit "save link as"
- To learn about and subscribe to individual podcasts, click here.


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"The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the National Weather Service."New demands on my time involving weather-climate linkage research and predictions are rapidly approaching. So, the Rottweiler and myself must now walk off into the Blogosphere sunset. This has been a great 3 1/2 year ride, and thank you all for the wonderful support!!!
Best regards,
Ed Berry


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The jobs picture in California has been much grimmer than for the country as a whole.
On Thursday, Governor Jerry Brown and lawmakers in Sacramento announced they've reached a bipartisan deal on a jobs plan that would lower taxes on California's small business community, and close a loophole that benefits out-of-state corporations.
Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher (R-San Diego) estimates the deal will result in $1 billion in permanent tax relief to small businesses and the families they support.
U.S. & World
"We have to do everything possible to make California a more competitive place to create jobs," Fletcher said.
New data suggests there's already a glimmer of light in San Diego County.
The volume number of job postings in the San Diego region reached a three-year high last month -- upwards of 70,000 at a time when more than double that number of people are receiving unemployment benefits.
That sunny news does come with a qualifier: "There are a lot of high-tech jobs that are available, so some of those jobs require some very specific skills, said Gary Moss, labor market analyst for the public-private San Diego Workforce Partnership.
Moss cited opportunities in software development, telecommunications engineering, and the defense industry.
Whatever their skills, job-seekers are pretty jazzed.
"It's encouraging," said Nola Glen, a Bay Park resident. "No matter who's getting hired in that position, it's good news. Because it'll boomerang down to what I might do for work."
Glen, who devoted Thursday morning to sending out online job applications at the Workforce Partnership's metro job center in City Heights, has been applying for office-staff jobs for months.
"I've had a few temp positions, which was great," Glen said. "Today, I'm here, in fact, to do some testing on the computer for a permanent position."
Temp positions in hospital maintenance work are what's been keeping North Park resident Reginald Arbuthnot going lately.
He said reports of a relative glut of job openings are welcome, indeed.
"That gives me a lot of hope, because I see a lot of people working now that weren't working when I was working for the last four years," Arbuthnot said, before resuming his online search for work. "So that tells me that San Diego's job market is picking up."
But this newfound optimism should be tempered with caution, Moss said.
"It's going to be a slow growth," Moss predicted. "We need a lot of jobs to make up for all the over-200,000 jobs we've lost in the past four or five years."
The state measure is helping to bolster spirits.
The proposal "puts us on a level playing field with other forward-thinking states," said Carl Hull, president and CEO of San Diego-based Gen-Probe,
Added Danielle Harsh Stiritz, owner of San Diego's BatterUp! Cupcakes, "This is a commonsense measure. It is imperative that we help California companies create jobs and put people back to work."
Let us know what you think. Comment below, send us your thoughts via Twitter @PropZero or add your comment to our Facebook page.


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X Cash Gift Deposits
reX Cash Gift Deposits are made into the account of a student by visiting our Online Card Services
- Once on the site, click the "Make A Deposit link" on the left side of the page.
- You will need to know the cardholder's 9-digit Xavier ID# and have a Visa or MasterCard at the ready.
- These deposits are anonymous, so you may wish to notify the recipient yourself.
Gift Deposits - Purchased with either cash, personal check, credit/debit card, or Interdepartmental Charge in person at the ALL Card Center, Fenwick Place, Mezzanine Level, or by phone at (513) 745-3374.
To order a Gift Deposit via mail, please send a check to the following address:
Xavier University
ALL Card Center
3800 Victory Parkway
Cincinnati, OH 45207-3341
Please indicate the recipient's name and student ID# and what denomination you would like to deposit. Also, include a return address for the confirmation card.
Campus Departments: Please fill out an interdepartmental charge form and send it to the ALL Card Center, ML-3341.
Include your ORG/FUND#, and the Account# to be charged will be 701759.
Upon receipt of the form, all orders are hand-delivered to your office on the next business day. Our order processing hours are from 8:30 am-5: 00 pm, Monday-Friday.
The Gift Deposit is accessible to the recipient through their ALL Card and cannot be redeemable in cash.


