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When you are considering performance tuning, what do you look for? There are many things that can affect SQL Server performance: CPU usage, I/O, memory utilization, bad execution plans, inappropriate or missing indexes, and so on. The one thing I tend to find most often when a query is slow is due to the amount of I/O the query performs. When a query is slow because of I/O it could be because of bad hardware, a bad execution plan, but normally it is a poor database design or the lack of appropriate indexes to help resolve the query with minimal I/O. Where do you go looking when you want to measure or improve I/O, or find those queries that are using lots of I/O? In this article I will be exploring methods of measuring and identifying I/O related performance information for your database instances.
Which database is doing all the I/O?
When you start to research where all your I/O is going, where do you start? I like to first identify which database is using all the I/O. Having an idea of the I/O performance profile of each of my databases helps me determine where I need to focus my attention.
There are a number of different ways to identify which databases are using all the I/O. But I'm going to show you how to use a Dynamic Management Function (DMF) to identify I/O by databases. Dynamic Management Views (DMVs) and DMFs are lightweight tools that are available out of the box when you install SQL Server. They were first introduced in SQL Server 2005, and then were extended and improved with the introduction of SQL Server 2008. There are many different DMVs and DMFs available within SQL Server.
DMVs and DMFs collect statistical information from the time SQL Server starts up until the time it shuts down. The information collected by DMFs and DMVs is not persistent, meaning the information that SQL Server is collecting is lost once SQL Server stops. Some dynamic management information can also be reset by various activities that might occur while SQL Server is running. The DMF that I am going to use to show how much I/O each database has performed since SQL Server started up is sys.dm_io_virtual_file_stats.
The sys.dm_io_virtual_file_stats DMF tracks both read and write I/O information about each database file. You can use this DMF to determine which database is doing the most I/O. To demonstrate how to use the DMF let's look at the TSQL code in Listing 1.
Listing 1: Shows the total I/O for each database
SELECT name AS 'Database Name'
,SUM(num_of_reads) AS 'Number of Read'
,SUM(num_of_writes) AS 'Number of Writes'
FROM sys.dm_io_virtual_file_stats(NULL, NULL) I
INNER JOIN sys.databases D
ON I.database_id = d.database_id
GROUP BY name ORDER BY 'Number of Read' DESC;
When I run this command against one of my instances I get the following output.
Report 1: Output produced when running code in Listing 1
Database Name Number of Read Number of Writes
------------------------- -------------------- --------------------
msdb 1655678 12134
tempdb 743257 590987
master 70435 12312
model 57 1
Here you can see the JUMY database has performed the most read I/Os and database tempdb has performed the most write I/Os, since my SQL Server instance started up. Notice the code in Listing 1 summarizes the num_of_reads and number_of_writes columns by the name column to produce the read and write I/Os by database. I ordered the output so the database with the most read I/Os would appear first in the output from this SELECT statement. By changing the ORDER BY clause, you could easily identify the database which is performing the most write I/Os.
Since the sys.dm_io_virtual_file_stats DMF tracks the number of I/Os against each database since SQL Server started up, it may not show an accurate picture of which database is currently performing all the I/O. If you want to find out which database is now consuming the bulk of the I/O on an instance you can run the code in Listing 2.
Listing 2: Shows the amount of I/O performed by each database in the last 5 minutes
DECLARE @Sample TABLE (
DBName varchar(128)
,NumberOfReads bigint
,NumberOfWrites bigint)
INSERT INTO @Sample
SELECT name AS 'DBName'
,SUM(num_of_reads) AS 'NumberOfRead'
,SUM(num_of_writes) AS 'NumberOfWrites'
FROM sys.dm_io_virtual_file_stats(NULL, NULL) I
INNER JOIN sys.databases D
ON I.database_id = d.database_id
GROUP BY name
SELECT FirstSample.DBName
,(SecondSample.NumberOfReads - FirstSample.NumberOfReads) AS 'Number of Reads'
,(SecondSample.NumberOfWrites - FirstSample.NumberOfWrites) AS 'Number of Writes'
(SELECT * FROM @Sample) FirstSample
(SELECT name AS 'DBName'
,SUM(num_of_reads) AS 'NumberOfReads'
,SUM(num_of_writes) AS 'NumberOfWrites'
FROM sys.dm_io_virtual_file_stats(NULL, NULL) I
INNER JOIN sys.databases D
ON I.database_id = d.database_id
GROUP BY name) AS SecondSample
ON FirstSample.DBName = SecondSample.DBName
ORDER BY 'Number of Reads' DESC;
The code in Listing 2 determines the amount of I/O performed by database for the last 5 minutes. In order to capture the amount of I/O performed for last 5 minutes interval the code in listing 2 needed to capture 2 I/O samples from the sys.dm_io_virtual_file_stats DMF. The first sample collected was placed into a table variable and then statistics returned from the second sample were used with the statistics in the table variable to calculate how much I/O each database used in the five minute interval.
Identifying IO by Physical Disk Drive
If you have your SQL Server databases spread out across many SQL Server drives you might like to know which drive is the busiest from an I/O perspective. This is easy to do by joining sys.dm_io_virtual_file_stats with sys.master_files so you can get the physical name of each database file. The code in listing 3 displays the number read and write IOs by drive letter.
Listing 3: Displaying I/O statistics by physical drive letter
SELECT left(f.physical_name, 1) AS DriveLetter,
DATEADD(MS,sample_ms * -1, GETDATE()) AS [Start Date],
SUM(v.num_of_writes) AS total_num_of_writes,
SUM(v.num_of_bytes_written) AS total_num_of_bytes_written,
SUM(v.num_of_reads) AS total_num_of_reads,
SUM(v.num_of_bytes_read) AS total_num_of_bytes_read,
SUM(v.size_on_disk_bytes) AS total_size_on_disk_bytes
FROM sys.master_files f
INNER JOIN sys.dm_io_virtual_file_stats(NULL, NULL) v
ON f.database_id=v.database_id and f.file_id=v.file_id
GROUP BY left(f.physical_name, 1),DATEADD(MS,sample_ms * -1, GETDATE());
By taking the first character of the file name that is contained in the physical_name column I can identify drive letter associated with the I/O counts provided by the sys.dm_io_virtual_file_stats DMF. I can then use this drive letter to sum up the I/O counts for all database files on the same drive letter. By using the code in Listing 3, I can determine which one of my database drives is the busiest for from a read, write, or total I/O perspective. Knowing which drive is the busiest can be helpful if you are trying to spread out your I/O evenly across all your different physical drives.
Disk Latency
Disk performance is important. The better your disks perform the better your database can perform I/O for all the different queries that are executed. Disk Latency is a way to measure how long it takes for an I/O to be completed. You can measure your disk latency by using the different io_stall columns available in sys.dm_io_virtual_file_stats DMF. The code in listing 4 demonstrates how to calculate the average read and write disk latency for different drive letters.
Listing 4: Calculated Disk Latency for your different database drives
SELECT LEFT(physical_name, 1) AS drive,
CAST(SUM(io_stall_read_ms) /
(1.0 + SUM(num_of_reads)) AS NUMERIC(10,1))
AS 'avg_read_disk_latency_ms',
CAST(SUM(io_stall_write_ms) /
(1.0 + SUM(num_of_writes) ) AS NUMERIC(10,1))
AS 'avg_write_disk_latency_ms',
CAST((SUM(io_stall)) /
(1.0 + SUM(num_of_reads + num_of_writes)) AS NUMERIC(10,1))
AS 'avg_disk_latency_ms'
FROM sys.dm_io_virtual_file_stats(NULL, NULL) AS divfs
JOIN sys.master_files AS mf ON mf.database_id = divfs.database_id
AND mf.file_id = divfs.file_id
GROUP BY LEFT(physical_name, 1)
ORDER BY avg_disk_latency_ms DESC;
When you run this code on your instance your disk latency information should be in-line with the disk latency numbers associated with your hard drive specifications. Typically your latency numbers should be below 30 ms (your mileage might vary depending on your hardware). If you track this information over time you can determine the trend for your disk latency. This will allow get a better picture of how your disk might be degrading in performance over time.
Identifying Those Queries that Are Using all Your I/O
I've written about how to find resource intensive queries before, but I thought it would be good to providing you with some code that can be used to determine which queries are performing lots of I/O. The code in Listing 5 uses the information in sys.dm_exec_query_stats to identify the top 25 most expensive queries by Read I/O.
Listing 5: Display the Top 25 Most expensive read I/O queries
SELECT TOP 25 cp.usecounts AS [execution_count]
,qs.total_worker_time AS CPU
,qs.total_elapsed_time AS ELAPSED_TIME
,qs.total_logical_reads AS LOGICAL_READS
,qs.total_logical_writes AS LOGICAL_WRITES
,qs.total_physical_reads AS PHYSICAL_READS
CASE WHEN statement_start_offset = 0
OR statement_start_offset IS NULL
ELSE statement_start_offset/2 + 1 END,
CASE WHEN statement_end_offset = 0
OR statement_end_offset = -1
OR statement_end_offset IS NULL
THEN LEN(text)
ELSE statement_end_offset/2 END -
CASE WHEN statement_start_offset = 0
OR statement_start_offset IS NULL
ELSE statement_start_offset/2 END + 1
) AS [Statement]
FROM sys.dm_exec_query_stats qs
join sys.dm_exec_cached_plans cp on qs.plan_handle = cp.plan_handle
CROSS APPLY sys.dm_exec_sql_text(cp.plan_handle) st
ORDER BY qs.total_logical_reads DESC;
You could easily modify this code to identify the top 25 queries that perform write I/O. You would do that by ordering the results based on the total_logical_writes column.
Keep in mind, the query in Listing 5 is only able to find out query statistics for those queries that are currently in the plan cache. Once and execution plan is removed from the plan cache the query statistics are no longer available. Therefore this query may not report statistics for all queries that have been executed since SQL Server started up.
Where is all my I/O Going?
In this article, I provided you a number of scripts that you can use to investigate where all your I/O is going on a SQL Server instance. Each one of these chunks of code used a dynamic management view or function to obtain the I/O information. Remember that Dynamic Management views and functions get their information from a non-persistent data store. Therefore the queries I have provided will only show I/O information since the last time SQL Server started up.


