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Guided Walking Tour : Bordeaux must sees
Bordeaux Centre
What should not be missed about Bordeaux? 3 hours walk around the unmissable monuments and highlights of Bordeaux city to discover the main monuments and understand the major stages of the city's history.
What to visit in Bordeaux?
You won't have missed it: Bordeaux has become a leading destination in recent years. Incensed by the press and nominated as the place to travel to by various tourist guides such as the Lonely Planet, the "Port of the Moon" must absolutely appear on the list of your next visits!
Bordeaux is a beautiful city that has changed significantly over the last 15 years thanks to a strong political will behind this metamorphosis. Did you know that? Bordeaux is the city with the most protected buildings in France, behind Paris. The city of Bordeaux has no less than 360 monuments classified as historical monuments. We find here one of the largest protected districts known as "Secteur sauvegardé Malraux" and was even listed by UNESCO in 2007!
Come and discover the alignment of the superb 18th century facades that line up along the docks of the Garonne River. From the right bank of Bordeaux, you will be able to contemplate the elegance and harmony that have contributed to its UNESCO label.
With this "Bordeaux highlights tour"
I propose you to discover the main monuments of "la Belle Endormie" (the sleeping beauty) with a guided walking tour that can be adapted to your centers of interest. Our itinerary will allow you to understand the history of the city and its development through history and space. You will be able to admire the main monuments of the city of Bordeaux:
- The Grand Theatre de Bordeaux considered one of the most beautiful in Europe
- The emblematic monument dedicated to the Girondins, whose fountain ponds miraculously escaped the campaigns to metals requisition during the Occupation
- the Place de la Bourse (Stock Exchange square) and its now famous water mirror, which is said to be one of the largest in the world (you will soon learn that Bordeaux is the city of superlatives!).
- the streets of Old Bordeaux districts...
Thanks to these landmarks to better understand the city's setting, you will then have the keys to better appreciate the secrets of Bordeaux when continuing your exploration.
We will also discover the secrets of the Pont de Pierre, Bordeaux's oldest bridge, which is full of little stories and urban legends dear to the heart of Bordelais; but we will also talk about modern Bordeaux: its tramway, which has been awarded several times for its ingenious operation and design, or the Jacques Chaban-Delmas bridge with its counterbalance lift system, inaugurated in 2013....
The visit can start from a meeting point that we will fix together and then we will go together to discover the sites and monuments of the city.
Price includes
- The services of a licensed tour guide for guided walking tour up to 3 hours
- A custom guided tour according to your interests through the streets of Bordeaux and passing in front of the city's landmarks and must sees
Price excludes
- Personal expenses
- Please note that there may be an extra charge if departure earlier than 10.00
- Entrance fees in monuments and museums | 71e1a25fbdd1fc50fef62f359f31b4a8 | 705 |
Once your loan file is ready to be reviewed on a higher level at the bank it moves to the underwriting. This process is done by an underwriter that is trained to look for any risk that the borrower or property may affect the ability to pay off the loan. The underwriter has the final say for the loan approval.
The underwriter will gain a complete loan file from the processor. It is the underwriter’s job to make sure that all the documents are accounted for and the you meet every criteria involving the loan agreement. You may be contracted by your loan officer in behalf of the underwriter for additional documents or questions regarding your loan.
Underwriters may request additional documentation from divorce agreement or tax returns for a partner in a law firm. While your loan officer may have to go over the underwriters head, or get exceptions, or beg for the underwriter’s approval, on occasion an underwriter can kill a deal. | 96d8e429277e995dcb634bef54c4b765 | 193 |
THE DEFAMATION EXPERIENCE was created and written by award winning playwright Todd Logan and premiered in November 2010. Since then it has been seen by more than 100,000 people and performed more than 450 times at venues including College, Universities, Law Schools, Bar Associations and legal organization, diversity conferences, civic & religious organizations, high schools, middle schools, chambers of commerce.
THE DEFAMATION EXPERIENCE was born from an unsettling personal encounter.
More than a decade ago, I went to a reading of a friend's play, and joined the cast for drinks afterward. Two of the actors were African-American. I couldn't remember the last time I'd socialized with an African-American person. At some point, one of the actors regaled us with his impression of riding a horse at a weekend cattle round-up vacation. His impression reminded me of Cleavon Little in the movie Blazing Saddles, but I realized I was too intimidated to tell him that. I was concerned he and others might think I was only making the comparison because he and Little were African-Americans.
As I drove to my home in one of Chicago's “lily-white" suburbs, I asked myself many painful questions about where I chose to live, clubs I belonged to, and the lack of diversity among my friends and community. I knew I wasn't unique. Most of us still go to bed at night in cities, communities and neighborhoods that are segregated by race, religion, ethnicity and class. I decided to write a play that would spur self-examination and honest conversation.
THE DEFAMATION EXPERIENCE was first performed as a stage reading at DePaul University for an audience of 12 in May 2009, just a few months into the Obama Administration. It was an interesting time for American race relations, with some declaring our society "post racial" and others cautioning, as does one of the characters in the play, "just because Barack Obama is president, we're a long way from a level playing field."
As THE DEFAMATION EXPERIENCE nears its 550th performance, and with an administration that encourages and foments white nationalism, we have entered a disturbing time where race, class, and religious conflicts are even more heightened. We are also confronting a systemic culture of sexism, as countless women - and some men - step forward to recount abuse at the hands of men in positions of power.
Many are asking, "What happened to hope and change?" Amidst our growing cultural storms, THE DEFAMATION EXPERIENCE continually reveals to me that there's plenty of sun to be found.
I find it at every performance, whether for corporate executives or high school students and regardless age, race, ethnicity or socio-economic status. Audience members quickly acclimate to serving as jurors, and deliberations are always thoughtful and civil. The courtroom environment the drama creates gives jurors the courage to speak up and instills a sense of courtesy and respect towards others. Most importantly, post-show discussions reveal a national hunger for honest conversation. People want to hear and be heard. They want to heal and be healed.
THE DEFAMATION EXPERIENCE has proven to be what I hoped. It is a way to challenge pre-conceived notions. It is a way to start a conversation. It is a testament to the power of civil discourse. It is a bridge to both healing and hearing.
I hope you'll enter into THE EXPERIENCE and become part of the conversation, too.
| https://defamationtheplay.com/origins.html | 721 |
The Environmental Protection Authority’s Safer Homes programme has some tips and tricks to keep in mind before you fire up the grill.
“If you’ve launched into barbeque season without doing a maintenance check on your gas bottle, better late than never,” says the Safer Homes programme manager, Lizzie Wilson.
Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) is what most people use to fuel their barbeques. It is butane, propane or a mixture of these two fuels. You can also buy smaller canisters for tramping or camping.
“LPG ignites and burns easily, which is why it’s great for cooking and heating. But if it leaks, it can ignite and sometimes cause explosions,” says Lizzie Wilson.
ACC figures from the past five years show about 800 people annually suffer LPG cylinder-related injuries, including soft tissue injuries, lacerations and burns.
“If you’ve had your gas bottle for a while, it might be time to get it tested. By law, you must make sure your LPG cylinder is tested every 10 years at an approved testing station.
“When you’re finished, don’t forget to safely store your gas bottle upright – ideally outside or in a well-ventilated area,” says Lizzie Wilson.
| https://livenews.co.nz/2021/01/15/dont-skip-your-gas-bottle-check-this-summer/ | 289 |
<issue_start><issue_comment>Title: Exclude request logging for RPC server /health
username_0: ## 📚 Purpose
Now that we have probes turned on for services, the logs are getting spammed by the `/health` requests.
<issue_comment>username_1: We'll still see logs elsewhere for any failed health checks right?
<issue_comment>username_0: Yes, failed health checks should trigger logs in k8s. | 21170817 | 102 |
As a therapist, I’ve found that one of the biggest hindrances for many of us when it comes to dealing with the impact of toxic parenting is that we simply lack awareness of just how toxic our parent was – and likely still is.
Problem is, many of the signs you have a toxic parent can be easy to miss.
But being able to recognize the less-obvious signs of toxic parenting is extremely important. After all, if we can’t recognize the toxic patterns we may have been exposed to as kids, how can we possibly address the effects those patterns continue to have on us as adults?
If you ever wonder if you’ve got a toxic parent, this list is for you.
And if you want to assess just how toxic your parent really is, you can take my Toxic Parent Quiz to get your parent’s toxicity score.
Coming in at number one: Your parents’ emotional needs consistently took—and likely still take—precedence over your own.
In many ways, this first sign is the common denominator in all forms of toxic parenting.
After all, so much of what toxic parents do (or don’t do) is done to satisfy their needs.
Problem is, this first sign can be one of the hardest to catch.
As children and even as adults, we don’t often see it as our parent prioritizing his or her needs over ours. Instead, we convince ourselves that there’s something deficient or defective about us.
Next up is the parent who displays a pattern of dismissing their child’s feelings.
And this one makes sense, right? The parent whose emotional needs “need” to come first is going to feel threatened by your emotional needs.
So, what do these parents do? They minimize, they downplay or even flat-out invalidate their child’s feelings.
Of course, the more we experience our feelings being dismissed in this way, the more we learn not to display or communicate what we really feel. And in some cases, many of us even learn how to cut ourselves off from our feelings altogether.
Closely related to dismissing your feelings, toxic parents often withhold affirmation.
There are plenty of different reasons for this. A lot of toxic parents are, what I like to call, emotionally phobic. Simply put, they feel threatened when it comes to communicating affirmation.
Due to their own insecurities, these parents feel far too vulnerable when it comes to expressing words of affirmation. Instead, they find emotional safety in presenting themselves as “unfeeling intellectualizers” or hiding behind words of harsh criticism.
Another easy-to-miss sign of toxic parenting is when parents lean on you for emotional support.
Essentially, your parent recruits you to be their emotional caretaker. They make you grow up faster in order to meet their needs.
It can feel like you’re in the role of therapist or even your parent’s BFF.
But it’s really a role reversal that takes place here. You become the parent in the relationship, and it becomes your job to meet your parent’s needs.
When you grow up with a parent leaning on you for emotional support, this pattern very often carries over into your adult relationships. You’re likely to wind up feeling responsible for fulfilling everyone else’s needs—and feeling guilty around letting others take care of your needs.
When a toxic parent’s needs aren’t being met by their kids, they often resort to manipulative tactics to get those needs met.
Manipulation can take many different forms. But some of the more common tactics involve saying or doing things to make you feel guilty or undeserving.
It can involve your parent playing the role of victim. And it can look like overly dramatic displays, such as your parent crying out loud in their bedroom with the door left open.
“Excessive” is the key word here.
The textbook example of parents who take on this excessive level of interest in their child’s life is the helicopter parent.
We all know the helicopter parent, right? This is the parent who’s always hovering overhead, supervising and managing every aspect of their child’s life.
As signs of toxic parenting go, this can be an especially difficult one to catch because, especially when we’re younger, it tends to look a lot like caring.
Problem is, this “caring” is often rooted in the parent’s fear of becoming unnecessary.
In other words, these “caring” actions are motivated by the parent’s need to feel needed – and to make you depend on them as much as possible.
Self-involved parents love to talk about one thing—themselves. Conversations with these parents likely center around them and their interests.
Self-involved parents also push their kids to be like them. To pursue the things that interest them. To play the sports that they played. To study what they want you to study.
Of course, it can be great to connect with our parents around common interests. But when your parent wants you to be just like them, that’s…well, kind of toxic.
As children and even as adults, we like to see our parents as knowledgeable and intelligent. For this reason, it’s all too easy to overlook a parent’s infallibility as a sign of toxic parenting.
Infallible parents pride themselves on never being wrong. And when their presumed infallibility is challenged, they tend to become angry and critical toward others.
Chances are, if you grew up with an infallible parent, you’re likely to avoid engaging in serious or intellectual conversations with them. And you might even feel uncomfortable around these types of conversations in general.
You’re also likely to lack confidence in your personal opinions and level of intelligence.
There are certain boundary crossings almost all of us associate with toxic parenting. But other boundary crossings are nowhere near as obvious.
No matter the form it takes, though, a consistent pattern of not respecting your personal boundaries is another telltale sign of toxic parenting.
Did your parent used to snoop through your personal things without your permission? Did he or she read your diary or notes from classmates?
Or how about did your parent used to tell you about their marital problems or other adult issues? Did they ever act as if your friends were their friends too?
These are also boundary crossings – and signs of parental toxicity.
What are family secrets? Well, these can be a lot of different things. Maybe it’s a parent’s drinking problem. Perhaps it’s a pattern of abuse. Or maybe it’s dad’s mental illness.
Whatever the secret is, it becomes the child’s responsibility not to let the cat out of the bag. So, not only do you not get to talk about it outside of the home and get the help you need, but you end up living in fear of somehow “slipping up” and inadvertently betraying your family.
What can I do if I have a toxic parent?
If you grew up with a toxic parent, it can really help to talk to someone, preferably a therapist with some expertise in the area of childhood trauma.
At Modern Era Counseling, we help adults overcome the trauma associated with toxic parenting. Contact us today to schedule a session or simply learn more about how we can help.
Understanding Gaslighting: What is it and How Does it Work? | https://www.moderneracounseling.com/10-easy-to-miss-signs-you-have-a-toxic-parent/ | 1,584 |
Running a business in today’s data-driven world can feel cumbersome and challenging if you depend on many different web apps and services. It is great that each service does something that meets your business needs, but what happens when you need for them to talk to each other and send your data between them?
You can integrate your Corsizio account and its data with over one thousand other apps using Zapier, which is an online automation tool that connects your favorite apps, such as Google Calendar, MailChimp, Salesforce, FreshBooks, and many others. You can easily move info between apps and improve your organization, efficiency, and record keeping.
If you are not familiar with Zapier, please visit their website and read their getting started documentation, and subsequently create an account.
Zapier is the glue that connects thousands of apps and web services together.
Zaps start with a Trigger—an event in one of your apps that kicks off your workflow.
Go to the account Settings, and then select Integrations from the left side menu.
Scroll down and check the box for Zapier Integration to enable this feature.
Click on the Generate API Secret Key button.
New Attendee — Triggers when a new attendee registers or is created.
Updated Attendee — Triggers when an attendee is updated.
Deleted Attendee — Triggers when an attendee is deleted completely.
New Event — Triggers when a new event or class is created.
Updated Event — Triggers when an event or class is updated.
Deleted Event — Triggers when an event or class is deleted.
Add new attendees to your events on Corsizio to a video conferencing service, like Zoom Meeting or Webinar.
Stay up to date with your accounting by connecting your Corsizio payments with your accounting apps, like FreshBooks or QuickBooksOnline.
Build your email list by connecting your attendees’ email addresses with your newsletter service, like MailChimp or Constant Contact.
Promote events on the perfect schedule by connecting your event info with your social media accounts, Facebook, or Twitter.
Automatically keep track of new events by connecting your event dates with your calendar app, like Google Calendar.
Create and nurture leads following events by connecting your attendee registrations with your docs app, like Google Sheets.
Share the event info with all teachers and team members by connecting your event registrations with your team’s Slack channel. | https://help.corsizio.com/article/25-integrate-corsizio-with-other-apps-using-zapier | 515 |
Answer the following question: What key details about dmitri andreyevich golubev can be extracted from the following bio? Bio: dmitri andreyevich golubev -lrb- ; born january 5 , 1985 -rrb- is a russian professional footballer . he plays for fc spartak kostroma . he made his professional debut in the russian second division in 2005 for fc spartak lukhovitsy . he played 1 game in the uefa intertoto cup 2004 for fc shinnik yaroslavl .
Answer:
- clubs is fc dynamo kirov fc kaluga fc spartak kostroma spartak lukhovitsy fc yelets fc sheksna cherepovets fc- caps is 33 63 18 25 89 24- position is defender- currentclub is fc spartak kostroma- height is 1.85- years is 2005-2006 2006-2008 2008 2009 2010-2013 2014 --- pcupdate is 09:52 , 13 june 2015 -lrb- utc -rrb-- birth date is 5 january 1985- fullname is dmitri andreyevich golubev- name is dmitri golubev- goals is 0 0 1 1 2 1 | cd992f299aef50360130cf4956e9bac5 | 282 |
Be immersed in the fascinating world of insects as you're taken on a journey observing and learning about the world around you.
This volume teaches about what makes an insect, the parts of a caterpillar, moths, butterflies, beetles, wasps, bees, flies, crickets, grasshoppers and more!
Look for the rest of the Eyes and No Eyes series with all-new illustrations, along with many other resources to help with nature study in your home, only from Living Book Press. | https://naturenurture.shop/products/insect-life-by-arabella-buckley | 102 |
The lower court verdict and sentence is still very much considered if there’s a re-trial and re-sentencing. Eg you can never convict someone for a higher crime if they were convicted the first go round on a lesser included offense. You would have all kinds of double jeopardy problems once jeopardy attaches. If the same judge hears the same trial and the same verdict is reached, you will almost universally never see a higher sentence than that which was previously given because of the presumption of a vindictive sentence. The prosecutor cannot overcome that presumption without evidence to show a changed circumstance. | e3165b9fac6c47009c1cca8dc26bd1b6 | 119 |
The pandemic seemed to finally be subsiding as spring arrived this year, but since the emergence of the Delta variant of the coronavirus, the situation has been steadily worsening.
Delta is currently the predominant strain of the virus in the United States and according to the CDC is one of the most infectious respiratory diseases seen by experts. It’s twice as contagious as previous strains and makes up more than 83% of cases in the U.S.
About 97% of people hospitalized from COVID-19—and 99.5% of those who are dying from it—have not been vaccinated. An unvaccinated person is about 50 times more likely to be hospitalized for COVID-19 than a vaccinated person, and nearly 300 times more likely to die if infected.
The vaccines are safe and effective. About 63% of all Americans who are eligible to receive the vaccine have gotten at least one dose.
“That’s why AFSCME is participating in member and public education efforts to inform and motivate hesitant people to get the vaccine,” Council 31 Executive Director Roberta Lynch said.
But AFSCME opposes coercive vaccine mandates that threaten termination or other punitive measures against those who do not get vaccinated.
The alarming spread of the Delta virus has pushed an increasing number of employers to turn to “vaccination mandates”—requiring that all employees get vaccinated by a set date. Employers argue that fact-based education efforts have not been sufficient to move all employees to get vaccinated, greatly increasing the potential for COVID outbreaks in the workplace.
Dozens of employers in the private sector—most recently and prominently United Airlines—are taking this path. And public sector employers have begun to follow suit. The University of Illinois has issued a vaccine mandate for all employees, as have several other state universities. The State of Illinois issued a mandate only for employees who work in congregate settings. And both the City of Chicago and Cook County have also indicated that they intend to issue some form of vaccination mandate.
AFSCME Council 31 opposes rigid universal vaccination mandates. While employers have been found to have the legal right to establish such policies, labor law in our state and many others also requires that they bargain with unions over the impact of the policy on employees. AFSCME is using those negotiations to drive home the point that a rigid vaccination mandate would cause a host of problems, including exacerbating already existing morale and staffing issues.
Negotiations regarding mandates are underway with some of the state’s largest public employers, including the state of Illinois. In negotiations with the state, AFSCME has pointed out some agencies have been lax in their implementation of safety measures that can help to limit the spread of COVID. Without putting such protocols in place, COVID will continue to spread as it is well documented that even individuals who are vaccinated can be infected with the virus if they are in situations where it can readily be transmitted. For instance, in the Department of Corrections, offenders are not required to wear masks and are permitted to have visitors who are unmasked as well. | https://www.afscme31.org/news/covid-soaring-againdelta-variant-strikes-hard | 631 |
One-derland For My Birthday!!!
I finally broke out of the 200s and am now 198 pounds! What an awesome birthday gift for me!! Now I just have to be careful not to over-do the celebrating which could bring me back up to the 200s. Don't want to do that!!
Fantastic birthday gift for yourself and congratulations to your weight loss.
Make it count! Not in food though!
You gave yourself the BEST present ever!! Keep Sparking!
What a great birthday gift to yourself! | http://wfl.sparkpeople.com/mypage_public_journal_individual.asp?blog_id=5451894 | 110 |
In the new year Joe Ingles has been getting the chance he has craved all season. His minutes have been relatively consistent and coach Quin Snyder is allowing him to play his natural game.
Unfortunately for both the Jazz and Jingles, he is struggling to make his shots. He has by no means been taking bad shots, but he just can't get his shooting rhythm going.
In Utah's four games in 2016, Ingles is averaging 18 minutes per game, but has shot a combined 8/25 (32%) from the field.
In a blow-out loss to the Spurs yesterday, Ingles played his best all-round game in a couple of weeks. Admittedly, the majority of his production did come in junk time, but he finished with 8 points (3/6 FG), 4 rebounds, 2 assists and a steal.
An interesting stat that shows just how important Slo-Mo Joe is to the Jazz, is his shooting percentage in wins compared to that in losses. When the Jazz win, Ingles shoots the ball much more efficiently. Simply put, when Jingles is on, often so is the rest of the team.
In 15 Jazz wins, Ingles is shooting 50% from the field and 48.6% from deep. In the 19 losses that he has played in, Ingles' shooting takes a massive hit down to 38.2% from the field and just 30.8% from three.
This emphasises the energy that Ingles brings to the team is infectious and his teammates thrive off him when he is on.
Energy and enthusiasm is key for the Utah Jazz. Without a go-to superstar, they need everyone buying in and playing at 100% for the entire 48 minutes.
It is now up to Ingles to bring more consistency to his game. He needs to be a reliable shooter for the Jazz as they continue to fight for a playoff spot. | https://pickandroll.com.au/p/aussies-nba-joe-ingles-fires-teammates-follow | 390 |
The report, which examined the risks surrounding the project, assesses the impact of the diplomatic crisis the country is currently having with neighboring nations. The report labels the cup as a "high-risk project." The World Cup project will cost about $200 billion when it is all said and done.
According to the report, BBC claims, tournament insiders and regional experts have said that it is "far from certain" that the country will actually host the tournament over concerns of corruption in the bidding process and infrastructure development, well-documented, horrific working conditions and more.
FIFA president Gianni Infantino has even said Qatar is in a "diplomatic crisis" but added that that the cup isn't under threat.
The last time a cup was moved from a host nation was in 1986, when it was set to be played in Colombia but was moved to Mexico due mainly to economic issues.
FIFA has yet to comment on the report. We'll update this story as it develops.
Could 2022 World Cup move from Qatar? | https://www.cbssports.com/soccer/news/report-qatar-at-risk-of-not-hosting-2022-world-cup-over-corruption-other-issues/ | 211 |
I'm going to London with my mother next week for a few days and we'll be staying in the Kensington District. When I was in the Netherlands and Germany last year I came across some vegan products that I hadn't seen in the States, like vegan pate. Can anyone recommend a good store to hit up while in London to get these sorts of things? Or some recommendations? And p.s. yes, there's Marmite in the States.
And has anyone had success with a vegan type meal on British Airways or have you had to bring things along? If so, what foods have you all brought on planes? I've brought instant soup before and had trouble with the combo of hot water and turbulence!
And as a side note, any good places to eat? I know I know this isn't technically cooking, but eating out will be my primary source of food for those few days! My mother isn't vegan, but she'll try anything once.
P.S. I did read the FAQ but the info is a little old. Places are always opening and closing. I was hoping for some personal knowledge!
FYI - I was the one who scrounged around the net looking for the original non-vegan recipes and I was the one who converted the recipes to vegan ones. So I don't think I am out of line when I say the "creds" mine.
I've never been able to get a straight answer to this.
Is Nissin Oriental Flavor Top Ramen vegan, or not?
I've been looking at vegweb and there are umpteen million chili recipes. I've never made vegan chili before, and I don't really want to just guess which one is the best.
What is the link/recipe to the very very best vegan chili you've had?
I'm looking for something extremely flavorful and pretty spicy.
Very sorry if this has been asked 100 times. I'm cooking for friends and need a good recipe. | https://vegancooking.livejournal.com/2004/08/28/ | 413 |
<reponame>palmeidaprog/contabil
import { LancamentoEntities } from "../../entities/lancamento.entities";
import { ValorEntities } from "../../entities/valor.entities";
import { TipoValor } from "../../entities/tipo-valor.enum";
export default class ReleaseService{
//todo
public getAccount() {
return localStorage.getItem("contas");
}
public getReleases() : LancamentoEntities{
//fetch release
let release = new LancamentoEntities();
let entityValue = new ValorEntities();
entityValue.codigo = 1;
entityValue.codigoConta = 11;
entityValue.codigoLancamento = 1;
entityValue.data = new Date();
entityValue.historico = "histórico 1";
entityValue.saldoConta = 1000;
entityValue.tipo = TipoValor.CREDITO;
entityValue.valor = 1000;
release.codigo = 1;
release.codigoUsuario = 11;
release.data = new Date();
release.historico = "teste";
release.valores = new Array(15).fill(entityValue);
return release;
}
} | 10070386 | 457 |
We were contracted on behalf of the Rotorua Energy Charitable Trust to revamp their website.
The brief was to have an easy to navigate, clean and responsive (mobile & tablet friendly) design.
We wrote a custom post type to allow the easy loading and management of the Heritage Collection of artwork. | 62642615a262e4473976a9bf7b682cf6 | 63 |
This Side of Paradise – Book Review
I will not presume knowing Fitzgerald but This Side of Paradise was a novel that set the tone for the writings of this kind in the early twentieth century. Set around World World I, F. Scott Fitzgerald gives the main character Amory an array of philosophical questions. Being a classical, it is recommended to read it following the happenings of the time. It was first published in 1920.
For more about literature, go to Sumeria + Akkad | 103b7491c876016b49aca21636b8e5e5 | 99 |
Can the Hogs Bring the Heat in Arlington?
ARLINGTON, Texas. — It is believed to be the battle for the strongest challenger to Alabama in the SEC West this season as Arkansas travels to Arlington, Texas to face Texas A&M. But you can be assured, neither are looking for a runner-up finish. Texas A&M boasts the best recruiting class money can buy according to one SEC coach, and it is hard to argue when you see the numbers. But a lackluster start, including a loss to Appalachian State has the Aggies reeling and their yell practice exploits the fodder of every sports outlet in the country. They bounced back with a win over a ranked Miami team, but the offense still has a lot of questions to answer.
The Aggies had only 264 yards of total offense against Miami. Max Johnson completed half his passes for 140 yards. Devon Achane seemed to be the only spark, leading in rushing with 88 yards and second in receiving with 42 yards and a score. The Aggies have struggled to run the ball in every game this season, and have not done well stopping the running game.
Miami rushed for 175 yards against the Aggies last week, and for perspective, rushed for 174 the week before against Southern Miss. Appalachian State ran for 181 yards against Texas A&M in their upset win. The Aggies secondary has just been mediocre. With teams able to seemingly run at will, the passing numbers seem, if anything, average. The Aggies will have some of their touted freshman class returning for this one, so the defense may get some help.
For Arkansas, it was all roses and a top 10 ranking till Bobby Petrino came to town. The 3rd ranked FCS team in the nation gave the Hogs quite a scare last week, with the Hogs trailing late. It was a punt return for a score that broke the game open and led to a 21-point fourth-quarter win for the Razorbacks. It was the first trip to Fayetteville for Bobby Petrino since he was fired with cause and sent the Arkansas program into a downward spiral. That was the biggest storyline entering, and his ability to scheme offensively for a big game was on full display.
The Razorback secondary is ranked near the bottom in FBS, and the poor tackling against Missouri State made the numbers even more pathetic. The Bears threw for 357 yards against the Hogs. This is the third straight game to open the season that Arkansas has faced a strong passing offense, and well, they survived. They did rack up 8 sacks on the day and have two players ranked in the top 5 in the nation in sacks. They also rank 7th in the nation in run defense, and only gave up 52 yards last week on the ground. Simply put, with all of the injuries in the secondary, the Razorbacks have made opposing offenses one-dimensional.
Arkansas' offense was the key piece a week ago, for a few reasons. Dropped passes early on hurt fast-paced drives that had the defense on their heels. Then there was the goal-line fumble by the normally secure Rocket Sanders. Trey Knox, who has been a key receiver from the tight end position, bobbled a pass that was intercepted. Add on a KJ Jefferson fumbled and you can see why the game was close. KJ Jefferson threw for 385 yards, with Matt Landers and Jadon Haselwood combining for 211 of those yards and a score. Add 212 yards on the ground, 167 of which were by Rocket Sanders, and you can see the Arkansas offense did what it has done all year. They moved the ball effectively and ran with authority. The only problem, three turnovers at key times made the game close. In the end, it was a two-score game, but it took a lot to get there.
The recap is significant for this. The Aggies did little to show they are the preseason giant most expected and Arkansas did not look like the 10th ranked team in the country. Arkansas will now enter as a 2.5-point underdog in Arlington as everyone (over)reacts to last week. Had Texas A&M played bad and won against Appalachian State, they would have a lot more respect. Arkansas wins a close one and everyone panics. Looking at the big picture, here are my keys to the game.
