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I spent a couple of years down the synchronous replication rabbit hole in an earlier Continuent product. It was one of those experiences that make you a sadder but wiser person. This article digs into some of the problems with synchronous replication and shows why another approach, asynchronous multi-master replication, is currently a better way to manage databases connected by long-haul networks.
Synchronous Replication between Sites
The most obvious problem with any form of synchronous replication is the hit on application performance. Every commit requires a round-trip to transfer and acknowledge receipt at the remote site, which in turn reduces single-thread transaction rates to the number of pings per second between sites. As a nice article by Aaron Brown demonstrates, you can show the effect easily using MySQL semi-synchronous replication between hosts in Amazon regions. Aaron's experiment measured 11.5 transactions per second, or about 100 times less than single-thread performance on a local master between hosts with 85 millisecond latency. At that rate you would theoretically expect transaction throughput of ~11.7 transactions per second (1000 / 85 = 11.7), so the agreement between practice and theory is very close. It's great when science works out like this.
You might argue that applications could tolerate the slow rate assuming it were at least constant. Sadly that's not the case for real systems. Network response varies enormously between sites in ways that are quite easy to demonstrate.
To illustrate variability I set up an Amazon m1.small instance in the us-east-1 region (Virginia) and ran 24 hours of ping tests to instances in us-west-2 (Oregon) and ap-southeast-1 (Singapore). As the following graph shows, during a 4 hour period ping times to Singapore remain within a band but vary up to 10%. Ping times to Oregon on the other hand hover around 100ms but spike up randomly to almost 200ms. During these times, synchronous replication throughput would be cut by 50% to approximately 5 transactions per second.
Amazon ping times from us-east-1 to us-west-2 and ap-southeast-1 (240 minute interval) |
sysbench --test=cpu --num-threads=10 --max-time=120 --cpu-max-prime=1000000 run
As the next graph illustrates, CPU load has a unpredictable but substantial effect on ping times. As it happens, the ping variation in the previous graph may be due to resource contention on the underlying physical host. (Or it might really be network traffic--you never really know with Amazon.)
Effect of sysbench runs on ping times to US-West (20 minute interval) |
To complete the tale of woe, failures of various kinds can cause remote hosts to stop responding at all for periods of time that vary from seconds to days. Amazon is generally quite reliable but had two outages in the Virginia data center in June 2012 alone that brought down applications from hours to days. If you replicate synchronously to a host affected by such an outage, your application just stops and you no longer store transactions at all, let alone securely. You need to turn off synchronous replication completely to stay available.
So is synchronous replication really impossible between sites? Given the problems I just described it would be silly to set up MySQL semi-synchronous replication between over WAN for a real application. However, there are other ways to implement synchronous replication. Let's look at two of them.
First, there is Galera, which uses a distributed protocol called certification-based replication to agree on commit order between all cluster nodes combined with execution of non-conflicting transactions in parallel. Certification-based replication is a great algorithm in many ways, but Galera comes with some important practical limitations. First it replicates rows rather than statements. The row approach handles large transactions poorly, especially over distances, due to the large size of change sets. Also, not all workloads parallelize well, since transactions that conflict in any way must be fully serialized. Overall DBMS throughput may therefore reduce to the single-session throughput discussed above at unexpected times due to variations in workload. Finally, full multi-master mode between sites (as opposed to master/slave) is likely to be very problematic as nodes drop out of the cluster due to transient communication failures and require expensive reprovisioning. This is a general problem with group communications, which Galera depends on to order transactions.
Second, there are theoretical approaches that claim many of the benefits of synchronous replication without killing throughput or availability. One example is the Calvin system developed by Daniel Abadi and others, which seeks to achieve both strong transaction consistency and high throughput when operating across sites. The secret sauce in Calvin is that it radically changes the programming model to replicate what amount to transaction requests while forcing actual transaction processing to be under control of the Calvin transaction manager, which orders transaction order in advance across nodes. That should at least in principle reduce some of the unpredictability you may see in systems like Galera that do not constrain transaction logic. Unfortunately it also means a major rewrite for most existing applications. Calvin is also quite speculative. It will be some time before this approach is available for production systems and we can see whether it is widely applicable.
There's absolutely a place for synchronous replication in LANs, but given the current state of the art it's hard to see how most applications can use effectively it to link DBMS servers over WAN links. In fact, the main issue with synchronous replication is the unpredictability it introduces into applications that must work with slow and unreliable networks. This is one of the biggest lessons I have learned at Continuent.
The Alternative: Asynchronous Multi-Master Replication
So what are the alternatives? If you need to build applications that are available 24x7 with high throughput and rarely, if ever, lose data, you should consider high-speed local clusters linked by asynchronous multi-master replication between sites. Here is a typical architecture, which is incidentally a standard design pattern for Tungsten.
Local clusters linked by asynchronous, multi-master replication |
- Performance. Asynchronous replication solves WAN performance problem as completely as possible. To the extent that you use synchronous or near-synchronous replication technologies it is on local area networks, which are extremely fast and reliable, so application blocking is minimal. Meanwhile, long-haul replication can be improved by compression as well as parallelization, because WANs offer good bandwidth even if there is high end-to-end latency.
- Data loss. Speedy local replication, including synchronous and "near synchronous" methods, minimizes of data loss due to storage failures and configuration errors. Somewhat surprisingly you do not need fully synchronous replication for most systems even at the local level--that's a topic for a future blog article--but replication does need to be quite fast to ensure local replicas are up-to-date. Actually, one of the big issues for avoiding local data loss is to configure systems carefully (think sync_binlog=1 for MySQL, for example).
- Availability. Async multi-master systems have the delightful property that anything interrupts transaction flow between sites, replication just stops and then resumes when the problem is corrected. There's no failover and no moving parts. This is a major strength of the multi-master model.
- Applicability. Not every application is compatible with asychronous multi-master. You will need to do work on most existing applications to implement multi-master and ensure you got it right. I touched on some of the MySQL issues in an earlier article. If multi-master is not a possibility, you may need the other main approach to cross-site replication: a system-of-record design where applications update data on a single active site at any given time with other sites present for disaster recovery. (Tungsten also does this quite well, I should add.)
- Data access. While you might not lose data it's also quite likely you might not be able to access it for a while either. It's rare to lose a site completely but not uncommon for sites to be inaccessible for hours to days. The nice thing is that with a properly constructed multi-master application you will at least know that the data will materialize on all sites once the problem is solved. Meanwhile, relax and work on something else until the unavailable site comes back.


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American Roofing & Solar Panels Fremont
Professional Roofing contractor in Fremont
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subset: commoncrawl


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Berklee Student Wins Montreux Jazz Festival Guitar Competition
Berklee College of Music guitar student Leandro Pellegrino was named the winner of the prestigious 2013 Montreux Jazz Festival Electric Guitar Competition by the festival's judges on July 19. Born in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Pellegrino is a Berklee Global Jazz Institute (BGJI) participant who will enter his final year at the college this fall. In receiving first-place honors at Montreux, Pellegrino received approximately $5,000 in Swiss francs; an all-expense-paid trip to perform in Baku, Azerbaijan; and, perhaps most importantly, an opportunity to record his debut album with studio time and engineers supplied by a Swiss recording studio.
Watch segments of Leandro Pellegrino's performance at the 2013 Montreux Jazz Festival here:
Among the thousands of guitarists who aspired to make it to Montreux, Pellegrino was one of 10 semifinalists. Although he practiced fiercely, he had no expectations of winning. In the semifinal round, he performed Henry Mancini's "Days of Wine and Roses" and Duke Ellington's "Caravan." That earned him a spot in the finals, where he delighted the massive international crowd at Montreux with his take on Victor Young's "Stella by Starlight," Ornette Coleman's "Turnaround," and the Beatles' "Norwegian Wood." The news still hasn't fully sunk in for Pellegrino, who gets choked up when talking about Montreux, but he is quick to nod to Berklee faculty for helping him reach this ambitious goal.
"I don't think I would have been able to win this competition without all the help from Berklee and the teachers," Pellegrino says. "They're just as excited about this as me, which is great. I'm pretty sure they will help me with the debut CD also, so I'm just glad I'm surrounded by so many amazing people—not just amazing teachers, but amazing human beings who are humble, who open their hearts and just give me everything they have."
Shortly after the judges crowned Pellegrino the competition's winner, the 29-year-old guitarist received an email from Berklee professor and BGJI artistic director Danilo Pérez. Says Pellegrino, "He wrote, 'Leandro, now there are more challenges. That is what I love about life.'" Those words resonate with Pellegrino, who says, "Just as I prepared for the competition, I feel like preparing for what's ahead might be what I wanted for my life as a musician."
Before attending Berklee, Pellegrino studied at Sao Paulo's Souza Lima Conservatory, where he had earned a scholarship. He says that his acceptance into Berklee with scholarship aid was like seeing "some kind of door opening," and now he has a similar feeling after Montreux. "Another door just opened and I need to ask advice about how to reach this door from my teachers," he says.
After the competition, Pellegrino entered an almost surreal whirlwind that took him from no expectations of success at Montreux to suddenly doing interviews for Swiss television and radio.
Watch Leandro Pellegrino perform live for Swiss television channel RTS here:
Next, he traveled to Paris to play with musician friends, and soon he will return to Boston with just enough time to take a shower before heading out to his next gig. Later in the summer, he'll travel to perform in Panama, and in the year ahead he expects to complete his final two semesters at Berklee, all while assembling material and musicians for his debut album.
It is sure to be the busiest year of his life, but Pellegrino wouldn't have it any other way. His takeaway from the experience underscores the importance of dedication to one's music: "No matter how many people say that it's difficult or you might not reach your goals, just work hard, believe in yourself, and follow your dreams," Pellegrino says. "That's what I did, and a couple days ago I just realized that it is paying off."