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Dr. Lin believes that if humorists come together in world conferences discussing serious issues confronting the world, wars could be avoided. Here is an optimistic picture he presents for us: "You will find George Bernard Shaw shouting that Ireland is wrong, and a Berlin cartoonist protesting that the mistake is all theirs, and Heywood Broun claiming the largest share of bungling for America, while Stephen Leacock in the chair makes a general apology for mankind, gently reminding us that in the matter of stupidity and sheer foolishness no nation can claim itself to be the superior of others. How in the name of humor are we going to start a war under these conditions?" Continue reading »
Sep 08
Dr. Lin Yutang, whose Chinese rendering of humor as 幽默 became the standard translation of the word, once said that "it is terribly serious when our rulers do not smile, because they have got all the guns."

subset: commoncrawl


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On May 10, when President Obama traveled to El Paso, Texas, to again make the case for immigration reform, he talked about the tragedy of a policy that denies children the chance to earn a college education because of how their parents entered the country. But in many ways, we've already failed our fastest-growing ethnic group, Hispanic Americans, long before they reach college and regardless of whether they were born here or not.
Hispanics now constitute 16% of the U.S. population, and the Census Bureau estimates they will account for 30% in 2050. This obviously means the number of Hispanic students in our public schools is increasing as well. From just 2001 to 2008, the percentage of Hispanics in public schools grew from 17% to 21%. In Texas, Hispanics already make up the majority of public school students.
You'd think those numbers would grab the attention of policymakers and educators and spur action but you'd be wrong. Our public schools are woefully unprepared to deal with the fastest-growing ethnic group in the U.S. Only 17% of Hispanic fourth-graders score proficient or better on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (a test given to samples of students each year) while 42% of non-Hispanic white students do. Nationally, the high school graduation rate for Hispanics is just 64%, and only 7% of incoming college students are Hispanic, according to the Alliance for Excellent Education.
These two tectonic issues our rocketing Hispanic population and the inadequate education of Hispanic students are on a collision course that could either end in disaster or in another story of successful assimilation in America. The stakes are clear: how we meet this challenge will impact our politics, economy and our society.
The Hispanic population boom understandably caught some states, communities and educators flat-footed. Places with few, if any, Hispanic students just a few years ago now have sizable populations. This week, the Wall Street Journal reported that in North Carolina 16 of 100 counties are more than 10% Hispanic. Just four were in 2000. In Harrisonburg, Va., a sleepy university town in the Shenandoah Valley, about 40% of students in the city schools are Hispanic English-language learners, a figure that has soared over the past decade.
Still, the demographic projections are so well known that no one should be surprised. And some states are responding more effectively than others. Florida, for example, has seen a steady increase in the performance of its Hispanic students over the past decade. In Florida, 31% of Hispanic students score proficient or better on the state version of the National Assessment of Educational Progress, making Florida a national leader.
So what should policymakers and educators do?
For starters, many of the issues that adversely affect Hispanic students are the same issues that hamstring minority students overall. These students are less likely to have the most-effective teachers or have access to a strong curriculum and college-preparatory classes and more likely to attend poorly funded schools. In that way, the Hispanic agenda is no different than the more general good-schools agenda. In Florida, the rising tide from a host of education reforms seems to have lifted all boats.
But there are more unique issues too. There are 4 million Hispanics in public schools whose primary language is not English (and 75% of them were born in the U.S.) Thankfully, dead-end bilingual programs that trap students while teaching them little are increasingly a thing of the past. However, there is still too little training, curriculum and support for teachers of English-language learners. A 2002 analysis by the Department of Education found that 1 in 3 teachers working with these students lacked academic training or proper certification.
There is also too little in the way of high-quality tests for students learning English both to measure their progress and ensure that schools are serving them well. I saw this firsthand when the Virginia Board of Education, on which I was serving at the time, needed to adopt a new assessment for English-language learners. The lack of proven models was appalling. Despite the federally funded effort to develop common assessments, this remains a prime opportunity for investment from foundations or the private sector.
Educators and policymakers must think more creatively about migrant students as well, who travel with their parents as they look for seasonal work. For instance, Sisters of Mercy, an order of nuns who focus on the poor, ran a portable school for migrant students for seven years that moved between Fremont, Ohio, and Plant City, Fla., providing a continuous education. Today, technology makes such anytime and anywhere approaches to education even more feasible and scalable.
We hear a lot of talk from our national leaders about how our schools must do better to keep the country economically competitive. Given the numbers, doing a better job with Hispanic students is a key part of any competitiveness strategy. In fact, if we're serious about producing more scientists, engineers and innovators than we do today, currently underserved populations are the obvious place to look. More fundamentally given our national creed if we want to do more than pay lip service to diversity and opportunity for all, this is a vital place to start.
Andrew J. Rotherham, who writes the blog Eduwonk, is a co-founder and partner at Bellwether Education, a nonprofit working to improve educational outcomes for low-income students. School of Thought, his education column for TIME.com, appears every Thursday.


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Hover image to zoom
Elan Boomerang Skis
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1. Introduction
Debian GNU/Linux (http://www.debian.org) is the premier volunteer-supported Linux distribution. Unfortunately, setting up printers in Debian can be difficult. Also, simple step-by-step instructions for sharing printers between Windows and Linux using the latest tools are hard to find. This HOWTO was written to address both problems.
This HOWTO will demonstrate how to use command-line tools to configure your Debian system for printing. It will explain how to send documents from Linux to Windows printers and how to share Linux printers with Windows PCs. Some troubleshooting examples are also given.
The primary url for this document is http://excess.org/docs/linux_windows_printing.html. The source Docbook/XML and EPS files for this document may be downloaded from http://excess.org/docs/src/. Please forward bug reports, corrections and suggestions regarding this document to ian at excess dot org.


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I am currently working on an OpenGL procedural planet generator. I hope to use it for a space RPG, that will not allow players to go down to the surface of a planet so I have ignored anything ROAM related. At the moment I am drawing a cube with VBOs and mapping onto a sphere.
I am familiar with most fractal heightmap generating techniques and have already implemented my own version of midpoint displacement (not that useful in this case I know).
My question is, what is the best way to procedurally generate the heightmap. I have looked at libnoise which allows me to make tilable heightmaps/textures, but as far as I can see I would need to generate a net like this.
Leaving the tiling obvious.
Could anyone advise me on the best route to take?
Any input would be much appreciated.


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(visited by Alain Brégy)
08-Apr-2004 -- This Confluence is the less precise because the area is unpracticable, even with 4x4 cars. The best way to approach it is to ride a camel but unfortunately we didn't find any camel-rent office in the neighborhood... :-)
The Confluence is located east of a great mountain called Adrar Ouzzeïne. My estimation is about 4 or 5 kilometers beetween this picture and the real confluence point, maybe more, maybe less... (no GPS). The outside temperature was about 48°C, that's the reason why I shot the picture from the car... no way to go closer in this season. Maybe in winter?


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BERLIN – The Maryland Coastal Bays Program (MCBP) yesterday announced Executive Director Dave Blazer was leaving the program after nearly a decade of shepherding the fledgling quasi-government agency through its infancy and helping raise environmental awareness in the county.
Blazer is leaving the program he helped nurture to take a similar position with an environmental consulting firm in the private sector. He leaves behind a legacy of staunch advocacy for the shallow bays behind Ocean City and Assateague and helped reshape policy in Worcester.
Blazer said yesterday he had mixed emotions about leaving the MCBP and taking a job in the private sector. Although the transition will not require him and his family to move from the area, he said he would miss being involved in the program he helped create in 1999.
"It is a little bittersweet," he said. "There are really two parts to it. On the one hand, I'm extremely proud of what we were able to accomplish in a short period of time. On the other hand, if I was to take credit for anything as executive director, it would be for assembling so many good people around me. Those are the people who should be given a lot of credit for the successes of the program."
When Blazer, the former Maryland director of the Chesapeake Bay Commission, arrived at the MCBP nine years ago, he along with a secretary and a public outreach coordinator in Dave Wilson represented the entire Worcester County staff charged with turning things around in the coastal bays.
"With a pittance of a budget and a staff of three, the non-profit organization was gradually but slowly changing the way business was done in the coastal bays," said Wilson. "Over-worked, underpaid and under-staffed, Coastal Bays personnel struggled to do all of the little things necessary to help the community in its quest to improve water quality and wildlife habitat."
That all changed under Blazer's watch, however. In less than a decade, the program's annual budget has tripled despite stable or falling federal support and now has an additional $1 million endowment at the Community Foundation. During the same span, the program has grown from a staff of three to five full-time and eight part-time staff
The growth has allowed the program to accomplish much on the ground and in the water. Since 1999, according to Wilson, the program has helped restore thousands of acres of forests and wetlands, worked to get all new sewer discharges out of the coastal bays, led the charge for better planning for growth, established a permanent water quality testing program, stopped boat sewage dumping in the northern bays and led countless other advocacy efforts for the local environment.
Perhaps most importantly, the MCBP under Blazer's watch has been able to leverage over $6 million per year for the coastal bays watershed with great results. For example, every dollar the program has received in federal funding has brought $12 more to the coastal bays for improvement and enhancement projects.
Drawing on his vast experience as a former Maryland DNR Fisheries Program chief, Blazer was able to implement several programs directed at boating and fishing activities in the bays. For example, he helped produce and distribute over 10,000 copies of the program's popular "Boaters Guide to the Coastal Bays" and was able to secure regular funding for the DNR's size and creel limit brochures and signs for common coastal bays fish.
Wilson, who will assume the interim executive director's position when Blazer leaves his post on Jan. 15 and will likely be on the short list of long-term replacements for him, said this week the program will miss Blazer.
"Dave accomplished what was previously thought unthinkable due to his ability to thoughtfully listen to others and understand the many shades of a given issue," he said. "Consensus building is what the program is about and Blazer personified that."
Blazer's new position is with a private sector environmental consulting firm called Talbot Energy Associates, which is a subsidiary of the larger Ecologix Environmental Systems. The company helps businesses and organizations develop environmentally sustainable practices according to Blazer.
"It's not a big departure from what I've been doing, except its consulting private sector organizations instead of governments," he said. "There is a big movement among corporations to go greener with their practices and policies and we help them through that."