They will get Miles Slusher back along with Jashaud Stewart on the edge, so the secondary should get some help both in coverage and pressure. Tackling has to be better. The secondary took too many chances a week ago, looked flat-footed at times, and then did not tackle well. They were putting a lot of inexperienced players in roles to fill for injuries, but that must be better this week. Expect Arkansas to bring pressure and force the Aggies to throw under pressure against man coverage.
Have they been tested yet this year? While everyone thinks of KJ Jefferson as a runner, and he does so with authority, it was the Aggie secondary that was dominated a year ago. The only time the Hogs looked back last year was when Treylon Burks looked over his shoulder on an 80-yard touchdown reception. KJ Jefferson can throw the deep ball, and while Burks is no longer there, they have amassed a very talented group of receivers and spread the ball around. The secondary will be tested because the Aggies will have to stack the box to stop Rocket Sanders and company on the ground.
The game could hinge on this one stat. Even when Arkansas was a struggling team, this game was close and often settled in extra time. Arkansas cannot turn the ball over like they did a week ago.
Texas A&M enters the game with 4 sacks on the season, while Arkansas enters with 17. Drew Sanders and Jordan Domenic are wreaking havoc on opposing quarterbacks and would be expected to blitz early and often against the Aggie front. Arkansas needs to give KJ time to get the deep ball off when the opportunities arise, and let him get the edge in the RPO game.
If Arkansas does not turn the ball over, they should win this one.
| https://www.kjrh.com/sports/can-the-hogs-bring-the-heat-in-arlington | 1,258 |
HEC Montréal has 3 international accreditations: AMBA, AACSB International and EQUIS. Fewer than 100 of the world’s 14,000 business schools have this triple mark of prestigious recognition.
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Nope, I was talking about sex, actually. AGAB is a synonym for that, and it's useful in discussions of trans people to clarify what you're talking about without having to call trans men female and trans women male, which is often used as a way to misgender us by transphobes. AGAB means the same thing- it just acknowledges that, when we're born, we're assumed to be a gender based on our sex. (They do say "It's a boy!" after all.) It's a weird thing for you to try to nitpick, though- like, you knew what I meant, I think, and if you didn't it's a pretty quick google, and you're being pretty condescending about the fact that I used a relatively common term to discuss trans issues. It's like when I say gender, I mean gender- not gender roles, as you seem to think.
And obviously there's no one trans narrative. I think it's wild to flatten it down to "well, these two trans people managed to find success before they came out and remained famous afterwards, therefore it's not as much of a problem as you think!" Most trans people don't start out from a point of fame, and that was more what I was talking about. It would be like responding to people talking about the wage gap with "well, it's not impossible for women to make it, look at this story about Alice Walton, she's a multibillionaire!" while ignoring the fact that most women are not heirs to the founder of Wal-Mart and do face significant barriers in the workplace. There are a lot of real systematic issues that trans people have to deal with, and a few exceptions don't disprove much.
Dividing the award categories by assigned sex would be pretty much the same as dividing by gender for the vast majority of artists, but with more potential to make things even harder for trans people, and it won't do anything to help the fact that, due to the way the industry works, women were only 17% of the people who would have qualified for the award in the first place. We need to work on making a bigger change, and I fail to see how sniping on reddit about some weird "nonbinary people think they can identify out of gender roles!" narrative is helping. | 53d02e69b14b44a08270539ade9c7af0 | 485 |
Radnor Property Group was retained as the development manager of two historic redevelopment projects on the King’s College campus, totaling over 26,000 square feet. The Spring Brook project established a new Department of Engineering for the College.
This historic redevelopment included core & shell improvements to both buildings, classroom and laboratory fit-out in Spring Brook and the development of ancillary support areas to utilize Memorial as a multi-purpose event space. Utilizing Federal Historic Tax Credits, New Markets Tax Credits for both projects and multiple state grants for Spring Brook, Radnor assisted King’s in their mission to expand academic opportunities and continue to invest in the community. Construction commenced in mid 2017 and was completed in 2019. | https://radnorproperty.com/projects/kings-college-engineering-center/ | 144 |
Santa Clara, Calif. and Melville, N.Y. — Nu Horizons Electronics Corp. and Integrated Silicon Solution Inc. (ISSI) have expanded their product service and market distribution agreement to extend beyond the scope of North America.
This partnership agreement now has been broadened to include distribution rights in Brazil and throughout Asia, specifically within India, Korea, Malaysia, North and South China, Singapore, and Taiwan.
As a result of this expanded agreement, Nu Horizons will offer ISSI's complete line of SRAM, DRAM, MCP, EEPROM and Bluetooth wireless chipset memory products and solutions into these two distinct geographical regions, in addition to using their respective network of field application engineers to strengthen technical support and new product introduction efforts in each of the above mentioned countries. Nu Horizons has been an ISSI distributor in North America since February 1998.
ISSI is a technology leader in high performance memory semiconductors. For more information, visit www.issi.com.
Nu Horizons is a leading distributor of high technology active components, including analog, communications, discretes, optical, logic and peripherals, memory, microcontrollers, system on chip (SOC), board level and computer system products to a wide variety of commercial original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). For more information, visit www.nuhorizons.com. | http://smt.iconnect007.com/index.php/article/48075/nu-horizons-integrated-silicon-solution-form-expanded-distribution-agreement/48078/?skin=smt | 277 |
I have said that when I was in my 20's, I knew everything. In my 30's, I realized that there were a few things to learn. Then in my 40's, I faced the fact that I knew nothing. That to me, was embracing the change. It was that awareness that allowed me to flow into my authentic self. It was not only the big things that changed, but the little things. I started to see the importance of every action and thought and while something's stayed the same, the reason behind them was different. Like the fact that I workout every day. I used to workout to look good naked. Now in my 50's, I workout to keep from having a heart attack. The change is not a bad thing, however I believe fighting it is.
That's about it. The days of needing to prove anything are gone. I know my value and those who wish to fight with me, have little chance to get me to engage. Why? It's the change. Call it age. Call it testosterone depletion. Call it a minimalist life but my values have changed dramatically. What do I value now?
What's on your list? Think about it. The more you would fight for, the more you will spend time fighting. Some fight their age. Others fight a stereotype and yet, others fight to defend their opinion. Why? When you embrace the change, the chains drop off of you. Needing approval no longer matters. Life exist in its natural state. Free flowing and relaxed. Respecting the the change, changes you.
Appreciate where you are now because now is all you will ever have.
The change is coming. You can fight it or you can flow with it. Either way, it's on its way. Appreciate where you are now because now is all you will ever have. And you can't change "the change". | https://blisspot.com/blogs/5700/1495/do-you-embrace-change | 388 |
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KELLY Clarkson emotionally performed a stunning cover of Lisa Loeb's '(Stay) I Missed You' just weeks after announcing her divorce from husband Brandon Blackstock.
The singer was virtually joined by band members to perform the 1994 song during Thursday's episode of The Kelly Clarkson Show as part of the segment Kellyoke.
Kelly sang directly to the camera, while additional clips showed the band members playing guitars and drums, as well as signing backup vocals, from their separate homes.
The host belted out the lyrics: "You said, 'you caught me cause you want me and one day I'll let you go.'
After Demi praised Kelly for staying strong, the host admitted that she struggles to consistently put on a brave face.
| https://www.the-sun.com/entertainment/1039969/kelly-clarkson-gets-emotional-singing-i-miss-you-in-stunning-cover-of-lisa-loebs-hit-stay-just-weeks-after-divorce/ | 153 |
Guardian AngelBy lombergar
Free wallpaper version of my artwork called Guardian Angel. As always the site plug ~ if you want more walls and winamp skins, go grab yourself a browser and get to [LINK]
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9 years ago
Comment by: Captain America
Feature vote casted on this one. Good luck!
Comment by: Yrgal
---[ The Mad Norwegian ]--- | 7e439fc63b8489f89228705e9616ab4a | 100 |
\section*{Appendix}
\input{sections/8_appendix/computation_graph_for_inverted_pendulum.tex}
\input{sections/8_appendix/ablation_notes.tex}
\input{sections/8_appendix/experiment_details.tex}
\input{sections/8_appendix/additional_exp.tex}
\end{document}
\section{Introduction}%
\label{sec:introduction}
Planning is one of the key problems in artificial intelligence~(AI), as it enables intelligent agents to make informed decisions and achieve their objectives in complex and dynamic environments.
This is especially important when the environment is inherently stochastic or when the dynamics model used by the planning algorithm is imperfect.
Planning algorithms should represent and reason about uncertainty to make robust and effective decisions.
As a result, research on planning with stochastic transitions has been multifaceted, encompassing symbolic task-level planning in discrete spaces \cite{kolobov2012reverse,keller2013trial,cui2019stochastic}, robotic motion planning in continuous spaces \cite{kurniawati2011motion,van2012motion,agha2014firm}, integrated task and motion planning \cite{kaelbling2013integrated,vega2018admissible,garrett2021integrated}, and model-based reinforcement learning leveraging probabilistic dynamics \cite{chua2018deep,hafner2019dream,curi2020efficient}.
Markov Decision Processes~(MDPs) provide the theoretical foundation for planning under uncertainty, but scalability remains a challenge, and approximation is often necessary.
Many approaches have been proposed in the literature, including searching in action space, searching in state space, approaches using Monte-Carlo simulation, and approaches using differentiation.
Several gradient-based planners have been proposed, but they are not easily usable as domain independent planners due to scalability \cite{deisenroth2011pilco}, restriction to deterministic environments \cite{wu2020scalable}, or in the Reinforcement Learning (RL) context -- in most works, the success of the planner depends on the quality of the learned domain-specific value function \cite{tamar2016value,hafner2019dream}.
The paper fills this gap by introducing a novel domain-independent online planner using differentiable probabilistic transition models.
Our work is related to prior algorithms for trajectory optimization, distribution propagation, and differential dynamic programming \cite{chua2018deep,williams2017information,deisenroth2013gaussian,tassa2012synthesis,lenz2015deepmpc}.
However, we introduce a novel symbolic approximation and propagation scheme generalizing work on AI planning that facilitate robustness, better approximation, and optimization \cite{cui2019stochastic}.
The main contribution of this work is in designing DiSProD (\textbf{Di}fferentiable \textbf{S}ymbolic \textbf{Pro}pagation of \textbf{D}istributions), an online planner for environments with probabilistic transitions,
in continuous or hybrid spaces.
The main idea is to create a symbolic graph that encodes the distribution of future trajectories conditioned on a given policy.
The resulting symbolic graph provides an \emph{analytically differentiable representation} of the policy's value, allowing efficient gradient-based optimization of the action variables for long-horizon search.
While distributions over trajectories are too complex to capture exactly, DiSProD uses Taylor's approximation and an independence assumption to facilitate a symbolic propagation of product distributions over future state and reward variables.
The approximate distribution propagation can be viewed as an efficient symbolic aggregation of many trajectories, which differs from sampling algorithms that generate many individual trajectories and aggregate the results.
This approach reduces variance in stochastic environments and facilitates planning with sparse rewards.
Extensive quantitative experiments are conducted to compare DiSProD with state-of-the-art planners in discrete-time planning in OpenAI Gym environments and continuous-time control of simulated robotic systems.
The results show that DiSProD outperforms existing planners in dealing with stochastic environments, sensitivity to search depth, sparsity of rewards, and large action spaces.
Furthermore, we control two real-world robotic systems using DiSProD with an approximate transition model, demonstrating that it can successfully control ground vehicles and surface vessels to navigate around obstacles.
\section{Related Work}\label{sec:related_work}
Planning in continuous spaces has been studied in several sub-fields.
A key distinction in planning methods is between \emph{offline planners}, which compute a complete solution and then apply it, and \emph{online planners}, also known as Model Predictive Control~(MPC)~\cite{borrelli2017predictive}, in which at every decision point, optimization is carried out over a finite horizon and the first action from the optimization is executed.
The online nature of MPC provides some robustness to unexpected outcomes at the cost of increased computation time during action selection.
Another important distinction is planning in \emph{state space} (or configuration space) ~\cite{lavalle2006planning} versus planning in \emph{action space}.
The former seeks an optimal sequence of states, leaving action execution to a low-level controller, while the latter produces executable actions directly.
DiSProD is an \emph{online action planner} but it can also produce a sequence of states as a byproduct, as we discuss in \Cref{sec:exp}.
Within online action planners, DiSProD
is related to two lines of work using differentiable transition models.
First, our approach builds on the algorithm of \cite{cui2018stochastic,cui2019stochastic}, which was developed for discrete task-level AI planning problems.
However, that work is restricted to binary state and action variables.
In addition, DiSProD introduces a new distribution propagation method based on symbolic Taylor expansions.
The second group includes planners using
differentiable transition models in RL and control.
However, deep RL work (e.g., \cite{heess2015learning,depeweg2016learning}) makes use of learned value functions to aid planning performance and cannot plan in a new model without training first, and many approaches (e.g., \cite{wu2020scalable}) use deterministic transition models.
In addition, these approaches
optimize over individual trajectories and do not propagate distributions over trajectories as in DiSProD.
In this realm, iLQG \cite{tassa2012synthesis} and the PILCO family \cite{deisenroth2013gaussian,parmas2018pipps,kamthe2018data} are most related to our method.
iLQG linearizes the dynamics and assumes a linear Gaussian dynamics, as in the Extended Kalman Filter~(EKF), and optimizes over individual trajectories.
PILCO does propagate distributions analytically, albeit with the restricted Gaussian process~(GP) dynamics and the Gaussian kernel.
Follow-up work on PILCO replaces the GP with Bayesian neural networks \cite{gal2016improving}, which cannot propagate distributions analytically and hence requires particle-based planning~\cite{amadio2022model}.
From this perspective, DiSProD can be seen as a generalization of PILCO and iLQG, which uses differentiation over approximate symbolic propagation of distribution.
Our work is also related to sampling-based planners
Model Predictive Path Integral~(MPPI) and Cross-Entropy Method~(CEM) \cite{williams2017information,wagener2019online,chua2018deep}.
These algorithms sample a set of trajectories around the nominal trajectory using a fixed sampling distribution, and update the nominal trajectory based on the ``goodness'' of the trajectories to bias sampling in subsequent iterations.
Our framework uses distribution propagation instead of sampling and naturally optimizes stochastic policies instead of relying on a prefixed sampling distribution.
Finally, we note that our approach can flexibly handle both discrete and continuous variables.
In contrast, other methods for planning in hybrid spaces typically restrict the transitions, for example, to piecewise linear models \cite{li2005lazy,zamani2012symbolic,raghavan2017hindsight}.
\section{Algorithms and Methodology}%
\label{sec:alg}
A Markov Decision Process~(MDP) is specified by $\{\mathcal{S}, \mathcal{A}, {T}, \mathcal{R}, \gamma\}$, where $\mathcal{S}$ is a finite state space, $\mathcal{A}$ is a finite action space, ${T}$ is the transition function, $\mathcal{R}$ is the one-step reward function, and $\gamma$ is the discount factor. A policy $\pi$ is a mapping from states to actions.
Given a policy $\pi$, the action-value function $\mathcal{Q}^\pi(\bm{s}_t,\bm{a}_t)$ represents the expected discounted total reward that can be obtained from state $\bm{s}_t$ if action $\bm{a}_t$ is chosen, and the policy $\pi$ is followed thereafter, where $\bm{s}_t$ and $\bm{a}_t$ are vectors of state and action variables
at time $t$.
As in prior work, our approach approximates
$\mathcal{Q}^\pi(\bm{s}_t,\bm{a}_t)$ and picks $\bm{a}_t$ that maximizes this value.
We focus on probabilistic policies parameterized by $\theta=\{\theta_t\}$ where each $\theta_t$ picks the action at time step $t$ and is further factorized over individual action variables.
Our goal is to produce an approximation of $\mathcal{Q}^{\theta}(\bm{s}_t,\theta_t)=\mathbb{E}[\sum_{i = 0}^{D-1} \gamma^i \mathcal{R}(\bm{s}_{t+i}, \bm{a}_{t+i})]$
where $\bm{a}_t\sim p(\bm{a}_t| \theta_t)$ and $\bm{s}_{t+1}\sim p(\bm{s}_{t+1}|\bm{s}_t, \bm{a}_{t})$,
optimize $\theta$ and pick the action using $\theta_t$.
In principle the $\mathcal{Q}$-value can be calculated from the distributions over $\{(\bm{s}_{t+i}, \bm{a}_{t+i})\}$ but these distributions are complex.
Our algorithm approximates these distributions as products of independent distributions over individual state and reward variables.
Our algorithm can be conceptually divided into two parts.
The first
calculates an approximate distribution over future states, rewards and $\mathcal{Q}^\pi(\bm{s}_t,\bm{a}_t)$, conditioned on a given policy. The second uses this representation to optimize the policy. These are described in the next two subsections.
\subsection{Analytic Computation Graph}%
\label{sec: analytic_graph}
\mypar{Transition Model}
Typically, given $\bm{s}_t$ and $\bm{a}_t$, a simulator $T_{\text{sim}}$, samples from a distribution over $\bm{s}_{t+1}$. Formally, $\bm{s}_{t+1} \sim T_{\text{sim}}(\bm{s}_t, \bm{a}_t)$.
For DiSProD, we need to \emph{encapsulate} any internal sampling in $T_{\text{sim}}$ as an input, to separate sampling from computation, similar to the reparameterization trick,
\begin{align}
\bm{s}_{t+1} = T(\bm{s}_t, \bm{a}_t, \bm{\epsilon}_t) \mbox{ where } \bm{\epsilon}_t \sim \mathcal{N}(0, I).
\label{eq:encapsulate}
\end{align}
$T_{\text{sim}}$ and its encapsulation are shown in \Cref{fig:hl-diagram}a and 1b.
\mypar{Representation}
Our construction can handle both discrete and continuous variables. The marginal distribution for any binary random variable $s_k$ at time $t$ (denoted by $s_{t,k}$), can be captured using a single parameter $\hat{s}_{t,k}$. We note that the variance is implicitly given by $\hat{v}_{s,t,k} = \hat{s}_{t,k} (1-\hat{s}_{t,k})$.
When ${s}_{t,k}$ is continuous, we summarize its distribution using its expectation and variance $(\hat{\mu}_{s,t,k},\hat{v}_{s,t,k})$.
Similarly, the distribution over the noise variable $\epsilon_i$ at time $t$ is represented using $(\hat{\mu}_{\epsilon,t,i},\hat{v}_{\epsilon,t,i})$.
While the use of mean and variance suggests a normal distribution, the proposed construction does not assume anything about the form of the distribution.
\mypar{Independence Assumption}
To simplify the computations of propagated distributions, our approximation assumes that for all $t$, the distribution over the trajectories given by $p(\bm{s}_t,\bm{a}_t,\bm{\epsilon}_t)$ is a product over independent factors: $p(\bm{s}_t,\bm{a}_t,\bm{\epsilon}_t)=\prod_k p({s}_{t,k}) \prod_\ell p({a}_{t,\ell}) \prod_i p(\epsilon_{t,i})$.
\mypar{Approximation}
Our main observation is that the above assumption suffices to propagate approximate distributions and further approximate the $\mathcal{Q}$ function.
Specifically, we approximate the transition function using a second order Taylor expansion whose terms are given analytically in a symbolic form.
Let $\bm{z}_t=(\bm{s}_t,\bm{a}_t,\bm{\epsilon}_t)$, $\hat{\bm{z}}_t=(\hat{\mu}_{\bm{s}_t},\hat{\mu}_{\bm{a}_t},\hat{\mu}_{\bm{\epsilon}_t})$ and $\bm{s}_{t+1} = T(\bm{z}_t)$.
To simplify the notation, consider the $j$-th state variable represented by $s_{t+1,j}=T_j(\bm{s}_t, \bm{a}_t, \bm{\epsilon}_t) = T_j(\bm{z}_t)$ and let $\nabla T_j = \nicefrac{\partial T_j}{\partial \bm{z}_t}$ and $H_j=\nicefrac{\partial^2 T_j}{\partial \bm{z}_t \partial \bm{z}_t^\top}$.
We use Taylor's expansion to approximate the encapsulated model in \Cref{eq:encapsulate} by
\begin{align}
s_{t+1,j}\leftarrow T_j(\bm{z}_t) &\approx T_j(\hat{\bm{z}_t}) + \nabla T_j^\top (\bm{z}_t-\hat{\bm{z}_t}) + \frac{1}{2}(\bm{z}_t-\hat{\bm{z}_t})^\top H_j (\bm{z}_t-\hat{\bm{z}_t}).
\end{align}
This approximation is illustrated in \Cref{fig:hl-diagram}c.
We use this approximation to calculate the mean and variance of $\bm{s}_{t+1}$ via methods of propagating distributions.
Given our independence assumption, the off diagonal covariance terms in $H_j$ are zero, and the expected value of the $s_{t+1, j}$ becomes
\begin{align}
&\hat{\mu}_{s,t+1,j} =\mathbb{E}\left[s_{t+1, j}\right]\approx{T}_j(\hat{\bm{z}_t})+\frac{1}{2}\Biggl[\sum_k\left(\frac{\partial^2 T_j}{\partial{s}_{t,k}^2}\right)\hat{v}_{s,t,k} + \sum_\ell\left(\frac{\partial^2{T}_j}{\partial{a}_{t,\ell}^2}\right)\hat{v}_{a,t,\ell}+\sum_{i}\left(\frac{\partial^2{T}_j}{\partial{\epsilon}_{t,i}^2}\right)\hat{v}_{\epsilon,t,i}\Biggr].
\end{align}
A similar approximation for the variance yields $4^\text{th}$ order moments.
To reduce complexity we use a first order Taylor approximation for the variance resulting in
\begin{align}
\hat{v}_{s,t+1,j} &\approx \sum_k \biggl(\frac{\partial T_j}{\partial {s}_{t,k}} \biggr)^2 \hat{v}_{s,t,k} + \sum_\ell \biggl(\frac{\partial T_j}{\partial {a}_{t,\ell}} \biggr)^2 \hat{v}_{a,t,\ell} + \sum_i \biggl(\frac{\partial T_j}{\partial {\epsilon}_{t,i}} \biggr)^2 \hat{v}_{\epsilon,t,i}.
\end{align}
To write these concisely using vector notation, we collect the first order partials and diagonals of the Hessians into matrices as follows:
\begin{align}
J_{\bm{s}_t} &= \biggl[\frac{\partial T}{\partial \bm{s}_{t}^\top}\biggr],
\qquad{} \ \ \ \mbox{ i.e.,\ \ \ \ } [J_{\bm{s}_t}]_{j,k}= \frac{\partial T_j}{\partial s_{t,k}},
\\
\tilde{H}_{\bm{s}_t} &= \biggl[\frac{\partial^2 T}{\partial \bm{s}_{t}^2}^\top \biggr],
\qquad{} \mbox{ i.e.,\ \ \ \ } [\tilde{H}_{\bm{s}_t}]_{j,k}= \frac{\partial^2 T_j}{\partial s_{t,k}^2}.
\end{align}
Similarly, we define $J_{\bm{a}_t},\tilde{H}_{\bm{a}_t}, J_{\bm{\epsilon}_t}, \text{ and } \tilde{H}_{\bm{\epsilon}_t}$ for action and noise variables, respectively.
Now we can write the vector form of the equations as follows:
\begin{align}
\hat{\mu}_{\bm{s}_{t+1}} &\approx T(\hat{z_t}) + \frac{1}{2}\biggl[ \tilde{H}_{\bm{s}_t} \hat{v}_{\bm{s}_t} + \tilde{H}_{\bm{a}_t} \hat{v}_{\bm{a}_t} + \tilde{H}_{\bm{\epsilon}_t} \hat{v}_{\bm{\epsilon}_t} \biggr],
\label{eq:expectation_vector_form}
\\
\hat{v}_{\bm{s}_{t+1}} &\approx (J_{\bm{s}_t} \odot J_{\bm{s}_t}) \hat{v}_{\bm{s}_t} + (J_{\bm{a}_t} \odot J_{\bm{a}_t}) \hat{v}_{\bm{a}_t} + (J_{\bm{\epsilon}_t} \odot J_{\bm{\epsilon}_t}) \hat{v}_{\bm{\epsilon}_t}.
\label{eq:variance_vector_form}
\end{align}
The computations of \Cref{eq:expectation_vector_form,eq:variance_vector_form} are illustrated in \Cref{fig:hl-diagram}d.
Stacking these computations over multiple time steps gives us an approximation of the distribution over future states, captured analytically as a computation graph, as shown in \Cref{fig:hl-diagram}e.
Adding the computation of the reward over these distributions in the same manner yields a computation graph for an approximation of the $\mathcal{Q}$-function.
Note that the computation graph propagates distributions and does not sample trajectories.
The computation only requires the mean $(\hat{\mu}_\epsilon=0)$ and variance $(\hat{v}_\epsilon=1)$ of the noise which are known in advance and are absorbed as constants in the graph.
This construction is very general -- only requiring access to $T(\bm{s}_t,\bm{a}_t,\bm{\epsilon}_t)$, and analytic computation of its partial derivatives, e.g., $\nicefrac{\partial T_j}{\partial {s}_{t,k}}$, $\nicefrac{\partial T_j}{\partial {a}_{t,\ell}}$.
In practice, transition functions can have non-differentiable components which can be mitigated by approximating the non-smooth functions with their smoother alternatives.
For instance, a sharp Hyperbolic Tangent function can approximate a step function.
\subsection{Optimization Algorithm}
Thanks to the symbolic representation, once the computation graph is built, it can be reused for all steps of problem solving and in fact for multiple instances of the same problem as long as the reward function does not change.
The optimization is conceptually simple, initializing all action variables for all time steps and performing gradient based search over the computation graph. However, some important details are discussed next.
\mypar{Multiple Restarts and Loss function}
Following \cite{cui2019stochastic}, we perform gradient search with multiple restarts.
While they performed restarts sequentially, we take advantage of the structure of the computation to perform the restarts in a vectorized form.
If we have $n_a$ action variables at each time step and the search horizon is $d$, then a policy is given by $n_o=2dn_a$ parameters for the mean and variance of each variable.
Feeding the current state and these $n_o$ parameters to the computation graph yields an approximation of the $\mathcal{Q}$-value and hence we can perform the optimization.
To handle multiple restarts we generate a matrix of $n_r \times n_o$ entries where every row represents a possible policy.
Then we define the (negative) loss function to be the sum of the $\mathcal{Q}$-values on all the rows in the matrix.
Therefore, we benefit from evaluating all restarts as a ``batch of examples" relative to the computation graph.
Since we are optimizing with respect to the input matrix (and not computation graph weights), the loss decomposes into a sum of independent functions and gradient search effectively optimizes all restarts simultaneously.
\input{algorithms/disprod.tex}
\mypar{Initialization of Actions}
For discrete action variables, following \cite{cui2019stochastic}, we initialize actions
parameters for time step $t=0$ to binary values and for steps $t>0$, we initialize the marginals to random values in $[0,1]$.
For continuous action variables, we must constrain actions to be in a valid interval.
For each action variable the policy is given by a
uniform distribution, initializing $a_\mu \sim \mathcal{U}(a_\text{min}, a_\text{max})$ and the variance of a uniform distribution centered around $a_\mu$. Formally, $a_{v} = \nicefrac{\min(a_\text{max} - a_\mu, a_\mu - a_\text{min})^2}{12}$.
\mypar{Policy Updates}
We use gradient search with Adam \cite{kingma2015adam} to optimize the action variables over all restarts simultaneously.
We make at most $K=10$ updates and stop the search early when the actions converge: $||\bm{a}_\text{new} - \bm{a}_\text{old}||_\infty \le 0.1$ for normalized action ranges.
Gradients are used to update both $a_\mu$ and $a_v$, which implies that we search over a stochastic policy.
This is important for success in sparse-reward scenarios.
If we have sparse rewards and both the transitions and policy are deterministic, then the gradient will be zero because small changes to the action variables will not make a difference for the sparse reward.
With a stochastic policy, there is some probability of obtaining the sparse reward and hence gradient information will be available.
Hence the main role of the stochastic policy is to broaden the search when needed, while also allowing a nearly deterministic choice of actions at convergence.
\mypar{Safe Projected-Gradient Update}
The gradient-based updates have to satisfy two constraints.
The first is the need to constrain variables into valid intervals.
For this, we use the standard projected gradient descent to restrict $a_\mu$ and $a_v$.
Specifically, $a_\mu$ is constrained to the valid values according to the environment, and $a_v$ is constrained to $\min(\nicefrac{1}{12}, \nicefrac{\min(a_\mu - a_\text{min}, a_\text{max} - a_\mu)^2}{12})$. If the gradient step pushes $a_\mu$ or $a_v$ outside the valid region, it is clipped to the boundary.