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How Can Models Be Used To Study Climate Change?
Students utilize ice core data to develop a simple climate model, test it and then analyze, through reading IPCC materials, what other variables might need to be included in a model that more accurately predicts climate response to forcings. They are then asked to reflect on the use of models in scientific inquiry and on climate skeptics view of climate models.
Learning Goals
1. provide the learner with the opportunity to apply and practice modeling and nature of science concepts (inductive and deductive reasoning) using an issue (global warming) that has relevance to their lives and that they hear a lot about in the media.This activity provides students opportunities to engage in data analysis, develop and apply models, and apply concepts in new contexts.
2. provide opportunities to practice using chemistry concepts in the context of greenhouse effect and global climate change.
3. foster understanding that scientific modeling is a means of making predictions about how a system, even a complex system, will change with a high degree of confidence.
4. provide insight into – and perspective on the nature of the debate about global climate change, and the degree to which arguments in the debate are scientific or not.
The activity addresses sustainability obliquely in that the issue of global climate change is directly related to our unsustainable use of fossil fuels.
Context for Use
Description and Teaching Materials
This lab activity is part of the inquiry-based curriculum from the Chemistry For The Informed Citizen project (NSF, Grant # DUE-0737551). As of Summer 2012 it is still in development and feedback is welcome. The curriculum focuses on students developing a small particle model of matter that relates macroscopic observations to sub-microscopic processes, and has a through-going strand that focuses on the use of models in scientific inquiry. Exploration of climate science and global climate change is one of the main topics used to develop understanding of both chemical concepts and scientific inquiry.
This activity asks students to:
1. Use the ice core data to develop a simple mathematical model of the relationship between atmospheric CO2 concentration and global average temperature.
2. Use the model to predict the average global temperature for a recent year for which there is data and then compare their result with actual values.
3. Assess the accuracy of the model and, using various resources from IPCC 4th Assessment Report (2007), analyze any shortcomings of their model and explore what other factors might need to be included in the model to improve its ability to explain climate variability.
4. Use their simple model to predict the value of global average temperature for predicted CO2 concentration levels at 2100 under one or more forecast scenarios.
5. Reflect on the effectiveness of models in predicting future climate in particular, and as a tool for scientific inquiry in general.Climate Modeling Activity: Pre-Lab, Lab, Lab Homework (Microsoft Word 427kB Jul9 12)


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Objective-C Programming/syntax
Objective-C is an object-oriented programming language, and is a layer over the C programming language. This means that if you know how to write C, there are only a few syntax changes to learn.
In this section, we will look at how we can implement classes and instantiate objects in Objective-C. If you are unfamiliar with object-oriented programming, see Objective-C concepts.
Basic syntax edit
If you have studied C, you can skip this section and proceed to the next section, A word on runtimes. If not, or if you're a little rusty, read on.
In C, code is contained within a function. Functions are composed of several statements, each of which are terminated by a semicolon. For example, a simple function in C to add two numbers may look like this:
int add (int a, int b)
int c;
c = a + b;
return c;
This sample has the following lines:
- The function definition (which returns an int (integer), is named add, and takes two parameters, both of which are integers). // Integers are whole numbers like 6, 66 or 567 and not numbers with decimal places like 5.6.
- The opening function brace
- A variable declaration
- An assignment statement
- A return statement, which returns the value of c to the calling function/
- The closing function brace
For control flow, C and Objective-C use:
- for (<initial>;<condition>;<increment>)
- while (<condition>)
- do ... while (<condition>)
- switch (<condition>)
- if (<condition>) then {<statements>} [else <statements>]
The for, while, and do statements will continue execution of a loop until the condition is false. The switch and if statements jump to different statements depending on the condition.
Objective-C does not implement or import any functions by default. Instead, they need to be imported by using the #import
preprocessor directive. (#include works too, but generally it is not used in Objective-C - #import works better because it won't import the same thing twice like #include can try to do)
A word on runtimes edit
Objective-C requires what is known as a runtime system to provide you with Objective-C features. The runtime takes care of the creation, management, and destruction of objects.
If you have the gcc compiler, you should have the Objective-C runtime already installed. Otherwise, you may have to install the runtime separately. Note that gcc is a compiler collection; the full install contains not only the C compiler, but also C++, Java, Objective-C and even Fortran-95 and Ada 2005 compilers. However, it is possible to install gcc only partially, for example only the C compiler. Therefore, the Objective-C runtime may or may not be installed with gcc. Check your distribution.
Two main systems are used to run Objective-C programs:
- the GNU runtime, which is provided as a part of gcc on Unix and Unix-like operating systems;
- the NeXT runtime, which is provided on NeXTSTEP, OPENSTEP, and Mac OS X operating systems.
This text assumes you are using the GNU runtime, but the two runtime systems are almost identical.
This text does not cover the OPENSTEP, Cocoa, or GNUstep frameworks, but the skills learned here will be helpful when developing with those systems.
Writing classes in Objective-C edit
Writing an Objective-C class requires a few design decisions before we start writing any code. Say we are writing a class to represent a point called Point in a two-dimensional plane.
We need to ask ourselves two questions:
- What data do we need to store and use? This relates to the instance variables we need to declare.
- What operations do we need to perform? This relates to the methods we need to define.
For this example, we'll use double variables for the x and y coordinates. We'll define a method to get both coordinates, and we'll define a method to get their distance from the origin.
The interface edit
#import <objc/Object.h>
@interface Point : Object
double x;
double y;
- (id) x: (double) x_value;
- (double) x;
- (id) y: (double) y_value;
- (double) y;
- (double) magnitude;
Let's examine what each element of this interface means.
#import <objc/Object.h>
@interface Point : Object
The @interface line says that we begin the declaration of the Point interface. We inherit from another class called Object. Objective-C provides you with a generic class, called Object. The Object class is a root class -- it does not inherit from another class. The Object class provides a set of methods that provide key functionality for an object to be used and recognized by the Objective-C runtime. As in C, we need to include Object's header file, Object.h, before we can use the set of methods declared in the header.
If you don't explicitly inherit from some class, your class becomes a root class. (In Objective-C, there can be many root classes.) That's probably not what you want to do, because creating a root class is a very tricky and advanced topic that is only useful in very specific situations. In most cases, you will want to inherit from Object or some class that inherits from Object, etc. If you develop in NeXTStep / GNUstep / Cocoa, you will mostly be using another root class called NSObject, which provides different basic methods than Object.
The word import means that we only include the file once. This solves problems like recursive includes.
double x;
double y;
Anything between the braces in an interface declaration specifies the instance variables that the class has.
The @private line is a visibility modifier: it says that the instance variables after it are private, i.e. they are accessible only from the class that declares them. It is good practice to mark all your instance variables private: they contain the state of an object and they should never be changed except by the object itself.
- (id) x: (double) x_value;
The declarations for the methods come after the instance variables. This is a declaration for the method to set the x value. It's common Objective-C style to name the setter method with the same name as the variable it's setting.
The hyphen specifies an instance method (we'll look at these later). Then comes the name for the method (this method is called x: - note the colon), and the colon signifies an argument, called x_value, and is of type double.
The cast on the x_value argument is necessary, because unlike C, the default type is id, and not int. The type id is very special—it is a type that can hold any object whatsoever. The first cast is not strictly necessary, but should be used for clarity. The first cast tells us that the method x returns an object back.
- (double) x;
This is another method named x (no colon), but it returns a double. This is the specification for the method that gets the value of the x variable. There is no conflict with the previous method because the types are different, and the previous method takes one argument whilst this takes none.
After all the methods and instance variables are specified, this symbol marks the end of the declaration.
The interface specification goes in a .h file—a header file. It's customary to call the file after the class, so we would create a file called Point.h.
The implementation edit
#import "Point.h"
#import <math.h>
@implementation Point
- (id) x: (double) x_value
x = x_value;
return self;
- (double) x
return x;
- (id) y: (double) y_value
y = y_value;
return self;
- (double) y
return y;
- (double) magnitude
return sqrt(x*x+y*y);
This is the implementation for the Point class. We implement the methods in the interface defined above. Let's have a look at each element of the implementation in turn.
#import "Point.h"
Again, we import Point's interface, just as we do in C.
@implementation Point
This is a marker that identifies the beginning of the implementation.
- (id) x: (double) x_value
x = x_value;
return self;
This is a typical method implementation. We can use the x variable directly without having to declare it since it is already declared in the interface, and is accessible only to the methods of this class. The behaviour, in general, is like an ordinary C function. Here we assign the value of the argument x_value to the instance variable x.
The function then, returns the entire, current object as modified. The keyword self represents the current object.
- (double) x
return x;
Here is the simple method to get the value of the x variable. We simply return it.
The behaviour for the other methods should be similar to those above. The @end keyword ends the implementation.
The implementation specification goes in a .m file. It's customary to call the file after the class, so we would create a file called Point.m.
Using the objects edit
Since Objective-C comes from C, we write a main function to make use of the class that we just created. Here's one typical main function.
#import "Point.h"
#import <math.h>
#import <stdio.h>
int main(void)
Point *point = [Point new];
[point x:10.0];
[point y:12.0];
printf("The distance from the point (%g, %g) to the origin is %g.\n",
[point x], [point y], [point magnitude]);
return 0;
Let's examine what happens here.
#import "Point.h"
#import <stdio.h>
We import the interface to Point so we can use it. We import stdio.h so we can use printf.
Point *point = [Point new];
This is a typical Objective-C method call:
- Point *point declares, technically, a pointer to an instance of type Point. Actually, it may be best to think of this merely as a variable holding a Point object, but keep the pointer idea in mind.
- [Point new] calls a method called new. The first half before the space represents the object we call the method on. The second half is the method name and arguments. The new method is called a class method, because it doesn't do something with respect to an instance of a class, it does something with respect to the class itself. The new method allocates memory and initializes the object, making it ready for use. There is no need to explicitly delete an object, as Objective-C keeps track of the number of references to a given object, and deallocates them as necessary.
- NOTE: The new method is shorthand for alloc and init and may not always be available. If it is not, the object can be initialized and made ready for use in the following fashion: [[Point alloc] init]
[point x:10.0];
[point y:12.0];
These are some typical instance method calls. We call point's method x: and y:. In Objective-C terminology, we say that we send point a message to apply to the method x:.
These messages assign point's x and y variables. Recall that the x: and y: methods had in them return self;. This means that we can chain the two messages together, as follows:
[[point x:10.0] y:12.0];
The message [point x:10.0] returns an object, point, with its x variable set. Then on that object, the outer message assigns its y variable.
printf("The distance from the point (%g, %g) to the origin is %g.\n",
[point x], [point y], [point magnitude]);
The printf statement has in it the method calls [point x], which returns the value of the x variable for printing, [point y], which does the same for the y variable for printing, and [point magnitude] which calculates the distance and returns that value.
The Objective-C programming language: Objective-C concepts - Objective-C syntax - Objective-C in depth - Objective-C advanced features