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A chip off the old block…
Terrazzo is a unique surface, primarily found as flooring, that traditionally contains marble chips of different sizes and colors held together with a cement base or, in newer applications, with a resin or epoxy base. Aggregates other than marble may also be used. It is often the practice to coat or wax terrazzo to achieve a polished look, but these coatings have a tendency to yellow and collect dirt and must be repeatedly stripped and reapplied. However, we find this coating process to be not only time-consuming and costly, but also unnecessary.
Honing & Polishing Terrazzo
Using the same process used to restore marble and other natural stone, terrazzo can be polished to achieve both glossy and matte finishes without the need for coatings. This same process masterfully restores scratched and worn terrazzo to like-new (or better) condition, as well.
Sealing Terrazzo
It is important to note that sealing is not the same as coating or waxing and is an important, but simple measure that can be taken to help prevent staining once the terrazzo has been restored and thoroughly cleaned. Properly sealed and maintained terrazzo retains its beautiful shine and color.
Terrazzo Crack & Chip Repair
Like any other surface that sees traffic and use, terrazzo can become chipped and cracked. Our technicians are able to seamlessly repair this type of damage and restore your terrazzo to its original gorgeous and durable state.
[cherry_hr indent_top="30″ indent_bottom="30″]


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Oct 7th & 8th
Giant pumpkins, chili cook-off, pumpkin carvers, kid games, bake-offs, bluegrass music, a pumpkin drop and a pumpkin regatta on the river and more! In 2010, the 1,810 pumpkin won a Guinness Book World Record. FAMILY FUN! Lowell Park.
· Street Dance, Food Vendors
· Minute to Win It Tournament 4:00 to 6:00
Parking lot next to the Water Street Inn
Scrapegoat Skin & Bones Trio
un-traditional acoustic
guitar, banjo, mandolin, vocals, bass & percussion
Les Izmoore
funky – fun – rock 'n roll
OCTOBER 8th – North Lowell Park
Food Vendors and Market Vendor start at 11:00
1. Harvest Market & Kids Activities: 11am-4pm
Pumpkin Decorating, Face Painting, Art Activities, Cake Walk
2. Giant Pumpkin Weigh-Off – 11AM-3PM
3. Cake & Pie Walk – 11:00AM – 12:00PM
4. Proclamation by Mayor Ken Harycki – 12:00PM
5. Kid's Costume Parade – 12:00PM
6. Chili Cook-off Tasting – 12:00PM – 3:00PM
7. Micro Brew & Wine Tasting – 12:00PM-4:00PM
8. Live Music – 12:30PM – 4:00PM
Performed by the Galactic Cowboy Orchestra
9. Kid's Tractor Pull – 12:00PM – 2:00PM
10. Pumpkin Pie Eating Contest – 2:00PM
11. Pumpkin Regatta – 2:00PM – We will be doing four heats this year
12. Giant Pumpkin Drop – 4:15PM
Sunday, October 9th, 1:00pm to 4:00pm
Fall Colors Cruise and Dinner to Support the Lion's Club
· Silent Auction/Raffle items
· Barbary Coast Dixieland Band Will Entertain During the Cruise
· Cost: $56 per person
· Tickets for the tastings and Lions event http://www.stillwaterharvestfest.evenbrite.com
Learn more at:
For information on these and other events visit


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Sage Kotsenburg of the United States won the first gold medal of the 2014 Olympics on Saturday, soaring to victory in the men's snowboarding slopestyle final.
Kotsenburg had a score of 93.50 to edge Staale Sandbech of Norway. Mark McMorris of Canada, who barely made the finals, took bronze.
Canadian Max Parrot, who topped qualifying on Thursday, missed the podium. He washed out at the end of his first run and his second run wasn't quite crisp enough. Parrot finished fifth.
Kotsenburg needed to navigate the semifinals early Saturday but seemed to find his stride. He placed second in the semifinals then rolled with a medal on the line. The 20-year-old clasped his hands over his head in disbelief after his score was revealed.
The laid-back kid from Couer d'Alene, Idaho — nicknamed "second-run Sage" because of his tendency to come through at the last minute — didn't waste time putting together the run of his life. He tamed the treacherous course that chased away teammate Shaun White earlier in the week and sent several other contenders to the medical tent.
While the course that features a large nesting doll, tricky rails and three jumps took out its fair share of riders, Kotsenburg kept his cool. His blonde hair flapping out from under his helmet as he soared through the sun-splashed Caucasus Mountains, Kotsenburg looked as if he were cruising down the hill with friends.
Still, there was drama as he waited out the rest of the 12-man field. He stood off to the side after his second run, a not quite sharp 83.25, and clapped behind a nervous smile as the rest of the field aimed for his score.
McMorris, slowed by a broken rib, couldn't quite get there. A gold medal favorite before his injury at X Games last month, McMorris needed to scramble to get through the semifinals and his trip down the hill in the finals was solid but not spectacular.
Sandbech, who went next to last, was nearly flawless. He was so pumped after his second run he belly-flopped onto the ground. His 91.75 wasn't quite good enough, leaving only Parrot in Kotsenburg's way of gold.
Parrot dominated qualifying, posting the best score of the week. He put together a flawless first run only to sit on the landing of his final jump. He wobbled twice on his second run. He dropped his head when his 87.25 popped up on the scoreboard while Kotsenburg raised his arms in triumph.
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


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This is a guest post written by Alexis Wolfer, editor in chief of The Beauty Bean and author of the new book The Recipe For Radiance.
If you have dry skin that's prone to breakouts, treating a pimple with traditional store-bought remedies can transport your face to desert-like conditions faster than an airplane ever could. Fortunately, drying out a pimple isn't the only way to send it packing. With antibacterial and hydrating honey, pore-tightening egg white, and exfoliating egg yolks, this facial mask will ensure your skin stays moisturized and supple while kicking breakouts to the curb. Egg yolks, with their fat, cholesterol, and retinols, are also great for helping to reduce the appearance of acne scars, making this ideal for postpimple skin, too.
1 egg + 1 tablespoon raw honey
- Whisk the egg to fully combine the yolk and the white before stirring in the honey.
- Use a pastry brush to apply a thin layer of the mixture to your face, neck, and décolleté, avoiding your eye area.
- Let dry for 20 minutes to tighten pores, tone the skin, and kill bacteria, without drying out your skin.
- Rinse with warm water and pat dry.
For all of Alexis' best DIY recipes, order The Recipe For Radiance on Amazon now.
Source: The Recipe For Radiance


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I have a review of Tom Piazza's new novel, City of Refuge, in today's Washington Post.
This was a weird review to write for a few reasons. First, Piazza based his characters on some pretty recognizable folks, one of whom I know and several of whom are pretty recognizable. (Tom himself I've met exactly once, many years ago.) Second: I was reading the book while evacuated for Hurricane Gustav, in the same city where several of the characters evacuated during Hurricane Katrina...on the third anniversary of Katrina. Not an experience I want to repeat again in any respect.
Anyway, it's a pretty good novel. I just wouldn't recommend reading it when you're evacuated from a hurricane.


text: For more information on strawberries and preparation and recipes, visit RecipeTips.com. How you cut your strawberries depends on what you are going to be using them for. If you have a smaller strawberry and it is going to be used as a decorative strawberry, you may simply just want to cut the strawberry in half. Now if you are using strawberries for a sauce or something that needs to be blended, and you have larger strawberries, go a head and place the strawberry core side down on the cutting board and cut it in half and lay those halves down so you can cut them in quarters easily. To slice strawberries, place them core side down on to a cutting board. Starting on one side begin slicing through the strawberry as evenly as possible. For a faster and simpler way to cut strawberries, use an egg slicer. Open it up, place your strawberry into the egg slicer and gently press all the way through. You get nice evenly cut strawberries. To dice a strawberry, begin with slicing your strawberry in half, place the cut side down on a cutting board, then slice it into 4 pieces. Now if it is a larger strawberry, you may want to slice it into 6 pieces. Keep the slices together, turn it sideways, and cut the strawberry into smaller pieces. To mash strawberries, there are different tools that you can use. You can use a fork, a pastry blender, or potato masher. To begin with have your strawberries cleaned, stemmed, and quartered. To use a fork, grab a hold of the fork down low so that you have more leverage and just begin to mash the strawberries using the side of the bowl to press against it. Now remember that the more you mash them the easier it is going to get because the juices are going to start flowing from the strawberries to make it easier to mash. Just continue to go until you have it to the consistency you wish. The second way is with a pastry blender. You have the leverage from the handle which makes it a little bit easier. Just go a head and begin to mash the strawberries all together. The third way is with the potato masher. It works the same way as the pastry blender; just work the strawberries until you have them at the consistency you wish. Use whatever tool works best for you. I prefer the pastry blender. Just keep mashing your strawberries until you reach your desired consistency. Something else that works really good for this is a food processor but remember to only pulse a couple of times so you do not over process. For more information on strawberries and to learn how to cook and prepare other fruits, visit RecipeTips.com.