Finally, we only take a gradient step on the restart if it improves the $\mathcal{Q}$-value and otherwise we maintain the previous value.
This safe update requires an additional evaluation of the computation graph to check for the $\mathcal{Q}$-value improvement and it increases runtime, but it ensures that the performance is monotonically increasing.
\mypar{Saving Actions}
Since the gradients are back-propagated through the entire computation graph, action variables at all depths are adjusted according to the corresponding gradients. However, only the action at depth $d=0$ is executed. Formally, at time $t$, we choose the action $a_{t,0}$ for state $s_t$, while $a_{t,1:D}$ are not used.
These updated actions can be used to initialize the action variables when planning at state $s_{t+1}$.
The same idea has been used before in MPPI \cite{williams2017information,wagener2019online}.
Note that MPPI also uses multiple samples, but these samples all contribute to the update of a single action sequence, which can potentially limit the search~\cite{lambert2021stein,barcelos2021dual}.
To allow reuse of old search but add diversity, we initialize one restart using the old actions shifted one time step, and initialize all other restarts randomly.
\mypar{Overall Optimization Algorithm}
These steps are summarized in \Cref{alg:opt},
where search depth, initial step-size and number of restarts serve as hyper-parameters.
When all restarts have converged or $K$ gradient steps have been performed, we choose the \emph{best restart} with the maximum $\mathcal{Q}$-value, breaking ties randomly.
Finally, mean of the first action from the best restart is selected.
\section{Experiments}%
\label{sec:exp}
We experiment with DiSProD on a variety of deterministic and stochastic environments and evaluate its robustness to long horizon planning, its ability to work with sparse rewards, and its performance in high-dimensional action spaces.
For this purpose, we conduct extensive experiments on several simulated and real-world environments with increasing complexity, as shown in \Cref{fig:exp_setup}.
We use three OpenAI Gym \cite{brockman2016openai} environments (Cart Pole, Mountain Car, and Pendulum) to evaluate the \emph{robustness} of the compared planners in terms of stochasticity, planning horizon, and reward sparsity.
In addition, we developed a new Gym environment that models a simplified vehicle dynamics, elaborating over the Dubins' car model \cite{dubins1957curves}. In particular, the agent can control the change in linear $(\Delta v_t)$ and angular velocity $(\Delta \omega_t)$ instead of controlling the velocities directly, and the maximum change $(\overline{\Delta{v}}, \overline{\Delta{\omega}})$ is limited to a small value. This model is still inaccurate because it ignores friction, inertia, actuation noise and localization noise, but it provides an acceptable approximation. We then use this model to plan in a physics simulator with asynchronous execution. Specifically, the planner is used to control a TurtleBot in Gazebo simulation via a Robot Operating System~(ROS) interface.
Finally, to demonstrate robustness and applicability, DiSProD controls two physical robot systems: an Unmanned Ground Vehicle (Jackal) and an Unmanned Surface Vessel (Heron) using the aforementioned model.
OpenAI Gym simulators are deterministic by default.
To support experiments with probabilistic models, we enhance these environments by explicitly adding noise into the model and using it as a part of the dynamics $T(\bm{s},\bm{a},\bm{\epsilon})$. Further details are in the supplementary material. For the experiments, it suffices to note that we parameterize the amount of noise using a scalar $\alpha$ and can therefore evaluate planners' performance as a function of stochasticity in the dynamics.
\subsection{Baselines}
We compare DiSProD to CEM \cite{kobilarov2012cross,chua2018deep} and MPPI \cite{williams2017information,wagener2019online}.
Both CEM and MPPI are shooting-based planners that maintain a sequence of action distributions to sample actions from.
From a given state, they use the sampled actions to generate multiple trajectories and compute the rewards accumulated at the end of each trajectory.
The main difference between CEM and MPPI is how they recompute the action distribution.
While CEM uses the actions corresponding to the top $n$ trajectories to form the new action distribution, MPPI weights the actions belonging to a trajectory by the accumulative reward for that trajectory.
Hyperparameters for the planners were frozen after tuning them on deterministic versions of the environments.
Both CEM and MPPI can potentially benefit from the use of saving actions.
We have found that this is helpful in the basic environments but harms the performance of these algorithms in the simplified vehicle model.
To ensure a fair comparison we use the best setting for the baselines in the experiments whereas DiSProD always saves actions.
\subsection{Evaluation in Basic Gym Environments}
\mypar{Increasing Stochasticity}
First, we explore the performance of the planners with the original deterministic environments and with added stochasticity.
To separate randomness in the environment from randomness in the experiment, we perform 8 repetitions over 6 runs in each environment, calculating means in each repetition and standard deviations of the means across repetitions.
Averages and standard deviations are shown in \Cref{fig:exp_noise_cartpole,fig:exp_noise_pendulum,fig:exp_noise_mountain_car}. We observe that the planners perform similarly in deterministic environments ($\alpha=0$) but
with increasing amounts of stochasticity,
DiSProD degrades more gracefully and performs better than CEM or MPPI.
\mypar{Increasing Planning Horizon}
Intuitively the deeper the search, the more informative it is. But deeper search can also increase variance when estimating action quality and hence harm performance.
Results for experiments testing this aspect
in noisy variants of basic environments
are shown in \Cref{fig:exp_depth_cartpole_noisy,fig:exp_depth_pendulum_noisy,fig:exp_depth_mountain_car_noisy} and deterministic environments are included in the supplementary material.
We observe that while in the deterministic setting all the planners have similar performance, in some stochastic environments, the performance of CEM and MPPI can degrade with increasing search depth while DiSProD gives better results.
In these environments, beyond a required minimum depth, increasing the depth further does not help performance.
This changes, however, when we change reward sparsity.
\mypar{Increasing Reward Sparsity}
\label{sec:planning_with_sparse_rewards}
Robust planners should be able to work with both sparse and dense rewards.
Intuitively, if the reward is dense then even a short search horizon can yield good performance, but a deeper search is required for sparse reward .
To test this, we evaluate the performance of the planners by varying the sparsity of the rewards in the Mountain Car environment. With the standard reward function, the agent gets a large positive reward when its position and velocity are larger than certain thresholds. We modify the reward function to use a smooth version of greater-than-equal-to function given by $\sigma(10\beta(x-\text{target}))$
where $\beta$ is a sparsity multiplier.
The larger the value of $\beta$, the harder it is to get a reward from bad trajectories.
Results are shown in \Cref{fig:exp_4_depth_100,fig:exp_4_depth_200}.
\Cref{fig:exp_4_depth_100} shows that with the standard search depth of 100, all planners fail to reach the goal once the reward becomes very sparse.
\Cref{fig:exp_4_depth_200} shows that DiSProD can recover and perform well by increasing search depth to 200 but CEM and MPPI fail to do so.
\subsection{Evaluation in High Dimensional Action Space}
\label{sec: experiment_with_high_dim_action_space}
To explore
high dimensional action spaces,
we modify the Mountain Car environment by adding redundant action variables.
The dynamics still depend on a single relevant action variable but the reward function includes additional penalties for the redundant actions.
To obtain a high score, the agent must use a similar policy as before for the relevant action and keep the values of the redundant action variables as close to 0 as possible. Details of the model are in the Appendix. We compare the performance of the planners against number of redundant actions, without changing any other hyperparameters.
Results are shown in \Cref{fig:exp_high_dim_scores}, where the MPPI results are omitted since the scores are too low and they distort the plot.
We observe that while CEM/MPPI perform poorly as the action space increases, the performance of DiSProD remains extremely stable.
The performance of CEM improves if we increase the population size (number of samples) by a factor of 100 (from 200 to 2000 or 20,000), but it still lags behind DiSProD.
Additional results analysing this scenario are given in the Appendix.
We note that despite the inferior reward, CEM is able to achieve the goal. However, as shown in \Cref{fig:exp_high_dim_steps}, it requires a lot more steps to reach the goal location.
This experiment illustrates the potential advantage of planners that use
the analytic model to identify what causes good outcomes
as compared to algorithms that estimate this effect through sampling.
\subsection{Evaluation with Hybrid State Space}
While we focus on experiments in continuous spaces, our planner is compatible with hybrid environments. To illustrate this we modify the Cart Pole environment to include a binary variable which is set to 1 if the cart is to the right of a certain x-coordinate. The agent receives a reward of 3 when this binary variable is set to 1, otherwise it gets a reward of 1.
\Cref{fig:exp_hybrid_depth,fig:exp_hybrid_noise}
show the performance of DiSProD and CEM against planning horizon and noise level.
We observe that a deeper search is required for this problem and that DiSProD can successfully obtain high reward.
\subsection{Evaluation with a Physics Simulator}
\label{sec:evaluation_with_a_physics_simulator}
We control a TurtleBot using a Gazebo simulation and evaluate the performance of DiSProD on 16 maps with varying degrees of difficulty. In these experiments, the analytic transition model does not take into account the obstacles.
The reward function provides a negative reward when the agent collides with obstacles.\footnote{Incorporating obstacles in the transition yields similar or better results, but slows down the planner due to the increased size of the analytical computation graph.}
The obstacle patterns and detailed evaluation results are in the Appendix.
Following \cite{wu2020towards}, we use two metrics to evaluate the performance of the planners - success rate (SR) and success weighted by optimal path length (SL). SR measures the success percentage of the planners across different maps, while SL is the ratio of the planned path length to the euclidean distance from starting position to goal averaged over cases where navigation was successful. Intuitively, the lower the SL value, the faster the agent reaches the goal.
Results are shown in \Cref{tab:turtlebotresults}, averaged over 5 runs for each map and averaged over all instances. We observe that all planners are able to control the TurtleBot but DiSProD performs better in both metrics.
We also evaluated the planners in a Gym environment where the planners' model matches the environment dynamics exactly. In this case, all planners perform similarly.
This suggests that the main difference in performance in TurtleBot is due to robustness of DiSProD to handle inaccuracy in the model.
\subsection{Experiments with Robotic Systems}
\label{sec: exp_with_robotics_systems}
We use DiSProD with the same analytic model and planner interface as above, to control Jackal and Heron. Real-time control requires high frequency control commands to avoid significant drift. Therefore, one has to
find a good balance between planning horizon $(d)$ and the maximum change of linear velocity $\overline{\Delta{v}}$.
Experiments with low $\overline{\Delta{v}}$ require a large $d$ thus are slow, while experiments with high $\overline{\Delta{v}}$ suffer from drift, as the hardware cannot stop or accelerate instantaneously.
We specified these parameters through initial exploration with the systems. Other parameters are the same as in the TurtleBot simulation experiments.
\input{figures/tex/exp_hardware.tex}
\input{tables/turtlebot/turtlebot_summary_analytic_only.tex}
For experiments with Jackal, DiSProD is used exactly as above, i.e., sending actions to the robot.
For the surface vessel, however, we use our planner in another way because our Heron has a motor issue in one of its thrusters.
Specifically, DiSProD optimizes the action sequence exactly as before.
Instead of sending the actions, it computes intermediate states expected to be reached with the policy (which are available in the computation graph), and sends these as ``waypoints" to a PID controller.
We found that, since our planner works at a fine time granularity, we can send every 5th state to a PID controller and achieve smooth control.
\Cref{fig:exp_hardware_results} visualizes the trajectories generated by DiSProD when controlling Jackal and Heron.
\subsection{Ablation Studies}
Our planner propagates the state distribution using \Cref{eq:expectation_vector_form,eq:variance_vector_form}.
In this section, we explore the contribution of the different variance terms in these equations ($\hat{\bm{v}}_{S_t}, \hat{\bm{v}}_{A_t}$ and $\hat{\bm{v}}_{\epsilon_t}$)
to the performance of the algorithm.
We use the term \textit{complete mode} when the planner uses the variance terms (DiSProD) and \textit{no-variance mode} when it zeroes them out (DiSProD-NV).
We look into the state distributions produced by DiSProD and DiSProD-NV, and compare them against the empirical state distributions as described below. We fix the start state and a sequence of action distributions, and compute the next-state distribution for a fixed depth. To obtain the empirical state distribution, we sample actions from the same fixed action distribution and use the dynamics model to compute the next-state.
The trajectory distributions for Pendulum are visualized in \Cref{fig:rollouts_stochastic_simple_env_fixed_alpha}.
We observe that DiSProD gives us a better approximation than DiSProD-NV -- the mean is more accurate and while the variance is underestimated, it has a reasonable shape.
Additional experiments detailed in the Appendix show additional visualization of trajectory distributions, as well as showing that both action and state variance contribute to the improved planning performance.
\section{Discussion and Conclusions}
The paper presents DiSProD, a novel approach for planning in continuous stochastic environments.
The method is general and overcomes limitations of prior work by using an abstracted representation, using a higher order Taylor approximation, and showing how optimization via gradients can be done over propagation of distributions.
Experiments show success across multiple problems, improved handling of stochastic environments, and decreased sensitivity to search depth, reward sparsity, and large action spaces.
Also, DiSProD is compatible with control in real robotic systems.
DiSProD has some limitations that are important problems for future exploration.
The first is computational complexity where the main bottlenecks are the computation of the diagonal of Hessian matrix
and the depth of the search.
Alternative formulations of the computation graph might provide speedup.
The second is the approximation quality which requires non-zero values for first and second derivatives, where alternative analytic approximations might allow for improvements.
The third is the assumption made for this work that the transition function is known.
A natural approach is to learn the model as in model-based RL and use it for planning.
We leave further exploration of these questions to future work.
\section{Contribution of Sub-Expressions in the Taylor's Expansion}
\label{sec:analysis_of_ablation_modes}
As described in Section \ref{sec: analytic_graph}, the vector form of the equations are as follows:
\begin{align}
\hat{\mu}_{\bm{s}_{t+1}} &\approx T(\hat{\bm{z}_t}) + 0.5 \biggl[ \tilde{H}_{\bm{s}_t} \hat{v}_{\bm{s}_t} + \tilde{H}_{\bm{a}_t} \hat{v}_{\bm{a}_t} + \tilde{H}_{\bm{\epsilon}_t} \hat{v}_{\bm{\epsilon}_t} \biggr]\\
\hat{v}_{\bm{s}_{t+1}} &\approx (J_{\bm{s}_t} \odot J_{\bm{s}_t}) \hat{v}_{\bm{s}_t} + (J_{\bm{a}_t} \odot J_{\bm{a}_t}) \hat{v}_{\bm{a}_t}
+ (J_{\bm{\epsilon}_t} \odot J_{\bm{\epsilon}_t}) \hat{v}_{\bm{\epsilon}_t}
\end{align}
where $\hat{\bm{z}_t} = (\hat{\mu}_{\bm{s}_{t}}, {\mu}_{\bm{a}_{t}}, {\mu}_{\bm{\epsilon}_{t}})$
The equations depend on the distribution of state, action and noise variables. To analyze the impact each set of variables has on the outcome, we consider three cases - no-variance, state-variance and complete.
\mypar{No variance} In this setup, all the variance terms$(\hat{v}_{\bm{s}}, \hat{v}_{\bm{a}}, \hat{v}_{\bm{\epsilon}})$ are zeroed out. So the equations become
\begin{align}
\hat{\mu}_{\bm{s}_{t+1}} &\approx T_j(\hat{\bm{z}}) \\
\hat{v}_{\bm{s}_{t+1}} &\approx 0
\end{align}
\mypar{State variance} Now, we just zero out action variance $(\hat{v}_{\bm{a}})$, which means we effectively optimize a deterministic policy.
\begin{align}
\hat{\mu}_{\bm{s}_{t+1}} &\approx T(\hat{\bm{z}_t}) + 0.5 \biggl[ \tilde{H}_{\bm{s}_t} \hat{v}_{\bm{s}_t} + \tilde{H}_{\bm{\epsilon}_t} \hat{v}_{\bm{\epsilon}_t} \biggr]\\
\hat{v}_{\bm{s}_{t+1}} &\approx (J_{\bm{s}_t} \odot J_{\bm{s}_t}) \hat{v}_{\bm{s}_t} + (J_{\bm{\epsilon}_t} \odot J_{\bm{\epsilon}_t}) \hat{v}_{\bm{\epsilon}_t}
\end{align}
Note that at $t=0$, as the planner knows the state exactly, therefore $\hat{v}_{\bm{s}_0} = 0$. We now consider the possible values the remaining partials might take and analyze the impact.
\begin{enumerate}
\item $J_{\bm{\epsilon}_t} = 0$ and $\tilde{H}_{\bm{\epsilon}_t} = 0$. Then,
\begin{align}
\hat{\mu}_{\bm{s}_1} \approx T(\hat{\bm{z}_0})
\quad \text{and}\quad
\hat{v}_{\bm{s}_1} \approx 0
\end{align}
As $\hat{v}_{\bm{s}_t}$ always remains zero, the result is similar to the no-variance mode.
\item $J_{\bm{\epsilon}_t} \ne 0$ but $\tilde{H}_{\bm{\epsilon}_t} = 0$. Then,
\begin{align}
\hat{\mu}_{\bm{s}_1} \approx T(\hat{\bm{z}_0})
\quad \text{and}\quad
\hat{v}_{\bm{s}_1} \approx (J_{\bm{\epsilon}_t} \odot J_{\bm{\epsilon}_t}) \hat{v}_{\bm{\epsilon}_t}
\end{align}
As $\hat{v}_{\bm{s}_1} \ne 0$, it influences $\hat{\mu}_{\bm{s}_2}$ and $\hat{v}_{\bm{s}_2}$ and future timesteps.
\item $J_{\bm{\epsilon}_t} = 0$ but $\tilde{H}_{\bm{\epsilon}_t} \ne 0$. This can happen as we evaluate the partials at the mean of the variables, and we assume zero-mean noise ($\hat{\mu}_{\bm{\epsilon}_t} = 0$). So while $J_{\bm{\epsilon}_t}$ exists, it can evaluate to zero. In such a scenario, we have,
\begin{align}
\hat{\mu}_{\bm{s}_1} \approx T(\hat{\bm{z}_0}) + \tilde{H}_{\bm{\epsilon}_t} \hat{v}_{\bm{\epsilon}_t}
\quad \text{and}\quad
\hat{v}_{\bm{s}_1} = 0
\end{align}
As $\hat{v}_{\bm{s}_{t+1}} \approx (J_{\bm{s}_t} \odot J_{\bm{s}_t}) \hat{v}_{\bm{s}_t}$ and $\hat{v}_{\bm{s}_0} = 0$, the next-state variance is always zero. We can generalize and write
\begin{align}
\hat{\mu}_{\bm{s}_{t+1}} \approx T(\hat{\bm{z}_t}) + \tilde{H}_{\bm{\epsilon}_t} \hat{v}_{\bm{\epsilon}_t}
\quad \text{and}\quad
\hat{v}_{\bm{s}_{t+1}} = 0
\end{align}
\end{enumerate}
\mypar{Complete} This is the default variant of DiSProD which uses all the variance terms.
As discussed above, for successful propagation of distribution, DiSProD requires at least some of the $J$ or $\tilde{H}$ terms to be non-zero.
\section{Experimental Results}
\input{figures/tex/exp_appendix_gym.tex}
\myparquestion{Does having a larger planning horizon help in deterministic environments?}
In our experiments with basic Gym environments, we observe that optimal performance, with all the three planners, is achieved with a small planning horizon. Increasing the planning horizon further does not impact the performance. (\Cref{fig:exp_appendix_gym_results}~(a-c)).
\myparquestion{Does sampling more trajectories help?}
Shooting algorithms sample action sequences to generate trajectories. Intuitively, increasing the number of action sequences that a planner is allowed to sample should help with better plans and hence improve performance.
We observe that in deterministic environments, sampling a small number of trajectories is sufficient to obtain near optimal performance. Making the environments stochastic degrades the planners' overall performance. Interestingly enough, in these environments, the performance remains unaffected on increasing the number of samples. Note that we use the same hyperparameters in deterministic and stochastic environments.
(\Cref{fig:exp_appendix_gym_results}~(d-i)).
\input{figures/tex/exp_high_dim_cem_convergence.tex}
\myparquestion{How does the performance of shooting algorithms vary when the size of the action space increases?}
When the action space increases, a small number of samples cover a very small volume of the possible trajectories. Intuitively, the performance of agents relying on shooting methods will be poor in such scenarios and performance should improve on increasing the number of samples. As shown in \Cref{fig:exp_high_dim_scores}, this indeed is the case. We take a closer look at the performance of CEM as the population size increases. For this, we use the modified version of Mountain Car as detailed in \Cref{sec: experiment_with_high_dim_action_space} with 14 redundant actions. In \Cref{fig:exp_high_dim_cem_convergence}, we plot the values of 5 action variables (A1 to A5) where A1 influences the dynamics while the rest are redundant action variables. For attaining high rewards, an agent must learn to keep the values of action variables A2 through A5 as close to 0 as possible, while using A1 to act optimally. We observe that as the population size increases, CEM does a better job at keeping the values of the redundant variables close to 0. Plots shown in the main paper show that this indeed corresponds to improved performance.
\myparquestion{Does DiSProD provide a better approximation of the system dynamics than DiSProD-NV?}
As discussed earlier, DiSProD-NV does not account for any uncertainty in the dynamics and ignores the variance terms in the Taylor's expansion while DiSProD uses a 2nd degree Taylor's expansion to approximate the dynamics.
Note that DiSProD-NV does not calculate a distribution but simply propagates the mean.
In addition, its calculated mean is potentially less accurate.
We explore this behaviour in SimpleEnv. For a fixed sequence of action distribution, we compute the state distribution due to DiSProD and DiSProD-NV and compare that to the empirical state distribution visited by the agent when it samples from the same action distribution. In Figure \ref{fig:viz_rollouts} we compare the empirical state distribution of $x$ against the state distributions as computed by DiSProD and DiSProD-NV.
When $\alpha$ is 0, the approximation using DiSProD overlaps with the empirical distribution for some time before diverging slightly. As the stochasticity of the environment increases (indicated by increasing $\alpha$ values), the state distributions due to DiSProD and DiSProD-NV diverge from the empirical state distribution. But the distribution due to DiSProD is a better approximation than the distribution due to DiSProD-NV.
\input{figures/tex/visualizing_rollouts}
\myparquestion{Do both state and action variance improve planning?}
DiSProD relies on state and action variance terms to propagate distributions. Intuitively, state variance captures the impact of noise on the state variables while having action variance enables DiSProD to search over a stochastic policy. We explore the performance of the three variants of DiSProD discussed in \Cref{sec:analysis_of_ablation_modes}.
Results are shown in Figure \ref{fig:ablation_cartpole}, \ref{fig:ablation_mountain_car}, \ref{fig:ablation_pendulum}.
We observe that for regions of low stochasticity, all the three modes have similar performance. But with increasing $\alpha$, zeroing out the state variance harms DiSProD. Further, in all of the basic environments, zeroing out action variance but keeping state variance does not harm performance.
However, as shown in \Cref{fig:ablation_simple_env}, in the Simple Env which has a more complex noise structure (see \Cref{sec:simple_env_details}) action variance leads to further improvement in performance.
\input{figures/tex/ablation.tex}
\myparquestion{Detailed results for experiments with modified Dubins Car model}
The detailed results for experiments with the modified Dubins Car model in Gym and TurtleBot are given in \Cref{tab:results-gym-dubins,tab:results-dubins-turtlebot}. These are aggregated in the main paper in \Cref{tab:turtlebotresults} by averaging over the 16 maps.
\input{tables/gym/planning_with_stds.tex}
\input{tables/turtlebot/turtlebot_planning_summary_w_stds.tex}
\section{Example: Computation Graphs with Known Transition Models}
For a concrete example, let us consider the dynamics of the Pendulum from the OpenAI Gym. Let $S_t = [\theta_t, \Dot{\theta}_t]^\top$ be the state vector, $A_t = [a_t]^\top$ be the action vector and $\epsilon_t = [e_t]^\top$ be the noise vector. The transition function is defined as follows:
\begin{align}
T(S,A, \epsilon) &= [\theta_{t+1}, \Dot{\theta}_{t+1}]^\top, \\
\text{where } \Dot{\theta}_{t+1} &= \Dot{\theta}_{t} + \left(-c_1 \sin(\theta_t + \pi) + c_2 a_t\right) \Delta_t \nonumber \\
\theta_{t+1} &= \theta_t + (\Dot{\theta}_{t+1} + e_t) \Delta_t \nonumber
\end{align}
In this equation, $c_1 = \frac{3g}{2l}$ and $c_2 = \frac{3}{ml^2}$, are constants.
Then the expectation and variance of the transition function can be written as follows:
\begin{align}
J_{S_t}
&= \frac{\partial S_{t+1}}{\partial S_{t}}
= \begin{bmatrix}
\frac{\partial \theta_{t+1}} {\partial \theta_{t}} &
\frac{\partial \theta_{t+1}} {\partial \Dot{\theta}_{t}} \\
\frac{\partial \Dot{\theta}_{t+1}} {\partial \theta_{t}} &
\frac{\partial \Dot{\theta}_{t+1}} {\partial \Dot{\theta}_{t}}
\end{bmatrix}
= \begin{bmatrix}
1 - c_1 \cos(\theta_t + \pi) {\Delta^2_t} &
\Delta_t \\
-c_1 \cos(\theta_t + \pi) {\Delta_t} &
1
\end{bmatrix}\\
J_{A_t}
&= \frac{\partial S_{t+1}}{\partial A_{t}}
= \begin{bmatrix}
\frac{\partial \theta_{t+1}} {\partial a_{t}}\\
\frac{\partial \Dot{\theta}_{t+1}} {\partial a_{t}}
\end{bmatrix}
= \begin{bmatrix}
c_2 \Delta^2_t\\
c_2 \Delta_t
\end{bmatrix}\\
J_{\epsilon_t}
&= \frac{\partial S_{t+1}}{\partial \epsilon_{t}}
= \begin{bmatrix}
\frac{\partial \theta_{t+1}} {\partial e_{t}} \\
\frac{\partial \Dot{\theta}_{t+1}} {\partial e_{t}}
\end{bmatrix}
= \begin{bmatrix}
\Delta_t \\
0
\end{bmatrix}\\
\tilde{H}_{S_t}
&= \frac{\partial^2 S_{t+1}}{\partial S_{t}^2}
= \begin{bmatrix}
\frac{\partial^2 \theta_{t+1}} {\partial \theta_{t}^2} &
\frac{\partial^2 \theta_{t+1}} {\partial \Dot{\theta}_{t}^2} \\
\frac{\partial^2 \Dot{\theta}_{t+1}} {\partial \theta_{t}^2} &
\frac{\partial^2 \Dot{\theta}_{t+1}} {\partial \Dot{\theta}_{t}^2}
\end{bmatrix}
= \begin{bmatrix}
c_1 \sin(\theta_t + \pi) \Delta^2_t &
0 \\
c_1 \sin(\theta_t + \pi) \Delta_t &
0
\end{bmatrix}\\
\tilde{H}_{A_t}
&= \frac{\partial^2 S_{t+1}}{\partial A_{t}^2}
= \begin{bmatrix}
\frac{\partial^2 \theta_{t+1}} {\partial a_{t}^2} \\
\frac{\partial^2 \Dot{\theta}_{t+1}} {\partial a_{t}^2}
\end{bmatrix}
= \begin{bmatrix}
0 \\
0
\end{bmatrix}\\
\tilde{H}_{\epsilon_t}
&= \frac{\partial^2 S_{t+1}}{\partial \epsilon_{t}^2}
= \begin{bmatrix}
\frac{\partial^2 \theta_{t+1}} {\partial e_{t}^2} \\
\frac{\partial^2 \Dot{\theta}_{t+1}} {\partial e_{t}^2}
\end{bmatrix}
= \begin{bmatrix}
0 \\
0
\end{bmatrix}\\
\hat{\bm{v}}_{S_t}
&= \begin{bmatrix}
\hat{v}_{\theta, t} \\
\hat{v}_{\Dot{\theta}, t}
\end{bmatrix} \qquad
\hat{\bm{v}}_{A_t}
= \begin{bmatrix}
\hat{v}_{a, t}
\end{bmatrix} \qquad
\hat{\bm{v}}_{\epsilon_t}
= \begin{bmatrix}
\hat{v}_{e, t}
\end{bmatrix}
\end{align}
\begin{align}
\mathbb{E}[T(S_t,A_t, \epsilon)] &\approx T(\mu_{S_t}, \mu_{A_t}, \mu_\epsilon) + 0.5 \left(
\tilde{H}_{S_t}
\hat{\bm{v}}_{S_t}
+
\tilde{H}_{A_t}
\hat{\bm{v}}_{A_t}
+
\tilde{H}_{\epsilon_t}
\hat{\bm{v}}_{\epsilon_t}
\right) \\
\mathbb{V}[T(S_t,A_t, \epsilon)] &\approx
(J_{S_t} \odot J_{S_t})
\hat{\bm{v}}_{S_t}
+
(J_{A_t} \odot J_{A_t})
\hat{\bm{v}}_{A_t} +
(J_{\epsilon_t} \odot J_{\epsilon_t})
\hat{\bm{v}}_{\epsilon_t}
\end{align}
This illustrates that we can have analytic gradients for the model as mentioned above.
