text:
New optimism for a cleantech future
Submitted by Dallas Kachan on
If you've not been paying much attention to cleantech in the last little while, it's time to sit up and take notice.
Because post-Solyndra, cleantech has been quietly gaining momentum.
We had the chance to take a close look at the fundamentals of cleantech over the last two months in co-authoring a new (and free!) 38-page research report in conjunction with Oakland, Calif.-based advocacy group As You Sow and the Responsible Endowments Coalition of Brooklyn, New York.
Titled Cleantech Redefined: Why the next wave of cleantech infrastructure, technology and services will thrive in the twenty first century, the paper analyzes the most recent investment research available across a number of industries and major impact areas. It identifies key drivers and market size projections for various cleantech categories. It looks at examples of products and technologies currently on the market. Finally, it highlights a handful of large, mid and small cap firms and funds as possible points of entry for investors within each industry.
The paper does a good job of introducing cleantech and its significance (e.g. even only being a relatively new investment theme, cleantech is still—even today after a downturn—attracting nearly a quarter of global venture capital available.) It re-emphasizes cleantech's multi-trillion dollar individual addressable markets of power, water, agriculture, transportation and others. And it restates the significance of cleantech's drivers, and that they're not going away any time soon.
But to me, one of the most interesting sections of the report compares the cleantech wave to other technology booms of the last 50 years, like the dot com boom, the networking craze, biotech, the PC and the microprocessor. We found a number of parallels and a number of reasons for optimism when you compare the cycles. After 20 years in technology, personally, the more I looked at the data, the more it felt like I'd seen this movie before.
For instance, the downturn in venture capital: Venture capital often spikes early in emerging categories, later to be replaced with more traditional levels of investment and other sources of capital as industries develop. It happened in the Internet era, and this transition has begun in cleantech as shown below; venture capital is playing less of a leading role in driving cutting edge technology, as it's being augmented by corporate investors and other sources of funds. More detail in our report.
Actual and estimated venture capital spending in Internet and cleantech. Source: Matthew Nordan
There's another relevant curve, below, that looks a lot like the one above. We hypothesized in an analysis this summer that cleantech had bottomed out on the Gartner hype cycle. We make the more detailed case in our report that cleantech, as in every one of the previous waves I just mentioned, had experienced the same initial enthusiasm, the same frothiness, the same "irrational exuberance" as Alan Greenspan put it, that these other technologies did as expectations initially exceeded reality.
As the Gartner model below illustrates, in every one of these previous waves, there was a correction, and a gradual equalization of expectations and execution. Our analysis, detailed in our report, is that cleantech is now starting to climb out of what Gartner calls the "trough of disillusionment" and up the "slope of enlightenment" (how very Zen!)
Hype cycle of expectations over time related to cleantech. Source: Gartner
And cleantech IS climbing out. If you look at broad-based cleantech funds as a proxy for the cleantech theme, there's been solid growth the last few months. Yes, cleantech returns have been generally poor for investors the last few years. But there HAVE been bright spots in certain sub-sectors such as clean energy generation, solar services and transportation. The lift from high cleantech fliers like SolarCity (NASDAQ: SCTY) and Tesla Motors (NASDAQ: TSA) is pulling up the rest of the category, as shown in the performance of the PowerShares Cleantech Portfolio fund, a mix of public stocks from across the cleantech definition.
PowerShares Cleantech Portfolio fund (PZD) performance, 2007 to 2013. Source: Google Finance
Another reason our report finds optimism for the cleantech space is in looking at cleantech's various industries through the lens of the technology adoption lifecycle model, a curve popularized by the marketing strategy firm Regis McKenna in Palo Alto, California, where I served as a senior consultant in the mid 90s. I wrote in 2011 about the significance of this model to cleantech, and our new report echoes and expands on this analysis. If the vast majority of clean technologies, services and infrastructure plays have yet to cross the chasm, it means risk and expense getting there, but it also means massively larger market adoption on the other side.