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mobile - desktop |
Available Now at RodentPro.com! |
News & Events:
Reptile Law Support Center Below are links to official pages, sites, forms, or permits regarding reptile and amphibian laws for the locality described. If you find a link to the laws, regulations, or permits that need to be listed here, please add it using the form below. If you find a link to be dead, please report it.
State/Province: NEW HAMPSHIRE
New Hampshire Fish & Game Main Page
Sorry, no links are available in this category at this time. Please Note: While these links may be accurate, the information linked here may be incomplete, inaccurate, or out of date. It is always best to contact the appropriate agency to verify the accuracy and applicability regarding laws, permits, and regulations. Know a law or regulation link that needs to be added here? Add it below! Help us build the worlds largest database of reptile and amphibian laws and regulations. Only links to documents on offical government web sites will be accepted. Types of documents that we will list include links to pending regulations, links to existing regulations, government supplied FAQ's, and links to permits, licences, and applicatons.
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text:
Wouldn't it be nice if your business stories were always simple? Yet, in the areas in which I work as a freelance writer—financial services, health care, and technology—strong, jargon-free messages require plenty of clear thinking upfront. Whether you need a case study, script, speech, web content, white paper, or other form of marketing communications, you will find I listen closely and write crisp, evocative copy that gets results. As a published author of eight novels, I'm also available for book-length projects. My office is in the Boston area and I'm open to travel. Let's talk.
Bill's Fiction Website


text:
Total Members Voted: 19
Voting closed: January 06, 2013, 09:59:22 pm
is the 3rd one(far right). I prefer the sharpness and less noise. I almost would take the color from the middle shot, however.
Left. The distance to the background is wrong for the other 2 lenses.
Hi,Thanks for comment. Don't really understand your statement on distance to the background. Nothing moved except that tripod mount was used on two of the lenses. Distance to subject was 3.8 m from camera, so I think difference matters little.It's interesting to see that almost all posters prefer the left image.Best regardsErik
yeah, my mistake. I am thinking of the registration distance on the back being longer so narrower angle of light to the sensor. Making the shot look the same would require a movement of the tripod. That is wrong.So you are using 150mm fl approx for all shots. So the bokeh difference on the lettering is a parameter of the lens design not the distance. Its surprising to me as sony lenses are usually pretty good on that. Still, the hassy lens looks quite a bit better.
I am much surprised that the image on the right, Sony 70-400/4-5.6 has seemingly wider DoF than the others. It's much more visible in the "bookeh crops", here: http://echophoto.dnsalias.net/ekr/Images/Zeissness_3/F8/bokeh.htmlExposure was essentially the same on all.Best regardsErik
Clearly a Leica lens would be best - you'd be able to taste the orange
Gee, I am just hanging around with nothing interesting or useful to do, so I'll surely take your quiz. NOT. Please, give us a break.


text:
Discover Tidelands Health Get Care Now
I am looking for...
MONDAY, Aug. 9, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- Antibody levels remain stable or even rise seven months after infection with the SARS-CoV-2 virus, European researchers report.
The study from Spain also found that preexisting antibodies against coronaviruses that cause the common cold may also protect against COVID-19.
Researchers analyzed blood samples collected from 578 health care workers at a Barcelona hospital four times between March and October of last year.
The blood samples were checked for levels and types of antibodies to six COVID-19 antigens, as well as antibodies against the four coronaviruses that cause colds.
"This is the first study that evaluates antibodies to such a large panel of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies over seven months," study leader Carlota Dobaño said in a news release from the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), where she is a researcher.
The majority of infections among health care workers occurred during the pandemic's first wave. The percentage of participants with SARS-CoV-2 antibodies rose only slightly between March and October, from 13.5% to 16.4%.
Levels of IgG antibodies against the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein stayed stable over time, confirming findings from other recent studies.
But researchers were surprised to see those levels increase in 75% of participants from the fifth month onwards, with no evidence of reexposure to the virus.
None of the study participants had reinfections.
Those who were infected by SARS-CoV-2 had lower levels of antibodies against human cold viruses (HCoV). Those without symptoms had higher levels of protection against HCoV than those with COVID symptoms.
That suggests that antibodies against cold coronaviruses could provide cross-protection against COVID-19 infection or disease, according to findings published Aug. 6 in the journal Nature Communications.
"Although cross-protection by preexisting immunity to common cold coronaviruses remains to be confirmed, this could help explain the big differences in susceptibility to the disease within the population," Dobaño said.
More information
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on COVID-19.
SOURCE: Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), news release, Aug. 6, 2021
© Tidelands Health.


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Showing results 1 - 1 of 1
HERS and IECC Performance Path
Document Number: PNNL-22560
Document Type: Analysis
Publication Date:
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory analyzed the relationship between the Residential Energy Services Network (RESNET) Home Energy Rating System (HERS) Index and the traditional simulation-based Performance Path used in the International Energy Conservation Code (IECC). The analysis evaluates, for a single-family residence with various characteristics, the ranges of HERS Index values that would imply compliance with the 2012 IECC Performance Path. Several building characteristics considered likely to result in quantifiable differences in the outcomes of the two approaches, or otherwise believed to be of interest to code developers and policy makers, are considered in the analysis.


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FORT COLLINS, Colo. -- Colorado State defensive line coach Greg Lupfer has been suspended without pay for two weeks for using a gay slur when yelling at Washington State quarterback Connor Halliday in the Gildan New Mexico Bowl last weekend.
Athletic director Jack Graham also ordered Lupfer to undergo anger management and diversity training at his own expense.
Lupfer issued a statement saying he was grateful to keep his job on Jim McElwain's staff and said, "I am deeply sorry for my behavior, which does not represent who I am or my values."
Lupfer got into a verbal altercation with the Cougars' QB after his first TD throw. His slur was caught on ESPN cameras and marred the Rams' comeback from a 22-point deficit for a last-second 48-45 win to kick off the bowl season.


text:
From Episode 116 of Jim Cornette's Drive Thru
Artwork by Travis Heckel!
Send in your question for the Drive-Thru to: firstname.lastname@example.com
Follow Jim and Brian on Twitter: @TheJimCornette @GreatBrianLast
Visit Jim's official site at www.JimCornette.com for merch, live dates, commentaries and more!
You can listen to Brian each week on the 6:05 Superpodcast at 605pod.com.


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- Home
- Air Quality
- Air Quality Burn Bans
- Legal Overview
Wood Burning and the Law
If you use a fireplace or wood stove in your home, Washington State regulations require you to manage your fire properly and responsibly. Improper burning results in excess smoke, which fouls the air and is harmful to your health.
If you choose to heat with wood, follow these guideline to help maximize energy output and minimize pollution.
Here's What You Need to Know
- Burn only manufactured logs or dry, seasoned wood. It is illegal to burn anything else. This includes garbage, treated wood, paper (except for starting the fire), and plastics. For a complete list of prohibited materials, please refer to Washington Administrative Code 173-433-120.
- Watch your chimney smoke. Generating excessive smoke is not only rude to your neighbors, it's illegal. Under state regulations, smoke from your chimney cannot exceed 20 percent opacity (as shown in the left panel in the image to the right) for six consecutive minutes in any one-hour period. Greater smoke densities could result in fines from air pollution control officials.
- It is always illegal to smoke out your neighbor. Everyone has a right to breathe clean air. If smoke from your fire is affecting your neighbors, it is considered a nuisance and subject to enforcement action [Regulation 1, Section 9.11 (PDF)].
- Tip: To help minimize smoke, burn small, hot fires and give the fire plenty of air. Check your chimney occasionally: If you see smoke coming out, you are not burning hot enough and are wasting fuel. Let your fire have more air, and check your chimney again.
- Observe burn bans. When the air agency declares a burn ban, it is unlawful to use your fireplace or uncertified wood stove, unless this is your only source of adequate heat. During Stage 2 Burn Bans it is also unlawful to use pellet stoves and certified wood stoves. Sign up for burn ban alerts.
- Don't buy, sell, exchange or give away uncertified devices; it's illegal. Wood stoves, fireplaces, and other solid fuel burning devices sold in Washington must be certified to meet Washington state emission standards.
- Wood Burning Devices that Meet Washington Standards
- Learn more about the laws on wood burning devices: Regulation I, Section 13.03 (PDF), Washington Administrative Code: 173-433.