Note that, for the sake of simplicity, we have considered just a single noise variable in this model. However, the same approach works with multiple noise variables.
\input{figures/tex/diagram}
The computation graph for depth 2 for this example is shown in Figure \ref{fig:diagram}. To make the graph simple, certain portions have been abstracted away. More specifically, $T$ signifies the transition function and $r$ specifies the reward function.
For this example, nodes $g_1, h_1, h_2$ and $h_3$ are used to compute the expectation and variance of next state variables and are defined as follows: $g_1 = \Tilde{H}_{S_t}$;
$h_1 = J_{S_t} \odot J_{S_t}$;
$h_2 = J_{A_t} \odot J_{A_t}$;
$h_3 = J_{\epsilon_t} \odot J_{\epsilon_t}$
\section{Experiment details}
\subsection{Environments}
In this section, we briefly describe the environments used for our experiments. The basic environments are taken from OpenAI Gym to which we make minor modifications. We rewrite the transition and reward functions by replacing any step-functions with their smooth equivalents. As the environments are deterministic, we add noise explicitly to make them stochastic. $\epsilon$ denotes noise sampled from a standard Gaussian and $\alpha$ controls the amount of noise being added.
\subsubsection{Cartpole}
\label{sec: env-desc-cartpole}
Cartpole has four state variables - $x, y, \theta, \dot{\theta}$ and one control variable which controls the force acting on the cart. We make the environment stochastic by adding Gaussian noise to the force being applied. Concretely, the updated equation for force becomes $\text{force}_{\text{noisy}} = \text{force} + \alpha \epsilon$.
\subsubsection{Mountain Car}
Mountain Car has two state variables - position $(x)$ and velocity $(v)$ and one control variable ($u$) which is the force to be applied on the car. At a high level, the environment has two functions $f_x$ and $f_v$ that are used to update the position and velocity.
$$v_{t+1} = f_v(x_t, v_t) \text{ and } x_{t+1} = f_x(x_t, v_{t+1})$$
We add noise to $v_{t+1}$ to make the environment stochastic. $v_{t+1} = f_v(x_t, v_t) + \alpha \epsilon$.
\subsubsection{Pendulum}
Pendulum also has two state variables - $\theta$ and $\dot{\theta}$ and the control variable $(u)$ is the torque. First, $\dot{\theta}_{t+1}$ is computed using $\theta_t$, $\dot{\theta}_t$, $u_t$ and some constants, and then $\theta_{t+1}$ is updated using $\dot{\theta}_{t+1}$. We augment this and add noise to the update equation for $\theta_{t+1}$ such that it becomes $\theta_{t+1} = \theta_{t} + (\dot{\theta}_{t+1} + \alpha \exp(\epsilon)) dt$.
\input{figures/tex/exp_continuous_dubins_car_gym}
\input{figures/tex/dubins}
\subsubsection{Dubins Car}
\label{sec: dubins_car_env_details}
The standard Dubins Car model maintains three state variables - $x, y, \theta$ and has two control variables - velocity ($v$) and angular velocity ($\omega$). The dynamics equations are:
\begin{align}
x_{t+1} &= x_t + v_t \cos \theta_t dt \\
y_{t+1} &= y_t + v_t \sin \theta_t dt \\
\theta_{t+1} &= \theta_t + \omega dt
\end{align}
Since this is a discrete time system and ignores acceleration, the motion of the car can be unrealistic. For example, although $v_t = 0$ and $v_{t+1} = v_{\max}$ is a valid control, this cannot be performed by a real vehicle. As Gazebo is a real-physics simulator and considers factors like acceleration, inertia and friction, planning with this model leads to poor performance in Gazebo. In order to obtain a better approximation of the model used by Gazebo, we modify the controls from velocity and angular velocity to delta velocity $(\Delta v)$ and delta angular velocity $(\Delta \omega)$ and compute velocity and angular velocity as
\begin{align}
v_t &= v_{t-1} + \Delta v_{t} \\
\omega_t &= \omega_{t-1} + \Delta \omega_{t}
\end{align}
This prevents sudden changes in linear and angular velocity and helps to limit the actions. We experiment with this model on a suite of maps ranging from simple ones with no obstacles to complex ones with obstacles.
All the map configurations are shown in \Cref{fig:Dubins car maps} and the two of the RViz maps are shown in \Cref{fig:dubins}.
\subsubsection{Simple Env}
\label{sec:simple_env_details}
In the Gym environments that we experimented with, some of the required partial derivatives were either zero or not significant enough to make a difference in the planning results. To showcase the difference more clearly, we designed an additional environment called SimpleEnv where all the required partials are non-zero.
The environment has two state variables - $x$ and $y$ and two action variables - $\delta_x$ and $\delta_y$.
The dynamics are as follows:
\begin{align}
x_{t+1} &= x + \delta_x + \alpha (0.1\epsilon + \epsilon^2) \\
y_{t+1} &= y + \delta_y
\end{align}
The reward function is a smoothed 0-1 reward where a reward of 1 is given if the agent is sufficiently close to a predefined goal position.
\subsubsection{Cartpole - Hybrid Variant}
To experiment with hybrid environments, we modify Cartpole and introduce an environment variable called \textit{reward marker} (set to 0.5 in the experiment) and a new binary state variable that is set to 1 if the cart is to the left of the reward marker. The reward function is modified such that the agent gets a reward of 3 if the agent is to right of the reward marker and otherwise it continues to get a reward of 1. The initial position of the cart is always to the left of the reward marker. The noise is added in a similar manner as in the original Cartpole environment. (\Cref{sec: env-desc-cartpole})
\subsection{Controlling Sparsity of Rewards}
As mentioned in \Cref{sec:planning_with_sparse_rewards}, we modify the default reward function of Continuous Mountain Car to use a smooth version of greater-than-equal-to function $(f_{ge})$. The function takes as input a variable $x$ and a target $t$ and outputs $\sigma(10\beta(x-t))$ where $\beta$ is the sparsity multiplier. The function is a smooth approximation of $x \ge t$.
\Cref{fig:smooth_greater_than} shows a plot of $f_{ge}$ against $x-t$.
As the sparsity multiplier increases, the value of the function becomes increasingly similar to that of a step function and rewards become sparse.
\input{figures/tex/smooth_greater_than.tex}
\subsection{Hardware Platforms}
We use two physical robots in our experiments - Jackal and Heron.
Jackal is an Unmanned Ground Vehicle made by Clearpath Robotics. As mentioned in \Cref{sec:evaluation_with_a_physics_simulator}, the position of obstacles in the environment are unknown to the transition model. The reward function is aware of the obstacles and penalizes trajectories that collide with one. Jackal's position and orientation are obtained through a VICON Motion Capture System, and it is controlled directly by DiSProD through commands for linear and angular velocity.
Heron is an Unmanned Surface Vessel~(USV), also made by Clearpath Robotics. Similar to Jackal, the position of the obstacles is unknown to the transition model but available to the reward function. Heron's position is obtained by fusing GPS and Inertial Measurement Unit~(IMU) information using EKF.
It is also controlled through commands for linear and angular velocity, but in our experiments this is mediated through a PID controller because one of the USV's thrusters has intermittent motor failures, which requires a high-frequency feedback controller to compensate the significant error.
DiSProD computes an action sequence through its computation graph and then send a list of waypoints -- the means of states on the graph -- to the PID controller.
The list is updated asynchronously at every decision cycle of the planner.
\subsection{Additional Details}
We list the values of the parameters used for our experiments with OpenAI Gym in \Cref{tab:gym_param_specs} and for our experiments with Jackal and Heron in \Cref{tab:hardware_param_specs}.
\input{tables/gym/parameter_specs.tex}
\input{tables/hardware/parameter_specs.tex}
| 01d8b07f0faee48298d0aa119c35125899a85520 | 18,145 |
Cigars: Love the full stuff. but occasionally i enjoy medium too. LFD,TAT,ILLUSIONE,BOLIVAR,PARTAGAS,VSG, AVO HERITAGE
DRINKS: I don't drink anymore cause...well you know... but love any kind of bloody mary mix, or craft soda.
TV and MOVIES: shit.... too long to list. TV. Sons of anarchy, breaking bad, walking dead, Chicago Fire/PD/MED, Big bang theory... to name a few. Movies... man.... Pulp Fiction or anything tarintino, Tommy Boy, Billy madison, Waterworld and Point Break to name a few. LOL water world. Honestly though i love all food. Even have a [tattoo sleeve of food](http://i.imgur.com/Xhp92BG.jpg). i just don't like anchovies and cooked peppers. But other than that its fair game!
Video Games: eh. not my thing. but i like hockey games or racing games
For Fun: Smoking Cigars... DUH. Hanging with my lady and my dogs. Chillin with friends. I lead a low key life but am very grateful for that! Would love to travel more and do more outdoor activities. I was a young camper and loved it! I also like to prank people. Im defiantly a class clown! Its very hard to offend me. Ask that fucker /u/s00bar00
well thats a little about me. Thanks for posting this chef!!! | 49cc8390844f4fb2828e14c9bc65a358 | 330 |
The concept of guilt and forgiveness have effectively been served up to the human race more often than any other segment of the Astral Illusion. This has effectively distanced you from living as One Light.
Guilt is used as a means of control, and it is a powerful negative tool which is understood and used by every Ego manifesting through the Earth-bodies.
Governments use guilt to prevent individuals from asserting their freedom; all religions use fear to maintain allegiance to their concepts and precepts; and every human uses it to their own advantage. Parents use guilt to control their children and vice versa; people use guilt as an advantage in the workplace. Everyone bemoans their suffering from guilt and seeks forgiveness. That in itself demonstrates the depth of the illusion of guilt into consciousness. | https://www.lightpulsations.com/blogs/volah-blog/whisperings-from-within-four | 158 |
Expect regular, weekly newsletters from us again. One change, though.
Newsletters will be arriving on Fridays.
We promise ourselves to *not* work on Saturdays. With a Friday delivery, we’re more likely to keep that promise.
So with that, here this week’s things we think you’ll appreciate.
The idea was to make videos for kids.
This weekend, take $50 off the A3500 with Black Stainless Finish.
Note 2: This model, along with the other A3500‘s with premium metal finishes are by far the least loud Vitamix models.
Note 3: Here’s a video showing what the Black Stainless metal finish actually looks like. Plus, how it compares to the others premium metal options.
We rediscovered (and were saved by) this magical self-soothing tool this past weekend. It’s called a Thera Cane massager, and we just ordered one for our home. Like a foam roller, but more precise and more conducive to watching TV at the same time.
P.S. Shalva is still on maternity leave. During her time away, she’s continuing to do our Instagram. Hope you’re enjoying the less food-focused, more personal approach.
Hi ?? I’m Shalva. For the most part, I run this account. Lenny and I decided we want to share our real lives with you here, not some curated picturesque version of it. So here goes: •We run a blog and YouTube channel called lifeisnoyoke that specializes in vegan Vitamix recipes •Lenny is a vegan, our house is vegan, but I am not a vegan •I absolutely love the way I feel now that I’m mostly plant-based •We have a 7 week old baby, he’s adorable but a lot of work (hence the reason you’ve heard from us less) •I would normally post a beautifully made-up picture of myself, but I love the way I look as a new momma •Our account has been pretty whitewashed thus far, but we’re planning to just be ourselves from now on •Look for more stories, more this-is-what-we’re-actually-eating-today posts, and of course more of the little man! •Thanks for following us along in our journey ?
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| https://lifeisnoyoke.com/5-good-things-1-26-2018/ | 542 |
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I don't remember if it was because I couldn't find any, of if I didn't have any money, but I was into my third or fourth day of heroin withdrawal. I'd had no sleep. I was nearly constantly vomiting (or at least in the act of vomiting, because after the first few times, nothing's left to come up). My stomach and muscles were in such a disturbed state that the nausea was truly unbearable. My intestines and abdominal muscles were churning, churning, churning.
Moments after I'd take a big gulp of water, it would come right back up. I was ferociously thirsty, too, but I couldn't keep anything down. I'd lie down in the shower for hours, as that was the only thing that provided anything close to relief.
After 72 hours, or whatever, in this state, I was completely weak. No food, no water, no sleep and constant, violent heaving had left me a shell of a person. It was impossible to get comfortable. That's why you can't sleep. It's impossible to get comfortable for even a second when you're withdrawaling. It's common for people to say that you can't die from opiate withdrawals, but you can, and people have. Somewhere around Seattle right now, the family of a lady who went into withdrawal after being arrested and died due to neglect is suing for her unnecessary death. I think dehydration is often the culprit. I honestly felt like I was near that point. I wasn't getting any better. I was only getting worse, and I reached my breaking point. I got my parents to take me to a clinic.
I claimed I had severe food poisoning, and I definitely looked the part. I was in agony, but since it was sunday, no doctor was on duty at the doc-in-a-box. Therefore, the nurse practitioner, or whatever she was, suggested I go to the ER to get some pain medication for the stabbing pains in my abdomen. Bingo. I got my parents to take me to the hospital. It's amazing, how powerful willful ignorance can be. I dunno, though. I have to believe they knew something was up, but they didn't say anything. As far as they were concerned, seemingly, I had food poisoning, just like I said.
We got to the ER, and, of course, it was packed. They triaged patients, and a stomach ailment put me right at the bottom of the list. In agony, I waited something like four or five hours before being admitted, puking much of the time and lying on the ground in a fetal position for the remainder. My folks stayed with me the whole time. I'm grateful, because there are far worse parents out there. Anyway, I was finally admitted, and, although I'm sure they were suspicious I was a withdrawaling dope fiend, this being Seattle and all, I, and my presentable appearance and demeanor and whiteness, swindled them into pain medication. I was ghost-white, cold to the touch and barely able to stand at this point, so I was in a real medical emergency, no matter the root cause.
They gave me dilaudid, I think, intravenously, and it's really just absurd, after all those days and hours of complete hell, how quickly relief washed over me. Though still completely weak with a lingering hint of nausea, I was, for the most part, instantly relieved. They gave me some IV fluids, too, and some totally ineffective nausea medication, and I took up a hospital bed for a few hours before being discharged. Thankfully, I got a prescription for some hydrocodone to take home, or else it wouldn't have been long before I was back on the floor in a fetal position.
Oh, such relief. I went through that bottle of hydrocodone in like a day, and then I got paid or the drugs became available again, and I was right back in there. I've always had a job throughout my addiction, and I have pretty good medical insurance. Even still, I got a bill for something like $5,000 for my ER visit. That's the ridiculous state of our healthcare system. I mean, for all they knew, I was just a case of severe food poisoning, and for that, they're gonna charge a guy that much money. Absolutely absurd, and, for that reason, to this day I don't feel much guilt over never paying my bill. They got plenty from my insurance, I'm sure. Anyway, I'm down to 1mg of suboxone a day now, and I really feel like that phase of my life and mindset are a thing of the past. Let my tale serve as a warning. The glamour and fun of drugs quickly gives way to the addicted and powerless slave. | 9718ccb4f64643358f2cf63359aa3d8b | 1,063 |
Honestly, that is what I did with my stepdaughter when she was little, and I think it helped her to be more comfortable to know that she COULD talk about her BM and step-dad at our house. At the beginning, the relationship between my husband and his ex was extremely strained, and with me coming into the scene at 20 years old (and 10 years younger than him) it kind of put an added strain on it. I was doing my best to make it not weird for my SD, to see how we got along, and see if I could find ways to have a good relationship with my SD without being and "evil stepmother" (LOL, Evil Wife actually spawned from my stepdaughter jokingly calling me Evil Stepmother. It's the best. We did become really, really close. I love her beyond words.) | 05ae10f030a447968528aa24b514ebdd | 172 |
Opting for a meatless meal doesn’t have to mean dining on a dish of cold vegetables or an unimaginative veggie burger. As Houston’s dining scene continues to thrive in the creativity department, the bounty for where to score vegetarian eats is plentiful.
Whether you are in search for something spicy and exotic sans meat, or a casual neighborhood joint to satisfy soup, salad and sandwich cravings, check out this map of essential vegetarian restaurants around Houston.
Like its name suggests, this fast-casual eatery proudly promotes farm-fresh ingredients from local purveyors, and there are plenty of solid vegetarian options. Both the quinoa burger and the vegan “meatball” sub are hearty lunches, while the Fall Harvest bowl, loaded with roasted beets, Brussels sprouts, squash and Texas goat cheese can be made even more filling with the addition of tofu. Visit localfoodstexas.com to order online.
No craving will go unsatisfied at this 100% plant-based restaurant helmed by vegan chef extraordinaire Stephanie Hoban. Dig into the Bayou country gumbo, carnitas with slow-cooked smoked pulled jackfruit and the famous Bistro burger built with an organic lentil-walnut mushroom patty. Visit eatverdine.com to order online or find Verdine on Uber Eats.
Visit the ISKON Hare Krishna Temple and stay for the all-vegetarian lunch and dinner buffet (available for dine-in and to-go) at Govinda’s on the property. Dishes like saag paneer, daal makhani and chana masala revolve throughout the week, but visit on a Sunday, Wednesday or Friday and find a completely vegan menu.
Flower Child is a reliable healthy-fresh dining destination with plenty of vegetarian plates to choose from in the way of wraps, rice bowls and salads. Go for the vegan massaman curry with spaghetti squash, roasted sweet potato and toasted cashew for something special. Visit iamaflowerchild.com to order online or find Flower Child on Doordash.
Do vegan victoriously at Green Seed Vegan where the 100% vegan menu touts fresh-pressed paninis with vegan cheese and portabella cheesesteaks, plus raw vegan choices like the Raw-rrito made with seasoned coconut meat, zucchini bacon and cashew cream. Visit greenseedvegan.com to order online.
Enjoy a number of Indian delicacies sans meat at the hands of chef Kiran Verma, a true master at her craft. There is vegetable and paneer biryani, a festive mix of saffron basmati rice with apricots, cranberries, cashews and yogurt and the masala dosa, a spiced-potato stuffed lentil and rice crepe presented with sambar and coconut chutney. Call |||PHONE_NUMBER||| for delivery or curbside pick-up or find Kiran’s on Grubhub.
Sweetgreen is popular for its menu of warm hearty bowls, including the meatless Shroomami which packs in fresh flavor with chunky ingredients. Roasted sesame tofu and warm portobellos are added in with bright raw beets, cucumber, basil and sunflower seeds atop a bed of warm wild rice then tossed with miso sesame ginger dressing. Visit order.sweetgreen.com to order online or find Sweetgreen on Uber Eats, DoorDash and Grubhub.
In addition to the many traditional Indian eats at this hip café helmed by Anita Jaisinghani, find meatless wonders which incorporate seared “chickfu” — chickpea tofu. Drool-worthy dishes include “frankies”, a popular Mumbai street food in which a wrap is stuffed with hearty goodness, and the aromatic “chickfu” curry served with turmeric rice. Visit pondicheri.com to order online or find Pondicheri on Favor.
Onion Creek’s menu is vast and the vegetarian choices are aplenty. Along with items like the Vedge sammich with buffalo cauliflower and the garlic and basil hummus wrap cradled tight with vegetables, there is the Tree Hugger burger built with an Impossible Meat patty. Find Onion Creek on Grubhub.
Clean eats café H.S. Green is a standout for all things fresh, so naturally there are prime vegetarian picks. The veggie wrap is generously stuffed with eggplant and sauteed chickpeas, while the veggie power bowl with quinoa is loaded with superfoods. Like to snack? Find tasty snackables sans meat, like the “guacamame” — a creamy mix of guacamole and edamame. Visit hsgreen.menu to order online.
This all-vegan restaurant is a one-stop shop for Asian food cravings of all types. Begin with vegan cream cheese wontons and fried dumplings and continue the journey with vegan sushi rolls, coconut shrimp and spicy Mongolian beef. Visit chefkennysveganasian.com to order online.
Score some of the best vegetarian eats in Houston at Sunshine’s Health Food Store where comforting plates like vegan spaghetti, vegan enchiladas, BBQ mushrooms and the spicy black bean Tex-Mex burger with chipotle veganaise are worth stopping for after you shop. Visit sunshineckls.com to order online.
There is pasta… and there is Bellagreen’s paleo spaghetti squash Bolognese. In lieu of a meatless pizza or veggie burger — both of which are top notch here — opt for a plate of the saucy Bolognese, tossed together in a fiery chipotle-pepper infused marinara with roasted vegetables. Visit bellagreen.com to order online or find Bellagreen on Uber Eats, Doordash and Grubhub.
Houston is home to the only U.S. outpost of Maharaja Bhog, a Mumbai-based restaurant. The eatery is known for its vegetarian thali dishes (a selection of dishes served on a large platter) that is best eaten with your hands. The housemade paneer and curries are exceptional, especially the tangy and spicy Afghani-style chickpea curry. Delivery available through Grubhub and Uber Eats.
Enjoy sushi, wontons, pad thai and more excellent Asian fare at this 100% vegan restaurant. If you avoid soy and gluten, many of the dishes on the menu can be prepared without either ingredient as well. Get it delivered through Doordash, Postmates or Grubhub.
| https://houston.eater.com/maps/houston-best-vegetarian-restaurants?source=recirclink | 1,400 |
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Question (Q): Intel’s recent and upcoming cuts in processor prices in the mobile and desktop segments are intended to reduce recent consumer interest in AMD products. How does your company plan to react to the situation, is a similar step in price competition planned on your part?
Answer (A): We manage to steadily increase our market share and the counter-strategy provides, among other things, to reduce prices along with the introduction of new products to the market. Buyers can wait for AMD’s retaliatory steps over the next three months. However, there will be no return to the policy of the company selling processors at very low prices.
Q: Sources claim that the shipments of Turion 64 X2 and desktop processors in Socket AM2 are extremely small, and these processors will only be shipped in sufficient quantities in July-August. Can you comment on the situation?
A: The launch of these processors took place strictly according to pre-planned plans. Our partners had enough time to prepare compatible components. In addition to our own Fab 36 in Dresden, we have processor agreements with IBM and Chartered Semiconductor to keep pace with growing demand. Chartered to start shipping in July.
Q: It is assumed that AM2 processors that successfully compete with Pentium D will not be able to withstand Conroe. What do you think about this?
A: We have our advantages in the form of low power consumption, besides, we were the first to introduce 64-bit architecture. If we compare the AM2 with the Conroe, then here we win in the presence of an integrated memory controller and lower latencies (however, our research shows that everything is not so smooth with the company’s processors).
Thus, we see that AMD is not going to surrender to the mercy of the winner and is optimistic about the future, which means that we will have more price cuts and new interesting products. | https://xaker-forum.ru/hp-laserjet-1012-driver-free-download-hp-customer-2/ | 806 |
I wanted to meet you to invite you into my inspiring world. To share retreats, workshops, festivals, island life, Cyprus, yoga, personal development, drumming and much more. I want to inspire you into your extra ordinary life.
My name is Heleniq Argyrou and I welcome and invite you to Cyprus, an island of incredible natural beauty, ancient 8000bc and a place where the women were the drummers and the goddess Aphrodite inspired everyone. This is an ideal place to rejuvenate, heal, connect with yourself and find peace and harmony… A place to deepen your soul forever!
I am a traveller, teacher, yogi. I am creative, strong and hard to please, huh!
Few places call my heart home like Cyprus. Maybe it will for you too someday.
I am like you, I love life. I want to make my life great. So I travel, I play music, I inspire people, meditate and I do yoga. For me and most, summer is a perfect time to join festivals, explore new paths, discover new places and embrace the gifts of nature. Summer is relax time and also party time.
I am Clinical psychologist, Sound & Drum Therapist, Drummer, Organizational and Peak Performance Trainer.
I am an expert in inspiring and actualizing human potential, a clinical psychologist, sound and drum therapist, corporate and group organizational trainer and facilitator, meditator and naad yoga teacher. I have online programs and internationally I have travelled to so many amazing places and collaborated with the Association of Sound therapy, Spain, United Religions Initiative, San Francisco and The Strong Institute, New Mexico, The Ministry of Education, The N.G.O. Support Centre, Cyprus, Sri Ramanujah Trust, India. I offer annual retreats on the beautiful island of Cyprus, that combine profound ancient wisdom and neuropsychology. For more information visit here: www.ahaintelligence.com. Let me tell you a little about where I come from too.
I was born in Africa, but my dad was born in this fascinating village where two ‘healing saints’ visited. Two medical doctors, actually brothers from a wealthy family. Kozmas and Daminaos deeply committed to Christs teaching devoted their lives to healing the sick in his name. They offered their medical knowledge to people without taking the payment of silver, coins called ‘argyros’. In the Bible this word is used to refer to the silver coins once used to barter or trade. Also the ancient Greek word for silver ‘Ar’. Their decision to not take silver from their patients earned them the name the Saints that took no silver or in greek ‘Ayioi Anargyroi’.
The Ayioi Anargyroi were almost gypsy like, on serious pilgrimage they travelled from Italy, to Greek island Corfu to Cyprus. They sought water springs on route. In Ayiois Vavatsinias a small shrine was erected in their honour with candlelight burning since the day they left marks the exact spot of the natural spring they found here. Pay your respects as you arrive and realize the sacred blessing they gave to this place and now to you.
Trace the path of these great higher beings… a path from Paphos – where the natural spring they discovered lies near a special forest – to the village of Ayious `Vavatsianias’… stay in Silverhouse Sanctuary. Journey on if you like following the saints footsteps. After they left Paphos- where Aphrodite was said to be born- they visited Lebanon, healing all who crossed their path.
In honour of their memory, carved on the church door forever, the village was named ‘Agioi’ Vavatsianias and a shrine erected in their honour. Silverhouse Sanctuary now dedicates itself to healing the healers who seek to reignite their light, for who we often have incredible deals. Are you one of them?
Ideal for healing or retreating, here you can go o deep. Create a deep contact with your soul, flow in the subtle beauty of nature and heartwarming sunlight and restore your strength and meaning of life.
More information about village, you may find here.
As I mentioned I invite you and your colleagues to visit and stay in Silverhouse Sanctuary in The Agioi Vavatsianias Village. Recharge, rejuvenate, retreat and be empowered by healing environment. Cyprus is the island of love dedicated to goddess Aphrodite, and the sanctuary is filled with a loving vibe. It is for your special Cyprus Soul holiday: mountainous fruit tree terrains, spectacular views, funky decor, stone built, huge private vine courtyard for your boutique spiritual getaway. For more information about Sanctuary, please visit here.
Thank you so much for your time. Loved sharing some of mine with you, now lets share more!
We offer a very special price for groups of 8 or more people – only if you book in May 2017. This is a 40% discount for a stay of 6 nights during June-November (Cyprus is still Hot!).
Here you may find photos of the Silverhouse Sanctuary. | 0d02e08d061bf988d038674ed9399b1d | 1,079 |
Whoa – this is weird, right? I did my first (and only) Tune in Tuesday post over a year ago. haha Clearly, I’m horrible at keeping up with stuff like that. Anyway, I started going to Lollapalooza in 2015. (I know, I was late to the game. Believe me – each year I’ve felt like the oldest one there.) I’m not a fan of the crowds or the massive amounts of dehydrated, drugged-up teens showing off their buttcheeks, but it’s a great way for me to see bands that I love all in one place. Half the city closes down that weekend anyway, so I might as well be there.
This year was different for me because I was hired by rewardStyle to photograph influencers in front of their mural installation at Lollapalooza 2017. The LikeToKnow.It he(art) mural was painted by Chicago artist, Justus Roe, and was located near the Perry’s Stage at the festival.
I also photographed their event earlier that week which kicked off the Chicago portion their City Tour. You can see photos from the event and read more about it here.
It was such a great opportunity. I saw some familiar faces and met some great new people.
Scroll down to see some of my favorite shots from the event. At the end of this post, I have a link to a Spotify playlist I created with a mix of songs from my favorite artists that performed at Lolla this year. Enjoy!
Here’s the playlist for ya! 8+ hours of sweet jams to make you feel like you’re back at Lolla.
| http://ironhoney.com/2017/08/15/tune-in-tuesday-vol-ii-lollapalooza-2017/ | 352 |
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You don't want them to wear out rapidly or be uncomfortable. Select a fabric that is rough and smooth so you get the top quality and comfort and ease you require.We wind our way close to the community streets. We have the streets all to ourselves, this early morning. I have on a GoreTex shell about a hooded sweatshirt, and my son's Underneath Compression Shirts shirt (which he commonly wears beneath his football pads), and a pair of sweatpants. Lucky is a curious breed, in that he is comparatively short haired, and yet he athletics a rather significant undercoat this time of calendar year.Many clothing sites have commercialised on their own providing good bargains to the customers. Purchasers can acquire from these sites and delight in the branded apparel at their household. The crew users can purchase in accordance to their post taking part in in the game. The player who is using kicks at objective ought to purchase the kicking gear package. For gamers practising the rugby sport, the instruction equipment kit must be purchased which consists of scrum equipment and hit shields. A established of cone is also introduced which is handy in running grid activities. All these are crucial things while acquiring the rugby package and it really should not be overlooked. | http://albertor2819467990.wikidot.com/blog:620 | 1,001 |
Katie Collette will be running the Boston Marathon this year in memory of the late Vanessa T. Marcotte, a 27-yearold who was visiting her mother in Princeton when she went out for a walk and never returned. Marcotte's body was found half a mile from her mother's home on Brooks Station Road.