In the widely accepted technology adoption lifecycle model, a market gap exists between early adopters of new technologies and the majority of consumers. This gap is especially treacherous for companies that develop disruptive technologies, as they force a significant change to the markets they target. Only companies nimble enough to transition from the early adopter market (consumers motivated by purchasing the latest technologies for competitive benefit) to the early majority of the vastly larger mainstream market (which prefers to buy established technology) are successful.
The technology adoption lifecycle and chasm model, Regis McKenna. Source: Joe M. Bohlen, George M. Beal and Everett M. Rogers
Different clean technologies have faced their mainstream adoption chasms at different times. For example, wind and solar energy power generation have already bridged the gap. They are now widely understood and increasingly deployed by renewable energy decision makers at power companies, and by individual businesses and homeowners. Algae fuel, for example, is on the far left side of the chart—exciting but yet to scale.
The adoption chasm of new technologies can differ substantially in magnitude. Many cleantech products have been quietly moving the needle on efficiency and waste reduction without fundamentally altering their markets. Lighting is a good example. The transition from incandescent to fluorescents to light emitting diodes (LED) happened without dramatic market disruption. Consumers had a small technology curve to overcome, but the lighting market still requires the purchase of light bulbs. We expect a significant segment of the cleantech transition will happen in this way, with cost and efficiency driving marginal, but resource-significant product changes.
So, in all, our new report finds that cleantech is here, today, now. It observes that efficiency, one of the central tenets of cleantech, is now a theme of almost everything now made, and of how it's designed and manufactured. Cleantech is becoming ubiquitous—from cheaper, more efficient lighting to advanced metering software. Cleantech in all of its forms is poised for even more rapid expansion, especially now that the largest companies in the world have discovered the opportunity and imperative of cost savings... and now that individual technologies are beginning to cross the chasm to mainstream adoption.
As our report concludes, we're just at the beginning of this phenomenon called cleantech. The best and most exciting investment opportunities are yet to come.
A former managing director of the Cleantech Group, Dallas Kachan is now managing partner of Kachan & Co., a cleantech research and advisory firm that does business worldwide from San Francisco, Toronto and Vancouver. The company publishes research on clean technology companies and future trends, offers cleantech data and analysis via its Cleantech Watch™ service and offers consulting services to large corporations, governments, service providers and cleantech vendors. Kachan staff have been covering, publishing about and helping propel clean technology since 2006. Details at www.kachan.com.


text: by Josh Friedel I attended the Cappelle la Grande Open (March 3-10) in northern France with Samford fellow and partner in crime IM David Pruess, as well as with USCF expert and poker aficionado Ricky Grijalva. I know its hard to fathom any chess player being a poker pro as well, but apparently it is indeed possible. It was David and Ricky's first tournament ever in Europe, and my first non-youth event there, and it made quite an impression on all of us. Here is an excerpt from David's journal entry upon arrival (used with his permission, don't worry!): As we waited in line to board the bus, Josh, Ricky, and I surveyed the gathering crowd of chess players, wondering what the most spoken language would be. We each guessed Russian. I noted the great number of kids there. "Wow, they start on serious tournaments at a young age in Europe," I thought. I was surprised the next day, during the first round, to see many of these extremely young faces on the top boards. What? They were IMs and GMs?? I do keep up with chess news, and I know of the existence of Sergey Karjakin, Parimarjan Negi, and Hou Yifan. But all these kids? The sheer quantity of strong youngsters overwhelmed me for a bit. I was old. Twenty five, and not 2600 fide, not even a GM. These kids probably did not even understand how you could play chess tournaments for 10 years and more and not be a Grandmaster. Were they better than me? Would I lose to a slew of fifteen years olds? I'd have to wait for the tournament to play out to know the answer to this question. Though it didn't attract any of the really big names, it was more than reasonable in strength. At 2466 FIDE I