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More than a year after introducing a virtual assistant in its Messenger app, Facebook is launching M to the masses. While it was originally conceived as a bot that users would chat with, M now only offers a set of suggestions that are supposed to help with the conversation being carried out.
For example, when users are chatting about getting together for dinner, M will suggest that they create a shared plan that will remind them of the engagement as it approaches. The assistant will give them suggested stickers to react to conversational turns, along with prompts to transfer money, share location, start a poll, or get a ride from Uber or Lyft.
M uses machine learning to figure out when it should jump into a conversation by reading the chats between users. It's designed to help users get access to advanced features that make Messenger different from its competition, which may help keep users on Facebook's app rather than using others like WeChat, Line, and iMessage.
Having an artificial intelligence assistant that inserts itself into a conversation is nothing new for the land of chat applications like Facebook Messenger. Google has built its Assistant into Allo, the app that it created for consumer messaging.
If people aren't keen on a Facebook assistant "helpfully" inserting itself into a conversation, it's possible to turn the feature off. Any of M's suggestions can also be dismissed.
The suggestions will roll out to all Messenger users on iOS and Android in the U.S. on Thursday, with other countries coming in the future. Facebook plans to add additional artificial intelligence features to Messenger, too.


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It's official. There will be six questions on the state's November ballot: Five proposed amendments to the Michigan Constitution and one referendum on the state's emergency manager law. And, we're looking at some big battles here; we'll certainly see a whole lot of money pouring into these efforts to change state law. In this week's It's Just Politics we take a look at how these ballot questions just might work as vote-drivers.
It's a GOTV Kind of a Year
This year we have very few undecided voters – that group of anywhere from a third to even less than a quarter of the people that wait until the last minute to make up their minds. A lot of people don't vote at all – in Michigan, about 40 percent of registered voters don't actually make it to the polls. That's referring, however, to the presidential race. In a presidential election year that's the biggest driver that gets people out to vote. There's no doubt though that more people are still undecided about races and questions that are lower on the ballot. So, for many political strategists, the question becomes: what happens if you can somehow persuade some of those people to get out on Election Day?
Can Ballot Questions Get-Out-the-Vote?
Certainly, ballot questions are used to determine policy on issues. But they can also motivate people to get out and vote on issues they care about like same-sex marriage, affirmative action or abortion. This year, in Michigan, we have questions dealing with union rights and taxes. Democrats are pinning some of their electoral hopes on the Protect Our Jobs ballot question. The Protect Our Jobs proposal would guarantee bargaining rights, reverse a bunch of anti-union laws passed by the Legislature and Governor Snyder, and make sure there's no way lawmakers could pass a right-to-work law in Michigan.
The (Anti) Labor Vote
Last year, Ohio delivered a thumping to Republicans by reversing a law that strictly limited the union rights of public employees. Democrats, both statewide and nationally, looked at that and went, "Aha." Michigan is a traditionally union-friendly state, even if most workers are not in a union. There's hope on the part of Democrats that protecting collective bargaining rights might be enough to inspire some otherwise lackadaisical registered voters to actually become ballot-casters. However, there is not unanimity in the Democratic coalition about the wisdom of this approach. There's some question as to whether a ballot question will get any more people out than a hotly contested presidential race.
Be Careful What You Wish For
Though many union-supporters are ecstatic that the Protect Our Jobs proposal made it on the November ballot it does have some union folks worried – what happens if it fails in November? The scenario is this: Not only does the Protect Our Jobs question fail to inspire enough supporters to get out and vote, but the failure also clears the way – gives political permission, in other words - for the state Legislature to pass a right-to-work law. This exact reasoning has some conservative businesspeople actually happy the proposal survived its court challenge and is on the ballot. They're looking at labor and saying, "Be careful what you wish for."


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A brief statement from Georgiana Myers, a Yurok citizen and spokesperson for the Klamath Justice Coalition, delivered on July 21, 2010, after more than 300 people from 50 Indigenous Nations took control of the Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Blue Ribbon Task Force meeting in California. Klamath Media reports.
More than 50 tribal nations peacefully took control of the Marine Life Protection Act's Blue Ribbon Task Force meeting in California Wednesday. Their message: The state will no longer impose its will on indigenous people.
"This is about more than a fouled-up process that attempts to prohibit tribes from doing something they have done sustainably for thousands of years," said Frankie Joe Myers, a Yurok tribal citizen and organizer for the Coastal Justice Coalition. "It is about respect,acknowledgement and recognition of indigenous peoples' rights."
The group of more than 300 met up at 11a.m. on the Main Street of Fort Bragg, CA. and hiked up a half mile to the C.V. Star Community Center with a unified voice that pulsed: M-L-P-A Taking Tribal Rights Away! Just before heading into the meeting tribal community members standing twenty deep chanted "No Way M.L.P.A.!" to the Blue Ribbon Task Force Members waiting inside.
"The Blue Ribbon Task Force had given us no indication that they were listening to North Coast Tribes' call to respect our sovereignty," Dania Rose Colegrove, a Hoopa tribal citizen. "We felt that we needed show them a small symbol of what we are willing to do to pass on our culture to future generations."
The Marine Life Protection Act Initiative is a public and privately funded partnership between the State of California and a few deep-pocketed foundations — chiefly the Resources Legacy Fund to — implement the Marine Life Protection Act, which was signed into law in 1999. That Act calls for the creation of marine reserves with varying levels of protection from one end of the state to the other. The Blue Ribbon Task Force is charged with making recommendations to the California Fish and Game Commission of where to put the protected areas. To date, the Task Force has said it will view traditional tribal gathers in the same light as recreational fishermen, which is largely offensive to tribal people.
Citizens from tribal nations as far away as the Choktaw Nation attended the meeting to stand in solidarity with the North California Tribes. Many pointed out the absurdity and pain caused by asking Native Americans to give something else.
"Whether it is their intention or not, what the Marine Life Protection Act does to tribes is it systematically decimates our ability to be who we are," Myers said. "That is the definition cultural genocide."
Coastal indigenous people collect mussels, seaweed and other ocean resources for sustenance and ceremonial regalia. All of these resources were abundant until Europeans commercialized them.
"We should have had better immigration laws," tribal citizen and Air Force Veteran Wally Obie told the Blue Ribbon Task Force. "That's not funny."
This is the second time indigenous Californian's have halted Marine Life Protection Act Initiative meeting. On June 29, a smaller group interrupted the MLPAI's Science Advisory Team meeting in Eureka. Members of the Coastal Justice Coalition pointed out that there is no scientific data that says tribal gathering has any negative impact on the coastal ecosystem and the Act does nothing to stop pollution and off-shore drilling — the real threats to the ocean's productivity.
The Coastal Justice Coalition is a group of concerned tribal citizens and community members who came together to make sure indigenous peoples' right to gather on the coast is respected.
Media Contacts: Georgiana Myers, Coastal Justice Coalition: (707) 951-5548, firstname.lastname@example.com — Frankie Myers, Klamath Justice Coalition: (707) 951-5052, email@example.com
For background and more information, please visit klamathjustice.blogspot.com
Indigenous Peoples are putting their bodies on the line and it's our responsibility to make sure you know why. That takes time, expertise and resources - and we're up against a constant tide of misinformation and distorted coverage. By supporting IC you're empowering the kind of journalism we need, at the moment we need it most.


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Who ever walks away with the win after Saturday's showdown in South Bend between Notre Dame and USC, will have the chance to revive their season while the loser will likely fall of the map in college football.
The deep history between the schools brings more excitement to the game and will surely generate a high energy atmosphere around Notre Dame campus on game day. Expect the rivalry to be in full form with both coaches and players ready to do whatever it takes to capture this key victory.
ESPN reported that even Brian Kelly shared his anticipation for the matchup saying, "This is our game that we look forward to against USC. It's one that it's on our calendar as I don't want to say a red-letter game, but one that we look forward to. It's such a great matchup, great tradition, great history. It's part of the history of Notre Dame football that they really recognize as that one singular game."
USC recently fired their head coach Lane Kiffin after a disappointing loss to Arizona State, but interim coach Ed Oregon is no stranger to the history, as he explained, "When we first got here, the great USC coach, Marv Goux, sat down with me and Coach Carroll and told us about the importance of this game to the university, the fans, and of those great traditions that we still carry on."
Unfortunately for the Irish, the coaching change may have revitalized the Trojans. USC has elite talent on board and can compete with any team when playing well. Notre Dame's defense has to play smart and not let USC's speed lead to lengthy gains. USC's star wide receiver Marqise Lee might return from a knee injury and would provide a tough matchup for the Notre Dame secondary. The Irish defensive line will have to continue the physical play and get some pressure on quarterback Cody Kessler.
Notre Dame's offense has to keep striving to find a balance and not become reliant on Tommy Rees to win the game. Rees has had highs and lows this season, but is coming off a solid performance in the win over Arizona State. His quantity of in-game experience will be valuable to the Irish offense against USC. Notre Dame's running game is finally seeing some productivity as they rushed for 365-yards between the last two games. Another strong rushing attack will give the Irish more control over the game.
Notre Dame can't let themselves get caught up in the buzz around the game. A strong start will be crucial for a win. Coming out flat has hurt the Irish this year and giving USC an early lead would be too difficult to overcome. Any turnovers will have a huge impact on what should be a close game. Simple mental mistakes could turn out to be difference makers. The winner is going to be decided by who can execute their game plan more efficiently. Notre Dame has to stay focused while keeping up the intensity. The Fighting Irish should win this game but it will take a complete team effort.