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SAN ANTONIO – Scott W. Tinker '82, director of the Bureau of Economic Geology at the University of Texas at Austin and state geologist of Texas, will discuss the future of energy and screen the film, SWITCH at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Sept. 24, in Laurie Auditorium, as part of the Trinity University Distinguished Scientists Lecture Series. The lecture is free and open to the public.
Tinker brings straight answers from the people driving energy today: international leaders of government, industry, and academia and proposes a path to our future that is surprisingly and remarkably pragmatic. He has given nearly 500 invited and keynote lectures, visited more than 45 countries, and most recently produced and is featured in the acclaimed documentary film on global energy, SWITCH. The film takes viewers on a global adventure to the world's leading energy sites – many highly restricted and never before seen on film – to explore the future of energy, from coal to solar, oil to biofuels.
He spent 17 years in the oil and gas industry prior to joining the University of Texas at Austin in 2000. Tinker is currently the Allday Endowed Chair and acting associate dean of research in the Jackson School of Geosciences. He is a member of the Trinity University Board of Visitors, current president of the Gulf Coast Association of Geological Societies, and holds appointments on the National Petroleum Council, the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission, the Geoscience Advisory Board at Sandia National Lab, and serves on several other private, professional, and academic advisory boards. Tinker has a doctorate from the University of Colorado, a master of science from the University of Michigan, and a bachelor of science from Trinity University.
The Trinity University Distinguished Scientists Lecture Series is made possible through an endowment gift from Mr. and Mrs. Walter F. Brown Sr. of San Antonio. For more information, contact Trinity's Office of University Communications at 210-999-8406.


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|[Photo courtesy Scout Magazine]
Well, I just received an email from owner Bill McCraig that Nicli opened today, Tuesday, February 7, 2011. They'll be open from 5pm to close, no reservations (even though there's a reservation form on their website, oddly enough). An early review from Scout Magazine is very positive, so now I can't wait to get back up there to try it!
Nicli Antica Pizzeria
62 East Cordova
Vancouver, B.C.
ADDED 2/15/2011 - TIP Reader "Lindsay" sent these photos along. She noted that they still have a few kinks to iron out.


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An interesting looking upcoming book....
http://www.fishpond.co.nz/Books/Rnzaf-S ... 0143770381
Bee Dawson has written two previous books about RNZAF bases.
The first was about Hobsonville aerodrome & seaplane base; and the second book was about Wigram.
Now it appears she has written a book about the RNZAF's flying-boat base in Fiji (which was also used by TEAL on their Coral Route service to Tahiti during the 1950s).
I've already pre-ordered a copy.


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A Young Woman Warming her Hands over a Brazier: Allegory of Winter, Caesar Boëtius van Everdingen, c. 1644 - c. 1648
The young woman warms her hands above a dish of glowing coals. She personifies Winter. This season was usually represented as a shabbily dressed old man or woman: old because the year is coming to an end, and poor because crops do not grow in the winter. Van Everdingen's choice of a young, richly attired woman is thus rather unusual.


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Just when you were starting to properly relax into summer, back roars politics, like a swarm of blowflies doing Zumba in your face. All those lofty "state of the nation" speeches and back-to-school parliamentary set-pieces. Most likely, you missed them. And so, in the service of democracy, here's a digest.
John Key, National Party leader and Prime Minister
Anyway, so: busy. Busy, busy. What a start. Crackerjack. Four great years, and now I give you: apprenticeships! And WoF changes. And look at Labour. Idiots.
As I travel around the country, people tell me it's the economy, stupid, and by stupid they mean Labour. The global economy is weak, which is also a word you could use for the Greens and Labour. What a bunch of chequebook activists.
We have ideas, we have plans. How do you know this? Because I've just said to you we have ideas, we have plans. And, better than that, we have numbered lists. Four key priorities. Five vocational pathways. Six pillars of business growth. Ten big challenges.
Strong. Stable. Economy. Innovation. Surplus. Foreign investment. Everyday New Zealanders. Economy. Partial asset sales. Slash red tape. Convention centres. Trade. Tourism. Housing. Roads. Roads? Labour and the Greens hate them, so if you are in a car and there is a rush of blood to the head and they do get there, you had better like your radio station because you will spend a long time in a traffic jam. Boomfa!
Hands off? Yeah, nah. Steven's hands are everywhere. And look at the Opposition, pointing at our hands with their hands, and opposing them. Irony! Petty opposition, with all its opposing. Make no mistake: we oppose their opposing.
Anyway, so get Cunliffe a bell, like a cat, so you can hear him in the dark as he approaches with a knife, like a cat holding a knife. And, in conclusion, the economy.
David Shearer, Labour leader
As I travel around the country, people tell me they do not want a prime minister who is a stand-up comedian, but one who stands up for them while also using a bit of light word play. They say they want us to stand up on our hands, and I am ready to stand up on my hands.
I'm fired up. How do you know I'm fired up? Because I've just told you I'm fired up. And look at my arm, look at it, flapping around like an unattended hose. I'm putting John Key on notice, or on the staff noticeboard, with a tag saying, "John Key, Prime Minister".
Hands on. Tough choices. Ready for government. Houses, lots of houses - a little less house for a little more money than I might have said before, but look at this, I'm on my hands. A new direction. Employment. Look fired up. No, sorry, autocue issues, that was in italics. Big issues. Big decisions. Tide for change. Capital gains tax. Super reform. Kids and poverty. Clean, green, clever, etc. Monetary policy, and policy in general, really: we'll be looking at it, with our eyes and our hands.
I got a book for Christmas about 50 inspiring New Zealanders, and I found them really inspiring. Also inspiring: solo mums, old volunteers, young strivers. Hardworking Kiwis. Some guy in a pub in Napier. It's heartbreaking watching parents waving goodbye to their kids at the airport. Also, it's awkward when you're asked to stop hanging out in the airport watching parents wave goodbye to their kids. Thank you.
Metiria Turei, Greens co-leader
This is a rally cry. How do you know that? Because I've just said, "this is a rally cry." Hands in the air, Aotearoa New Zealand. Anyone for a picnic?
Stop asset sales. Affordable homes. Innovation. Poverty. Inequality. Egalitarian identity stabbed in the heart. 100 per cent Pure? No. Tired old government. The prime minister is boring. Bored and boring. Booor-ing.
I'm in - for the future, and that's why I'm launching a plan called, "I'm In - For the Future". Because there's the future, there, just there, so why don't we all get in it?
John Banks, Act leader/caucus
As I travel around the country, people say to me: that Shearer, he's a nice man. Kiss of death! Imagine being nice. What a disgusting, communist thought. In Picton, in Westport, in Greymouth and Hokitika, in Remuera, Parnell, and Mt Eden, people say to me, "I agree with everything you stand for, Banksie." And they hold me in their arms, and sing me gently to sleep.