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This past week there was a little shindig going down in Los Angeles. Call of Duty decided to throw a party for its fans and what a party it was – there were paintball battles, real life CoD maps laid out for people to see and somewhere in the vicinity of 2,000 Xboxs on hand. But one interesting piece that came from the event was that there would be an Android, and iOS, application coming out soon with the release of Modern Warfare 3.
Now, this isn't going to be a game by any means. This will be an application that ties directly into CoD's new stat-tracking and social networking experiment called Call of Duty: Elite. This application will definitely allow you to look at your loadouts in-game through your phone and let you make changes while you're on the go. Those changes will be waiting for you when you get back to the game later on in the day. Cool, huh? Since I got to beta test CoD: Elite (my full story here) I can see that this application will most likely allow you to track your stats for bragging rights when you're out with your buddies. If they decide to fully implement all that Elite offers it'll even allow you to look up maps from the game which provide spawn points and other intel and will give you videos that you can watch that are made by CoD players and even some videos breaking down how to use certain guns. Unfortunately there hasn't been a definite release date for this application yet, but look for it around the time MW:3 drops, November 8.
Should be an interesting little application if it lives up to what CoD: Elite was about. Any gamers out there excited at this news?
Via: Phandroid


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- Artist
- Sue Williamson born 1941
- Medium
- Photo-etching and screenprint on papers on paper
- Dimensions
- Support: 1000 × 700 mm
- Collection
- Tate
- Acquisition
- Purchased with funds provided by Simon and Catriona Mordant, and the Basil and Raghida Al-Rahim Art Fund, courtesy of Goodman Gallery, 2014
- Reference
This print is from A Few South Africans 1983–5 (Tate P81075–P81088), a set of fourteen photo-etchings made while Sue Williamson was studying for her Advanced Diploma in Printmaking at the Michaelis School of Fine Art, Cape Town. Williamson was intimately engaged in the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa and dedicated this work to raising the visibility of women and disenfranchised groups crusading for a more just society. She began work on the series, which presents portraits of named and unnamed women from South African society, in 1982. Having moved to South Africa from England with her family as a child in 1948, Williamson's prints mark a turning point in her activism for their connection to the wider international struggles in recognising the civic contributions of unsung yet heroic women.
A Few South Africans combines a painstaking series of techniques on paper, demonstrating the artist's technical mastery in printmaking. Each central image was photo-etched with additional elements rendered in hard-ground etching, aquatint or hand-drawing. A decorative coloured border surrounds each portrait. This framing device pays homage to a common domestic practice in the townships of South Africa whereby coloured paper and printed ephemera are repurposed to confer status upon photographic mementos. Each image, demarcated by superimposing a colour screenprinted frame around it, contains details that refer to the sitter's biography. The images are accompanied by detailed descriptions of the political and social acts that earned each woman a place in the portfolio. The artist either photographed each of the subjects herself or sourced their images from library archives, often from banned books.
Williamson eschewed printmaking convention and conceived the series as an ongoing project, so as not to place a limit on the number of women she might eventually choose to commemorate. Nine works were completed in sequence in 1983: Elizabeth Paul, Maggie Magaba, Winnie Mandela, Lilian Ngoyi, Annie Silinga, Nokukanye Lutuli, Helen Joseph, Albertina Sisulu and The Accused (also called Treason Trial), which documents an event rather than one person. This first group was produced in an edition of twenty, with half issued as a set of nine and half made available individually.
Having been invited to display the series at Gallery International in Cape Town as a solo exhibition in 1984, Williamson subsequently created a further five prints: Case No. 6831/21, Amina Cachalia, Caroline Motsoaledi, Virginia Mngoma and Charlotte Maxeke, this time in an edition of thirty-five. These five images were added to the ten complete sets of the portfolio created the year before. Tate's copy is number five out of the set of ten.
Case No. 6831/32 is also known by the alternate title Case No. Anonymous, in reference to the unnamed women living at the margins of society in South Africa's shanty towns, whose unsung contribution to the struggle against apartheid Williamson wanted to honour. She has explained:
The women honoured were generally those who played a recognised role in the struggle against apartheid. Case No. 6831/21, however, paid tribute to the millions of anonymous wives of migrant workers not allowed by law to live in the urban areas with their working husbands. The woman in this portrait, who I met in the Crossroads squatter camp near Cape Town in 1983, had defied the law to try to live with her husband. I have referred to her as Case No 6831/21, as this was her status in the eyes of the state; she had appeared in [Langa judicial] court on charges of being illegally in the area on several occasions.
(Sue Williamson, artist's statement, http://www.legacy-project.org/index.php?page=art_detail&artID=463, accessed 30 March 2014.)
In the continued spirit of political engagement, the editioned prints were subsequently reissued as postcards by the artist to further circulate portraits of the noteworthy yet little-known women. Williamson wrote, 'You become aware of the audience to whom you speak. In that sense, you think backwards: what you have to say, whom you say it to, and how it will reach the audience. Having to consider your work through the eyes of somebody who knows nothing about you as an artist and what you are doing is a useful exercise.' (Quoted in Kim Gurney, 'Sue Williamson', ArtThrob, no.75, November 2003, http://www.artthrob.co.za/03nov/artbio.html, accessed 10 March 2014.)
Further reading
Sue Williamson, Resistance Art in South Africa, Cape Town 1989, pp.74–7.
Sue Williamson and Ashraf Jamal, Art in South Africa: the Future Present, Cape Town 1996.
Gill Saunders and Zoe Whitley, In Black and White: Prints from Africa and the Diaspora, London 2013, pp.115–7.
Zoe Whitley
March 2014
Does this text contain inaccurate information or language that you feel we should improve or change? We would like to hear from you.


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Floodwater Retention
Definitions of flooding – FEMA
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) definition of Flood:
- A general and temporary condition of partial or complete inundation of 2 or more acres of normally dry land area or of 2 or more properties (at least 1 of which is the policyholder's property) from:
- Overflow of inland waters; or
- Unusual and rapid accumulation or runoff of surface waters from any source; or
- Mudflow; or
- Collapse or subsidence of land along the shore of a lake or similar body of water as a result of erosion or undermining caused by waves or currents of water exceeding anticipated cyclical levels that result in a flood as defined above.
Characteristics and processes that influence flood water retention storage
Dominant upland land use
Overland flow affects wetland flood storage capabilities and overland flow is affected by changes in upstream vegetative communities. Upland land use within the watershed contributing to the wetland and the watershed size have a significant influence on the flow of runoff and sediments to the wetland, and thus the ability of the wetland to desynchronize flood flows and maintain its characteristic hydrologic regime.
The more developed and intensively the watershed is used, the greater the delivery of runoff and sediments to the wetland is likely to be and the more likely the wetland will have the opportunity to minimize flooding downstream. With increased runoff and sediment delivery, the wetland will be less likely to maintain its characteristic hydrologic regime. As the proportion of the impervious watershed area increases, runoff volume and rate increases along with sediment concentrations.
Wetland Vegetation
Rooted vegetation in flow-through wetlands slows floodwaters by creating frictional drag in proportion to stem density, more or less according to vegetation cover type and interspersion. Flow-through wetlands with relatively low proportions of open water to rooted vegetation and low interspersion of water and rooted vegetation are more capable of altering flood flows. Dense stands of rooted vegetation, including trees, shrubs, and herbaceous emergent are more capable of slowing floodwater than open water alone.
Floodwater resistance
Dense, robust, tall vegetation is best for floodplains. Forest cover and other woody stems increase surface roughness resulting in an increased detention of high flows. The cumulative effect is reduced peak flows downstream. A forest (i.e. ash, boxelder, red maple, conifers) with a dense understory is best for detaining high flows. Without a forest present, woody shrubs (i.e. alder, willow, red osier dogwood) can be extremely effective but lose effectiveness once high flows approach and exceed the woody shrub height. Dense, non-woody vegetation (i.e. cattails, reed canary grass) are effective at detaining minor flood flows but lay down to higher flows and the surface roughness greatly diminishes. Turf grass and other supple vegetation have minimal effects on flood flows. Open water wetlands with submergent and scattered emergent vegetation are part of the channel characteristics and have minimal effect on detaining flood flows. The Manning's roughness coefficient decreases as water depth increases above the macrophytes and other surface roughness characteristics.
Sediment Delivery
Wetlands filled by sediment will have reduced capacity to store stormwater. Land use, ground slope, and erodibility characteristics of the soils affect the potential for sediment delivery to the wetland.
Stormwater Runoff Pretreatment and Detention
Wetlands receiving undetained, directed stormwater from developed areas generally provide a higher functional level for flood/stormwater storage than do similar wetlands receiving stormwater at rates of, and with water quality equivalent to, that prior to development.
Subwatershed Wetland Density
The density of wetlands in the minor watershed will determine the benefit each provides downstream. Wetlands reduce flood peaks up to 75 percent compared to rolling topography when they occupy only 20 percent of the total basin. When wetland densities in the minor watershed exceed 20% total cover, the flood storage benefits of additional wetlands rapidly decrease.
Channels/Sheet Flow
Channels are formed in the underlying substrate, not just as paths through emergent vegetation. Sheet flow, rather than channel flow, offers greater frictional resistance. The potential for floodflow desynchronization is greater when water flows through the wetland as sheet flow. Connecting channels will carry water directly from the inlet to the outlet preferentially in the channel. Channels not connected indicate that some channelized flow may occur within the wetland but not all the way through the wetland via a single channel; some sheet flow will occur. No channels present represents wetlands in which water from the inlet will spread out over the wetland to the outlet (e.g., unchannelized meadows, shallow marshes, deep marshes, ponds, typical floodplains without meander channels, etc.).
Source: Minnesota Routine Assessment Method (MnRAM), Version 3.4, Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources