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Windell of Evil Mad Scientist Labs got a copy of the new No Starch Press title "Forbidden LEGO." He explains the idea behind the book:
Forbidden Lego is written by a pair of Lego master builders, who used to work in designing advanced Lego sets (e.g., Mindstorms). While they obviously got to work on lots of cool things while they were there, there were certain projects that just turned out not to be suitable to be made into kits released by the Lego company. They wrote the book to give some kind of a tantalizing hint at the kinds of things that go on behind the scenes at Lego, and the kinds of neat things that might get released in a world without product liability suits.
To try out the projects in the book, he built the "High Velocity Automatic Lego Plate Dispenser," seen in the above video. He built it within a few hours of getting the book in the mail. His verdict on the book? "Yes, you want a copy."
Book Review (and build!): Forbidden Lego – Link
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I applaud the Supreme Court's decision to grant certiorari in King v. Burwell.
Since January, the Obama administration has been spending billions of unauthorized federal dollars, and subjecting nearly 60 million Americans to unauthorized taxes, all to hide the full cost of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, or ObamaCare. The administration's actions have not only violated the law and caused massive economic disruption, they have also subverted the democratic process. The plaintiffs in Pruitt v. Burwell, Halbig v. Burwell, King v. Burwell, and Indiana v. IRS seek to put an end to those unlawful taxes and spending.
The Supreme Court's decision is a rebuke to the Obama administration and its defenders, who dismissed as frivolous the plaintiffs' efforts to defend their right not to be taxed without congressional authorization.
It is essential that these cases receive expedited resolution, if only to eliminate the uncertainty currently facing states, employers, insurers, and taxpayers.
Most important, these cases deserve expedited consideration because only they can bring an end to the greatest domestic-policy scandal of this administration .
Click here for reference materials on these cases, including all court filings and judicial opinions. Click here for news and opinion coverage of these cases.


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Export 4 results:
Filters: Author is Xiaofeng Liu [Clear All Filters]
Prostate brachytherapy seed localization with Gaussian blurring and camera self-calibration.
Medical image computing and computer-assisted intervention (MICCAI). 11, 636–643. Lee2008a.pdf (217.92 KB)
(2008). Prostate Brachytherapy Seed Reconstruction with Gaussian Blurring and Optimal Coverage Cost.
IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging. na, na. Lee2009a.pdf (1.29 MB)
(2009). Prostate implant reconstruction with discrete tomography.
Medical image computing and computer-assisted intervention (MICCAI). 10, 734–742. Liu2007.pdf (615.02 KB)
(2007). Tomosynthesis-based radioactive seed localization in prostate brachytherapy using modified distance map images.
Procedings 5th IEEE International Symposium on Biomedical Imaging: From Nano to Macro ISBI 2008. 680–683. Lee2008.pdf (256.53 KB)


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To the Editor:
As the month of October wound down, so did American Pharmacists Month. Meanwhile, many high school seniors across America are beginning the process of applying to college. Perhaps you should consider applying to pharmacy school? The profession of pharmacy is a wonderful one. It is one in which you can have a direct impact on patients.
For example, you are the last link of the complex chain of health care professionals who are responsible for taking care of our sick and elderly. You are the care provider who patients can most easily access. You are the one who can talk the most to patients about the prescription drugs they will be putting into their bodies.
Lastly, and most importantly, you are the drug information specialist; you understand better than anyone else how the drugs work against diseases and the kinds of adverse effects they can have. As long as there is illness and prescriptions to fill, the pharmacy profession will always be around. The competition will be tough, but isn't it worth trying? Ask your guidance counselors, or maybe even better, ask your pharmacists about how they applied and where they studied. I am sure they will be thrilled you asked!
Most application deadlines are in December, so don't delay. All the best!
Toxicologist and Breast Cancer Researcher


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Over time a user will have several problems with Ubuntu as any other OS in the world. What tools and terminal commands exist in Ubuntu to help diagnose how the problem occurred and help solve it if it can be done.
Problems like:
- Ubuntu Freezes after X time or when using Y app
- Ubuntu rebooted/hibernated/suspended all by itself
- Ubuntu not showing video or video has problems
- Ubuntu not making any sound or sound has problems
- Ubuntu not reading X drive (Pen drive, Internal Drive, External Drive…)
- Ubuntu slow
- Ubuntu not working with X hardware when connected
- Ubuntu network problem
Normally there is a couple of GUI tools or Terminal commands that Ubuntu experts typically mention first to use to do a first diagnosis of this. What GUI tools (in case the problem is not related to video or limits the user from using the GUI) and Terminal commands (In case GUI is not working) can a user use to diagnose and help himself to how to find/fix the problem.


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This article is more than 1 year old
Anti-Israel hackers leak nuclear watchdog email addresses
Demand investigation of Israeli nuke site, or else
The UN's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has admitted to suffering a data breach that leaked the email addresses of more than 150 people allegedly involved with Israel's nuclear weapons program.
A hitherto-unknown hacker group calling itself Parastoo claimed responsibility for the breach in a statement released to Pastebin on Tuesday, saying, "You will be hearing game changing news from us frequently from now on."
"Parastoo" is a Farsi word meaning "swallow" – as in the bird – and it's also a fairly common Persian girls' name. Both facts suggest Iranian involvement with the hack, although Iran is not specifically mentioned in the group's statement.
The statement, written in wobbly English and typed in all caps, focuses on Israel's nuclear program, and in particular the "activities at Dimona." Dimona is an Israeli city that is the site of the Negev Nuclear Research Center, a top-secret facility that is widely believed to be involved in the manufacture of nuclear weapons.
"Israel owns a practical nuclear arsenal, tied to a growing military body and it is not a member of internationally respected nuclear, biochemical and chemical agreements," Parastoo's statement reads.
Israel itself has never officially admitted to having nuclear weapons, choosing instead to maintain a policy of deliberate ambiguity on the issue, but it is believed to have had an operational nuclear arms capability since as early as 1967. It also has not signed the international Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Parastoo's statement goes on to list 167 email addresses that the group claims to have extracted from a server at an IP address owned by the IAEA in Vienna, followed by a threat:
We ask these individuals to sign a petition demanding an open IAEA investigation into activities at Dimona. We would like to assert that we have evidences showing there are beyond-harmful operations taking place at this site and the above list who technically help IAEA could be considered a partner in crime should an accident happen there. In such case, many people would like to at least ask some questions and Parastoo will publish whereabouts of every single one of these individuals alongside with bits of helpful personal and professional details.
The group closed its statement with a variation on Anonymous' well-known catchphrase, reworked as another veiled threat against the individuals whose personal information it has obtained: "You are not anonymous. Expect us."
If Parastoo is in fact an Iranian group, its activities could be seen as a primitive form of payback. Iran's own nuclear program has been hampered by repeated cyber-attacks in recent months, with the US and Israel widely considered to be the culprits. While those incidents involved sophisticated malware, however, the IAEA leak appears to be the result of a bog-standard web exploit.
For its part, the IAEA appears to be taking the incident in stride. On Tuesday, Reuters reported IAEA spokeswoman Gill Tudor as saying the agency "deeply regrets" the leak, but that the information disclosed was taken from "an old server that was shut down some time ago."
"The IAEA's technical and security teams are continuing to analyze the situation and do everything possible to help ensure that no further information is vulnerable," Tudor said. ®


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Today's Monday Memories is brought to you by FIRSTS. First loves, first kisses, first free ride in a police car, first meteor shower…you know…whatever you want as long as it's a first.
In honor of the Lyrid Meteor Shower this weekend/last night/this morning/whatever, I'd like to take a moment to remember my very first (and I think only…) meteor shower.
I was in college. A sophomore. In a city. In the middle of Cornfield, IL. And there was going to be a meteor shower. Like every quasi-teen-girl in the history of ever, the idea of watching a crap load of shooting stars is ridiculously romanticized. Especially when the girl in question has a ridiculous crush on one of her dude friends. One of her dude friends who suggests an evening of meteor gazing.
OBVIOUSLY this was fate calling.
Except that we were a part of a fearsome threesome (Get that dirty image out of your minds, blog friends. Not THAT kind of threesome. Just FRIENDS. UGH. It's like you don't even know me.)
And so we made a plan. Robert, Cletus and I would venture out to the cornfields to watch the stars fly. I was so excited I thought I might pee myself. (Not really; that's gross. It's just an EXPRESSION, guys.)
Except that much like this weekend, it was FUCKING cold out. (Don't even get me started on the torrential flooding rains turned snowy icy death pellets two days later.) So we stayed up all night with a South Park marathon and left in the wee hours of the morning to watch the shower of meteors. After packing a comforter and some folding chairs, we were set.
We drove to the middle of nowhere, "parked" the car, and set up the chairs. In the middle of a dark two lane highway in the cornfields. And watched the stars. And it was GLORIOUS. For 5 whole minutes. Before both Cletus and Robert gave the fuck up. 5 minutes of stars and those whiny bitches were DONE?!? (I mean that with the utmost sincerity of love for my pals). I sat out there shivering for another 15 minutes before they made me pack up and get into the car.
I watched the stars out the window all the way back to Peoria in awe. This were some amazingly beautiful performance put on by the galaxy. And I wanted to soak it all in.
But the romanticized part about stargazing with one's crush? Fucking ridiculous. That shit should be shared with EVERYONE. Except that now that I'm nearing 30, I'm old and cranky and can't bear to think of waking up before 6:15 in the morning. Or going to bed after 11:30 at night. So no stars for me this week. But to all you stargazers out there, I'm with you in my mind.
Go visit Lily at It's a Dome Life for more Monday Memories! If you'd like to join us next week, our topic is going to be: "Write about something you collected as a child."