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Fixture Macros
A few months ago, at Revelytix, we put together a pretty large test-harness at work for putting Semantic Triplestores through their paces. The effort was highly dependant on setup and teardown of the external environment.
For instance, in order to run a single test that involves making a http request to a triplestore-backed web application, I had to write code to start the virtual machine my web application and triplestore images were installed on, restore that vm to a known-state snapshot, wait for the guest operating system to come online, login to the web application and establish a session, and oh yeah, actually make the http request to see the results I was really interested in.
Ultimately, we went with a design that passed a lot of maps around, but tonight I found myself reviewing some of the other possibilities we could have pursued. Clojure maintains great separation of concerns by allowing you to pass functions around. For example, here's the function I originally wrote to setup and teardown a virtual machine, running some arbitrary function
f in-between:
(defn vm-setup [vm snaphsot f]
(restore-snapshot vm snapshot)
(start-vm vm)
(catch Exception e
(.printStackTrace e))
(save-vm-state vm))))
The function knows nothing about what
f does and so
f can be anything.
After the call to
start-vm, VirtualBox launches immediately, but it often takes 10-15 seconds for the guest OS to start running and communicating. Executing
f immediately after starting the vm will often fail if you don't first wait for the guest OS to come online. I could write that sort of functionality into the
vm-setup function, but that's mixing concerns, and I could just as easily write another setup function that tries to ping the guest OS, executing it's payload once the machine has started communicating:
(defn host-reachable? [host timeout f]
(if (ping host timeout)
(throw (Exception. (str "Could not reach host: " host " within " timeout " ms")))))
This pattern goes on. Conceptually, I ended up with a single test being expressed like this:
(vm-setup "WebAppVM1" "CleanSnapshot"
(host-reachable? "hostname" (* 30 1000)
(webapp-login "hostname" "username" "password"
(times 30
(http-request "/some/webapp/path"))))))
Which is pretty readable and it's structure matches it's meaning. The test itself is the call to
(http-request "/some/webapp/path")
and it's nested pretty deeply in an execution context.
If we needed to resuse all of those steps, we could make it into a composite setup function:
(defn start-vm-and-login [f]
(vm-setup "WebAppVM1" "CleanSnapshot"
(host-reachable? "hostname" (* 30 1000)
(webapp-login "hostname" "username" "password"
(times 30
The code above, however, won't run. The forms aren't function objects, they're function invocations that return values. We'd have to wrap each of them in
(fn [] ) in order to lambda-ize them:
(vm-setup "WebAppVM1" "CleanSnapshot"
(fn []
(host-reachable? "hostname" (* 30 1000)
(fn []
(webapp-login "hostname" "username" "password"
(fn []
(times 30
(fn []
(fn [] (http-request "/some/webapp/path")))))))))))
We can write our own macro to take the first version and expand into the second, and it helps if we notice how similar it is to the
-> macro. In fact, we could write:
(->> (http-request "/some/webapp/path")
(fn [])
(fn [])
(times 30)
(fn [])
(webapp-login "hostname" "username" "password")
(fn [])
(host-reachable? "hostname" (* 30 1000))
(fn [])
(vm-setup "WebAppVM1" "CleanSnapshot"))
Which reads a little bit backwards, but provides a great target for our macro to generate:
(defmacro fixture [& forms]
`(->> ~@(interpose '(fn []) (reverse forms))))
Allowing us to write:
(fixture (vm-setup "WebAppVM1" "CleanSnapshot")
(host-reachable? "hostname" (* 30 1000))
(webapp-login "hostname" "username" "password")
(times 30)
(http-request "/some/webapp/path"))
Not bad