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UNL facility produces compound for cream that may block HIV transmission
Released on 07/02/2014, at 2:00 AM
Office of University Communications
University of Nebraska–Lincoln
Scientists at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln College of Engineering's Biological Process Development Facility have successfully produced a drug compound with potential to block HIV transmission in women.
The compound features the 5P12-Rantes molecule, discovered by scientists at the Mintaka Foundation in Switzerland to block HIV transmission by preventing the virus from attaching to human cells. Mintaka has contracted with the UNL facility to develop the manufacturing method for the compound.
The UNL facility in Othmer Hall has delivered its first batch of the compound to the nonprofit research organization for formulation as a vaginal cream for use in clinical trials in South America. The facility landed the $3.8 million contract in 2010 from Mintaka to develop this biological production process for the microbicide.
The successful production run also confirms that the manufacturing process developed at the BPDF is ready to be transferred to a large-scale manufacturing facility, said Scott Johnson, Good Manufacturing Practices coordinator for the UNL facility.
Robin Offord, Mintaka's executive director, said his organization is "happy with the robust nature of the process developed at BPDF.
"Properly validated GMP (Good Manufacturing Practices) production is key to Mintaka's plans to empower women and girls in developing countries with a means of protection from HIV/AIDS," he said. "Already, we have successfully transferred the technology to our collaborating institution in South Africa with excellent pilot scale results."
The BPDF's role in this phase of development illustrates the complexity of bringing drugs to clinical trial, officials said.
Good Manufacturing Practices are the strict guidelines imposed by the Food and Drug Administration for the development and manufacture of all pharmaceuticals, with rigorous procedures to test and validate every aspect of the development and production process.
UNL's BPDF meets those requirements, following strict quality control standards and scrutiny for the pharmaceutical industry, including long-term environmental and water quality testing.
Johnson said the facility works closely with its clients to develop processes that will produce material suitable for use in clinical trials.
"A client will present us with a gene product they want expressed," he said. "We develop and optimize that process, then scale it up and move the finalized process to our GMP facility for production."
The successful production of 5P12-Rantes was the first to be completed in the BPDF's recently commissioned GMP plant in Othmer Hall. The GMP plant was the first in the nation to be established on a university campus.
News Release Contacts:
- Kimberly Tedrow, Data Coordinator, Biological Process Development Facility
phone: 402-472-1962


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Story highlights
Bashar al-Assad indicated he would be different kind of leader to his father
But many say al-Assad's promises have largely not been delivered
One former vice-president says Bashar al-Assad is both brutal and indecisive
Al-Assad and his close-knit regime are digging in for what could be long war of attrition
Before the Arab Spring came the Damascus Spring. When Bashar al-Assad succeeded his father Hafez Assad in 2000, there was the promise of a modern and more democratic Syria.
In his inauguration speech, al-Assad indicated he would be a very different kind of leader to his father. "I shall try my very best to lead our country towards a future that fulfils the hopes and legitimate ambitions of our people," he said.
And for a while that promise was kept. His official website says he has built free-trade zones, licensed more private newspapers and private universities, and fought government waste and corruption. He has also worked on social and economic reform.
But while there have been some changes during his rule, many say al-Assad's promises have largely not been delivered.
Human Rights Watch has called his time as president "the wasted decade" with a media that remains controlled by the state, a monitored and censored internet and prisons still filled with dissidents.
Two former regime insiders – now its opponents – recalled their time with the younger al-Assad. Former vice president Abdel Halim Khaddam said Bashar was often the victim of his elder brother's cruelty. "His brother Basil bullied him as a child. His father never gave him as much attention as Basil," Khaddam said.
Al-Assad's uncle Rifaat, who left Syria in 1984 after being involved in a failed coup, also recalled the future president.
"He is very different than his father. Hafez was a leader, the head of the entire regime, while Bashar was never that close to being one and never fell within that framework. He is being perceived as the leader but he follows what the regime decides on his behalf."
Al-Assad himself said reform faltered because of unrest in neighboring states, Lebanon and Iraq. He told the Wall Street Journal last year: "There are many things that we wanted to do in 2005 we are planning to do in the year 2012, seven years later."
But Abdel Halim Khaddam, vice-president under both Bashar and his father, says the younger al-Assad is both brutal and indecisive.
"Bashar's problem is that he listens to everything but denies and forgets quickly. You discuss an issue with him in the morning and another person comes along and changes his mind.
"Politically, Bashar does not have a consistent ideology; he changes his opinion according to his interests and that of the regime's."
And the regime is a family affair. Al-Assad's younger brother Maher commands an elite division of the army, and is accused of widespread human rights abuses. His cousin Rami Makhlouf is the richest man in Syria.
The Assads belong to Syria's Alawite minority, who according to the president's uncle Rifaat, are driven by fears they could be overwhelmed. "There is no doubt that the Alawites are a minority who are in fear of the outcome and they are driven by that fear factor," he said.
Despite the brutal crackdown over the last year in Syria, in which thousands have died, al-Assad maintains he is not in charge of Syria's military. He told ABC's Barbara Walters: "They are not my forces. They are forces for the government. I don't own them. I'm president. I don't own the country. So they are not my forces."
Wouldn't al-Assad, the commander in chief, have had to give the order for any military actions? "No, no no," he said.
Not by your command? "No," he said, "on no one's command. There was no command to kill or to be brutal."
Al-Assad said those members of the armed forces who "went too far" had been disciplined.
But former vice-president Khaddam is in no doubt who does give the orders to kill: "Bashar Al-Assad and no one else. He gives out orders to use all means of force to crush the revolution. He is surrounded by close aides and a security apparatus that advise him, but he decides."
It wasn't expected that Bashar would carry on the family's political dynasty. He didn't seem to have the personality for the job; he wasn't deeply involved in military or government matters, according to "Inheriting Syria: Bashar's Trial by Fire," a biography by Flynt Leverett, who worked as an expert on Syria for the CIA in the 1990s and was the senior director for Middle East affairs at the National Security Council in the early 2000s.
Because Bashar's older brother Basil was expected to succeed his father, Bashar al-Assad went to London in the 1990s and studied ophthalmology, and headed the Syrian Computer Society. "Dr. Bashar," as he was widely known, liked to windsurf and play volleyball.
He is believed to have started dating British-born Asma al-Akhras during this time. Bashar was called back to Syria in 1994 when Basil died in a car wreck. This turn of events made him first in line to rule Syria, and he was appointed president by Syria's rubber-stamp Parliament in 2000 after his father died.
Before 2000 ended, he and Asma were married.
Will Asma al-Assad take a stand or stand by her man?
Shortly after the Arab Spring started in early 2011, al-Assad made apparent moves toward change in Syria. Initially, protesters wanted basic reforms, more freedoms, a multiparty political system and an end to emergency law. Some of these measures have, on paper, been implemented by al-Assad, but they were far too little and, by the time they came about, too late.
After almost a year of violent protests, opposition supporters have lost any faith they ever had in al-Assad's ability to deliver reform, and simply want an end to his rule and true democratic elections.
Now al-Assad and members of his close-knit regime are digging in for what could be a long war of attrition.
CNN's Rima Maktabi contributed to this report.


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- Home
- Government
- Departments
- Fire Department
- Recreational Fires
Recreational Fires
Campfire Permits
The St. Anthony Fire Department is responsible for the issuing of Campfire Permits in the City of St. Anthony. Residents wishing to have a campfire must first complete a Campfire Permit Application. The Fire Department will review the application and if the application is approved, will issue a permit which will be valid for five years for homeowners. Rental properties however require landlord approval and those campfire permits are good through March 1st of the following year. Permits for rental properties need to be renewed annually.Also, each time before having a campfire the resident must:
- Call the fire department campfire Hotline (612-782-3434) to verify campfires are permitted, or;
- Verify conditions are favorable for campfires by reviewing both of the following websites:
For more information regarding campfires and permits, call 612-782-3400.
Campfire Rules
Following are the rules related to campfires:- Must be limited to 3 feet in diameter and a 3 foot high flame.
- Only unpainted and untreated dry wood or charcoal may be burned. No construction debris, household materials, leaves or grass are allowed.
- Smoke must not extend beyond the property line.
- A garden hose or adequate fire extinguisher must be on site.
- Responsible adult must be on site until fire is extinguished.
- Fire must be extinguished before leaving site.
- Fire shall never be left unattended.
- Ashes and coals should not be allowed to smolder.
- Fire should be in an adequate fire ring, raised fire pit, or other approved containment system.
- Campfires shall not be closer than 25 feet from any structure, including decks.
- No burning when the Air Quality Index is greater than 50. (Pollution Control Website)
- No burning when the wind speed is greater than 20 miles per hour. (National Weather Service Website)
- Campfires are allowed for food preparation.
- Hours for campfires:
- Sunday through Thursday - 9 a.m. until 11 p.m.
- Friday, Saturday and Holidays - 9 a.m. until Midnight.
Prohibited Materials
The following materials are prohibited for burning:- Grass, leaves or brush
- Chemically treated lumber
- Garbage
- Plastic pesticide or herbicide containers
- Plastic liners in seed, feed or pesticide bags
- Plastic containers such as: milk, motor oil, household or other plastic containers
- Tar paper, shingles or other asphalt materials
- Insulation
- Composition board or sheet rock
- Wiring, insulation on wiring or cable
- Hazardous waste (including household hazardous waste)
- Commercial or institutional structures
- Paint or paint filters
- Used motor oil or other petroleum based liquids
- Vehicles, motors or parts of vehicles or motors
- Railroad ties, telephone poles
- Tires, rubber or rubber products
- Other similar materials
St. Anthony Fire Department
Physical Address
3505 Silver Lake Road
St. Anthony Village, MN 55418
Phone: 612-782-3400Emergency Phone: 911


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The Brooklyn component of the 8th Annual WantedxDesign (WxD) event launched last night with a preview that brought together hundreds of design professionals, students and press representatives. Hosted at Brooklyn's Industry City (IC) complex the event will run from May 17-21. The weekend will include studio tours that open the workspace doors of over 100 local painters, photographers, printmakers, sculptors and video artists. Also available on the weekend will be shuttle busses to take visitors to the concurrent Manhattan Conference at the Terminal Stores. See the full program here.
Tag: sunset park