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TechRadar Verdict
USB 3.0 is already starting to show signs of promise. As soon as SSDs become commonplace, USB 3.0 will be too
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USB 3.0 and SATA 6Gbps
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Good transfer speeds
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Core i7 support
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Needs SSD drives for maximum performance
Why you can trust TechRadar
You may have noticed that Intel has a new 'Rock Stars' marketing campaign on the go. It features product engineers who have a major impact on our computing lives but are largely unheralded in wider society. To Intel, these people are rock stars.
The first instalment features Ajay Bhatt, co-inventor of the USB interface. And one can understand why Intel chose to kick off with USB. It's the ultimate invisible technology, incredibly useful and successful to the point of utter ubiquity. However, it does have its limitations.
Speeding up life
Over the last year, one such limitation has been bandwidth. With ever faster solid state drives appearing on a seemingly daily basis, it's becoming obvious that USB needs a refresh.
For instance, the gap between drive performance via USB and that of a dedicated storage I/O such as SATA is enormous. Fortunately, there's a solution in hand with the arrival of new standard USB 3.0.
The big news, of course, is increased data rates. USB 3.0 ups the ante to a quite astonishing 4.8Gbps. To put that figure into context, the USB 1.0 specification allowed for just 1.5Mbps. That grew to 12Mbps with USB 1.1 and then to 480Mbps with the arrival of 2.0.
Crucially, backward compatibility was maintained throughout. However, real-world USB data rates tend to be rather less than the advertised maximum.
USB 2.0 peripherals, for instance, have a theoretical maximum of 60MB/s but rarely breach 35MB/s in practice. Nevertheless, if USB 3.0 can deliver 300MB/s or more, that will be enough to do justice to even the fastest SSDs for some time to come.
Indeed, to understand just how big an impact USB 3.0 will have, consider this. Currently, backing up a 1TB hard disk via USB consumes around five hours. With USB 3.0, it should be possible in around 30 minutes. That's the difference between squeezing your backups in at the end of the day and the need for careful planning.
Our first taste of USB 3.0 comes courtesy of Asus' 7P55D-E Pro, an updated version of its popular Intel P55 motherboard that's compatible with Core i5 and Core i7 processors in LGA 1,156 trim.
USB 3.0 support is achieved via NEC's 720200 – a dedicated controller that connects to the P55's PCH chip via PCI Express. The kicker is that the 7P55D-E Pro also packs a SATA 6Gbps I/O interface.
Combined with USB 3.0, this gives you every chance of maximising drive-todrive performance.
Time to upgrade?
Exciting stuff, but as ever, there are a few caveats. Importantly, performance will only be as good as the drives you use. There's little point in upgrading to USB 3.0 while retaining ancient hard disks.
Also remember that you'll need an end-to-end solution. In other words, both your PC and the plug-in peripheral in question must fully support USB 3.0. Currently, that can be difficult to achieve due to the scarcity of hardware.It's very early days for the technology.
The final part of our test package is an Asus USB drive enclosure that again combines an external USB 3.0 interface with internal SATA 6Gbps I/O. It's an early engineering sample rather than a fully finalised product, but in performance terms it's representative of what you can expect.
All of which leaves the most important question of all. Does USB 3.0 deliver?
With a conventional magnetic disk installed, we measured sustained read and write rates of around 100MB/s. That's very much in line with the maximum performance of the hard drive itself and further underlines the importance of underlying disk or SSD performance for USB 3.0.
Handily, the 7P55D-E Pro board sports both USB 3.0 and legacy 2.0 ports, allowing a direct comparison to be made. With the same drive and enclosure connected via USB 2.0, the read/ write rates dropped to 30MB/s and 25MB/s respectively.
Even with a conventional magnetic hard drive, therefore, USB 3.0 delivers over three times the throughput of USB 2.0. Drop a speedy SSD into the enclosure and performance will only improve.
Follow TechRadar Reviews on Twitter: http://twitter.com/techradarreview


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7:30 pm,
January 29, 2013
Rieth Recital Hall
Visiting Artist: Kwiran Lee Piano
Born in Seoul, Korea, pianist Kwiran Lee has toured as a soloist and chamber musician. She studied piano at the Ewha Womans University under Young-Lim Ham and proceeded to win numerous prizes and awards. In 1995 she moved to the United States to study at the Eastman School of Music. She completed her Doctor of Musical Arts under Rebecca Penneys. While still a student, Kwiran Lee performed for the Flaine Musique in France, the Sejong Arts Center in Korea, the Classic Live Conerts Series on WBFO in Buffalo, New York.
In 2002 she moved to New Zealand and worked as soloist and accompanist. She has performed at the Great Hall of the Arts Centre in Christchurch, Music Centre, Rangiora Music Hall, Akaroa Music Festival Hall and many other places. As a chamber musician she has performed with Jan Tawroszewicz, Edith Salzmann, Mario de Secondi and Anatoly Zelinsky.
In 2006 Kwiran returned to her native country Korea and has given recitals of important Korean music halls such as Seoul Arts Center, Kumho Arts Center, Youngsan Art Hall and Sungnam Art Center. She performed premieres of number of important contemporary Korean works for piano by Kyung-Ja Kim and Okmi Han. Kwiran has been teaching at the Ewha Womans University since 2006.
Contact: Music Department, phone (574) 535-7361, email email@example.com
See also: Goshen College Music Department


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Nigerian security forces had advance warning that 329 Nigerian schoolgirls would be kidnapped from Chibok and failed to act, according to disturbing findings by Amnesty International.
RELATED: First Lady Delivers President's Weekly Address, Discusses Abducted Nigerian Girls [VIDEO]
After conducting multiple interviews and independently verifying information, it has been determined that the military had more than 4 hours to act but they did nothing as the armed men headed towards the school.
"The fact that Nigerian security forces knew about Boko Haram's impending raid, but failed to take the immediate action needed to stop it, will only amplify the national and international outcry at this horrific crime," said Netsanet Belay, Amnesty International's Africa Director, Research and Advocacy.
"It amounts to a gross dereliction of Nigeria's duty to protect civilians, who remain sitting ducks for such attacks. The Nigerian leadership must now use all lawful means at their disposal to secure the girls' safe release and ensure nothing like this can happen again."
Read more from Amnesty International:
Amnesty International has confirmed through various sources that Nigeria's military headquarters in Maiduguri was aware of the impending attack soon after 7:00 PM on 14 April, close to four hours before Boko Haram began their assault on the town.
But an inability to muster troops – due to poor resources and a reported fear of engaging with the often better-equipped armed groups – meant that reinforcements were not deployed to Chibok that night. The small contingent of security forces based in the town – 17 army personnel as well as local police –attempted to repel the Boko Haram assault but were overpowered and forced to retreat. One soldier reportedly died.
Warnings ignored
Between 7:00 PM on 14 April and 2:00 AM on 15 April, the military commands in Damboa, 36.5 km away from Chibok, and Maiduguri, 130 km away from Chibok, were repeatedly alerted to the threat by both security and local officials.
According to sources interviewed by Amnesty International, local civilian patrols (known as "vigilantes", set up by the military and local authorities) in Gagilam, a neighbouring village, were among the first to raise the alarm on the evening of 14 April after a large group of unidentified armed men entered their village on motorbikes and said they were headed to Chibok. This set off a rapid chain of phone calls to alert officials, including the Borno State Governor and senior military commanders based in Maiduguri.
One local official who was contacted by Gagilam residents told Amnesty International: "At around 10:00 PM on 14 April, I called [several] security officers to inform them about earlier information I had received from the vigilantes in Gagilam village. They had told us that strange people had arrived in their village that evening on motorbikes and they said they were heading to Chibok. I made several other calls, including to Maiduguri. I was promised by the security people that reinforcement were on their way."
Another local official was contacted by herdsmen who said that armed men had asked where the Government Girls Secondary School was located in Chibok.
At around 11:45 PM, a convoy reportedly numbering up to 200 armed Boko Haram fighters – on motorbikes and in trucks – arrived in Chibok town and engaged in a gunfight with a small number of police and soldiers based there. Outnumbered and outgunned, the security forces eventually fled in the small hours of 15 April. Some of the Boko Haram fighters proceeded to the Government Girls Secondary School and abducted more than 240 schoolgirls.
Two senior officers in Nigeria's armed forces confirmed that the military was aware of the planned attack even prior to the calls received from local officials. One officer said the commander was unable to mobilize reinforcements. He described to Amnesty International the difficulties faced by frontline soldiers in north-eastern Nigeria:
"There's a lot of frustration, exhaustion and fatigue among officers and [troops] based in the hotspots…many soldiers are afraid to go to the battle fronts."
Local officials and two senior military officers interviewed by Amnesty International confirmed the advance warning. The sources verified a list of Nigerian officials who were alerted on the day of the attack — before and during the raid on the Government Girls Secondary School.
They have been kept anonymous for their safety.
Amnesty International: Nigeria Had Advance Warning Of Schoolgirls Abduction was originally published on newsone.com