Started in Marcotte's honor, The Vanessa T. Marcotte Foundation promotes female empowerment and creating a world where women can live boldly and fearlessly. The Foundation was given two bibs [slots] in the Boston Marathon this year and Collette says she's honored to have one of the slots.
Collette of Westminster didn't know Marcotte but does know Marcotte's cousin Caroline and best friend Ashley. "I talked with Caroline and she thought I'd be a good person to run for Vanessa and the Foundation," Collette said. "I've learned so many amazing things about Vanessa. She was beautiful motivated, happy, inspiring, caring and a genuine soul that would help anyone and wanted to leave her footprint on the world. After talking with many of her friends, I feel we would have been best friends, which makes it even more special for me to be running for her. She had a life-long dream to run the Boston Marathon. I was super excited when they picked me to run."
Collette ran in the 2013 Boston Marathon and was about a mile from the finish line when the bombs went off, she said. "My husband and three-year old son were standing beside the road near the finish line when I let him know I was still a way out," said Collette. "They went into a donut shop and came out about the time the bomb went off. He took my son and just ran, leaving the stroller behind. It was so scary, I didn't think I'd ever run again."
Collette said it broke her heart when her son said he wasn't going to come to her races again because they were too scary, she added. Collette has two other sons now and her husband will take them to the race and watch her run from a location away from the finish line. "They are excited about the race," said Collette. "Vanessa's family will be at the finish line which is exciting for me."
Collette also ran the Boston Marathon in 2015 raising funds for the Boston Bruins Foundation, with the money supporting after school programs for kids that can't afford the programs.
Her training schedule includes running three days a week, usually with a large group of runners in Leominster. She is also involved with cross training and CrossFit and loves to run. "When I'm out running and it's freezing cold and I get discouraged, I just think of Vanessa and how much she wanted to run. I used to run alone all the time. When I heard what happened to Vanessa I was shocked. I was out running that very same day. I was afraid to run for awhile."
To raise money for the Vanessa T. Marcotte Foundation Collette recently held an event at the Blueprint restaurant in Westminster and raised $2,300.
"My goal is to raise $10,000 for the Foundation through the Marathon run," said Collette. To donate to Collette's run go to https://www.crowdrise.com/o/en//vanessatmarcottefoundationboston2018/ katiecollette or the Vanessa T. Marcotte Foundation website and click on donate. | https://www.thelandmark.com/articles/marathoner-to-run-in-honor-of-vanessa-marcotte/ | 715 |
Q: How do you keep cool when production system goes down? This has happened to most of us...
You come to work one day. Everything seems normal - the sun is shining, birds are chirping, but you notice a couple of weird things on your way to work that remind you of the déjà vu cat in the Matrix.
You get into the office and there are a lot of phones ringing - but it could just be that they are doing a new sales promotion. You settle in, when you notice a dark cloud hovering over you.
It takes you a couple of moments, but you recognize the cloud is your boss. Usually he checks on you every morning with his "Soooo Peeeeter, how about those TCP/IP reports?" routine, but today he forgot everything about common manners and rudely invaded your personal space. No "Good Morning", just some drooling, grunts and curses. He reminds you a bit of a neanderthal who is trying to get away from a cyber -toothed tiger, fear and panic all compressed in a tight ball. You try to decipher the new language that he created since yesterday and you start understanding that something bad happened overnight - the production system went down.
Now, your system is usually used by clients during regular working hours from 9-5, but for whatever reason you didn't get any alerts on your beeper (for people under 30 - a beeper was like a mobile phone that could only ring and tell you who beeped you). You'll need to remember to charge it next time.
So it is now 8:45am, and the system MUST be up at 9am. Every 10 seconds, your boss lets out yet another curse which communicates to you that another customer is having problems getting into the system. Also, several account managers are now hovering over your boss trying to make him understand how clients are REALLY REALLY suffering.
Everyone is depending on you to get the system up ASAP and at the same time is hindering your progress by constantly distracting you.
How do you keep cool in a situation like this?
A: The first thing to do is to remove the distractions as politely as possible. Nobody can work with someone wittering in your ear about how bad it is for your customers. This is of course easier said than done if your boss is a maniac, but if that is the case, you might want to consider finding another job anyway.
Then make a quick appraisal of the real loss the error is causing and how (if at all) it can be mitigated quickly. With a bit of practice, you can also do a quick check on log files, which you'll need to form a plan of action.
If the problem is complex, concentrate on the most severe part of it. Think two or three steps ahead before you leap into action. Also, make sure you know how to back out of any plan before you act.
And the most important thing: Don't panic!
A: Situations like this are common in industrial control systems. The production line goes down in the middle of the night, the company is typically losing hundreds, or even thousands, of dollars per minute, and they're looking at you to fix the problem. You handle it thus:
*
*Explain to them what you know
*Explain what you don't know (but need to know to solve the problem)
*Explain how you're going to find out what you don't know
*Give them an estimate of how long that's going to take (use a range)
*Ignore everything around you while you focus on following through on your plan
A: First thing is to have repeatedly practiced disaster recovery (without people standing over your shoulder) so you know exactly what steps you need to take to diagnose and fix the problem without having to resort to questions on SO to find out what to do. Once you feel confident in your recovery skills, the pressure and stress is much much lower.
Next is to get the people out of your hair while you work. Your boss wants something he can go to his boss with. Give them some information on what you intend to do and how long it may take to do and then regular progress reports especially if you find something that means it will take considerably longer than you told them. Yes progress reports take time awy from fixing it, but hovering bosses and users take even more time away. Me, I go for the progress reports each time. Once they are confident you will keep them up-to-date, they will trust you to do your job more and leave you alone more.
If users are going to be blocked for some time, then send an email to them if this is an option or put up a notice on the website, saying the site is down for maintenance and when they should be able to try back. (This is possibly one task you can give your boss to find someone to do to keep him out of your hair as well.) People are less cranky about not being able to log in when they know someone is working on the problem. When things are fixed, if you sent out an email, email the same group to tell them it is fixed. Can't tell you how many times I've seen people forget this and users still think they can't log in when they can. The goal isn't just to get things up but to get people working with the system again.
Breathe deeply (deep breaths are calming) and plunge into the problem. It's good to have the things you need to do written down somewhere because in an emergency sometimes your brain synaspes don't pull up information as quickly as normal. You don't want to look like an idiot muttering: "I know we have a log, where the hell is it?"
If you are in a job where you support production systems, it is best to be the kind of person who reacts well in an emergency in general. I'm not sure you can learn this really. If someone riding a horse in front of you fell off (a not-so-random example taken from my life) and was lying bleeding on the ground, are you the kind of person who stands there with his mouth hung open or are the one who calls the ambulance, puts the pressure bandage on the bleeding and directs someone to catch the horse? If you are the first type of person, perhaps this isn't the right line of work for you.
A: In the situation, ask your boss to help you by keeping all the other folks away from you (which gives him something to do somewhere else).
When you get it up and running again, ask your boss for a meeting to evaluate and establish procedures for avoiding this happening again.
A: Tell them this is a good reason why you need a backup server, and by that I mean a second server that runs the same as the primary one that can be switched to immediately if the first one goes down.
A: It's bad enough when you're surrounded from all sides by people who are angry with you for a problem you created, though it's twice as bad when it's a problem you didn't create. It's happened to me more than once that the client just configured it badly, meaning the fault is in communicating with the client (whether the fault is the client for not listening or the marketer for not explaining well, you'll never know).
How do you explain that they screwed up? Never an easy task, especially when your boss is breathing down your neck because he doesn't know any better than to assume the customer is always right.
So how do you keep cool in a situation like this? Politely remind your boss that the sooner you get to work, the sooner this problem will get fixed.
A: By seeing this event as an opportunity to show how valuable I am (to the business) by getting the production system back running as quickly as possible (if not before 9am ;-)).
Obviously, hoping I didn't break it in the first place ;-)
A: *
*sh_t happens
*there must be a solution to a problem
*if someone in the world knows the solution, I can be one of them
*if there is no solution, panic does not help
*again, sh_t happens
A: Well definitely ask your boss that you will get back to him when you get the issue resolved; though in these sort of situations the management usually gets other people involved to get it resolved ASAP and then dea, with the "concerned" person later... That is the norm with any firm regardless of the industry; as for business the Customer is usually the King!!
A: Situations like that just motivate me more to have a thorough documentation of everything, and a thorough plan for dealing with any kind of situation.
Even if we can not predict every possible problem, but we can work our behind's off, in being more prepared, and organized, and documented.
A: I spent 8 years doing maintenance on B52G bombers on a 5 minute alert for World War Three. That puts everything in perspective for me.
A down production system is important, but it is not going to kill millions or billions of people.
Find out what is wrong, find the cause, fix it. Establish clear communications with those that matter and keep them informed. Tell your boss what you are doing and when you will be able to update him can prevent a continuing steam of "is it fixed yet" messages and conversations.
do a through post-mortem and figure out how to prevent and limit the effects of such incidents in the future.
If you are on call, having a dead battery on a cellphone or beeper is extremely unprofessional. This is made up general scenario, but if this happened to a person working for me, there would be a serious discussion and if it was repeated, they would no longer be working for me. Yes I am a hardass.
| d030dc0c265d063c33aaf0a7f18c3cd215ecb97a | 2,109 |
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var current = memo[n];
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if (typeof current !== 'number') {
current = fn(compute, n);
memo[n] = results[results.length] = current;
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return current;
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};
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var results = fn(n - 1) + fn( n - 2 );
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var sequence = [];
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printSequence(10);
console.log(sequence);
<commit_msg>Converted to OO implementation<commit_after>'use strict';
var Fibonacci = function Fibonacci() {
if (!(this instanceof Fibonacci)) {
return new Fibonacci();
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this.memo = null;
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* Resets the memo before each run
*/
Fibonacci.prototype.reset = function reset() {
this.memo = [0, 1];
};
/**
* Generates a sequence of fibonacci numbers
* computed to nth upper bound.
*
* @return void
*/
Fibonacci.prototype.generate = function generate(n) {
this.reset();
var self = this;
var idx = 0;
return run.call(this, n);
};
/**
* Returns the sequence of Fibonacci numbers computed
* to nth bound.
*
* @return void
*/
Fibonacci.prototype.getSequence = function getSequence() {
return this.memo;
};
/*** Private Methods ***/
var compute = function(fn, n) {
var results = fn(n - 1) + fn( n - 2 );
return results;
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var run = function run(n) {
var current = this.memo[n];
if (typeof(current) !== 'number') {
current = compute(run.bind(this), n);
this.memo[n] = current;
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var fib = new Fibonacci();
var max = fib.generate(10);
console.log('sequence: ', fib.getSequence());
console.log('max: ', max);
// var memoize = function (fn, results) {
// var memo = [0, 1];
// // closure
// return function compute(n) {
// var current = memo[n];
// // avoid false truthy test by ensuring type if a number
// // instead of !current as it could be 0|1
// if (typeof current !== 'number') {
// current = fn(compute, n);
// memo[n] = results[results.length] = current;
// }
// return current;
// };
// };
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// var results = fn(n - 1) + fn( n - 2 );
// return results;
// };
// var sequence = [];
// var printSequence = memoize(compute, sequence);
// printSequence(10);
// console.log(sequence);
| 6188688 | 1,037 |
Cooking: Due to its consistency and flavor, it can be used as a seafood substitute in recipes. We like to slice it into rounds and pan-fry it in olive oil or butter, or try ripping it up and making 'Lion's Mane Cakes' by following a crab cake recipe!
Properties: Lion's Mane is considered both an esteemed edible mushroom and a valuable medicinal and is currently being studied for its effects on neural health, Alzheimer's, and dementia. The mushroom contains a substance called erinacine, which has the ability to catalyze the production of nerve growth factor (NFG) and reduce the effects of Alzheimer's and other neurodegenerative disorders (Yamada et al., 1997). A study in Japan, on men aged 50-80 years old with mild cognitive impairment, suggests that Lion's Mane is effective at improving cognition. Subjects were split into two groups and half were given dry powdered Lion's Mane three times a day and observed over 16 weeks. At weeks 8, 12, and 16, the group taking Lion's Mane scored significantly better on a cognitive test than the other half in the placebo group (Mori et al., 2008). | https://www.grovescountrymushrooms.com/product-page/lions-mane | 247 |
August flew by for me and so did the summer!! I'm ready for fall but I'll also miss sunbathing at the pool and wearing cute sundresses! It almost time to pull out the boots and skinny jeans.
Our new series, Tailgate Tuesday!
What was your favorite Southern Color post in August?
What would you like to see more of in September??
I like the Tailgate Tuesdays!! And all your DIY are great. I actually saw a great DIY you should do in Martha Stewart Living, they are seersucker napkin rings. If I could sew I'd do it. Sadly I can't.
Thanks girl! What's the link for the napkin rings? They sound too cute!!
Thanks Chris! We hope you'll find lots of craft/DIY inspiration here on Southern Color! | https://southerncolor.blogspot.com/2012/08/august-in-review.html | 170 |
“Clean, fair and honest elections” on May 9.
That, according to Malacanang, is the birthday wish of President Rodrigo Duterte, who turns 77 Monday.
Acting Presidential Spokesperson Martin Andanar said Duterte would hold a “simple and quiet celebration” in Davao City, where he was mayor before he was catapulted to the presidency in the May 2016 elections.
“His birthday wish for this year is to have a clean, fair, and honest election in May 2022, as he has time and again underscored the importance of a peaceful transfer of power as part of his enduring legacy,” Andanar said in a statement.
Duterte has yet to officially endorse a presidential candidate for the elections but the faction he supports in his party PDP-Laban – also known as the Cusi faction – recently endorsed Ferdinand Marcos Jr., the running-mate of the Chief Executive’s daughter.
Meanwhile, the Commission on Elections asked Sunday the public and political parties to go to precincts nationwide on May 2 to 7 to personally witness the final testing and sealing of vote counting machines that will be used in the general elections.
In a Super Radyo dzBB interview, Comelec Commissioner George Garcia said during those days, each precinct would be using 10 original ballots for the May 9 polls and visitors might test them themselves.
“All precincts in the Philippines will have a final testing and sealing or the closure of VCMs. We invite all political parties, citizens’ arms, our fellow voters, to please go to the precincts during those days,” Garcia said.
Garcia explained that volunteers who would participate in the VCMs’ final testing and sealing dates might try to undervote or overvote, shade the ballot incorrectly, and even draw on or tear the ballot to check if the VCMs would accept them.
He added that once the VCMs were sealed before the witnesses, representatives from political parties would have to sign a form indicating that the VCMs were not impaired and were ready for the May 9 polls.
The Comelec on Thursday conducted a random manual checking of the official ballots for the elections, allowing several representatives from political parties and election stakeholders to check the quality of the printed ballots.
Last week, Garcia noted that 105,853 ballots found with smudges, improper cuts and colors, or unmatched timestamps would be burned in front of candidates, political parties, or their representatives.
Meanwhile, Garcia called on the National Bureau of Investigation to release the results of its probe into the alleged security breach of Smartmatic’s automated election system as soon as possible.
In an interview on Super Radyo dzBB, Garcia said the Comelec was waiting for the probe report so that the poll body could inform the public and do appropriate actions ahead of the May 9 polls.
“While we are anticipating NBI’s action regarding its findings, the Comelec likewise wants to ensure that the automated election system is secure,” Garcia added in a mix of English and Filipino.
Earlier, Senator Imee Marcos, chairperson of the Senate Committee on Electoral Reforms, claimed the Smartmatic data breach might have compromised personal information, ledgers, office photos, and contact persons in Comelec, and these data could be in the hands of a syndicate.
In response, Comelec officials said they immediately contacted the NBI to investigate the matter.
For its part, the NBI said that the Smartmatic employee who was supposedly involved in the alleged security breach was already in its custody.
During the hearing of the House Committee on Suffrage and Electoral Reforms last Monday, Smartmatic spokesman lawyer Christopher Louie Ocampo emphasized that their system “was not hacked” and that the elections would remain 100 percent safe and secure despite the issue.
Ocampo said that the source code and software of the Automated Election System was wholly governed and controlled by the Comelec, noting that the poll body’s own servers and infrastructure are separate and distinct from Smartmatic.
Garcia, however, pointed out the need to investigate the matter to make sure the people would not lose their trust in the AES process.
| https://www.maharlikanews.com/duterte-marks-77th-birthday-wishes-for-clean-fair-elections/ | 879 |
Anna Osadcenko was born in Alma-Ata in Kazakhstan. She received her ballet training at the Academie A. B. Selesnew as well as at the John Cranko Schule in Stuttgart, from which she graduated in July 2001. After being an apprentice with the Stuttgart Ballet, Anna Osadcenko became a Corps de ballet member in 2002/03. In 2008/09 she was promoted to Principal Dancer.
Her repertoire includes a wide range of leading and solo roles such as Odette/Odile in Swan Lake (John Cranko), Tatiana in Onegin (John Cranko), Juliet in Romeo and Juliet (John Cranko), Katharina in The Taming of the Shrew (John Cranko), the Sylph in La Sylphide (Peter Schaufuss after August Bournonville), Princess Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty (Marcia Haydée after Petipa), Queen of the Dryades in Don Quixote (Maximiliano Guerra after Petipa) and Olympia in The Lady of the Camellias (John Neumeier). In addition, Anna Osadcenko has performed in ballets by renowned choreographers such as George Balanchine, William Forsythe, Jiří Kylián, Sir Kenneth MacMillan, Glen Tetley and Hans van Manen. Several choreographers including Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Christian Spuck, Douglas Lee and Jorma Elo have created roles for her.
Anna Osadcenko in the catalogue of Wear Moi!
Initials R.B.M.E. (John Cranko): B. | cd7a0ab3fb1a537aec27901269240654 | 355 |
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We’ll come back to her illustrious ancestor, but for the moment let’s get to know Kanako Date better. The phrase “not just a pretty face” could have been coined specifically for Ms. Date. As well as having stunning good looks, she is obviously a woman of many talents. For a start, she can speak an astonishing variety of languages, including English, French, Italian and Korean. | https://scribol.com/anthropology-and-history/history/japans-miss-world-contestant-descendant-samurai-warrior/ | 87 |
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It totally depends on your personal situation. If you're young, healthy, and don't have a lot of medical expenses, an HDHP can make a lot of sense because of the lower premiums and access to an HSA.
Money you contribute to an FSA is tax deductible, but it's use it or lose it for the year. You also can't invest the funds.
An HSA is the best investment account that exists. It is not use it or lose it, any money in it is yours, period. It's tax deductible and you can invest the funds in it. Growth is tax free and you can take it out tax free as long as it's for a qualified medical expense.
There's NO LIMIT to how long you can wait to reimburse yourself with an HSA, which makes it a really appealing account for people that want to FIRE. I scan all of my receipts and link them in a Google sheet that lists my medical expenses and list the day, amount, and purpose.
I keep a running total of the amount I am able to reimburse and will wait until retirement to withdraw any money (letting decades of compound interest work their magic).
Money you take out for medical expenses is ALWAYS tax free, but you can take money out for other stuff if you pay a penalty and tax.
And at 65, you can take money out for any purpose without penalty, you just have to pay tax (it effectively turns into a traditional IRA). | e614c574a2cd44c88fecbf1350f6d366 | 306 |
Back in early June I bought a large composter - basically a plastic barrel on a rotating frame - and began filling it. I followed the advice of a BBC gardening 'guru' and carefully mixed the material I put into it, including paper & cardboard as well as grass cuttings, flowerheads, etc.etc. I never did believe the claims that rich compost would be produced in a few weeks; I thought it would be months, however after nearly four months the material in the composter is exactly the same! Even the shredded paper is still pristine and there's no sign whatever of degradation, despite my carefully rotating the bin as advised. Am I doing something wrong?
Are you keeping the material in the composter moist and what proportion of paper are cardboard are you adding? Bulba and I never put paper and cardboard in at all. We've used one of the tumbler composters and it seemed to work okay.
Thanks for your response. I only use a little paper & cardboard (as recommended by Monty Don).As for keeping the contents moist, there are small holes in the barrel and I've been assuming they would allow sufficient moisture to do the trick but it could be that a few drops of rain aren't enough. Thanks again.
I think more moisture, even a can full of water, might help.
Snoopdog with the tumbling composter you are meant to tumble it several times each day. Not sure how that allows the material to get hot enough to compost.
A lot of green compost like grass cuttings will generate heat. This heat is caused by the natural bio-degradation of the matter and the more heat, the faster it breaks down and creates more heat... This thermal reaction will generate a terrific amount of heat, sometimes enough to burn your hand if you put it in the compost.
If you manage to create this, It's like nuclear reaction and has the added advantage that it will kill any weeds in there.
I also think that you need to make the mix wetter - it sounds too dry. Paper can take some time to compost.
I have had use of a tumbling composter for the last few years and - rubbish!!!! It requires a lot of maintenance including tumbling and adding water regularly. I much prefer a straightforward bin sitting directly on the ground - add garden waste and forget about it.
You took the words right out of my mouth Teadrinker. I used to buy bottles of bio liquid to add to the compost. Apparently it helps to bio-degrade the compost. An old chap that has an allotment told me not to bother with that and to pee on it instead. It worked great, so that's what I do. He also told me that women's pee isn't as good as mens, now whether he was having me on about that one I'm not sure as he was a bit of a joker.
I realize that women need a bucket MG. I wasn't suggesting that anybody should sit on a rotating composter, that would be dangerous. LOL.
But what a thought,Myron ! lol.a new category for Goy peed in 'ere perhaps ? ....now,back to the composter..as suggested,too much paper etc isn't ideal..a bit of everything is better..and kept moist,not dry,or soggy..The only paper I put in ,are shredded white paper personal documents,it soon rots down..I don't have a rotating Composter,but the filling of it will be the same as for any..
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I watched one of those "How it's made" type shows about Solis. They're credited with creating an entire agricultural revolution in India since it started in 1969 by building tractors that are affordable. Many people were/are still subsistence farming with hand tools there.
The factory these are made in in India is massive and the scale they're being churned out is incredible. Expect to see them more and more often as they're literally half the price of more recognisable brands.
Be interested in your ownership experience, OP. | 352cf037884c499999f3289c98bd6dd2 | 112 |
Former White House deputy communications director Josh Raffel is joining the e-cigarette company Juul Labs as its vice president of corporate communications.
Why it matters: Raffel is known to have high-level relationships at major print publications and the TV networks, and was the go-to communications official in the White House in moments of crisis, per Axios' Jonathan Swan. He joins Juul as the company attempts to navigate a federal investigation into youth vaping. | https://www.axios.com/juul-josh-raffel-white-house-communications-5fd022e5-e9ae-4f88-af36-05a9cb6c38ee.html | 94 |
Ms. Conceptual
Artist Rachel Perry Welty finds the humor in everyday life. But where’s the punch?
LINCOLN — Resourceful, professional, full of wit and visual pizzazz, Rachel Perry Welty’s exhibition at the DeCordova Sculpture Park + Museum is also artistically lackluster. I look at it and, somewhere at the back of my mind, am conscious of boxes being ticked.
Here comes the enormously long wall covered with a billion photos of everyday items. Here comes the artist using herself in a video. Here comes the snippet of performance art. Here come the text-based works. And here comes the artist using her body in big, staged photographs with droll titles.
It’s all sassier and smarter than I’m making it sound. It’s also brilliantly presented: Full marks to the exhibition designers at the DeCordova. But the sense of recognition — “Ah, yes, so this is what a conceptual artist does! I remember now!’’ — is depressing, the overall effect like déjà vu.
Welty’s themes are more than legitimate. They’re profound; they speak to all of us. She addresses our culture of distraction and disposability; the anxieties inherent in mindless accumulation; commodification, reification, white noise, and, in the midst of all this, the feeble, funny, and poignant reckonings of the self.
But there’s something about the way she tackles these themes that’s toothless. You sense in her work a combination of idle curiosity, ironic relish, and crafty can-do, but no real punch.?
For each day of the exhibition Welty plans to add one more photograph of a discarded item to the display. The end result, we’re informed, will be 78 feet long.
But compare the work, which is really an exercise in overwhelming banality, to the work of someone like Britain’s Michael Landy, who achieved notoriety in 2001 for a similar work called “Break Down.’’ Landy cataloged all his earthly possessions — more than 7,000 items, from photographs and furniture to birth certificate, passport, teddy bears and art works — and then put them on a conveyor belt in a vacant shop on London’s Oxford Street. The conveyor belt fed them into machines that systematically crushed and granulated them.
Welty might say that her work is getting at something different from Landy’s — and fair enough. My point is just that conceptual art usually gains from a certain extremity in its execution.
Ideas, after all, are just ideas: There’s nothing new under the sun. But strong conceptual art has the seed of wildness in it, something surprising and anarchic. That intensity is easy to see in Landy’s work; it’s missing from much of Welty’s.
She does, mind you, have an attractively wry sense of humor. Her video, “Karaoke Wrong Number (2005-2009),’’ shows Welty lip-syncing, in character, the words of all the voice messages mistakenly left on her answering machine since 2005. Some are left by men, some by women; some are long, some short. In all cases, Welty’s acting is good, and her timing first-rate. But it’s her deadpan expression in the gaps between the messages that is most eloquent. Life, it says, is exactly this random.
And yet, here, too, something is missing — some sense that the idea is going to deepen over the duration, rather than unspooling evenly like thread from the shuttle of a loom. Compare “Karaoke Wrong Number (2005-2009),’’ for instance, to the work of Britain’s Gillian Wearing, who uses similar lip-syncing strategies in videos that play with doubleness, inhibition, and trauma.
In Wearing’s videos, unlike Welty’s, you do not simply “get’’ the idea then wait for its laborious exposition to be over. The idea continually deepens, opening up psychological ambiguities and contradictions that wind their way inside your head, undoing all your preconceptions.
One of Welty’s more innovative works takes the form of a bank of 10 iPhones displayed along a wall. Each one shows changing updates on Welty’s Facebook page. All are from a single day — March 11, 2009 — when Welty updated her Facebook status once per minute for every minute of her waking hours.
Here’s a sample: “Rachel is thinking that an assistant for this project would have been damn fine . . . Rachel is deleting unwanted emails. . . . Rachel is refreshing often . . . Rachel is holding the camera in one hand and typing with the other . . . Rachel is losing track of time . . . Rachel is very here, very now . . . Rachel is aware . . . Rachel is at a loss for words.’’
Here again, the idea is natty enough, but the execution is crushingly dull. And while that may be the whole point, saying so does not relieve the sense of being trapped in a place you really don’t want to be — a place that leads nowhere in the imagination.
I mentioned Welty has visual flair, and it’s true. The first work encountered upon entering the exhibit, one of my favorites, is a star-shaped wall drawing made from colored twist ties called “New and Improved.’’ Another partition wall has a similarly vivacious design of thin, uneven circles made from fruit stickers. It’s called “Ripe Now.’’
A series of large works called “Soundtrack to my Life’’ laboriously sets out the lyrics of songs randomly encountered by Welty in public places. The lyrics are pasted onto paper in colorful, ransom-note typography for no particularly compelling reason. But they look vibrant and attractive.
Another series called “Lost in my Life’’ looks even better. Each work is a theatrically constructed photograph that shows Welty herself camouflaged against a backdrop of supermarket product boxes, fruit stickers, price tags, or take-out containers. They’re great fun. But they make a point, and . . . then you’re off the hook.
Art, I feel, should do everything it can to keep us on the hook. We deserve no better.
Sebastian Smee can be reached at [email protected].
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Three Muslim fundamentalists convicted in the terrorist bombing of the World Trade Center were sentenced Tuesday to 240 years in prison. The judge called one a coward for planting a bomb "to kill innocents."
Mohammed Salameh, Nidal Ayyad and Mahmoud Abouhalimi were sentenced at a lengthy hearing after they were given the chance to address the court. They spoke in Arabic, which was then translated into English. A fourth defendant was awaiting his sentencing Tuesday afternoon.U.S. District Judge Kevin Duffy sentenced the men after hearing a statement by the husband of a pregnant clerical worker killed in the explosion.
"I'll never get a chance to see him grow up," Ed Smith said of the boy his wife, Monica, was carrying. "We all lost this because of four men who wanted to blow up landmarks in New York."
The Feb. 26, 1993, bombing killed six people and injured more than 1,000 in the 110-story twin towers, the world's second-tallest buildings.