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About SATS
Scandinavian Association for Testing of Electric Power Equipment. Member of Short-Circuit Testing Liaison (STL).
SATS Certification is an association of manufacturers' and independent test laboratories and end user organisations set up according to the guidelines of NS-EN ISO/IEC 17065 (2012): Conformity assessment - Requirements for bodies certifying products, processes and services.
The objective of SATS Certification is to issue Reports of Performance, STL Type Test Certificates and Certificates of Type Conformity for electric power equipment based on tests carried out in laboratories accredited to ISO/IEC 17025.
SATS Certification is accredited to NS-EN ISO/IEC 17065 by Norwegian Accreditation with registration number PROD 016. Details of the accreditation


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A judge on Friday cleared rapper Kanye West of criminal charges following a scuffle with paparazzi at Los Angeles International Airport last year, pending his completion of community service, a spokesman for the Los Angeles City Attorney said.
Grammy award-winning West, who has often captured media attention with public outbursts, and his manager were charged in March with battery, theft and vandalism following the Sept. 11, 2008 confrontation with a photographer.
West, whose hits include "Jesus Walks" and "Hey Mama," and the manager were released on bail hours after their arrest.
The judge on Friday said the charges would be dismissed if they performed 50 community service hours, according to L.A. City Attorney's Office spokesman Frank Mateljan. The two have already completed an anger management course, Mateljan said.
The incident rattled nerves at the airport during the seventh anniversary of the day of the Sept. 11 attacks. It was not the last time West has been in trouble for a public outburst.
British media reported in November 2008 that West, 32, was detained and released without charge after a suspected confrontation with a photographer near a nightclub in England.
He made international headlines in September when he got up on stage and interrupted an acceptance speech by Taylor Swift at the MTV Video Music Awards.


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The Building Department, located on the first floor of the Annex Building, 320 Alexandria Boulevard, is responsible for issuing building permits. For more information you can call 407-971-5755.
Show All Answers
Registration cards are available at the City Clerk's office located on the first floor of City Hall. After filling the cards out, they are to be mailed to the Supervisor of Elections office at:1500 E Airport BoulevardSanford, FL 32773
You can also visit the Supervisor's office at the same address. For additional information regarding voter registration, call 407-585-8683, or visit the Supervisor of Elections website.
City Council meetings are held the first and third Monday of each month, beginning at 6:30 p.m. The meetings are held in the City Council Chambers, located on the first floor of City Hall, 400 Alexandria Boulevard. For more information about these meetings, you may contact the City Clerk's office at 407-971-5500.
The City of Oviedo does not maintain street lights or electricity service within the City. Depending on the location of the street light within the City limits, there are two different companies that handle street lights (and consequently all power related utilities). A simple way to determine which company to call is as follows:
If you are unsure on which company to call, either company can direct you to the appropriate authority if they are not responsible for the street light. If all else fails, feel free to call the City of Oviedo Public Works Department at 407-971-5668 for assistance. Hours of operation are Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.


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- 3 cloves fresh garlic, peeled and finely sliced
- 2 pints cherry tomatoes, on the vine
- 3/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus more as needed
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 1 pound penne pasta
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 3/4 pound loose pork sausage
- 2 to 3 small zucchini, sliced
- 1 can artichoke hearts, drained and quartered or 2 fresh globe artichokes, trimmed to the hearts, cut into quarters
- 1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan
- 1/4 bunch fresh basil leaves
Cooking Instructions
Step 1: In a large heavy saute pan add the sliced garlic and the clusters of cherry tomatoes. Drizzle with the olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Put the pan over low-medium heat on the stove top and cook slowly until the tomatoes are just about falling apart and their juices have been extracted into the olive oil forming a nice sauce, about 35 to 40 minutes.
Step 2: Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over medium heat. Add the pasta and cook until al dente. Reserve 2 to 3 clusters of roasted tomatoes for garnish. Discard the vine stems and puree or squash the remaining tomatoes in the pan, with a spoon, so you have nice chunky pieces of tomato in all the delicious tomato juice and olive oil. Stir in the sugar. This will be the sauce for the pasta.
Step 3: In a large saute pan heat a 3-count of olive oil and saute the loose pork sausage until brown and caramelized. Remove and set aside on a plate while you cook the zucchini. To the same pan add some more olive oil and saute the zucchini until caramelized around the edges, about 2 minutes. Add the artichokes and cook for 2 to 3 more minutes. Add the sausage back to the pan and toss in pasta and the tomato sauce. Mix well over high heat to ensure everything is heated through and evenly coated. Transfer to a serving bowl or platter.
Step 4: To serve, sprinkle with Parmesan, basil leaves, and top with a cluster of roasted cherry tomatoes.
Enjoy this easy Farmer's Market Pasta from FoodNetwork!


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Art review: 'Art in the Streets' at the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA
This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.
It's generally not a good idea to censor a mural you commissioned, especially when that mural is part of a show about uncommissioned street art.
When Museum of Contemporary Art director and curator Jeffrey Deitch whitewashed a mural by Italian artist Blu in December, the episode perfectly illustrated how graffiti's unruly, in-your-face attitude, even when sanitized under the banner of "street art," might not be a good fit for a museum retrospective. The very idea of the exhibition "Art in the Streets" at the Geffen Contemporary asks whether this erstwhile outlaw culture can or should be folded into the grand narrative of art history.
Despite its first, faltering steps, the exhibition answers this question with a resounding "Yes." Viewers will encounter a bombastic, near-overwhelming cavalcade of eye candy: colorful swirling murals, immersive installations, walls papered with candid and provocative photos, and a custom-designed skate ramp. Immodestly anticipating the response, there's even a big "WOW" painted on the inside of the building's roll down doors. But the exhibition's strong suit is not its impressive array of large-scale work but rather its art historical treatment of an outsider form, complete with a timeline, "period" rooms, and plenty of video and photographic documentation.
Although bright colors, lights and sounds beckon from the galleries on the main floor, it's worth spending some time with the terse but informative timeline upstairs. It moves briskly from the movement's beginnings in tagging in New York and Philadelphia in the 1960s, through cholo graffiti in L.A. in '70s, and the form's emergence on the New York gallery scene in the '80s.
It also charts graffiti's overlap with punk and skateboarding cultures and the emergence of the "Wild Style" that famously blanketed New York subway cars in the '70s and '80s. The timeline stops abruptly in 1989, when the New York Metropolitan Transit Authority began its anti-graffiti campaign, but picks up again on the other side of the galleries to chart the movement's increasing popularity: the founding of Juxtapoz magazine, Shepard Fairey's Obama "Hope" poster, and last year's Academy Award-nominated documentary "Exit Through the Gift Shop."
Because of its outlaw status (despite its long-running influence in art and fashion), street art has not been fully welcomed into the annals of art history. At the press preview, Deitch, his co-curators Roger Gastman and Aaron Rose, and artist Fab 5 Freddy compared street art's effect to that of Cubism, Constructivism, Dada, Surrealism and Pop Art. That might be a stretch, but this hyping of the exhibition is completely in step with graffiti's ethos of self-presentation. Spawned with tagging — scrawling one's name on every available surface — graffiti began as a simple act of self-assertion. In fact, perhaps the first piece of graffiti was created by World War II shipyard inspector James J. Kilroy, who inscribed every piece of equipment with a long-nosed cartoon face and the words "Kilroy was here."
This character is revitalized in Lance Mountain's and Geoff McFetridge's custom skate ramp, basically a collection of inclines and blocks decorated with large, Kilroy-esque faces. Nike, a co-sponsor of the exhibition, will send members of its SB skate team to skate the ramp twice a week, filling the galleries with a soundtrack of scraping and crashing. It's not the first time skaters have been welcomed into a museum — co-curator Rose built a skate bowl in the 2004 exhibition "Beautiful Losers" at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco — but in the context of this show, their performance underscores the importance of the body and self-fashioning in street art.
Created on the street, at night, often in inaccessible places, graffiti writing is itself a species of physical performance. It's not surprising then that images of the artists and their friends appear everywhere in the exhibition. As Deitch noted, graffiti is an ephemeral form. Like performance art, it is often only experienced as documentation. This ranges from Gusmano Cesaretti's gritty photographs of the cholo scene in 1970s L.A. and Martha Cooper's vibrant portraits of New York artists in the early '80s to darker images of more raucous, sometimes violent youth by Ed Templeton, Teen Witch (Andrea Sonnenberg), Dash Snow, Terry Richardson and Larry Clark.
If Pop artists responded to the shiny new consumer culture that emerged after World War II, graffiti artists responded to its decay, reflecting disillusionment and broken promises. This underbelly of consumerism also surfaces in several large, immersive installations. "Street Market" by Todd James, Barry McGee and Stephen Powers is a facsimile of a clutch of narrow city streets lined with decaying, fetid buildings and bedecked with cheap electric signage. The buildings are filled with what look like miniature art studios and makeshift living spaces that can be glimpsed only through the windows; they're like little dens of creativity amid the ruins of consumer society.
In a more illusionistic vein, Neckface has created a dark, filthy alleyway littered with broken bottles and debris whose only purpose seems to be inspiring trepidation. Such installations were obviously never intended for the street. Rather, they attempt to re-create a "street" atmosphere that is both carnival-esque and unsettling. In this, they are not unlike the works of mainstream installation artists — Mike Kelley comes to mind — or for that matter, the artificial environments at Disneyland.
This extension of street art aesthetics to illusionistic installations raises the question: What happens to street art when it is no longer in the street? Certainly it loses some of its shock value — part of the beauty of street art is that it might take us unawares. Perhaps the examples above are attempts to shock us by bringing the street into the gallery. But they feel overly labored and oddly, a bit fussy.
This elevation of street art in the museum — essentially, the show's premise — is the target of the ubiquitous Banksy's contribution. He asked local high school students to tag panels in myriad colors and then framed them inside a drawing of a Gothic arch that resembles a stained glass window in a church. Below, he added an illustration of a praying figure kneeling next to a can of paint. The piece suggests that enshrining graffiti art within the museum turns it into an icon requiring our submission. In case we missed this point, Banksy has also placed a real, full-sized steamroller in the space as a not-so-subtle reminder of the implacable march of commodification. Ever the contrarian, he brilliantly continues to bite the hand that feeds him.
In the end, the show is not just about showcasing street art but about recovering in some way what has already been lost. Henry Chalfant's installation of hundreds of photos of graffiti-laden New York subway cars is oddly touching, not just for its nostalgic look at the past but because it's a testament to the sheer volume of work that has been erased.
L.A. artist Saber responds to this phenomenon in a huge white and gray mural — a grisaille, really — with a trompe l'oeil tear in it that reveals layers of graffiti underneath. The piece acknowledges not only that graffiti is a temporal medium — painted over layers and layers of previous work — it's also a nod to those writers who came before. Street art may be a product of a particular moment, but as the energy and variety of this show attest, it is constantly reinventing itself.
Graffiti and street art show to take over Geffen Contemporary
L.A.'s street art pioneers paint a colorful history
--Sharon Mizota
Top: 'Stained Window' by Banksy and students from City of Angels School. Middle: 'Painted skate ramp' by Geoff McFetridge and Lance Mountain. Bottom: 'International Ice Cream Truck' by Mister Cartoon. Credit: Don Bartletti /Los Angeles Times.