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To be linked up to huge database of travelers through boarding passes
Steve Watson
Prison Planet
In addition to full body scanners and enhanced grope downs, the latest big brother nightmare to hit airports comes in the form of biometric facial recognition cameras, set to be rolled out in terminals at London's Heathrow Airport in September.
After an eighteen month trial, the Aurora Imaging Recognition (AIR) biometric system with enhanced image infrared cameras has been approved for use in the airport at terminals 1 and 5, reports the London Evening Standard.
Heathrow Skyport describes the process that travelers will have to undergo after the system is adopted:
"Passengers are enrolled into the system and the biometric photo is linked with the boarding pass number on entry into the common user lounge, otherwise known as the departure lounge, at the first security check point.
Each passenger is then verified against their previous enrolment when the airside area before heading towards their departure gate.
It has the ability to identify people from a distance of 40cm to one metre, meaning that personal space is not imposed upon, and has been designed for people of different heights, including wheelchair users and children."
Tests conducted by the independent airport operator BAA and the UK Border Agency found that each face scan takes approximately 4-5 seconds.
There is no indication that anyone will be allowed to opt out of the procedure, meaning that for all travelers it will be compulsory to have a face scan and be added to the database in order to fly out of the terminal.
The justification for the system is to prevent passengers swapping tickets in the departure lounge, potentially allowing an international passenger to fly domestically, thus bypassing immigration checks.
The operators also say that the system will "help identify potential terrorists", however it is not clear how this is possible given that they also claim that all data collected will be stored for up to 24 hours and then destroyed.
It is exactly this kind of loose justification and the bandying about of the word "terrorism" to sell nothing more than pure security theatre that has led to such a rampant backlash against the TSA takeover in the US.
The British government has been moving toward the use of such systems for some time. Three years ago we reported that passport control officers at UK airports were to be phased out in favour of the biometric cameras.
It was then revealed two months later that Interpol, the International Criminal Police Organization, wishes to integrate a facial database with its already existing fingerprint and DNA databases.
The organization, is planning to expand its role into the mass screening of passengers moving around the world by creating a face recognition database to catch wanted suspects, reported the London Guardian at the time.
Such a database will hold the records of every citizen who has ever traveled in and out of virtually every country in the world, representing intelligence agency style bulk interception of information.
We have previously noted that the vast array of databases currently being employed by intelligence agencies, government and law enforcement agencies worldwide were designed to be linked together in a system which will tie in the management and control of all facets of life for citizens to one central hub.
2008 saw the announcement of a vast intelligence program to establish a global biometric database known as "Server in the Sky" that will collate and provide an " International Information Consortium" with access to the biometric measurements and personal information of citizens across the globe in the name of fighting the "war on terror".
As reported by the London Guardian, the long term plan is being formulated by the FBI with the cooperation of the home offices and law enforcement agencies of American allies. The technology is being supplied by the US defense company Northrop Grumman.
Furthermore, the use of such technology, as we have already seen, will not be limited to the passport control office.
A 2007 British government report muted an extensive upgrade to cctv systems all across the country to incorporate facial scanning technology. The report suggested a central database of every camera and a network allowing access to it could be beneficial.
In the US there are several schemes that use Facial Recognition Technology in conjunction with Federal agencies, tying the technology to traditional documents such as drivers licenses, passports and credit cards.
A biometric face recognition system has already been approved in China and is expected to be used at airports, customs entrances, banks, post offices, residential areas and other public places in the near future.
Other proposals include placing the cameras in every seat on aircraft and installing software to try and automatically detect terrorists or other dangers caused by passengers.
We are assured that cigarette vending machines will employ the technology in order to enforce smoking laws. Similarly, supermarkets in the UK have already started trialing the technology with the justification being a crackdown on underage drinking.
In Japan facial scanning cameras are being installed in train and bus stations to replace tickets in a move to make the individual features of the face a "unique bar code" as part of an antiterrorism and anticrime initiative.
Police in Tokyo are also asking home and shop owners to mount the cameras outside their properties. "Police investigating an incident in the neighborhood would have access to these images." according to reports.
Cell phones and computers are now also being produced with face scanning cameras, and even facebook has now integrated facial recognition software.
The prospect of the technology being so widely used was recently even criticized by Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt. A prominent Bilderberger and a man who once said that internet users should have no expectation of privacy, Schmidt said "Show us 14 photos of yourself and we can identify who you are," before warning governments of adopting any "foolish" legislation that would see facial recognition technology become a part of everyday life.
Steve Watson is the London based writer and editor for Alex Jones' Infowars.net, and Prisonplanet.com. He has a Masters Degree in International Relations from the School of Politics at The University of Nottingham in England.
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With every get-out-the-vote campaign, every shutdown of a major sport, every detailed list of actions by athletes demanding change, one new reality comes into sharper focus: The days of "shut up and play" are winding down.
This summer of police shootings of Black people — the aftershocks exacerbated by a coronavirus pandemic that has upended life everywhere — has emboldened athletes to draw on the platform they've long commanded.
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One big difference between now and even a year ago is that there's less indecisiveness on how hard those athletes will press the issues. And to some, the odds seem greater, this time, that what the athletes are calling for might actually come to pass.
"None of us are politicians," said NFL veteran Marcedes Lewis, an outspoken tight end who plays for Green Bay, which is in the same state where Jacob Blake was shot in the back by police last Sunday. "We get paid to go out there and play and do our job. At the same time, wrong is wrong and right is right. It's encouraging to see guys stepping up."
In tennis, golf, hockey, baseball, basketball, soccer and football, there have been gestures big and small, and in ways once unimaginable.
Nine NFL teams canceled practices on Thursday — a notable break from routine for a league that still has not found a job for Super Bowl quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who kneeled on the sideline during the national anthem to protest racial injustice. The police shooting of Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin, came four years to the day after Kaepernick's first protest.
The Baltimore Ravens, in a posting that went viral, put out a statement with a seven-point plan of action to help combat systemic racism in the U.S.
"If you're not trying to lead this world, lead this earth with making a positive impact, what are you here for?" receiver DJ Chark Jr. of the Jacksonville Jaguars said. "Whether it's sports that gives you the platform, whether it's music, entertainment, whatever it is. If you have a voice, I think if you're contributing to something that is going to help, something that is positive, I think you should use it."
NBA players spearheaded the latest flurry of activity, when the Milwaukee Bucks refused to take the court following Blake's shooting. That led to serious consideration of canceling the season altogether. Such a move was avoided in part because of the counsel of former President Barack Obama and input from Michael Jordan. According to an ESPN report, the NBA great and Charlotte Hornets owner asked players to consider that their voices would be better heard on the court than off it.
"We understand how strong our voice is, how powerful our voice is and ultimately we decided if we go away from this stage we don't necessarily have that same platform so we stood in solidarity," said Chris Paul, the Oklahoma City Thunder guard and president of the players' union.
Obama advised the players and league to establish a social justice coalition, made up of players, coaches and owners, that will focus on voting raccess and police and criminal justice reform. Some teams are making plans to allow their arenas to serve as polling places for November's election.
All this stands in stark contrast from the predominant attitude of athletes during Jordan's prime — an attitude Jordan himself embodied. During a Senate race in his home state of North Carolina, Jordan was reluctant to use his star power to endorse Harvey Gantt, the African American Democrat running against Jesse Helms. "Republicans buy sneakers, too," was Jordan's now-famous quote. It still resonates today, if only because it is becoming the antithesis of what current NBA stars are doing.
This month, Steph Curry was given speaking time at the Democratic National Convention to endorse Joe Biden for president.
LeBron James has created " More Than A Vote," a website designed to urge Black people to vote and to root out Black voter suppression. Among the more than four dozen Black athletes who are part of the cause are Super Bowl MVP Patrick Mahomes and Olympic champion sprinter Allyson Felix.
"It's a start. The players are pressuring the owners in the only language they understand — the money," said 30-year-old Jahreem Edwards, a Black resident of Washington who attended the March on Washington on Friday. "LeBron James has 70 million Instagram followers. That's power. That's just about as much power as any Black man in America."
But 61-year-old Robert Norris, another Black resident of Washington who attended the march, thinks players need to go even bigger.
"It means something to me if they completely shut down every sport," he said. "Black athletes and celebrities have not been fully welding their power. It has to be across the board. It has to be as systemic as the racism is."
The Olympic world that Felix inhabits has been among the slowest to heed the call for changes despite commanding the attention of huge swaths of the globe's population every two years.
The movement that gave rise to some of the most notable civil rights protesters in any venue — Muhammad Ali, and Tommie Smith and John Carlos — is still studying the idea of relaxing its rule that forbids protests on the medals stand. It is taking heat from across the globe, but especially from the U.S. On Friday, American athletes held the first meeting of a newly formed council on racial and social justice to tackle the issues at the Olympic level.
Given the glacial pace at which attitudes shift at the Olympic level, a council designed to tackle these issues looks a lot like progress. More concrete and fast-moving are the moves in the NBA, NFL and other American pro sports, where a growing number of players are less conflicted about calling off games, calling for action and, in short, using their platform for change.
How big an impact will it all have?
"It's those ripple effects," said Jeremy Jones, founder of Protect Our Winters, an athlete-driven environmental group that is spearheading its own voting project this year. "And when you say, "Do you think it's starting to make a difference?′ I think in a lot of ways, we'll look back at this time and say that this was a turning point."
Associated Press reporters Ashraf Khalil and Julie Pace in Washington, Brian Mahoney in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, and Mark Long in Jacksonville, Florida contributed to this report.


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Inside Chronic Pain
"With Lous Heshusius as a guide, pain patients can learn much about the perils of a modern health-care odyssey. Health professionals can learn how an articulate middle-class female white patient thinks (with all that thinking entails) when her world is irreversibly altered by pain. She does not promise happy endings. Chronic pain is like that. From the rare intersection in this text between patient narrative and physician response, however, readers may construct a dialogue on pain in our time that cannot fail to bring plentiful opportunities for personal insight and professional enlightenment."–from the Foreword by David B. Morris
Chronic pain, which affects 70 million people in the United States alone–more than diabetes, cancer, and heart disease combined–is a major public health issue that remains poorly understood both within the health care system and by those closest to the people it afflicts. This book examines the experience of pain in ways that could significantly improve how patients and practitioners deal with pain. It is the first volume of a new collection of titles within the acclaimed Culture and Politics of Health Care Work series called How Patients Think, intended to give voice to the concerns of patients about their own medical care and the formulation of health policy.
Since surviving a near-fatal car accident, Lous Heshusius has suffered from chronic pain for more than a decade, forcing her to give up her career as a professor of education. Inside Chronic Pain, based in part on the pain journal Heshusius keeps, is a stunning memoir of a life lived in constant pain as well as an insightful and often critical account of the inadequacies of the health care system–from physicians to hospitals and health insurance companies–to understand chronic pain and treat those who suffer from it. Through her own frequently frustrating experiences, she shows how health care providers often ignore, deny, or incorrectly treat chronic pain at immense cost to both the patient and the health care system. She also offers cogent suggestions on improving the quality and outcome of chronic pain care and management, using her encounters with exceptional medical professionals as models.
Inside Chronic Pain deals with pain's dramatic and destructive effects on one's sense of self and identity. It chronicles the chaos that takes place, the paralyzing effect of severe pain, the changes in personality that ensue, and the corrosive effects of severe pain on the ability to attend to day-to-day tasks. It describes how one's social life falls apart and isolation takes over. It also relates moments of happiness and beauty and describes how rooting the self in the present is crucial in managing pain.
A unique feature of Inside Chronic Pain is the clinical commentary by Dr. Scott M. Fishman, president of the American Pain Foundation. Fishman has long tried to improve the lives of patients like Heshusius. His medical perspective on her very human narrative will help physicians and other clinicians better understand and treat patients with chronic pain.
Author: Heshusius, Lous, Foreword by: Morris, David B, Commentaries by: Fishman, Scott M
Topic: Medical / Nursing
Media: Book
Language: English
Pages: 167
Additional information
Weight | 0.93 lbs |
Dimensions | 9.12 × 6.36 × 0.74 in |
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text:
WAMU lays off staff, shuts down DCist
Management shared a "new strategic framework" with staff Friday.
Current (https://current.org/current-mentioned-sources/glynn-washington/)
Management shared a "new strategic framework" with staff Friday.
The multimedia platform initiative Firsthand responds to a "critical moment" in efforts to address housing insecurity in Chicago.
Hastings, who has been EP of World since 2012, added editor-in-chief to his title.
The grant will help the program expand to YouTube and add a daily podcast.
Edwards was "one of the great voices and talents of this network's history," NPR CEO John Lansing said.
In the latest CDP Index, medium-sized stations had the strongest performance in high-dollar gifts, with 1.9% growth.
Station leaders from KOSU and WKAR were seated on NPR's board of directors.
Lopez-Galvan was co-host of the music program "Taste of Tejano."
A Kansas Senate committee voted Wednesday to rescind a cut to the state's funding for public TV.
McConnell was most recently director of strategic partnerships at People First Federal Credit Union.
New tools like DALL-E and Midjourney have their pros and cons. Our guide breaks them down for you and shows how each generator interpreted sample prompts.