was seeded 85th. David, at just 50 points below me, was seeded over 100. This should give you at least a vague sense at how many strong players were there. After the day and a half trek from Oakland to Paris, Cappelle is a mere 3-hour bus ride from the airport (well, mere for those of us who slept the whole time). Getting settled and checked in took awhile, but was made considerably easier by David's fluent French. Though we registered a bit too late to get conditions, the organizers gave us free entry and meals. Considering our hotel was only 34 Euros a night, it wasn't a bad deal at all. The hotel was mostly adequate, even having free wireless internet. The only minor issue was the fact the bathroom was approximately the same size as my refrigerator, and the rest of the room wasn't much bigger. For two people it would have been a squeeze, never mind three. Now I know what being in the navy in the 60s must have been like. We managed to survive the night, however, and were itching to play chess the next day.David started the tournament with a bang, destroying three GMs right off the bat. In the first round as white he crushed Neuris Delgado's unusual a6 sideline of the Sicilian Richter-Rauzer. 597 After he got in an early e5, it was already looking grim. Then David sacrificed a piece to win a couple pawns and drove his opponent's king into the middle of the board, where it was executed in short order. Pretty much an ideal game to start a tournament with especially because David was nervous at his first major European Open. He writes: As I went to reset the board, I noticed my hands were shaking like crazy. A new chapter in my chess life had begun. It would all soon become normal. But I would do well to remember how lucky I was to start with a fear-quieting victory.Next round David played White again against Uzbek GM Gareev. Giving David two whites in a row is not something any TD should be doing, and when he saw it he practically yelped in joy. 598Gareev is an interesting player, and plays several unusual systems. This game was no different, as he employed the Icelandic gambit of the center counter. He never quite got enough for his pawn, however, and David won without too much trouble. There was a really bizarre occurrence during the game though. In one position, Gareev played Nd2-b1 while David had rooks on a1 and d1 and a knight on a3! The incredible Nb1 was not enough to rattle David Pruess It was an amusing move, though it didn't affect the result of the game. Anyway, round three he got what I figured would be a harder match-up, black against Rozentalis. The Lithuanian GM is known for being quite solid, especially with the white pieces, so it was an absolute shock when he got blown off the board in just 21 moves.599 It was a c3 Sicilian where black plays an early g6, which Rozentalis appeared to be caught off guard by. He played c4 a bit too early, after which his position is rather loose. The game was still anyone's though until he was offered a d-pawn. I'm sure he'll deny it, but David doesn't like to part with his pawns, so if he's throwing one away you know something is up. Sure enough, soon after Rozentalis took his d-pawn, he got his pieces tied up on the d-file and was deftly finished by a cute tactic.My own start was more modest, but still respectable. While due to accelerated pairings David played up first round, I was just high rated enough to make the cut. Therefore, I played a 2300 instead of a GM. I hadn't played in a tournament since the North American Open at the end of 2006, and I was worried about being rusty. It thus came as a pleasant surprise when my opponent played the Najdorf. The f4 system, while not particularly fierce, is a pet line of mine I have great results with and can play in my sleep. Sure enough, around move 20 my position was already clearly better, with the two bishops and good attacking prospects. Unfortunately, that's when my rust kicked in. After a couple misjudgments and miscalculations, I let him back in the game. I declined a few draws and pushed hard, which nearly got me into trouble, but eventually my opponent forced a perpetual in the ending. Not a game that inspired much confidence, but it did manage to make me angry. It's not easy to make me mad, but for some reason I tend to play well when I am. The next two games were my best of the tournament. I crushed a 2300 on the black side of a Vienna round 2. I stole the two bishops out of the opening, and slowly massaged the position until he snapped in time pressure. Round 3 saw me finally playing up as white against Polish GM Cyborowski. This game I decided to do my best David Pruess impression. I played the Panov against his Caro-Kann and he chose a line that is statistically unusual, but has been played against me five times, each time by GMs. My score in the variation was 2/4, but I felt the line should just be bad, and was determined to knock its lights out this time. I have the two bishops, more space, and all my pieces are aimed at Black's king. Why shouldn't white be better? 