Salameh, 26, a Palestinian immigrant, was convicted March 4 on charges of conspiracy, explosives charges and assault. In his half-hour speech to the court, he proclaimed his innocence and accused the U.S. government of covering up the real story of the bombing.
"I wonder how long I will remain in prison until the government reveals I was innocent?" said Salameh. "Two years? Seven? Ten? Twenty? God only knows."
The sentencing in a heavily guarded courthouse capped a trial that lasted more than five months and involved more than 200 witnesses and more than 1,000 exhibits.
Duffy said the 240-year sentences were calculated according to the life expectancy of the six killed by the bomb - 180 years - and adding 30 years each on two further counts.
"My intention is you stay there (in prison) for the rest of your life," Duffy said after sentencing Salameh. The judge added, "It is the mark of a sneak and a coward to plant the bomb to kill innocents and to steal away, and that's what you are - a coward."
Duffy, who also fined the defendants $250,000 each, told them that any money generated by story rights or book deals would go to the victims' survivors.
"I can't imagine anyone wanting to give you anything," Duffy told Ayyad.
Salameh was accused of helping pay for and assemble the bomb before renting the van that carried it into the trade center's underground parking garage.
Ayyad, 26, a chemist, allegedly ordered chemicals for the bomb and sent messages to news organizations afterward that the motive was to protest U.S. aid to Israel.
Abouhalima, 34, was often seen in the apartment where the bomb was built, while Ahmad Ajaj, 28, allegedly provided bomb-making expertise. Ajaj was in jail on a false-passport conviction when the blast occurred.
Ajaj lived in Houston; the others lived in New Jersey.
Defense lawyers said the government exaggerated evidence to trap the defendants into appearing to be part of a larger conspiracy.
Before the verdict, Salameh became upset with his lawyer who surprisingly acknowledged during closing arguments that his client was involved in a conspiracy. | https://www.deseret.com/1994/5/24/19110639/240-year-sentences-in-93-n-y-bombing | 673 |
I am currently part of the team working on Avenue, an online portal that is the right thing at the right time! It has been a pleasure to work with an amazing team of Canadian educators, administrators and developers to create Avenue under the management of New Language Solutions charity. This IRCC sponsored Avenue national learning repository for adult newcomers and language instructors launched in mid-August. The majority of Avenue’s courses, learning activities, resources, and training are focused on fully online teaching and training. Avenue is a timely solution for language and settlement instructors and students as LINC classes continue online. I consider Avenue the principle online resource for IRCC language instructors across Canada.
| http://blog.teslontario.org/tag/online-course/ | 134 |
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Only a Giant Can Lift a Bull, a Health and Safety Authority (HSA) book on farm safety created by 86 children in partnership with Kids’ Own, will be launched on Thursday, 28 November in Croke Park, Dublin by Minister for Agriculture, Simon Coveney.
This unique book, which aims to raise awareness of child safety on farms, will be sent to primary schools nationwide. Only a Giant Can Lift a Bull started life as the ‘On the Farm’ farm safety competition organised by the HSA which resulted in 10,000 entries from primary school children across the country. Children were asked to create a piece of art or to write a story or poem about life on the farm with a safety theme. The winning students took part in a series of ‘On the Farm’ workshops hosted by artists and writers from Kids’ Own at education centres in Dublin West, Sligo, Tralee, Athlone, Navan and Kilkenny.
Check out the workshops from around the country to see how the book was made.
The ‘On the Farm’ project and resulting publication ‘Only a Giant Can Lift a Bull’ is funded by the Health and Safety Authority (HSA). The project is further supported by the Arts Council of Ireland.
Only a Giant Can Lift a Bull will be available to buy on the Kids’ Own website and on Amazon from 28 November. | https://kidsown.ie/only-a-giant-can-lift-a-bull-launch-of-new-book-on-farm-safety/ | 292 |
With all that we as women have on our plates, self-care generally is the first thing that falls on the back burner! So, this year we are hosting our first She E.O.s Run the World 5k. This event is for women who understand how important it is to get their fitness, health and well being in order! Whether women come out to run or walk, the biggest goal is to complete the run! Proceeds will go toward scholarships for young girls and women and we couldn’t be more excited to be presenting these scholarships on the day of the race! There will be food, fun, giveaways and more!
It will be a warm day so please come dressed accordingly and ensure that you are hydrated. | http://www.jogrunrace.com/Race/View/303365/she-eos-run-the-world-5k-charlotte-north-carolina-june-6-2020 | 151 |
Jenson Button says he expects the Abu Dhabi GP to be his last race in Formula 1 despite having an option to return in 2018.
The Brit, a 17-year veteran in the sport, announced he was taking a sabbatical earlier this season but still signed a two-year contract with McLaren and stressed that he was not retiring.
His McLaren deal gives the Woking team an option to reinstate him in two years‘ time should either Stoffel Vandoorne or Fernando Alonso leave, but Button now insists he doesn’t want to return after this weekend’s grand prix.
“I go into this weekend thinking it’s going to be my last race,” he said during the Drivers’ Press Conference. “I think that’s the best way to be. At this moment in time I don’t want to be racing in Formula 1 past this race.
Button was convinced into not quitting F1 by then McLaren chief Ron Dennis, who has now left his post, and initially stated that he would be training harder than ever with a view to lining up on the grid again.
“The whole idea about having a contract was that in three months‘ time when I’ve eaten myself stupid and thinking of things in the future – maybe I’ll feel I need Formula 1 back in my life,” the 36-year-old explained.
The 2009 world champion added that he was looking forward to get on track at Yas Marina, and reminisced on some of his best moments in the sport.
“It’s been a long journey,” he said. “You get to Formula 1 with many dreams and you aspire to be something and hopefully leave the sport with memories. That’s something I definitely do have in my 17 years of racing. Lots of life-changing memories – some good, some bad. | 3755caebb6492b71d1d75142b550c9a5 | 398 |
How to Keep your Business Safe
At First Aid Accident & Emergency, we spend a lot of time training staff in their own business environment. This is ideal as it allows the first aid and safety procedures, which are taught in our First Aid courses, to be tailored directly to their own surroundings.
While it is important to ensure your staff members are all knowledgeable in basic first aid, a lot of incidents can actually be prevented by making small (or sometimes big) changes to the actual layout of your workplace.
The team at FAAE have come across many situations with their offsite training where they have spotted dangerous safety hazards in a workplace environment, many of them occuring in corporate environments. A lot of these hazards are obvious to the outsider but when you and your staff are in the same workplace day-in and day-out it can be easy to become complacent and oblivious to potentially harmful situations.
Here’s some easy tips on how to keep your business safe:
- Ensure all staff are aware of the location of the First Aid kit and manual.
- Have staff complete an FAAE First Aid course.
- Ensure all staff members are aware of the location of the fire hydrant and
how to use it.
- Have an allocated area that can be used to attend to any First Aid incidents. Ideally this will be away from other staff and customers with a chair they can sit in and/or some clear floor space if they need to lie down.
- Check that all electrical adapters and power boards are not being over-exerted
(which can cause over-heating).
- Make sure electrical connections are not placed in areas where they can get wet
(e.g next to pot plants).
- All staff should know how to get a copy of an incident report. These are important to complete at the time of the incident to ensure times and details of the incident are accurate, especially if there is a customer involved.
- If possible, always have an ice-pack in the freezer.
- Keep communication open with staff members of health conditions
(e.g asthma, allergies).
- Move any tripping hazard. Is there a piece of carpet or cable that your staff keeps tripping over? Move it to prevent any serious incident.
- Never be afraid to call an ambulance. It is better to be safe than sorry. | 2d6117e57fbe82214acf6c01a3dc6810 | 487 |
Some of the coolest ships I read about were set in a universe where interstellar travel and trade did exist, but only at sublight speeds. I can't quite remember the name of the books or even the writer, but they were really cool. Kilometers long, capped with an ice sheath for shielding, huge crews, nanotechnology for reshaping themselves. The books also involved some kind of nano-scourge, corrupting nanotechnology. My favourite ship was one that was infected with the scourge, and had it's captain fused into it... If only I could remember the names... | 12276c65fb804b96acccb3fdf7c63bf0 | 119 |
Nobody promised that designers will invent only beautiful and useful things. And sometimes they don’t just make something bad, they make something that turns out truly terrible. They can make a regular mirror look original but impossible to use, their stairs can’t be used for walking, and they turn shoes into unimaginable things.
We at Bright Side are sure that you have seen examples of terrible design. But were those things as creative as the ones in this compilation?
There is something wrong with The Incredibles.
She looks exactly like the cartoon...
Nice porch, but where is the door?
This kids swimsuit looks a little strange.
If only a letter existed that somewhat resembled a slice of pizza...
A chandelier would really tie all this fluorescent lighting and these ceiling tiles together.
This Portuguese poster for soccer is so beautiful.
This is not a bottle of water, it’s used for removing iron particles from car paint.
The on/off switch for this fan is located behind the blades.
When it’s 3 o’clock for 3 hours...
What a security system! Amazing!
| https://brightside.me/wonder-curiosities/28-epic-design-fails-that-raise-too-many-questions-663210/?fbclid=IwAR1rroipGh6ewTI67sVzI6p90fDkuzLHMOnR7qGDNfeb6v8dsNO8ZHUauls | 236 |
This animal is Cymbiola magnifica, another well-named mollusc. It’s a Volute. I come across them every now and then in the water off Sydney, moving in a stately way across the sea floor.
They are big – the shell can be about 8 inches long. As they proceed they track and probe with a long proboscis held out front.
Within the molluscs, volutes are gastropods, like nudibranchs. It seems there is flux afoot in gastropod classification, but of two of the most diverse groups of gastropods, nudibranchs are in one while volutes are in another.
Though they look like snails, Volutes are not in the same group as the familiar land snails, which are more closely related to nudibranchs. This group, I understand, has two sexes, unlike the nudibranchs which are hermaphroditic. I have some shots of a volute mating – an unusual sight – but I’ll put those in another post.
The shot to the right gives a sense of scale.
I’ve often wondered about their lifestyle. They seem to just appear from time to time in one of my usual dive sites, and I had no idea where they came from. Do they migrate slowly in from deeper water? Do they have a den somewhere? Why don’t I ever see small ones?
Back in June I saw how some of it works. I think they burrow into the sand for much of the time, and lie there invisible, before emerging. In June I came across the last stage of an emergence of the one pictured at the top.
I assume they emerge to feed (and as we’ll see, to mate), and then re-enter the sea floor.
I’ve been trying to work out what they can sense. I assume the long proboscis can smell/taste the water, detecting traces of chemicals, and it is also sensitive to touch. But can they see at all? When they approach obstacles, they don’t divert their course, in any obvious way, before reaching the object. But this is not very informative, as they can climb steadily over or round anything medium-sized in front of them; they might see the objects and not care. I’ve not yet seen one encounter anything it couldn’t take in its amorphous stride. I planted my camera motionless before one, coming from some distance away, and it didn’t divert before reaching the camera and starting to climb round it.
Volutes always look like some of the calmest animals in the sea.
What eats them?
Don’t know! I’ve seen empty volute shells at octopus dens. They might have been collected afterwards – octopuses are very keen on objects of that kind – but I suspect octos might be doing some volute-hunting too. | 8d91da65f8cb9439c2c4cfd0c8f321e7 | 625 |
This is a nice relaxed shirt. I am wearing it now with a black jacket and white jeans - looks great!
I love this style. It is bouncy and frilly and makes me happy! Just add jeans and away you go into the winter sunshine. The sizing is accurate too! | https://www.birdsnest.com.au/brands/threadz/87783-checked-double-hem-frill-top | 59 |
The name of Testaccio is yet to be discovered by the masses; even in Rome, it remains a secret known mostly to those who live nearby. Yet this tucked-away corner of the city has more than earned its nickname, ‘the heart of Rome.’ For those who come to experience Testaccio’s dynamic, working-class atmosphere, the unique foodie culture proves truly worthy of the strange history from which it sprung!
Olive oil mountain
Testaccio is the south-westernmost ‘rione’ (or ‘region’) of the walled city. Pressed up against the east bank of the River Tiber, the area has long been a trading hotspot, and city planners used the merchants’ discarded olive oil jars to create the ‘mountain of fragments,’ or Monte Testaccio, from which the rione takes its name. And it’s a whopper! They reckon that this artificial hill is made up of nearly 80 million pots, piled 115 feet high (with another 45 feet below street level).
Far from being a waste site, we now know the mountain was carefully cultivated, with pots cut into pieces to fit against each other and form a structure. And it’s this structure that makes it so relevant to foodies today. Monte Testaccio has enjoyed its own mini-renaissance since the mid-19th-century, when the pottery mountain was first used as a military vantage point, and then burrowed into to create wine caves. When you visit, you’ll see that caverns and cubbyholes in the mountain have been transformed into bars and restaurants such as Flavio al Velavevodetto, an osteria that serves delicious local food.
Life and soul of the city
Take a short stroll from the hill, and you’ll find the market where the local chefs source their freshest ingredients. The Mercato Testaccio has been open over 100 years, and its recent relocation and modernisation have allowed the district’s street food culture to come into its own. It’s here that you’ll find terms like ‘gourmet’ and ‘take-away’ needn’t be considered mutually exclusive, and you’ll be grateful for the chance to people-watch and wander the stands while you decide what to eat!
But the Mercato is not entirely divorced from its bustling history. Family-run fruit-and-veggie stands and delicatessens remain an essential part of Roman life. And even as modern street art looks down on you from the surrounding walls, archaeologists continue to reveal astonishing discoveries all around, such as the unbroken pots that held the building aloft before its redevelopment and which can still be seen in the basement.
Contemporary art and traditional food
Testaccio’s most distinctive dishes, however, originate from a part of town that has now become its cultural hub.
Around 130 years ago, the area between Monte Testaccio and the river became the site of a new abattoir and cattle market, from where the workers would take scraps and morsels to cook up their evening meals. Local innkeepers took the rest and competed with each other to tempt the market’s visiting porters and drivers with recipes of great imagination and resourcefulness. It’s no wonder word of working-class specialities such as trippa alla Romana (tripe) or oxtail stew soon spread across the capital. Not surprisingly, Romans elsewhere in the city associate Testaccio with its delicious cuisine more than with the broken pottery beneath the rione’s surface!
Today, the abattoir has been converted into MACRO, Rome’s Museum of Contemporary Art, and the space also houses the Citta dell’Altra Economia – a centre for all things organic and fair-trade, where you will find a café, market, shops, and even a food festival when the time is ripe.
To experience the food and local life of the district try the Taste of Testaccio tour and enjoy the fruits of Testaccio’s culinary history away from the crowds of Rome’s more commonly trodden paths.
The post Exploring Testaccio Through History appeared first on Eating Europe. | be93c04b8968c19126a21c8bcb1971ed | 904 |
The Kent & East Sussex Railway owes much of its charm to its origin as the world’s first light railway.
Kent & East Sussex Railway
Originally opened in 1900, the tightly curved line with steep gradients is typical of those rural railways that were developed on shoestring budgets.
Today it is one of Britain’s most loved, most original heritage railways, running steam and heritage diesel trains for 10½ miles from Tenterden in the Kentish Weald through the Rother Valley brushing past Northiam to Bodiam in East Sussex – where it terminates a stone’s throw from Bodiam Castle.
An ever-evolving range of special events and offers provides interest for all ages whether you’re a regular day visitor, looking for days out with the kids or one who has yet to discover the unique charm of the K&ESR. | 38e78223f176991e2314798646feaccd | 179 |
While I'll probably get this as I love playing golf games more than actual golf, I really wanna see a new Mario Golf game. The last one was on the gamecube, and I know that if they did make a new one, the HD would be awesome and I'd play the shit out of it.
As you said, Wii Sports Golf only has 2 courses at the moment. That's a little disappointing for a Mii based game, I'm sure they could have made more settings and courses with ease.
But I'd really love to see a new Mario golf game because of how much fun they are and how crazy the courses can be. Imagine a new course in space based on Super Mario Galaxy. It would awesome. | 5d050e28b15847459f2b3fa593acd4cb | 151 |
The suspect in a deadly shooting at a Tennessee Waffle House is still at large.
Reinking is listed as part of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation's Ten Most Wanted List. A reward of $2,500 has been offered for information leading to his arrest.
Two people were fatally shot outside the restaurant Sunday as Reinking allegedly started firing his "assault-type rifle" as he got out of his truck, police said. One person was shot inside the restaurant and a fourth person died at a hospital. Six total people were shot, and others sustained injuries from flying glass and debris.
The shooting is believed to be random, police said.
Early Sunday, police dogs tracked Reinking to a nearby wooded area with power line towers, police said. He is not believed to be armed, but police said he has a propensity for guns, so not ruling out that he may be armed and dangerous. | 2b67cf9f6a8ccdd801f3f0229d511978 | 184 |
Full TitleTreatment Free Remission After Combination Therapy with Ruxolitinib Plus Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors in Chronic Phase Chronic Myeloid Leukemia (CP-CML) Patients Who Relapsed After a Prior Attempt at TKI Discontinuation
Purpose
Patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) take medications called tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs), such as imatinib, dasatinib, nilotinib, and bosutinib. Once treated long enough and if in a deep, steady remission, the goal is to stop taking these medications and maintain the remission. However, sometimes the cancer comes back. Giving more treatment at this point is highly successful, but little is known about trying to stop treatment a second time.
Because of the increasing number of people in remission who may not have been successful in stopping TKI therapy the first time, studies have begun to determine how to improve the chance of achieving a second treatment-free remission. In people with CML, the drug ruxolitinib has been studied in combination with TKIs and was shown to be safe and effective in improving a response. The purpose of this study is to determine if adding ruxolitinib to TKI therapy for a period of time before a second attempt at stopping could improve the chance of maintaining remission without treatment.
Ruxolitinib is already used to treat other blood disorders; its use in this study is considered investigational. It is taken orally (by mouth).
Eligibility
To be eligible for this study, patients must meet several criteria, including but not limited to the following:
- Patients must have CML, achieved remission, attempted stopping TKIs once, experienced a relapse, and be back on TKI treatment and in remission.
- This study is for patients age 18 and older.
For more information and to inquire about eligibility for this study, please contact Dr. Michael Mauro at 646-608-3744. | 3c951f6f15d821f6ac0b7f5ceee52ec1 | 416 |
#!/bin/sh
chattr -i /data/2ndswap
swapoff /data/2ndswap
| 300323 | 29 |
Englich and Remmers offer a comprehensive, analytic and at the same time programmatic representation of the Face-to-Face-Kommunikation in the professional life. Before the background of the globalisation with her dynamic changes of the office worlds and her worldwide digital interlinking it analyses the strategic significance of the different communication processes for the organisational development and development of a company. It indicates, like communication motives and communication aims, the in each case sensible organisation forms and methodical expiries, the space orders and space dimensions, the necessary achievement profiles of the Möblierung and the modern communication technology and media technology themselves mutually cause. The comprehensive analysis beginning oriented to use and planning beginning opens the architect, Interior to designers, Facility to managers the possibility to promote communication processes about the right planning, to structure sensibly and to avoid unnecessary friction losses as well as superfluous consequential costs.
| http://www.trend-books.com/2008/10/planungshandbuch-fur-konferenz-und-kommunikationsraume/?lang=en | 183 |
The East Coast is exposed to the full force of the Indian Ocean and the prevailing winds, hence the reefs are narrow, the drop-offs extremely steep and the shoreline harsh. To the north there is a wide shallow bank extending some 12 miles north covered in coral reefs and with one of the most beautiful beaches in East Africa at Vuma Wimbi in Msuka Bay. This beach is only accessible from mid-March to mid-November during the SE-monsoon period.
The West Coast is made up of a series of smaller islands enclosing an incredible inner sea with islands, reefs, mangrove creeks and deep-water channels. The south is very similar to the East Coast although less harsh.
As the prime fishing grounds are on the Pemba side of the channel one can benefit considerably by basing oneself there. We can be in the best water in a matter of minutes rather than hours, which translates into about 4 hours more fishing time in the best spots.
Marlin have often been encountered within 1 mile of the shore with dog-tooth tuna, giant trevally, kingfish, barracuda and wahoo all along the steep drop-offs. During the yellowfin tuna season the best fishing is almost always within a couple of miles of the Pemba coastline, making it an ideal base at this time of year.
These trips are great fun, and as there are no telephones or faxes you can have a truly relaxing holiday away from all the pressures of every day life. The best fishing for giant trevally, large wahoo, barracuda and narrow barred mackerels is along the Pemba drop-offs. Even in the billfish season of December through March the fishing is often best in close proximity to Pemba.
If, as well as the excellent fishing you would like to see more of the island then we strongly recommend September through November and March when the sea is usually calmer and you are free to cruise where you want.
The deep waters of the Indian Ocean along Tanzania’s coast are rich in big-game fish, from marlin and tuna to swordfish and biting barracudas. All the same, the waters of Tanzania are only just beginning to gain the world-wide fame of the Kenyan coast, so the waters are less populated and fishing at its most pristine. Tuna and other pelagics migrate through the Pemba Channel on a yearly basis, but can be found in smaller numbers throughout the year. Besides the big-game fish, grouper, red snapper, and other local species are populous along the coastal waters. Deep sea fishing in Tanzania is best organised through private companies that specialise in boating and ocean trips, or through lodges and hotel properties that offer day excursions throughout the coast.
Along the mainland coast, Pangani and Dar es Salaam are the most popular area for deep-sea fishing. Trips from Pangani and Tanga offer easy access to the Pemba Channel, a main migratory route for big-game pelagics. Outfitted charters are best arranged from local lodges, and the guide will know where best to look for a big-game catch. Around Dar es Salaam, fishing boats can be chartered and trips arranged around the areas of Msasani Bay, as well as the larger hotels and lodges. Excursions usually take the form of day trips and although the area is not as populated with large game fish, smaller species are in plentiful supply.
In the Zanzibar Archipelago, resorts and lodges along the northern and eastern parts of Unguja and the island of Pemba offer fishing charters that venture into deep waters. Fishing is becoming a popular alternative to snorkelling and dive trips along the reefs, and boats take clients out into the Pemba Channel and surrounding waters.
Pelagics and big-game fish are abundant in the isolated waters around Pemba and Unguja, and reward the adventurous fisherman with their size and bounty. | 4b80cb54bfe6d4eacd07e51766a543d9 | 840 |
The government's controversial Work Programme helped 62,000 people into employment between April and June 2013, according to research by the Employment Related Services Association (ERSA).
The trade body, which represents organisations delivering employment related services, revealed that the new total number of people helped into work is 384,000, up from 321,000 at the end of March 2013.
The data, which was collected from all 18 prime contractors of the scheme, found that more than 100,000 18 to 24 year olds have found some employment through the initiative.
But the figures also demonstrated that only 39% of those who have been on the programme for the full two years have so far entered work.
Kirsty McHugh, chief executive of ERSA, said: "Over the last two years, performance on the Work Programme has continued to build.
"Our evidence indicates that more than 70% of these will go into sustained employment, transforming their lives and saving millions of pounds for the taxpayer."
But Jenny Gulliford, a research and policy assistant at the Work Foundation, was cautious about the figures.
"Whilst ERSA's statistics are useful (and provide some interesting information on job start/job outcome conversion rates), they are not as reliable as government figures," she warned.
"But as long as you take ERSA's statistics at face value - as figures being produced by a trade body - they are useful."
Dave Simmonds, chief executive of think tank the Centre for Economic and Social Inclusion, said the data showed a steady increase in performance, but described the government's annually set achievement measurements for Work Programme providers, minimum performance levels (MPLs), as "flawed".
MPLs have also been criticised by Work Programme contractor G4S. The outsourcer called on the government to scrap the measure.
"The government should replace MPLs with a cohort based measure capturing the number of jobseekers who have achieved sustained employment during a given period of time," said G4S.
"The unrealistic nature of MPLs has undermined the credibility of the programme and negatively impacted on provider investment due to inflated risk and lower returns."
The news follows criticism from a cross-party group of politicians in May 2013 which claimed the scheme fails its most vulnerable participants.
Mark Hoban, Minister for Employment, added: "The Work Programme is designed to give two years of tailored support to some of the hardest to help jobseekers, with providers only paid when they deliver results, so it's good news that hundreds of thousands of people have been helped into work.
"Following the good employment figures this week which showed a record number of people in work, this is a further sign that we are able to compete in the global race."
The government's official statistics on sustained job outcomes and sustainments will be published on 26 September 2013. | https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/work-programme-young-people-job-seeker-unemployment-505947 | 584 |
I've found warm showers are great at night for processing emotions, usually sadness and/or grief.
Hot showers are great for feeling the surface sensation of the sizzling water burn your skin like when a cigarette bud is put out into smoldering ashes, but it's your skin.
Cold showers, I've found are huge benefits to your daily life. Cold showers allow you to last through unpleasant experiences, a power which undoubtedly stems into other parts of your life and lets you persevere through discomfort. I've also found that there is bliss on the other side of lasting through discomfort, in general. | 8b6ffe0c09fc409483e62ccdbb2274d0 | 125 |
FAQ & Section Info.
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All memory chips are sent directly from the DRAM manufacturer to Kingston assembly plants to minimize handling and reduce the chance of damage. Numerous steps are taken throughout the entire assembly process to eliminate the possibility of electro-static discharge, which is the leading cause of memory failure. to help with memory questions you may have. All Kingston memory modules are backed by a lifetime warranty and guaranteed compatibility. | 3c2a032697229800199609e8d1e6b207 | 165 |
|Pakistan's First Independent Complete Daily E-Newspaper|
|ISSN 1729-7915||Editor: Mumtaz Hamid Rao||[email protected]
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|
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
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Shaban 16, 1432 AH
|Population, housing census in Pakistan after Eid
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'Pakistan Times' Wire Service
ISLAMABAD: The sixth population and housing census would be conducted after Ramzan-ul-Mubarak, to be based upon two stages, sources of Population Census Organization said on Wednesday.
They said that Inter-provincial committee would finally decide about holding its meeting after Eid-ul-Fiter.
The two-pronged strategy of holding the consensus would be initiated firstly by conducting housing census which would lead to population census after gathering the complete data of households.
Data collectors will visit house to house in Azad Kashmir, Northern Areas and Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) besides the four provinces of the country.
According to procedure, the training program for the data collectors was also completed and duties were assigned to the concerned staffers. About 200000 persons will take part in holding the population and housing census.
Population Census Organization has finalized Programme for conducting the population and housing census, and it will be initiated soon after approval. | EN-0344-798 | 277 |
Congratulations to our client Veriff, a global identity verification provider, on its $69 million Series B financing round. Led by IVP and Accel, this round brings Veriff's total secured funding to date to $92.8 million. The Orrick team advising Veriff was led by John Bautista and includes Paul Klimos, Tania Sweis, Adam Lin and the Orrick Analytics team.
| https://www.orrick.com/en/News/2021/04/Orrick-Advises-Veriff-on-69-Million-Series-B-Round | 85 |
SITE SEARCH.
Estamos Unidos con un Propósito™ is an integrated campaign incorporating various promotional elements that include radio and print advertising, bilingual point-of-sale materials, a bilingual financial education Audio CD, and the 1-866-842-3391 informational hotline.
February 1 – May 31, 2008
Participating local NCLR partner organizations offering financial education seminars include:
• Phoenix, AZ: Chicanos Por La Causa, Inc. (CPLC)• Los Angeles, CA: East LA Community Corporation (ELACC)• Denver, CO: Del Norte NDC • Chicago, IL: The Resurrection Project• Atlanta, GA: The IMPACT! Group• Miami, FL: Cuban American National Council, Inc. (CNC)• New York, NY: Committee for Hispanic Children and Families, Inc. (CHCF) • Union City, NJ: Cuban American National Council, Inc. (CNC)• El Paso, TX: YWCA El Paso del Norte• Houston, TX: Tejano Center for Community Concerns (TCCC)
Consumers can learn about local seminar schedules or request copies of the financial education audio CD by calling NCLR at 1-866-842-3391.
Print Version
Stay informed. Sign up to receive news from NCLR
Find out how you can help shape the future for Latinos. | a05948ccb8ecf53158a4119abda34280 | 294 |
Home / Archive by category "Формула1"
Whenever Dan Gilbert had been 11 years of age he took a drive together with grandfather down Woodward Avenue in Detroit. He sat within the straight back chair of these ’71 Oldsmobile as their grandfather pointed at an empty retail location on Detroit’s primary drag and said there “usta be” something over here. He then pointed out how here usta be streetcars downtown, there usta be this, usta be that.
Gilbert states that memory captures just just how he saw the town while growing up within the neighboring middle-class suburb of Southfield into the 1960s, in which he shared it in a keynote message with a few hundred estate that is real collected at the Urban Land Institute’s yearly conference in might, at Detroit’s Cobo Center.
| http://store.animasia-studio.com/?cat=2706 | 199 |
ACIM Daily Lesson 103 God, being Love, is also happiness.