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WASHINGTON, December 2, 2009 -
December 2, 2009
- Congressman Spencer Bachus, the top Republican on the Financial Services Committee, made the following statement regarding Committee passage of the Democrats' H.R. 3996, the so-called "Financial Stability Improvement Act."
"The debate was a clear choice between ending the bailouts and creating a permanent bailout regime. I'm disappointed my Democratic colleagues chose to continue the bailouts rather than make those who took the risks bear the consequences of their actions. "Republicans believe that costs should be borne by the same parties that in many cases reaped the ill-gotten gains from Wall Street's bad bets. The Democrats chose to impose those costs on the shareholders and customers of well-run companies, as well as on the taxpayers. "The Democrats also chose to expand the regulatory powers of the Federal Reserve despite the Board's proven track record of failing to identify systemic risks before they actually occur. Rather than rewarding the Fed with even greater authority to regulate financial firms and orchestrate bailouts, the Committee should be holding hearings at which central and regional bank officials explain to the American people exactly what went wrong, how they failed to see the coming crisis, and why taxpayers had to bail out the 'too big to fail' banks and institutions they were charged with regulating."
Print version of this document


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THE parties held by penis-wielding former premier Silvio Berlusconi have shocked Italy with their lack of imagination.
As Berlusconi stands trial for breaking up to three of Italy's 14 laws, young women have revealed details which have left middle-aged millionaires looking for decadence pointers deeply disappointed.
Wayne Hayes, a bloated and spiritually-empty property magnate, from Carlisle said "I've been reading the transcripts to look for new things to do with livestock or lemon curd to cause some flicker of sensation in the dead coals of my soul.
"But stripper nuns, hookers and drugs are the kind of things you'd find at your average regional sales conference at the start of your career, not from somebody running the country."
Sexual deviancy has been written into the Italian constitution since the emperor Claudius followed Caligula's four year stint of having sex with everything in Rome, including random concepts such as wistfulness and regret, with a period of unheard-of abstinence.
Berlusconi first came to power in 1994 on a campaign promising more municipal sex swings and a restructuring of the country's outdated dogging facilities.
However, in his later years he finally lost his grip on power due to an increasing insistence on just having sex with lots and lots of women who were not his wife, as well as some dissatisfaction with the economy.
Hayes said: "Berlusconi has always been held up as the John Bonham of the lurid party world but this trial clearly shows he's little more than a Ringo Starr of doing despicable things with his genitals. No more heroes."


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OkCupid protests Firefox over CEO's anti-same-sex marriage donation
Posted: Apr 1, 2014 1:34 PM CST | Updated: Nov 5, 2014 1:59 PM CST
(CNN) -- Dating site OkCupid is calling for its members to ditch Firefox and use another browser to search for love. The company is protesting Mozilla's new CEO, Brendan Eich, who supported an anti-same-sex marriage campaign. Firefox is owned by Mozilla.
When OkCupid members navigate to the site on a Firefox browser, they are met with a message encouraging them to use an alternative browser to access the site, including Google Chrome, Opera, Safari and the amusingly misspelled Internet Exploder.
\"Those who seek to deny love and instead enforce misery, shame and frustration are our enemies, and we wish them nothing but failure,\" reads the message.
The page points out that 8% of the matches made on OkCupid are between same-sex couples.
Last week, Mozilla promoted Eich, a longtime employee who was previously the company's chief technology officer, to the position of CEO. The move prompted renewed outrage by third-party developers and employees. Eich donated $1,000 to support Propostion 8 in 2008. The California ballot initiative sought to ban same-sex marriage in the state. The donation was made public in 2012 but Eich held onto his job.
After the announcement of Eich's promotion, app development company Rarebit announced it had pulled its apps from Firefox. \"As a married gay couple who are co-founders of this venture, we have chosen to boycott all Mozilla projects,\" said founder Hampton Catlin in an open letter to the company.
Various Mozilla employees have also spoken up about the promotion, taking to Twitter to openly share their disappointment with Eich's politics. Some have come together and publicly called for Eich to step down.
Eich posted a blog on his personal site last week addressing the backlash. He outlined his plan to support LGBT-friendly policies at Mozilla and expressed \"sorrow at having caused pain.\"
\"I am committed to ensuring that Mozilla is, and will remain, a place that includes and supports everyone,\" he said.
The apology hasn't satisfied everyone, and the backlash continues to grow one week later. OkCupid is one of the most high-profile companies to take a stand against Eich's appointment.
The letter on the OkCupid home page is a bold move. However, it is not actually blocking Firefox users from using OkCupid. At the bottom of the page is a link to continue on to the site.
\"Mozilla supports equality for all, including marriage equality for LGBT couples. No matter who you are or who you love, everyone deserves the same rights and to be treated equally,\" said a Mozilla spokesperson in a statement. \"OK cupid never reached out to us to let us know of their intentions, nor to confirm facts.\"


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This article is more than 1 year old
Phone seller pre-peddles white iPhone 4 for UNDER A GRAND!
Free unicorn when you buy five or more
A UK phone sales house has advertised white iPhone 4s, along with a cracking £919 price tag.
As far as Apple's product range goes, the white iPhone 4 is somewhere between the Unicorn and the lost Ninth legion. We can't be sure if it's disappeared or never existed in the first place.
However, if the Expansys website is anything to go by, a crisp cool white iPhone 4 can be yours for a crisp cool £919.99. Or £766.66 excluding VAT. It'll even give you a discount - if you buy five or more.
The same price applies to both the 16GB and 32GB versions - which are both supplied network unlocked.
You'll have to wait, though, as Expansys doesn't actually have the product in stock right now.
We called Expansys to ask them where they'd obtained their stock, and their pricing strategy. We haven't heard back just yet.
Expansys charges £779.99 for the 32GB black iPhone 4, and £659.99 for its 16GB counterpart. But that's understandable. After all, we know they exist. ®


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December Kaiser Health Tracking Poll: Public Again Divided on ACA, Independents Polarized, and Exchanges Widely Popular
According to the December Kaiser Health Tracking Poll, the October downturn in the share of Americans with a favorable view of the health reform law has been fully reversed in December and overall opinion on the law returned to the roughly even split seen for most of 2011. Forty-three percent of Americans expressed unfavorable views of the law in December, while 41 percent had favorable views. Partisan divisions persist and the findings suggest not only that opinions of the law are polarized along partisan lines, but also that views are similarly hardened and polarized among many independents. Among independents who say they "lean Democratic," for instance, a majority (59 percent) favor the law. At the same time, among those who "lean Republican," 78 percent oppose the law. And among that narrow sliver of the public (18 percent) that reports not having an inclination toward one party or the other, support for the ACA is at 29 percent while opposition is at 47 percent.
The concept of state-based health insurance exchanges, a key element of the health reform law, has wide, bipartisan support. As many states prepare to set up such exchanges and others hold off in anticipation of a Supreme Court ruling on health reform next year, about eight in ten Americans say they have a favorable view of the creation of "health insurance exchanges or marketplaces". The provision is backed by 92 percent of Democrats, 75 percent of independents and a solid majority (62 percent) of Republicans.