595He deviated from my other games early by playing 15...Rc8 instead of castling. He later regretted this decision though, as he never was able to castle all game, forced to settle for Kf8. It was fun game to play, sacrificing a pawn with d5 to open the a1-h8 diagonal for my queen and bishop. The pressure proved too much, causing him to give up his g7 pawn, after which his position is barely glued together. I had a lot of ways to finish, but my 32.Rxf7 sac was the prettiest. So after three rounds, David was cruising with 3/3 against all GMs, and I wasn't far behind with 2.5. Jet lag sets in Day three had both rounds 3-4, the only two-round day of the tournament. Round four was an utter disaster. As a lovely surprise that morning, our jet lag, which had been almost non-existent so far, decided to kick in and wake us up at 4 AM. Though it didn't affect us much for the morning round, at night it really took us down a notch. Poland got revenge on me for round 3, as I lost to Cyborowski's countryman Gajewski. 596I sacrificed a pawn on the black side of a Benoni, not having liked the result of the opening. I played several risky moves, but was finally getting counterplay when I blundered horribly right before time control. Instead of playing the only move, I got seduced by the chance to threaten mate in one, thus trapping my rook and losing the game pretty much on the spot. I thought maturity was supposed to kick in by 20. Maybe its 21? David's game was much tougher and high-level struggle, but he too suffered the same fate against Ukrainian GM Miroshnichenko. It looked out of the opening like he might be going 4-0, as he got a great position as white against another Rauzer. But then, according to David, he found out why 2600s are better than 2500s. Miroshnichenko really kicked it in gear, and slowly outplayed David to finally win a long queen ending. It was an amazingly complex games, with deep tactics and very good endgame technique by the Ukrainian. 600Round 5 wasn't very inspiring either. I managed to win against a Dutch 2300, but the game was total garbage. I played an abysmal opening, sacrificing a piece and missing a simple move that allows him to trade queens. It was understandable though, as his move was only the most natural move on the board, nearly impossible to spot for me. Then, in an ending where he was just up a piece for next to nothing, he started playing quickly and badly. How I won it still remains a mystery to me. David also turned in what I'm sure he'd consider his worst blunder of the tournament. He got a tough position as black against the Catalan against Russian GM Landa, but then decided to do his best Josh Friedel imitation. Just when the position was turning unclear, he blundered a piece outright. Certainly not our finest hour. That night over dinner we were both in disbelief, him over how he could blunder a piece, me over whether I needed to get my glasses prescription rechecked. To hear more of Josh's thoughts from Cappelle (Sorry to all spoiler haters... we gave away what happens in the article title), look for Part II to this article this week on CLO. Also keep your eyes peeled for the June issue of Chess Life Magazine, in which David Pruess will annotate a Cappelle win for "In the Arena."

subset: commoncrawl


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I've got an itch and it needs to be scratched. I've got nothing to program these days. Normally I'd just pick my flavour of the month technology and fiddle with it, but I want to make something and take a break from serious research/experimentation for a while and just write something for fun (ie. not necessarily purely educational/professional development).
Problem is,
- I can't think of software that I need that I don't already have.
- Sifting through the open-source projects on various sites to help out on is excruciating (5 hrs down the tubes so far - not worth the trouble)
I'm not looking for a specific suggestion for what to work on because that would be a terribly hard task. I don't think that here knows nearly enough about eachother to effectively give good suggestions.
So I ask, is there any mental exercise that you use to decide what to make when you're not "fiddlin'"?


text:
Have you subscribed for the latest recipes straight to your inbox? Just type your email address into the box in the rop right sidebar and keep hundreds of recipes coming, worry free. You don't even have to put your slippers on.
Soup! Cream of spinach-y happiness ladled into a bowl and cradled in the loving arms of your spoon.