1. Happiness is an attribute of love. ²It cannot be apart from it. ³Nor can it be experienced where love is not. ⁴Love has no limits, being everywhere. ⁵And therefore joy is everywhere as well. ⁶Yet can the mind deny that this is so, believing there are gaps in love where sin can enter, bringing pain instead of joy. ⁷This strange belief would limit happiness by redefining love as limited, and introducing opposition in what has no limit and no opposite.
God is Love and so God is also happiness. Because I was created as an extension of God, that means I am also Love and happiness. I cannot be less than I was created. I cannot be different than I was created. Thus, Love and happiness are in me and there for me to find. That is why I am doing these lessons in which I go within to find happiness.
I had mistakenly thought that happiness was connected to what happens. Since what happens in the world is highly variable, I taught myself that love and happiness must be variable as well. Because of this, I had stopped trusting love and happiness until A Course in Miracles showed me the error in my thinking. My happiness has nothing to do with the world that seems to be outside me.
⁴God, being Love, is also happiness.
⁵To fear Him is to be afraid of joy.
⁶Begin your periods of practicing today with this association, which corrects the false belief that God is fear. ⁷It also emphasizes happiness belongs to you, because of what He is.
I understand that fear and love are associated. This became very clear to me as I began to realize how this appeared to me in my life. I used to believe that it was scary to love too deeply. I had taught myself that love could be lost and so in order to protect myself, I put up a barrier. My intention was not to keep love out altogether, it was to keep myself from feeling it too intensely.
What I believed was that if I loved greatly, my loss would be great, so it was better not to love too much. In doing this, I learned to fear love. Since God is Love, this fear applied to God as well though I didn’t see it so clearly until I started studying the Course. I suppose the fear of God came first and God being love, fear of love was reinforced. This fear also kept me from being happy. It took a long time for me to let this belief go. Sometimes, I see it trying to find a foothold in my mind again but I am not interested.
⁵God, being Love, is also happiness.
⁶And it is happiness I seek today.
⁷I cannot fail, because I seek the truth.
Over the last couple of days, I’ve become super conscious of thoughts that block the awareness of my happiness. I know it is always there because I was created happy and creation never changes. To keep it in my awareness, I release all thoughts that lead to fear and pain. Those are not my true thoughts and I don’t have to believe them. When I don’t believe them, I don’t want them and so it is easy to let them go. | https://forgivenessisthewayhome.org/acim-workbook-lesson-103-year-2022/ | 701 |
It’s no secret that we love coffee around here. But, when you love coffee as much as we do, you always care about the cup you put it in. We’ve road tested countless coffee tumblers over the years and have certainly narrowed it down to our favorites that we use over and over again.
While we all have slightly different preferences when it comes to our tumblers, I think there are a few basic things that we can all agree on.
There’s a million choices out there. How do you know which one is the right one for you? We have a coffee tumbler on this list that’ll match pretty much any coffee drinkers taste with ease. Whether you drink your coffee iced or hot, at home or on the road, there’s a tumbler here that’ll have you sipping happy.
With this list in mind, here’s all of our favorites! Know that affiliate links are used below, which means at no cost to you, we may receive a commission. Cheers to that!
I use this one allllll the time. I love it so much. I found it back when the expensive Stanley mug was all over everyone’s Instagram and I thought – that’s one gigantic, expensive tumbler. Then, I found this one and never looked back.
It’s the perfect size, without being too big. It fits in my car cup holder and keeps my iced coffee cold for a loooong time. I also love the color options, which do change, but I have this pink and rose gold and it’s preeeeettty.
The price also makes it one of the most affordable on this list. It’s not just us – perfect reviews at time of posting, too.
Don’t sleep on this one; it’s a good one, friends.
Check out the Reduce 24oz. tumbler here.
All hail the Brumate! The Toddy is the biggest tumbler on our list, yet it’s a gentle giant. It still fits in cup holders and is easy to hold, thanks to a generous handle. Plus, it’s loaded with all the features you could want in an insulated coffee mug, such as fully leakproof, triple-insulated, stainless steel and works with both hot and cold beverages.
Plus, the double-threaded design allows left or right-handed use while their own BevLock™ Technology seals tight to prevent spills. In addition, it has a fully leakproof locking lid and magnetic closure to keep the lid open while you sip.
Brumate has truly though to everything, plus they offer the Toddy in a suite of adorable designs. Am I partial to this golden leopard? Yes, yes I am. But, you can get the Toddy in everything from matte black to a glitter rainbow. Seriously, there’s a Toddy for everyone.
Shop the Brumate Toddy XL 32oz Insulated Coffee mug here.
I gave this as a gift to a serious hot coffee lover over here and it has been a huge hit. It’s a really luxe design and the Ironman detail is a bonus. It comes in a zillion different options, though, so don’t get turned off if you’re not into Marvel. There’s so many different version of this tumbler on their website. They have other cup designs, too, which are also great.
Corkcicle is just an expert at crafting high quality drinkware and this tumbler is a perfect example of that. Stainless steel with triple insulation keeps drinks cold for over 9 hours and hot for 3. Plus, a shatterproof, sliding, see-through lid makes it easy to drink and see how much is left, but also keeps it from spilling out when it’s closed.
Add their straw pack to add straws or just sip it through the lid. Not everybody is a straw person. In fact, we even put a pour over right on top of this and do our favorite pour over coffee straight into the tumbler.
Shop the Corkcicle 24oz. tumbler here.
Yup, we’ve written about this one before and we stand by it. We love everything we have from Fellow and their mugs are no exception. They’ve taken a really innovative approach to their mugs. You’ll see a redesign of the typical lip to be similar to a wine glass for optimum drinking and tasting. They are also careful to use materials that will not change the taste of your coffee, either.
The screw on lid keeps it totally secure when you need to slip it into a bag and go.
Available in 3 sizes and lots of colors, you can find the Carter mug that fits your style. Plus, great news, they can fit in your Nespresso, too. Score.
You can also score one of these for free when you order our special Jot coffee concentrate bundle. Check it out here.
But, one caveat, it didn’t fit in all of our cupholders, so it might be a cup you use when you need to be out on the field for your kids soccer game or working in the office, but not necessarily when you’re on that road trip.
Shop the Fellow Carter Move mug here.
Another fan favorite. This one is even more secure than the Reduce in terms of spillage. Plus, the marble look is very chic.
Thanks to it being double-walled, it’s going to hold that temp for hours. Yup. That means you can actually drink that coffee at the temp you like, even if you’re racing around conquering your to-do list. Muy excellente.
And, premium 18/8 stainless steel is high quality, food grade and won’t leach chemicals into your coffee. That’s delicious.
Also, available in lots of colors, you can find one for everybody and it even makes a great gift with a coffee card inside.
Check out the Simple Modern 24oz. tumbler here.
If you’re still looking for the perfect tumbler, don’t forget that Starbucks stocks really great hot and cold coffee tumblers that are seasonal. They only offer the designs for a short time, so if you like one, grab it.
I have at least half a dozen Starbucks tumblers and can’t seem to resist picking up new designs each season. The straw tumblers are not usually insulated, so you won’t have that ice cold temp for hours and hours, but they are designed really well, fit in cup holders, and look cool.
If you drink hot, you’ll be very happy with their insulated hot coffee tumbler designs, too. Plus, they all range around $20. So, while I can’t link them here, because you would pay 3x the price if you picked it up on Etsy or Ebay, consider stopping in your nearest Starbucks to see what collection they currently have. They are great to have around and work for water, smoothies, etc., too.
I find that they do not last as long as other tumblers on this list, but they are also the most affordable, usually costing around $19.99.
So, check them out if you’re looking for something quick, easy and cute.
I hope this list helps you find the perfect coffee tumbler! If you’re looking for more coffee guides, check out these posts!
Next Post Acid Reflux From Coffee Got You Down? With These 5 Tips, You Can Still Drink Up! | https://whatthefroth.com/coffee-tumblers/ | 1,632 |
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| http://vbteam.info/the-adventures-that-take-you-to-mt-kilimanjaro/ | 1,190 |
Shadows: Awakening rating. Xbox One.
The presentation side of the game does a great job of creating an immersive experience and both the visuals and sound design combine together well.
I really enjoyed the story that was present in the game because not only was it fun but it also held my interest throughout my time with the game.
Combat in the game is very fun and has plenty of depth to it so I ended up being satisfied most of of the time when in combat.
Each character you can play in the game has had a lot of thought and effort placed into them and that meant playing as each different character felt rewarding.
The RPG mechanics have been implemented really well and in some ways they do have a unique side to them.
Unfortunately the game suffers with quite a few technichal issues.
There isn’t a lot in terms of variety when it comes to the enemies you face in the game.
The puzzles aren’t anything ground-breaking and some are a little on the basic side.
Does Shadows: Awakening do enough to get a recommendation from me?
All in all Shadows: Awakening is a pretty good RPG that offers you some unique and interesting takes on a tried and tested formula. It combines these unique and interesting elements together extremely well and this filters into the combat which is fun and exciting to say the least. Another aspect of the game that’s also fun and exciting is the story that’s been implemented. The story keeps you invested throughout your time with the game and it also makes you want to play as each character. You’ll be pleased to know then that playing as each character is well worth your time because there’s a lot of thought and effort gone into each character. Technically the game isn’t too bad but it does suffer with a few issues every now and then which can be a little annoying from time to time. That being said I was able to look past these issues pretty easily in the end and when it’s all said and done as far as Action RPG’s are concerned Shadows: Awakening is definitely a good addition to the genre.
I rate Shadows: Awakening 7.5/10.
Developer: Games Farm s.r.o.
← Twin Robots: Ultimate Edition rating. Xbox One.
| https://gerrardnum89.wordpress.com/2018/09/02/shadows-awakening-rating-xbox-one/ | 475 |
<issue_start><issue_comment>Title: AddToCart button becomes grey out when endpoint is broken
username_0: ## Current behavior
AddToCart becomes grey out when endpoint is broken
## Expected behavior
Despite that endpoint is broken, AddToCart button should be active and an error message should be displayed. (e.g. Something went wrong ...)
## Steps to reproduce the issue
1. Broke "updateitem_endpoint": "https://demo.storefrontcloud.io/api/cart/update
2. Go to product page
3. Try to Add to cart
## Repository
<!-- If possible, share a repository link where this problem occurs -->
## Can you handle fixing this bug by yourself?
- [ ] YES
- [x] NO
## Which [Release Cycle](https://docs.vuestorefront.io/guide/basics/release-cycle.html) state this refers to? Info for developer.
Pick one option.
- [ ] This is a bug report for test version on https://test.storefrontcloud.io - In this case Developer should create branch from `develop` branch and create Pull Request `2. Feature / Improvement` back to `develop`.
- [ ] This is a bug report for current Release Candidate version on https://next.storefrontcloud.io - In this case Developer should create branch from `release` branch and create Pull Request `3. Stabilisation fix` back to `release`.
- [ ] This is a bug report for current Stable version on https://demo.storefrontcloud.io and should be placed in next stable version hotfix - In this case Developer should create branch from `hotfix` or `master` branch and create Pull Request `4. Hotfix` back to `hotfix`.
## Environment details
<!-- Please provide all the informations required below. -->
- Browser: <!-- Your browser, version -->
- OS: <!-- Your operating system, version -->
- Node: <!-- Version of Node.js used to run the project -->
- Code Version: <!-- Tag, branch or commit determining which version of code is used -->
## Additional information
<!-- If you think that any additional information would be useful, please provide them here. --><issue_closed>
<issue_comment>username_0: Ok, now i get _"Error with response - bad content-type_" message and Add to cart button is active
<issue_comment>username_1: Thanks for testing it out :) | 5291386 | 652 |
Mmmmmmmm two things I would carry in my man-bag. This is really hard since I really am a carefree guy who lives his life to the fullest. I don’t really attach to items although I can say that there is one thing that I would bring that have great meaning to me. One of these things would be my Duck hunter hunting knife that my grandpa gave me and two of my cousins. It means a lot to me because it was the last gift I received from him before he passed away. I always keep it in between my pillow cushions for safety and good luck. My cousins also keep it close and when I go to Puerto Rico I bring it with me. We have knife throwing duels and do Eskrima (a weapons martial arts) in honor of are grandpa who loved combat and knifes. It’s been a tradition that we tend to do for a long time. And I feel like doing this makes me a man with great honor and a loving person. So reviewing this item I feel that it’s very intangible to me and not just a physical item.
My second thing that I would bring with me would be dairy products. I don’t care if its cheese, milk or yogurt I’m bringing it with me. It’s a scapegoat; dairy products make me happy and it flows in my veins. It’s something that when I was little and had a hard time I would eat cheddar cheese with a glass of milk. Although I changed my scapegoat because it was making me chubby it introduced me to a new one. Which was Muay Thai (martial arts) something more physical which balanced my life style. I still chug a cup of milk everyday though. This item was a balance of tangible and intangible it had alittle meaning to it. However it wasn’t something that made an emotional stand in my life. Or maybe it did!
Your an amzing person I love the story. It really touched my heart. i felt like i was really there.
your story is very relatable in a lot of ways. People usually carry thing for their intangible meanings. Especially when it is given by some one that is greatly looked up to like a role model of sort. I can connect to this personally because i looked up to my grandfather as well.
I hump around a planner that I never use and a blank note book. I have the planner from the beginning of the year but I have never used it for one full month. I carry it to be organized to try to be organizing because if I am organized I feel like I could accomplish so much more things that I do now. Think that planner represents to me is better grades and more security in my future. I feel like I plan out my day I can have control of what I accomplish. If I can organize my time better it means I can dedicate more time to the classes that I have problems with.
I want to write I love to write but I don’t always have the inspiration or dedication to do it. I want to in the future write a novel, it doesn’t have to be amazing or a best seller I just want to know that I could write that I can put may made up adventures on paper . I think that empty note book represents to me the dream of writing a novel that I have had since I was in second grade. It means to me that on those note book pages could possibly be my future novel.
Thats a nice story. Gave me a couple ideas of what to write in mine.
Something i always carry i my backpack is my money and my cellphone. I “hump” these items wherever I go because these are the most important things to me. However, I also carry my license wit me. That is another important thing to me incase I get pulled over or anything. The tangible element of my cellphone is I can always know if I have my cellphone or not.
Something I always carry in my backpack an old letter my grandmother gave to me before leaving my country and on my finger I carry a ring my aunt gave to me. The ring I am supposed to give it to the girl I will marry. The ring says real love and I think that’s why I am supposed to give it to that special person. The letter always reminds me of my grandmother and she is one of the most important persons in my life; her and my grandfather raised me and therefore this letter is very important to me. I also believe my grandmother wrote with her heart because of what it says in it which makes it more important to me.
I believe that what this say about me is that I really care about family. Both items are important one was given to me by one of my favorite aunts and the other one by my grandmother and she is like my mother. I care about these items because they remind of moments that I will never forget. My family is always there to support me in every decision I make. I strongly believe that the fact that I carry these two items with me wherever I go means that I deeply care about these two people.
Awesome comment bro, thats why you carry that ring. I thought the comment was very thought full and came from the heart nice job.
Well the two items I would have to have in my bag would be my phone and my debit card. The reason being is because; when you don’t have a phone you can’t really do nothing. You use your phone for everything now days. You can use your phone to pay your bills if your late you can send it that second. Or ever contact someone or ever the authorities if you’re in trouble. Or even if you get lost you can use your phone as gps. Also if you’re waiting for someone or even at a dentist appointment you can be in the waiting room playing a game on your phone. A phone is the first thing I grab before I leave the house.
My debit card is the second important item that goes in my bag. Because if I see something I like I’m going to go buy it right there and then. Also a debit card comes in handy because you don’t have to carry all of your money in your pocket. It goes directly to a card and also it is a lot safer. Because nobody has your pin so they can’t uses it if they find it. But on the other hand if you have money in your pocket and you drop it somewhere someone can just pick it up and go spend it so it is easier to have your debit card on you at all times.
that is a really good reason to bring your phone to some place. and so true and the debt card.
I agree with the things that you will carry in your bag because it is the things that i would carry as well. What would we do without our phones? We won't be able to get in contact with anyone if an emergency.
An Debit Card is important as well because if you need anything you can buy right there and then. Also it can help you if you really need to purchase something you don't have at the moment.
I totally agree with you about having your cell phone everywhere you go, that's how I am. You will never know when your gonna be in trouble or in case of emergencies. It's true without a cell phone you become so bored. Also having a debit card you will always have your money is important because you never know when your going to need money,it's always safe even if you loose your debit card because of the pin you have. I definelty agree with the two important items that you carry around with you.
Umm… one of the two things that I would carry in my bag would have to be my cell phone. My cell phone means a lot to me. Without it, I don’t know what I would do. Everytime I am away for a while from my mom I always have to call her, no matter what. Every day in the morning when I wake up and every night before I go to bed to say goodnight. I need to stay in cantact with my mom. I call her for amnything and everything. Every rpoblem that I have, I would call her whenever I have the chance to. I cant really wait til she gets home to tell her my problems, because then again, I am her daughter.
The second thing that I would carry in my bag would have to be a hair tie. Only because I cant really have my hair down for such a long period of time. When I get tired of my hair being down , I would put it up. And when I get tired of my hair being up I would take the hair tie off and leave it down. Another reason why I would bring some hair ties because you never know when someone is in need of one. You can really help someone out with one.
i agree with you on having your phone with you at all times my phone is my life. also a hair tie ?, everygirl will need a hair tie at one point intime.good items !!
People tend to “hump” things around because they need it or it means something to them. Two things I always “hump” around are my cell phone and keys. My cell phone is a Samsung Galaxy so I have apps to play games and entertain me. But also allows me to communicate with friends and family. My keys have my house key, car key, and school key. These keys allows me to access my house, things I need at school, and for me to drive my car.
My cell phone and keys are tangible and intangible objects to me. It allows me to travel, communicate, and do other things. I can say these objects shows that I’m an outgoing person. I like to go to different places and meet new people. I love talking to my friends and family. I use these objects every day for a reason; they are two of my necessities.
Cindy Tran I'm going to have to agree with you here. I to have a Samsung Galaxy. (S3) I enjoy it because its hassle unlike the iPhone when you have to play for simple games. I have tons of apps on my phone that can entertain me for days upon days. I communicate to family and friends all the way from messages to video call on Skype. My key are on me every time I leave the house so that I can get back in the house. Not every time I talk my key because if I leave the house keys someone is home to let me in most of the time.
One very important item I would carry with me is my boy-diary and my pencil. The reason I would carry my boy-diary is because I must write down everything I experience so if someone were to find this diary, they could use my experiences and write a non-fiction story about my life. Secondly I would take along a pencil so I can write on the diary. The tangible element of my boy-diary is the skill of an author. The intangible element of this is careness. The reason I say that careness is the intangible is the element is because I have the guts to bring something to write on and something to write with to write down everything I go through and everything I see. The tangible element of my pencil is as if it were my sword. You cannot carry a sword without a shield. That is my tangible and intangible elements.
Good thing to bring with you , i can see why you would "hump" the items you bring with you . I liked your idea , good job.
As you may know, every female carries their life in their purse. Make-up, mirror, wallet, accesseries, and personal needs. One thing I always carry in my bag is my headphones. I don’t go anywhere without my headphones. Instead of being rude and telling someone to leave me alone, I will just put on my headphones and hope that they don’t interrupt my mood. That’s just one thing I can’t leave my house with.
One thing that I carry in my purse all the time would be my wallet with all of my little siblings’ pictures in it. I like to carry this around with me because it’s nice to look in my wallet and just see them there. The tangible aspect of the pictures is that they are my siblings and I will always want to have pictures of them with me to show off to everyone. I am also very proud of their success so far and hope for them to carry on. The intangible aspect of the pictures in my wallet is to be able to always carry them with me. Even when my siblings aren’t physically there I can still physically see them through the pictures and they can be here with me in my heart. This is very special to me because I’m going off to college out of state and they wont be able to see me everyday like they are use to and I won’t be able to see them everyday and harass them like the older sister that I am.
Another thing that I carry would be my IPod. I carry my iPod with me everywhere I go even if I’m just going down the street or to the grocery store. The tangible aspect of my IPod is just being able to have music with me whenever I need it. Also, since it’s the newest version, I don’t want it to stay at home where someone could mess with it nor have my dogs break it. I also like to listen to music while driving instead of the crappy music that’s on the radio now-a-days. I can also ignore my dad of siblings with my IPod when I’m in the car and don’t feel like listening to them. The intangible aspect of my IPod is being able to escape the real world into the world of music. I love music a lot and having an IPod helps me connect to different kinds of music whenever I’m not home. It also keeps me calm when I’m in a stressful situation or when I know that anger is going to get the best of me.
The two things that I would bring with me are a knife and food. Fist I would bring a knife because you don’t know what is going to happen out there and when you might need it. You can use that knife for everything, to make you feel safe, to make shelter, and to protect your self if needed. The second thing I would bring would be food; well you need for to stay alive and be as strong as you can be if anything goes wrong and have to use a lot of energy, you wouldn’t be so weak. You would have a lot better chance of living if you had to fight for your life. This is mostly tangible, because you have these things with you and the intangible thing is that this will keep you safe no matter what and alive. These items say about me is I want to live no matter what; I will fight to survive and do what I have to do.
If I had to choose two items to “hump” around in war then I would take my deer hunting knife with me that my father gave me before he passed away. It has great sentimental value me and it would also make good use in combat. The blade is about a inch longer then my palm.
The other item I would carry with me would be a note book with a pen. So that I could write back to my family and them know how I am doing. Ifi didn’t make it back from the war I would like my knife and note book sent back to family.
One of the things a carry around with me is my laptop. I carry my laptop around with me because I love technology when it’s not getting on my nerves. In school I use it for projects or work that needs to be done on computer when I’m not in the lab so I can work on it anywhere. Also so I can play games on the fly. When I’m not working on something and I have nothing to do I can just pull out my laptop and work on bashing baddies in classic Zelda and Mario or play with friends who may be around. This explains that I’m a nerd and a dork. I’m a nerd in the sense that I’m always ready to do work when I’m not feeling all that lazy. Also that I’m a dork when I’m just playing games and having fun with it.
Another thing I carry around is a crest on a necklace. The crest is of a heart with a fancy spear shape design at the bottom where the tip should be. The edging is some type of silver metal that also creates an “X” in the middle of the heart with a thorn like look to it. In the spaces divided by the X are filled with a shiny pretty red color. This emblem symbolizes heartless and is from my favorite video game Kingdom Hearts. It was given to me by a very special person and I never leave the house without it. This says about me that I care about the crest deeply because of my love for this special person and my love for the game that it’s from. It’s contradiction to me as well because I’m far from heartless.
The one thing I would carry in my bag with me is my cell phone because, it has all my music and connects me to the social network. I carry my phone because in case of an emergency I could call or text someone really fast. I could contact people and they can contact me if they need to. I use my phone to take photos of everyday things and to keep memories of event that occurred in my life that mean a lot to me. Its just something I cant forget, I comes with me everywhere and is like my child.
I carry my wallet around everywhere I go, it has money in it. For example, if I was ever to go to pinkberry and not have my wallet I would die because that would mean no frozen yogurt for me. Also in case of an emergency and I needed something like food or if I need my I.D that’s in my wallet as well. My wallet has all my cards in it and important information.
Something I would carry in my hand-bag would be gum because it just something I've always carried it with me because I have a bad habbit of biting me nails and i want to get over that, so chewing gum helps me. It also calms me down if im nervous, stressed out or in a a bad mood. It just gives me something else to focus on, i can concentrate on chewing the gum. The gum is something tangible that I just carry around a lot.
Something else I would carry in my hand bag would be my uncles black wallet that has an unused dollar ripped up dollar in it. he passed away a few years ago but keeping that wallet with me is so important to me because it makes me feel like im always connected to him by the object he carried all the time. I will never use the unused dollar that is in it because I consider it good luck and i would never want to give a dollar that he had held away, its one of the things he left behind that is apart of him. That would be something intangible because I have an emotional attachment to it.
I like your story specially the part of the wallet I bring two things that remind of my family. I believe family is one of the most important things in life. Sometimes I carry a little soft ball that I squeeze when I am stressed. Your story really caught my attention it is similar to mine.
I have a huge habit with biting my nails as well. Gum distracts me from biting them and having my nails painted. Whenever I do paint them, it's like a big no no because of the bright colors I have. Getting them done by a professional helps me because I would like my nails to grow but only when I get an acrylic over it.
In my purse you’ll find many things that might seem useless to your use. The things I carry are meaningfull , resourceful and some are useless. If I was able to carry all the objects/items in my purse , I’d take all of them with me. But since I can only choose two objects , one of the two objects that I would take is my inhaler . My inhaler is an important part of me because since I have asthma anything can happen . I can have an asthma attack for all I know. Even before I do any phyical ativites is when I would use it. When something occurs it will be in my purse to facilitate my asthma. The other item that I would bring along with me is my personal journal . In which I write to express what I feel or even to write positive things I have accomplished . Its sometimes a stress reliever , if there is no one to confide in. I always try to write the positives rather then the negatives , and when I do , I look back and see what I wrote to try to find a way to make my week/future well again.
These two items I carry in my bag reflect on me as a person because without my inhaler it would difficult for me to breath if something were to happen , and the journal would be a way for me to write down any experierences I have gone through or even writing down how my day went .
One of two things I’d carry would have to be my knowledge. I know I may not seem like much but in is some thing no one can take from me. The thing I like about it is the ability collect to it and adapt to my environment. As they say its survival of the fittest and I believe my knowledge enables me to have such ability. Growing up I did a lot of moving around and is what has aided me to be who I am as a young man as of now.
The second thing I would bring will be my curiosity and empathetic feel. It the part me that lets me walk a mile on ones shoes. And as nice as that sound it is my curse and blessing at the same time. All these items are very intangible to me and well makes me who I am.
After reading all of my classmates’ blog post about the two things they carry all the time. You kind of see a pattern. Most students “hump” around a cell phone, which is reasonable since it’s the 21st century and is our main resource for communication. Though there are things that are sentimental to my classmates bring around. It shows that most of us aren’t caught up with modern electronics and gadgets and care about the little things. They share a strong connection with these 2 things because they are tangible and intangible.
You're very right, Cindy. There is a pattern between what everyone "humps". I guess that just goes to show about human nature. Everyone feels a sense of security or safety with their phone with them, and you can't blame them because again, we're in the 21st century and that's all that's surrounded us, technology.
i was on the field trip.
One thing I carry in my backpack is a piece of sheet metal which is very useful. I carry this piece of metal because it has many tangible purposes. One of the main reasons why I carry this piece of metal in my back pack is because on hot days when I ride my motorcycle to school I use it to put underneath my kickstand so the sun will not melt the asphalt on to my kick stand. This is important because sometimes this can cause the bike to get stuck or it can also cause the bike to fall over and damage the body or potentially other cars as well. The intangible part is it gives me peace of mind when I am in class and don’t have to worry about my bike falling over.
The second thing I carry in my backpack is a flash drive. I carry a flash drive in my backpack because every think I type in school goes on my flash drive for my safety. I started carrying a flash drive senior year because junior year I lost a lot of my essays and projects and had to re due them. The intangible part is it also gives me peace of mind and it also helps teachers trust me more because I can show them I did the work on the flash drive. I think carrying a flash drive helps a lot.
The two things I would "hump" around would be my cellphone and my knowledge for life itself. The reason why I carry my cellphone around is because when I have it, I feel a sense of security. I always feel like I can pick it up and call anyone I needed to. My cellphone means EVERYthing to me. I probably can't go a day without my phone by my side.
Another thing I would carry around with me is my knowledge for life. I know in life this would be very useful for me. To know how everyone's minds work, and to see how to play the game of "Life". I would have to learn the in's and out's about it. But these are the two things that I would carry.
So two things that i find important and i will "hump" will be my cellphone and credit card. The reason why my phone is important to me is because if i was in danger of any kind i would be able to call 911 for an emergency and call my parents or family for there help. Also my phone has internet and text messaging so if i needed it i would be able to use it.My phone is always something i keep by my side. The reason why i would always carry my Credit Card is because i can purchase anything i need like food,drinks and anything for my health. | ca9aaaadb61c1b129b6a4e59d5b0f227 | 5,370 |
The new 2022 Gold Half Sovereign bullion coin is struck in 22 carat gold and guaranteed to 5 decimal places, The Sovereign is one of the most tightly specified coins in the world. Once regarded as the ‘chief coin of the world’, it is internationally recognised and is The Royal Mint’s flagship coin.
Why buy 2022 Half Sovereign Gold Coin ?
Brand new half gold sovereigns are a great way to invest in physical gold progressively. It makes your holdings more divisible, and consequently more liquid. To illustrate, you can easily sell a few half gold sovereigns at any time, rather than having to hold a large gold bar. Moreover, British gold coins like full and half sovereigns are exempt of Capital Gain Tax (CGT), because of their legal tender status in UK. This is an added benefit for british investors. Finally, this coin is VAT free in the UK and European Community.