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Some reasons why bikini neoprene is the perfect thing for you
Whenever you think of a wetsuit or swimsuit, the first thing that comes to your mind is how he shapes his body perfectly and holds it there safely. This is actually a flexible and powerful waterproof barrier at the same time. Moreover, how to make your body look hot smoking is something that can not be debated. The main reason for all the above benefits is a compound called neoprene. Well, what if you could have a swimsuit made of the same compound? Is not that amazing? Yes, of course. That's why we advise you to choose a neoprene bikini as your choice of fashionable swimsuit as well as functional in the pool. Need some more reason to buy badeanzug neoprene? Read on
1. The level of comfort Unlike regular bikini formed from nylon spandex which proved very uncomfortable most of the time, neoprene bikini made of soft and smooth skin were very friendly. Forget the bikini line that sucks on your skin, neoprene badeanzug so comfortable that you do not want to take it off.
Some reasons why bikini neoprene is the perfect thing for you
2. How to shape it into a woman's body There's something with nice ass and yoga pants that make them look oh! Very sexy The same goes for the neoprene bikini and the whole body of a woman. The flexibility and elasticity of a neoprene bikini is so suitable that it forms itself with the formation of your body and makes it look amazing. You do not have to worry about sagging bikinis after using bikini neoprene several times because they will never exist.
3. Highest Support If gravity is the last thing you want when wearing a bikini then a neoprene bikini is the right thing for you. The durable and elastic material supported by the functional design creates an easy support system to be one of the best when it comes to wetsuit. It supports your body parts very smoothly and securely so you feel confident and comfortable when doing any physical activity. No discomfort or pain will be associated with wearing a neoprene bikini. Plus, it provides a little lift so you look tighter.
4. Waterproof When we talk about a swimsuit we just think it's waterproof. But in most cases, it turns out to be less than that. The most annoying thing that can happen with a bikini is that it can get wet and make you feel like you're frozen as you get out of the water. Neoprene bikini is one hundred percent waterproof. It not only means that all your discomfort when it comes out of the water is gone, but it also makes washing and storing bikinis much easier. This makes her the best friend of a handsome girl.
5. Anti-microbial It comes as a natural result at the starting point that waterproof neoprene bikinis that make them prevent microbes as well. Sitting while wearing a wet bathing suit can make your body proliferate bacteria infected with bacteria. A neoprene bikini does not cause it because it is anti-bacterial.
If you plan on buying a swimsuit then look at the available neopren bikini options. Badeanzug neopren is one of the most comfortable yet stylish swimwear options that you can get. Some reasons why bikini neoprene is the perfect thing for you


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SPORTS & RECREATION - Recreation/Sports/Fitness
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The application I am currently building has been using Stored procedures and hand-crafted class models to represent database objects. Some people have suggested using Entity Framework and I am considering switching to that since I am not that far into the project. My problem is, I feel the people arguing for EF are only telling me the good side of things, not the bad side :)
My main concerns are:
- We want Client-Side validation using DataAnnotations, and it sounds like I have to create the client-side models anyways so I am not sure that EF would save that much coding time
- We would like to keep the classes as small as possible when going over the network, and I have read that using EF often includes extra data that is not needed
- We have a complex database layer which crosses multiple databases, and I am not sure EF can handle this. We have one Common database with things like Users, StatusCodes, Types, etc and multiple instances of our main databases for different instances of the application. SELECT queries can and will query across all instances of the databases, however users can only modify objects that are in the database they are currently working on. They can switch databases without reloading the application.
- Object modes are very complex and there are often quite a few joins involved
Arguments for EF are:
- Concurrency. I wouldn't have to code in checks to see if the record was updated before each save
- Code Generation. EF can generate partial class models and POCOs for me, however I am not positive this would really save me that much time since I think we would still need to create the client-side models for validation and some custom parsing methods.
- Speed of development since we wouldn't need to create the CRUD stored procedures for every database object
Our current architecture consists of a WPF Service which handles database calls via parameterized Stored Procedures, POCO objects that go to/from the WCF service and the WPF client, and the WPF desktop client itself which transforms POCOs into class Models for the purpose of Validation and DataBinding.
So my question is, is EF right for this? Are there any pitfalls about EF that I am unaware of?


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La Vie...La Mort
Middle-C, 12 June, 2010
La Vie…..La Mort
By Peter Mechen, June 12, 2010
Perhaps it was because I'd arrived with only a few minutes to spare before the concert began; but inside the cathedral was an almost unnervingly ambient worshipful silence - I almost expected to be "shushed!" if I had even dared try to exchange pleasantries with either of my seated neighbours, so I gave myself over instead to contemplation and furtive observation. A large image-screen had been placed just to the right of the performing area, which suggested that there would be "visuals" employed during the concert; and so it proved, with each item having one or two associated images (all very striking) drawn from the art-works of the music's period, details of which were in the programme alongside notes concerning the item. I hadn't had enough time to properly "scan" the programme before the concert began, so I was surprised when, after the first motet had been sung, two Consort members stepped forward and began speaking, the first in French and the second translating into English, practically in canon. The poetry, very beautiful-sounding, turned out to be that of Pierre de Ronsard (1524-1585), whose verses featured several times during the concert, each poem with different speakers and translators, all of whom conveyed both sound and sense of the words most attractively.
The concert's title testified as to the music's somewhat elemental subject-matter throughout, finding expression in motets by Jean Mouton (1459-1522) and Nicolas Gombert (1495-1560), with a work by Gombert's teacher, Josquin des Prez (1450-1521) thrown in for good measure. Opening the programme was a composition by Mouton, O Christe redemptor, a piece he wrote while composer at the Royal Court, judging by its reference to the Queen, Anne of Brittany who was married to no less that two French monarchs. Beginning with the resplendent, beautifully-balanced tones of the full choir, whose focused lines gave the composer's "smoothly flowing and consonant" style such character, the piece allowed the mens' voices to shine in places, notably at "Largitor virium", while giving the women's voices plenty of melismatic beauties. The first of Ronsard's verses was then delivered by two speakers, the intermingling of French and English texts creating a sense of something conveyed through time and reawakened for our pleasure - the poem Je vous envoie spoke of human beauty withering as does that of flowers, with the passing of time.
A Magnificat by Nicolas Gombert followed, one of eight written by the composer while in exile as a galley slave (for what one account calls "acts of gross indecency" - evidently, while working as a composer in the court of Charles V of Spain, he had sexual relations with a choirboy). How the composer managed to write music at all while he served his time on the galleys has not been made clear, while the story that the Holy Roman Emperor commuted Gomberg's sentence upon hearing these works (which the composer called his "Swan Songs") is similarly shrouded in conjecture. Whatever his proclivities and resulting indiscretions his work as a composer happily transcended such misdemeanours of the flesh, his mastery of vocal polyphony evident throughout this beautiful work. Especially attractive was Gombert's use of plainchant to introduce each episode, creating beautifully atmospheric effects of depth and antiphonal contrast. After a less-than certain beginning, the Consort's tenor voices that began each episode with the plainchant grew in confidence and surety of tone, the contrasting body of varied responses sustaining and building our interest throughout. Less extended, but even more complex was Mouton's Nesciens Mater, an intensely-worked canonic masterpiece, drawing forth from the Consort great intensity of tone (a shade raw at the high-voiced clustered climax, but all the more involving) set against more celestially-floated textures - an amazingly-sustained outpouring of great beauty. Ronsard's spoken verses which followed, entitled "Chanson", were similarly intense, comparing the characteristics of the seasons and the multiplicities of nature with the depths of the poet's sorrowful feeling for a lost love.
Conjecture has it that Gombert studied with Josquin des Prez, though details of their association are sketchy - nevertheless, the older master exerted considerable influence on the younger composer. The inclusion of Josquin's motet Inviolata demonstrated the tightly-worked canonic style and direct word-expression for which the composer was renowned, with duetting between different choir-voices, the most extended being that for tenors and basses during the second section at "Nostra ut pura". Then, the corresponding altos/tenors passages in the first part beautifully brought out the words "O Mater alma", as did the sopranos/basses combination with their phrasings towards the end, which resulted in pleasingly-contrasted open textures. Ronsard's poem that followed, Sur la mort du Marie, made a typically sobering effect, the poem a variation on the theme of youthful beauty withering at the hands of fate, again nicely "sounded" between the languages. We were thus prepared for Gombert's incredibly intense lament for his great predecessor on the occasion of Josquin's death, the motet Musae Jovis occasioning a marvellous display of controlled outpouring of emotion, the "plangite" given full and sustained expression.
More obsequies were observed with Mouton's tribute to Queen Anne of Brittany, Quis dabit oculis nostris, sung at the various places where her funeral rites were performed. I liked the fine surge of major-key emotion at the composer's rhetorical declamation "Britannia, quid ploras?", throwing into stunning relief the hushed repetitions of "defecit Anna", the energy of life drained, the full-throated song now muted at "Conversus est in luctum chorus noster" (Our song has changed to mourning). But I thought the different invocations to the various groups of people to "weep" not as "pointed" as I expected them to be, rather more dry-eyed in effect than I imagined was possible. Significantly, Michael Stewart also kept the final "Anna, requiescat in pace" in check, eschewing a more obvious outpouring of emotion in favour of a longer-lasting subtlety. After such whole-heartedness, Ronsard's somewhat droll characterisation of the body's farewell to its soul (in translation, somewhat reminiscent of Robert Burns's poems) lightened the mood, even if the delivery of the speakers emphasised the matter-of-factness of utterance more than thehumour.
Concluding the concert was Gombert's affirming "Tulerunt Dominum", a setting of the Gospel verses describing Mary Magdalene's encounter with the angels in Christ's empty tomb on Easter Sunday morning. Dramatic and emotional, the setting captures the desolation of Mary's feeling of abandonment at Christ's disappearance with the words "Tulerunt Dominum meum", and the reassuring words of the angels in reply, the composer establishing an almost lullabyic aspect in the motion of the lines, the insistent, but beautifully-pulsed voices creating an almost minimalist precursor of style in places. Angelic voices floated the lines with intense purity, while the "Alleluias" grew from out of the performance's ever-burgeoning emotion to resound like ringing bells, in minor-key mode, but secure, strong and exultant to the end.
A word regarding the projected images of largely renaissance art that accompanied the items - I confess that for the most part I didn't register them strongly, which isn't to say that that they shouldn't have been used. I certainly didn't find them distracting in any way, though my attention was taken up so overwhelmingly by what I was hearing, I was conscious afterwards of having failed to "connect" the visuals significantly with the music. The idea was employed with such welcome simplicity as to render the images almost as part of the venue's decorative and functional detail. I'm sure that people attuned to art history and/or better able than myself to synthesize sight and sound would have greatly enjoyed the enrichment of the Consort's lovely singing with these obviously beautiful and significant works of visual art.
Review of La Vie...La Mort – Motets of life and death by Jean Mouton, Nicolas Gombert and Josquin Des Prez, Saturday 12 June 2010