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The Sanger Police Department's Patrol Division is responsible for daily patrols, interactions with the public and the response to calls for service 24 hours, 7 days a week.
Patrol officers are responsible for patrolling the City in three policing beats which divide the City of Sanger. Patrol's primary responsibility is the enforcement of laws, preliminary investigations, and a strong presence within the City.


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Glasgow Haskell is a changing system so there are sure to be bugs in it.
To report a bug, either:
Preferred: Create a new bug, and enter your bug report. You can also search the bug database here to make sure your bug hasn't already been reported (if it has, it might still help to add information from your experience to the existing report).
Bug reports can also be emailed to
Take a look at the FAQ and Chapter 9, What to do when something goes wrong, which will give you some guidance as to whether the behaviour you're seeing is really a bug or not.
If it is a bug, then it might have been reported before: try searching on the bug tracker, and failing that, try Google.
If in doubt, just report it.
The name of the bug-reporting game is: facts, facts, facts. Don't omit them because "Oh, they won't be interested…"
What kind of machine are you running on, and exactly what version of the operating system are you using? (on a Unix system, uname -a or cat /etc/motd will show the desired information.) In the bug tracker, this information can be given in the "Architecture" and "Operating system" fields.
What version of GCC are you using? gcc -v will tell you.
Run the sequence of compiles/runs that caused the offending behaviour, cut-and-paste the whole session into the bug report. We'd prefer to see the whole thing.
Add the -v flag when running GHC, so we can see exactly what was run, what versions of things you have, etc.
What is the program behaviour that is wrong, in your opinion?
If practical, please attach or send enough source files for us to duplicate the problem.
If you are a Hero and track down the problem in the
compilation-system sources, please send us patches (either
darcs send
, plain patches, or just whole
files if you prefer).


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Riding past the GSD Saturday, I did a double take, and had to pull over to study these wheels!
That's a LOT of spokes. Yes, I counted them (feeling a bit foolish squatting on the sidewalk), and there are 70 pair, or 140 spokes per wheel!!!!
Kludgy typeface, but I think it says "Stronger" While theoretically more spokes make a stronger wheel, I've got to believe that at some point the rim becomes weakened by all the holes, so it must be done for looks.
The photo didn't come out, but the "bike shop sticker" was all in asian characters. That and the rear wheel lock make me think that this is a foreign student's bike imported from home.


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Margin Methodology
Risk exposure is a focal point of vital importance for all international markets and clearing organizations. As world financial derivatives markets expand and counterparty credit risk increases in size and complexity, an organization's ability to assess its exposure to credit risk has become even more critical. OCC's System for Theoretical Analysis and Numerical Simulations ("STANS") provides a sophisticated risk assessment capability.
OCC is the first derivatives clearinghouse in the world to use a large-scale Monte Carlo-based risk management methodology. The STANS methodology is used to measure the exposure of portfolios of options, futures and cash instruments cleared and carried by OCC on behalf of its clearing member firms ("CMs"). STANS allows clearing institutions to measure, monitor and manage the level of risk exposure of their members' portfolios.
1. Introduction
This page offers an overview of OCC's margin methodology. Section 2 describes the general features of the methodology. Section 3 adds an explanation of the basis upon which CMs can make intraday withdrawals of excess margin or substitute one collateral asset for another.
2. General Features
OCC applies margin requirements on a daily basis to each account maintained at OCC by its CMs. Intraday calls for additional margin may be made on accounts incurring significant losses.
Under the STANS methodology, which went into effect in August 2006, the daily margin calculation for each account is based on full portfolio1 Monte Carlo simulations and - as set out in more detail below - is constructed conservatively to ensure a very high level of assurance that the overall value of cleared products in the account, plus collateral posted to meet margin requirements, will not be appreciably negative at a two-day horizon.
Until February 2010, securities posted as collateral were not included in the Monte Carlo simulations, but were subjected to traditional "haircuts." Since then, the "collateral in margins" scheme has taken effect, whereby some collateral securities - specifically equity securities - have instead been included in the Monte Carlo simulations. Thus, the margin calculations now reflect the scope for price movements in these forms of collateral to exacerbate or mitigate losses on the cleared products on the account.
The Monte Carlo simulations are based on econometric models of the joint behavior of the risk factors affecting values of CM accounts at OCC. The majority of risk factors pertain to the prices and option-implied volatilities of individual equity securities. The modeling of each risk factor allows for volatility clustering and fat-tailed innovations. The joint behavior is addressed by combining the marginal behaviors of individual risk factors by means of a copula function that takes account of correlations and allows for tail-dependence.
The Monte Carlo simulations use, for the volatility of each risk factor, the greater of the short-term level predicted by the model and an estimate of its longer-run level.
The base component of the margin requirement for each account is obtained from the risk measure known as 99% Expected Shortfall. That is to say, the account has a base margin excess (deficit) if its positions in cleared products, plus all existing collateral - whether of types included in the Monte Carlo simulation or of types subjected to traditional "haircuts" - would have a positive (negative) net worth after incurring a loss equal to the average of all losses beyond the 99% VaR point.
The base component is adjusted by the addition of a stress test component. The stress test component is obtained from consideration of the increases in Expected Shortfall that would arise from market movements that are especially large and/or in which various kinds of risk factor exhibit perfect or zero correlations in place of their correlations estimated from historical data, or from extreme adverse idiosyncratic movements in individual risk factors to which the account is particularly exposed.
Brief technical details concerning the base and stress components are provided in the Appendix. Several other components of the overall margin requirement exist, but are typically considerably smaller than the base and stress test components, and many of them affect only a minority of accounts. CMs on elevated Watch Levels as specified in OCC rules may be subject to additional margin requirements.
3. Intraday Withdrawal and Deposits of Collateral
A CM may make intraday withdrawals of excess collateral on an account, and/or deposit fresh collateral assets in place of others.
For collateral types that are subject to a traditional "haircut," the impact of a withdrawal or deposit upon the margin excess incorporates the "haircut."
For collateral types that are subject to "collateral in margins" treatment, the impact of a withdrawal or deposit is based upon a "portfolio specific haircut" (PSH) that is communicated to the applicable CM concerned on a daily basis. The PSH represents the sensitivity of the risk profile of that particular account to its position in the relevant security. In other words, the PSH applicable to any given movement of collateral is designed to provide an estimate of the resulting change in margin requirements if the entire margin calculation was recalculated following the movement.
The base component corresponds to the Expected Shortfall (ES) of the portfolio computed at a 99% confidence level using historical estimates of correlations between risk factors:
The stress test component is whichever is the greater of two sub-components called Dependence and Concentration.
The Dependence sub-component can be thought of as a proportion of the extra risk that would arise if we go further out into the tail of the P&L distribution and consider the effects of replacing historical estimates of dependence between single-stock returns with either perfect correlation or zero correlation. ES is computed at a 99.5% confidence levels for each of the historic, perfect and independent correlation assumptions. The Dependence sub-component equals a proportion of the difference between the maximum of the three computations and the base risk requirement:
The Concentration sub-component can be thought of as a proportion of the extra risk that would arise from extreme adverse idiosyncratic moves in two risk-factors to which the portfolio is especially exposed2, coupled with marginally less severe experience in the remainder of the portfolio. ES is computed at a 99.5% confidence level for each of the two single-factor sub-portfolios having the greatest exposure at that level, and those two results are added to the ES of the residual portfolio computed at a 99% confidence level. The Concentration component is a proportion of the amount by which this sum exceeds the base component:
In order to maintain a conservative approach, all calculations of ES are computed using techniques from Extreme Value Theory, and the results are increased to take account of an estimate of the sampling error than arises in the Monte Carlo sample.
1 Long option positions held in customer accounts of CMs, and not part of various designated spread positions, are excluded altogether from OCC margin calculations for investor protection reasons. The effect of the exclusion is that the value of such options does not get used to collateralize other customers' short positions.
2 The single-factor sub-portfolios consist of all positions (options, stock loans, futures etc.) corresponding to one single risk factor. Not all risk factors are considered when selecting these risk factors: for instance positions pertaining to indices are excluded. This reflects the capture only of idiosyncratic risks in this test. If a portfolio contains exposure to less than two sources of idiosyncratic risk, then the formula is adapted in the obvious way.