The Royal Mint produces gold bullion coins of the highest quality, using strict minting standards. All newly produced gold sovereigns (full and a half) go through a verification process called the Trial of the Pyx. This independent verification trial dates back to 1282 and certifies the weight and gold purity of British coins before their issue to the public market. As a result, brand new British coins like the 2022 half gold sovereign have weight and purity backed by the UK Government.
Since the year 650, several mints across Great Britain minted coins. Around the year 1540, most of the mints closed and the Royal Mint was the only mint in operation.
Great Britain abandoned the striking of coins by hand in 1663 and introduced new manufacturing processes. The use of screw presses and horse-drawn rolling mills enabled the manufacture of what became “milled coins”. | https://www.gerrardsbullion.com/shop/gold/gold-coins/2022-half-sovereign-gold-coin/ | 368 |
ORANGEBURG, S.C. — The search for suspects in a Friday afternoon shooting that left an S.C. State University football player dead has been moved off-campus after the college was placed on lockdown for several hours following the incident.
The Orangeburg County Coroner’s Office has identified 20-year-old Brandon Alexander Robinson as the victim in the shooting that took place outside of a campus dormitory. Robinson was taken to The Regional Medical Center in Orangeburg, S.C., where he was later pronounced dead.
"He was a good student," said S.C. State University president Thomas J. Elzey, who became emotional during a Friday evening briefing in the university’s administration building.
S.C. State Police Chief Mernard Clarkson said Friday evening that the State Law Enforcement Division has taken the lead in the investigation. But he confirmed that police are trying to identify four people who were in the area at the time of the incident and have identified at least one person of interest. He did not disclose that individual’s name and said no suspects were in custody.
Police have no motive for the shooting, Clarkson said.
Police were called to the Andrew Hugine Suites Living and Learning dorm on campus around 1:30 p.m. Friday. S.C. State officials called SLED for assistance shortly after the shooting occurred, SLED spokesman Thom Berry said. Once the student died, the case fell under SLED’s jurisdiction because of a state law that requires the agency to investigate all on-campus deaths, Berry said.
S.C. State and nearby Claflin University were on lockdown for several hours on Friday afternoon, as police searched the perimeters of the campuses. Shortly after the shooting, an emergency siren was activated at S.C. State and could be heard across both campuses for several hours.
As of 6 p.m., both campuses were off lockdown. S.C. State restricted campus entrance to the rear gate off Chestnut Street, which is customary after 6 p.m. each day, but the campus remained under heightened security Friday night.
"Members of the campus community are asked to remain alert and report any suspicious activity," Clarkson said. "Students are safe. The perimeter of the campus is secure."
Students at both universities said they had little information about the incident but were advised to stay inside by means of campuswide text messages, email alerts and other emergency notifications. And while the two campuses remained largely barren for much of the afternoon, a handful of students could be seen walking around outside.
According to the S.C. State Bulldogs football website, Robinson was a redshirt junior who played on the defensive line. He was a native of Orangeburg.
S.C. State and area law enforcement officials said their top priority will be ensuring the safety of other students while the search for the suspects continues. | https://www.examiner-enterprise.com/news/nation/4-suspects-sought-after-college-football-player-shot-killed | 599 |
Kentucky Butter Cake (Gluten Free)
This traditional regional cake is made gluten-free using our Gluten Free 1-to-1 Baking Flour. Since butter is a featured ingredient in this recipe, make sure to use fresh, quality butter!
Share this Recipe
Share this Recipe
- Cake
- 1 cup Butter soft
- 2 cups Sugar
- 3 cups Gluten Free 1-to-1 Baking Flour plus extra for flouring the pan
- 1 tsp Baking Powder
- 1/2 tsp Baking Soda
- 1 tsp Salt
- 4 Eggs
- 2 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 1 cup Buttermilk
- Glaze
- 3/4 cup Sugar
- 1/2 cup Butter
- 1/4 cup Water
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour a large bundt pan.
- Cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy, 7 – 10 minutes. Meanwhile, mix together Bob’s Red Mill 1-to-1 Flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
- Add eggs one-at-a-time to the butter mixture, scraping down the bowl after each addition then add the vanilla extract.
- Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture, alternating with the buttermilk and mix until smooth and creamy. Pour batter into the prepared bundt pan.
- Bake until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean, about 60 minutes. During the last 10 minutes of the baking time, combine the glaze ingredients and heat to melt but do not boil.
- Immediately after removing the cake from the oven, poke several long holes into the top using a long skewer. Pour half of the warm glaze over the cake then let the cake cool completely in the bundt pan, about 2 hours.
- Once the cake has thoroughly cooled, loosen the edges from the pan and invert onto a serving platter. Rewarm the remaining glaze and pour or brush over the cake.
When I bought this flour, I asked my son what he wanted me to bake first. He has been GF for 3.5 years. He said “Pound Cake!” I found this KY Butter Cake Recipe and it was really quite good. Texture, fragrance, holding quality, color. Thank you for a very good recipe! I cant wait to find a good bread recipe!
My family LOVED this recipe. I added a stiff glaze of butter and brown sugar (because…yum!), and the cake disappeared within 24 hours. Excellent with coffee or as a breakfast addition or just after dinner. Very rich, but a delightful dessert!
Oh, and my cake was done in 50 minutes – would have burned in 60, so I thought I’d mention that.
I made the gluten free kentucky butter cake last night using bobs red mill -1 to -1 and I am so happy I did. I think it is the best cake I have ever made and that includes before gluten free. Thank you to whomever came up with this recipe, it is fantastic. The only change I made was using coconut sugar in place of reg. sugar in the cake and glaze. Thank you to whomever wrote this recipe, it is going to be a go to cake that I willl bring anywhere. Thanks, Susan
Can I make this in regular cake pans??
Hi Julie,
You can make this in a cake pan, but you may need to adjust the baking time a bit. I may recommend checking the cake after approximately 40 minutes of baking and then adjust the time as needed.
I made this cake for Thanksgiving since I’m supposed to be totally GF….I tried to get my extended family to try it and everyone declined… upon returning home my daughter tried it and loved it and I took some to share with friends….Everyone that tried it loved it and asked for the recipe…I will make this for Christmas!!!
May I use Bob’s Gluten Free All Purpose Baking Flour for this? I also got Xanthan gum for this purpose. Thank you!
Hi Rosina,
We haven’t tried this substitution, but our Gluten Free All Purpose Baking Flour is a heavier, bean flour based blend, so if you use it instead of our 1-to-1 blend, the texture of the cake may be a bit more dense. | bae370562849b4e99894928bc82be14f | 924 |
Sun Capital backs the second-largest primary care group serving the Medicare Advantage senior population in South Florida, underscoring the firm's continued push into growth-oriented healthcare investing.
Sun Capital Partners is the latest sponsor getting into the business of value-based primary care, agreeing to acquire Miami Beach Medical Group, the Boca Raton, Florida, firm told PE Hub.
The transaction provides an exit for Gauge Capital, a Dallas mid-market firm that made a majority investment in MBMG in January 2017.
While Sun Capital declined to comment on terms of the transaction, sources with knowledge of the matter said the sale commanded a valuation in the mid-$500 million range. PE Hub originally wrote in October that MBMG, in the late stages of a sponsor-focused sale process, marketed EBITDA of approximately $40 million.
Oppenheimer provided sell-side financial advice on the deal, while KKR’s credit platform provided financing on the transaction.
Founded in 1997, Doral, Florida’s MBMG has grown to become the second-largest primary care group serving the Medicare Advantage senior population in South Florida.
In addition to its 19 centers across Florida, the company has contracted relationships with 10 health plans and operates a management services organization with 74 independent physicians serving more than 1,750 Medicare Advantage patients.
MBMG’s capitated, risk-bearing model of reimbursement – versus the traditional fee-for-service payments – paired with a growing senior population and Medicare Advantage market, fueled PE interest in the business, sources told PE Hub.
“Everyone would agree this is just a better way to do healthcare,” said Dan Florian, who led the firm’s investment in MBMG alongside principal Stephen Cella, with support of the Sun Capital co-CEOS and investment committee.
The growth opportunity ahead is vast, as Florida today is the second-largest Medicare Advantage market by enrollment in the country. There is significant opportunity to grow by filling out regions within Florida and converting existing Medicare patients to MBMG’s Medicare Advantage plan. “We think we can stay in Florida and still meet all our objectives,” although growth beyond Florida is not out of the question, Florian said.
For Sun Capital, the deal underscores the firm’s continued push into growth-oriented healthcare investing.
With existing investments in consumer facing healthcare segments including dermatology and dental – via West Dermatology and Simply Beautiful Smiles, respectively – MBMG extends its portfolio into a more complex vertical of healthcare.
Further, the private equity shop has been busy as of late, with MBMG coming on the heels of Sun Capital’s sale of ClearChoice Management Services – its first investment since launching a new and reformed healthcare initiative in the 2015-16 time-frame.
PE Hub wrote earlier this week that ClearChoice was purchased by private equity-backed dental support giant Aspen Dental Management Inc. at a more than $1.1 billion valuation – more than double the dental implant services provider’s value three years earlier.
Broadly speaking, the primary care universe in which MBMG plays has emerged as an increasingly hot area of investment this year – with some sources characterizing the last month or two as “an inflection point” in the segment.
On Tuesday, Arsenal Capital Partners announced that it has acquired Best Value Healthcare in partnership with its founders, which sources said preempted a Guggenheim-run process. The primary care platform focuses on Medicare Advantage and operates in Central and South Florida. Macquarie Capital advised Arsenal on the deal, an announcement said.
In other activity, Cano Health shocked the private equity community last week when it unveiled a $4.4 billion merger with Jaws Acquisition Corp., a SPAC sponsored by real estate investor Barry Sternlicht.
Backed by InTandem Capital Partners, the primary care provider just a few weeks earlier had received final round bids from a narrow group of parties including large buyout funds and pension funds, PE Hub wrote. A private equity outcome was anticipated to produce a deal valued between $1 billion to $2 billion – significantly below Cano’s ultimate outcome. | https://www.pehub.com/sun-capital-buys-miami-beach-medical-group-in-500m-plus-deal-2/ | 861 |
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1978-1987 El Camino reproduction door and body side moldings (6pc set does both sides, for cars that were two-toned or had thin body side molding). Does not include wheel opening moldings.
This 1978-1987 El Camino upper body molding runs across the tailgate. It fits ap...
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Price: $54 | a3dbbcfc16f17ee555e090c0b495b3f8 | 103 |
This page was created to help people of all faith groups working with Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services (IRIS www.irisct.org) and other refugee resettlement organizations in CT find Islamic/Arabic resources to better prepare them for refugees from Muslim countries.
Scan Halal is a phone app which allows scanning of products at the grocery store to easily determine if it is halal. When food is being prepared it should not be cooked in a pan that has not been cleaned from alcohol or pig residue.
All of these can be found on Zabihah.com through ones zip code. Zabihah is also an application on the Blackberry, Iphone, Android and Windows store.
Translators can usually be found at your local Mosque (Masjid). Please look up the closest Masjid on Zabihah.com. After identifying the closest Masjids please call and email the Masjid with your needs. It is usually best to contact 2-3 Masjids for best result. It is also a good idea to visit on friday between 12:30-1:30 for the main service. At this service one can meet the Imam and Board members.
Translators: We need translators in the following languages: Arabic, Swahili, Dari, Farsi, French, Tigrinya, or Amharic. Please fill out the volunteer form below as soon as possible. Translators are our life blood for a successful refugee resettlement program.
General Volunteers: If you are not part of a Refugee Resettlement group please fill out the form below. We need volunteers for: English teaching, driving lessons, driving in general, furniture, employment, resume, housing and much much more. Any help is appreciated.
How you would like to volunteer?
Does your city need an Islamic or Arab Cultural Competency training? Please include as many details as possible. | http://lh4h.org/refugee/ | 395 |
• David Carl Manke, 48, a casino employee, was arrested at 2:33 a.m. Monday in the 100 block of East Winnie Lane on suspicion of felony third-offense drunken driving and misdemeanor speeding. Bail was set at $10,000.
¨• Angel Adrian Garcia, 21, of Mound House, was arrested at 1:56 a.m. Sunday at Telegraph and Plaza streets on suspicion of gross misdemeanor carrying a concealed weapon, possession of a dangerous weapon and misdemeanor affray. Bail was set at $6,132.
• A 29-year-old man from Reno was arrested at 4:02 .m. Sunday in the 300 block of East William Street on suspicion of misdemeanor obstructing. Bail was set at $407.
• Francisco Mosqueda-Rodriguez, 26, of Carson City, was arrested at 5:38 a.m. Saturday in the 200 block of South Harbin Street on suspicion of two counts of gross misdemeanor battery on a peace officer and misdemeanor disorderly conduct. Bail was set at $2,637.
• Jesse Estrada, 25, a landscaper from Carson City, was arrested at 3:40 p.m. Saturday at Woodside Drive and Airport Road on suspicion of felony trafficking in methamphetamine, two misdemeanor warrants for failure to appear on traffic citations, failure to stop at a stop sign and failure to wear a seat belt. Bail was set at $20,000.
• Abraham Alvarado, 31, unemployed from Carson City, was arrested at 8:07 p.m. Saturday at Fairview Drive and Idaho Street on suspicion of felony using a false Social Security number, misdemeanor drunken driving, driving without a valid license and failure to use turn signals. Bail was set at $7,500.
• A 52-year-old general contractor from Carson City was arrested at 3:51 a.m. Sunday in the 300 block of East William Street on suspicion of misdemeanor possession of a firearm while under the influence. Bail was set at $1,132.
• A 32-year-old man from Sparks was arrested at 4:02 a.m. in the 300 block of East William Street on suspicion of misdemeanor obstructing. Bail was set at $407.
• Nicole Teply, 23, a retail worker from Carson City, was arrested at 3:56 p.m. Saturday on South Carson Street on suspicion of felony possession of marijuana. Bail was set at $2,500.
• Elizabeth Nicole Harrison, 21, unemployed from Carson City, surrendered Sunday on a felony warrant for suspicion of grand larceny from a person over 65. Bail was set at $10,000.
• A Fernley landlord reported at 11:07 a.m. that she went to check on a property on Main Street and the tenant was having a party and a window was broken.
• Report at 2:19 p.m. of several subjects shooting weapons on Scott Drive in Fernley.
• Report at 1:59 p.m. on Highway 50 Alternate in Fernley of "inappropriate" graffiti.
• Residential burglary report at 7:27 p.m. on Soaring Way in Fernley.
| https://www.nevadaappeal.com/news/2011/jul/25/sheriffs-log-july-26/ | 672 |
The photography is amazing and the man behind the site, Vincent Tsang, has amazing taste in gear and portraiture subjects. Vince was nice enough to post some outtakes from his new volume of "I Wish They Made This For Girls," a series in which an attractive woman is draped in clothing you wish you owned. To recap, girls you wish you dated wearing clothing you wished you owned—it's basically the most aspirational thing since Ralph Lauren started selling the dream that is the life of a rich white person.
| https://www.complex.com/style/2012/08/i-wish-they-made-this-for-girls-is-aspirational | 107 |
This guidebook was developed to anticipate & answer potential questions about the Base Redevelopment Act, a law designed to accommodate the impacted communities multiple interests in base reuse & to meet the national priority to assist homeless individuals & families. It explains the base redevelopment planning process, the requirements & guidelines for submission of applications, & HUDs review process. Included are a listing of military installations with surplus property, a state-by-state directory of HUD contacts, &information on HUD funding for homeless assistance programs. | https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/guidebook-on-military-base-reuse-and-homeless-assistance-andrew-cuomo/1002584908 | 101 |
Hearing loss is a disorder that can impact many aspects of an individual’s life – family, work, social events and personal relationships. With successful treatment, patients experience not only better hearing and a clearer understanding of speech, but they can also enjoy an enhanced quality of life.
According to the Better Hearing Institute, many patients receiving treatment with hearing aids show improvement in their interpersonal relationships and social lives. They also experience less frustration, anger, anxiety, and fatigue because they have far fewer communication difficulties. And better hearing helps people to stay independent and self-sufficient. At the Bowie Hearing Center, we are dedicated to improving lives by providing quality hearing aids backed up by the best in professional support and services to patients from Bowie, Annapolis, and surrounding areas of Maryland..
Digital hearing aids have revolutionized the way people with hearing loss hear sound. They are the preferred type of hearing aid technology worn by almost all patients today. Far superior to their previous analog counterparts, digital hearing aids contain microchips that convert sound into digital code and distinguish between speech and noise. Through this process and the use of directional microphone technology, digital hearing aids help suppress background noise to allow patients to hear and understand speech more easily, even in places like restaurants and group events. The amplification from digital hearing aids is more finely tuned to the pattern of the wearer’s hearing loss. And digital feedback suppression has virtually eliminated the whistling that sometimes would occur with older analog hearing aids.
Our audiology team is proud to feature a wide selection of basic to advanced technology digital hearing aids to meet the needs of each individual patient.
For more information on the benefits of digital hearing aids, contact Bowie Hearing Center which serves the Bowie, Prince George’s County and greater Washington,DC areas.
Although hearing improves significantly the moment an aid is put in the ear, adjusting to hearing aids can be a gradual process. Patients may find that their own voices sound louder. With the hearing aids, patients learn to become re-accustomed to various sounds that they may have lost the ability to hear. We are here to help you learn to use the hearing aids and adapt to them through regular follow-up visits during your 45 day hearing aid trial period. Before long, you will realize the full benefits of your new hearing aids if you use them consistently and follow the advice of your audiologist.
Two hearing aids are almost always better than one if the hearing loss is about the same in both ears. Worn together, the hearing aids restore stereophonic hearing which makes conversational speech clearer, even when background noise is present. The brain needs input from both ears in order to separate speech from unwanted noise. Wearing two hearing aids also allows the wearer to localize sounds better. And wearing two hearing aids helps to prevent a condition known as auditory deprivation in which the brain gradually loses ability to process information from the unaided ear due to lack of sound stimulation.
Dr. Newcomb and Dr. Adams provide state-of-the-art hearing aids and exceptional audiological services to patients in the Bowie, Annapolis, and the greater Washington, DC areas. Contact Bowie Hearing Center today to schedule an initial consultation. We also offer affordable financing options. | http://bowiehearingcenter.com/hearing-aids/ | 654 |
Editor’s note: This op-ed was first published in STAT First Opinion on June 30, 2022.
These are not comfortable days in Washington for pharmacy benefit managers, the highly consolidated group of intermediaries that sit astride the drug supply chain. The Federal Trade Commission and Capitol Hill want to know how the PBMs’ arcane business practices impact pharmaceutical costs. This is welcome news for just about everyone else, including consumers of generic drugs.
PBMs manage prescription drug benefits on behalf of health insurers, large employers, and other payers. They have become significant behind-the-scenes players in determining patients’ access to medications and how much pharmacies are paid.
As health economists, we have documented the anti-competitive practices of pharmacy benefit managers related to generic drugs. Using their positions as middlemen between drug payers, producers, and dispensers, PBMs often require pharmacies to sign contracts giving them their lowest price, which discourages pharmacies from undercutting the PBM price with cash prices even if the pharmacies could still make profits doing so. Complex and opaque business practices allow PBMs to hide their profit margins from outside scrutiny.
The upshot is that patients and payers are being charged on the order of 20% too much for generic drugs, resulting in billions of dollars in overpayment. And this doesn’t count the overpayment that results when PBMs exclude low-priced generics from formularies — the list of medicines covered by health insurance — if the PBMs can collect high enough rebates by putting the branded version on the formularies instead.
Even though generics make up 92% of all prescriptions, they account for only 16% of retail drug spending. They are a massive success story, and the lynchpin in the pharmaceutical innovation and patent system established by Congress in 1984 via the Hatch-Waxman Act. The promise of inexpensive generics was the explicit “payback” that justified giving expensive drugs patent protection for a limited time. As such, a market that is being gamed to inflate generic prices could affect both drug affordability and drug innovation by changing the balance between returns to innovative drugs today and low-cost access to those innovations when patents expire.
Recognizing the stakes, the FTC recently voted unanimously to launch an inquiry into how PBMs operate. The agency also vowed to “ramp up enforcement” of any “illegal bribes and rebate schemes” that prevent patients from accessing cheaper drugs. Meanwhile, a group of Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives is urging the U.S. Government Accountability Office to investigate PBMs, and legislation introduced a few weeks ago by Sens. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) would give the FTC even great authority to regulate the PBM market.
These efforts come as news of a whistleblower lawsuit filed against the largest PBM, CVS Caremark, detailed a scheme involving arrangements with drug companies that allegedly sought to block generic competition for more than a dozen widely-prescribed, brand-name medicines. CVS says the lawsuit is without merit.
There is no doubt that PBMs must be reined in to protect consumers and keep markets for both branded and generic drugs healthy. The Cantwell/Grassley bill is a great start: it would prohibit certain anti-competitive practices and increase transparency by requiring PBMs to submit annual reports to the FTC on their revenue streams, and on how they treat PBM-affiliates differently than independent pharmacies.
Another option is lowering barriers to entry in the PBM market to increase competition. The three largest PBMs — CVS Caremark, Express Scripts, and OptumRx, operating respectively under the umbrellas of large insurers Aetna CVS Health, Cigna, and UnitedHealth Group — control 79% of the PBM market.
The FTC should more fully investigate the impact of consolidation and vertical integration in the PBM market. It should also pay more attention to whether other intermediaries in the drug supply chain — wholesalers, pharmacies, and health plans — are acting in the best interest of patients.
Policymakers also need to shed light on the opaque pricing and transactions occurring between distribution system participants.
It’s also time to examine a more dramatic market-based approach to keep savings flowing to consumers. A transparent, competitive cash market for low-cost generic drugs would let consumers decide whether to fill their prescriptions using insurance or cash. Cash-only pharmacies, like Blueberry Pharmacy and Mark Cuban’s Cost Plus Drug Company, cut out middlemen like PBMs, but for these approaches to expand, all pharmacies would need to be protected against PBM’s “lowest price” contracts — which actively discourage pharmacies from setting low cash prices — and variation in state-level pharmacy laws may need to be addressed.
Americans are paying too much for generic drugs due to a payment system that is manipulated by PBMs. The system needs to be cleaned up now before the leading success story in American drug pricing — generics — turns into something else entirely.
Erin E. Trish is the co-director of the USC Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics. Karen Van Nuys is the executive director of the Value of Life Sciences Innovation Program at the Schaeffer Center. Robert Popovian is the chief science policy officer at the Global Healthy Living Foundation. Trish has served as a consultant and litigation expert on matters in the hospital, health insurance, health information technology and life sciences sectors. Van Nuys has served as a consultant to companies in the life sciences sector. Popovian is a consultant and advisor to the biopharmaceutical industry, health care coalitions, and PBMs, and is founder of Conquest Advisors, a strategic advisor to biopharmaceutical companies. | https://healthpolicy.usc.edu/article/pbms-are-inflating-the-cost-of-generic-drugs-they-must-be-reined-in/ | 1,203 |
is mentioned, associated with key references.
to other aquatic invertebrate and vertebrate taxa.
conservation biology studies.
Mersin to İskenderun) as important nesting sites for C.
(Türkozan and Kaska, 2010).
Sterna paradisaea, and Chlidonias niger (Kirwan, 1997).
Kasparek and Bilgin (1996), and Kirwan et al. (1999, 2008).
of 2 distinct dolphin species along the Black Sea coast.
began only 3 decades ago (see Öztürk, 1996).
the existing gaps to be filled by further detailed research.
in light of ongoing scientific developments (http://www.
according to Boyla (2012; http://kusbank.blogspot.com.tr).
coasts (divided into equivalent squares of 15 × 15 km).
encountered are possibly of Atlantic origin (IUCN, 2012).
northern Levantine shores (Türkozan and Kaska, 2010).
Marmara is still scarcely known.
Turkish coasts reveals more or less similar diversity, i.e.
passage migrant; v: vagrant)].
(1999); 23) Çağlayan et al. (2005); 24) Dijksen and Blomert (1989); 25) Yavuz and Salman (2014; http://www.trakus.org); 26) Yarar et al.
species are mostly winter visitors and passage migrants.
January 2014 (Figure 1).
period when 9 more species are added to the inventory.
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Sea (10 spp.), Sea of Marmara (6 spp.), and Black Sea (6 spp.).
Diversity of species along Turkish coasts is given in Figure 2.
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| https://doczz.biz.tr/doc/89681/checklist-of-marine-tetrapods--reptiles--seabirds | 2,237 |
I’ve tried to do a case study before on faceless cash cow YouTube channels however my costs are so engrained in the website content it becomes a pain to really document properly and the niches involved were time-consuming. I do have a couple of profitable channels that are still running but I wanted to start a new case study to document it clearly.
And this one is a little different.
What Is a Cash Cow Channel?
Firstly, let’s make sure we’re on the same page here. What is a faceless cash cow channel? Pretty straightforward, it’s a YouTube channel that doesn’t show your face and exists to generate some cash flow.
Usually, these channels are outsourced. You can outsource everything from scriptwriting, video creation and voiceover artists. I like to run channels like this to support existing websites and when they start generating more with ad revenue than they cost to outsource they’re just scaling themselves for free.
This case study is a little different.
My other channels are outsourced. They’re mostly in info niches and need a budget to build and grow but I’ve no interest in doing it myself.
For this case study, I stumbled into something a little different. It’s a trend that suits the faceless YouTube style, it’s potentially a pretty good RPM and the content seems pretty easy to produce.
This kind of trend isn’t something I would normally look at. I like consistent growth so I know the niche isn’t going to vanish by the time I get established in it.
And that’s certainly a risk here , however, it could (potentially) become an evergreen niche and the majority of content producers in the niche are hobby bloggers. I can see a potential way in, I can see it becoming a good cash-flowing asset and (best of all) I can create a month’s worth of content in under an hour or two.
If we can get an established channel in the niche it should be an easy asset to manage. A few hours once in a while for a hands-free cash flow and the RPM might well be better than my existing cash cow channels.
There’s a potential problem, however.
Normally, I like to start a channel in a niche I can get some traffic for. Usually, I’d like some organic search traffic, an email list or some social traffic so my channel gets a spike of views and subscribers early on.
The Digital Assets Lab channel is a fair example of this. It’s more of a hobby blog so I don’t exactly push it hard but you’ve probably found me from a forum or Reddit. For the ones that found me through YouTube – a good part of that is because I actually promoted the channel.
With this new channel, I can’t really do that. I don’t have anything established in the niche and it would be expensive and time-consuming to try and rush it.
Because the niche is growing so quickly at the moment, my plan is to just start. The majority of the competition are hobbyists so consistent publishing and following the popular trends might give me enough of a push. I do have a few ideas on how I might speed things along a bit.
Everything I needed for the channel cost less than $100. Probably the cheapest channel I’ve ever started.
Spent about two hours skimming through the popular channels to see what seems to work. Another hour to get things set up and I was ready to start creating content. The videos themselves are easy to do and I can batch them together quickly.
With nothing but the algorithm to bring views, I didn’t really know what to expect but the first couple of days showed the first video doing well.
It’s not the fastest-growing channel I’ve ever seen but for just publishing easy content it’s hard to complain. The watch time is pretty good, and subscribe and engagement rate is looking good so far.
We’re being ranked for the main niche keywords. Not right at the top but on the top 10 or so, plus we are being suggested by related videos in the niche. That’s a good start especially considering we’re really relying on YouTube to push the channel.
You’ll see a little traffic from the short shelf on the traffic source – I posted one but I don’t know if I’ll continue that. It’s potentially a way into the niche as most of the competition isn’t doing it but I don’t want to screw with the watch time metrics for the longer videos.
The first is consistent publishing. Most publishers are hobbyists and their schedule is all over the place. The content is easy enough to create so publishing more consistently might be enough to get rewarded by the algorithm.
Maybe a shoutout or two. I’ll message a couple of the bigger channels and see what’d they’d charge for a shout-out. Again, most are hobbyists so I might get lucky and get a cheap boost to jumpstart the channel.
Commenting. This is not something I would usually bother doing because it’ll be fairly time-consuming but I’m planning to spend a couple of hours just commenting on other related videos. The niche seems to have a community to it and early growth will help the channel get pushed out to a wider audience.
The plan for this case study is pretty straightforward.
I’m going to publish a couple of videos a week for the first 30 days and try to speed things along with a little promotion and see how it goes. We want to see the growth trend continue so we can get some ads on the channel and I’ll update when interesting things happen.
I haven’t fully decided if we’ll be revealing the channel or not but I don’t want to see the metrics getting screwed with by you guys to start with so I’ll hold off on that for now at least. | https://digitalassetslab.net/first-30-days-with-a-faceless-cashcow-youtube-channel/ | 1,282 |
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