Soup. Cream of lusciousness that teases the tongue and begs you to take another sip.
Soup. Creamy delight.
I have no clue what I'm even saying anymore. It's soup. Creamy, delicious, tantalizing, soup. And I ate all of it. I have no shame.
How, you ask, did I manage to protect my delicious soupiness for two days? Why, the way any smart mother does; I hid it behind the cauliflower in the refrigerator and told everyone it was my breast milk recipe experiment.
Forget that my youngest is 11 and my milk ducts are drier than British comedy. The entire notion of breast milk spinach soup was my win. Win!
(It works in your staffroom fridge, too. Try it. Even if you're a dude.)
Thoughtful and ruminationous things about this recipe:
- This dish can be lowered slightly in carbs and calories if you use half and half instead of heavy cream.
- Want to use coconut or almond milk? You might just be able to do that and use cream cheese or another thickener to give the soup a thicker consistency.
- You can probably use fresh spinach. It's really easy to use bagged, frozen, however.
- You can over-spinach this dish, so if you have an 18 ounce bag of spinach in the freezer, don't use it all, even if you're tempted, unless you're making a larger batch of the dish and adding more of all of the ingredients.
- Want some protein in here? You could add cooked, cubed chicken or mushrooms for a protein mouthfeel.
- Vegetarian? You can use vegetable broth in place of the chicken.
- Making this in a crock pot? Still get those onions and garlic cooked in the butter on the stove and then combine ingredients in the crock pot on low for up to 4 hours.
Dreamy Creamy Spinach Soup
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp dried basil
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp salt
1-10 ounce package frozen, chopped spinach
4 cups organic chicken broth (1 box)
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/3 cup Parmesan cheese
In large pan, melt butter over medium heat. Add onion and garlic. Cook until tender. Stir in next 5 ingredients. Gradually stir in broth and cream. Stirring constantly, bring to a boil and cook until thickened. Garnish with added Parmesan cheese, if desired. Refrigerate leftovers.
Makes 6 cups of soupy happiness.
Nutritional Information per 1 cup serving: Calories: 255.8, Carbohydrates: 4.3g, Fiber: 1.4g, Net Carbohydrates: 2.9g, Protein: 6.6g, Fat: 25.3g.


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It is difficult to choose just one film by Terry Gilliam as a favorite. He's done so many excellent films, and because of that is probably the auteur I hold in the highest regard. If I had to pick just one, it would have to be the middle entry in his unofficial Dreamer's Trilogy - Brazil.
I honestly don't know why it's called Brazil, but I'm sure some sharp-eyed reader who has, unlike me, gotten to the second disc of the Criterion DVD box will point it out in an e-mail. It's certainly the most non sequitir title I've ever heard - perhaps the song "Brazil" which appears in the soundtrack, has some thematic lyrics. Perhaps I'm talking out of my rear end...
Never mind my rambling. On to the film.
Brazil is set "Somewhere in the 20th Century," but it isn't a thing like the 100 years we just got through with...or is it? The world is a giant buereaucratic mess, with everything requiring a form of some sort and everybody being watched over by the very Orwellian Ministry of Information. In the middle of it all, Sam Lowry (Jonathan Pryce) is trying very hard not to stand out in the crowd. What little ambition he has takes the form of fantastic dreams where he is a winged hero. However, Sam is quickly drawn into a nightmare that he didn't bargain for. A bug in the system (literally) causes a Mr. Buttle to be arrested instead of a Mr. Tuttle (Robert DeNiro). Normally, Sam wouldn't care, but involved in the whole mess is Jill (Kim Greist), who looks exactly like the angelic female in his dreamworld. Soon, he's becoming very noticable trying to help her out, something the Ministry isn't pleased with at all.
One of the things I'd forgotten about the movie is how funny it is. I scoffed when it was filed under "Comedy" at the video store, but that's what it really is - a brilliant satire of the Information Age. The mockery isn't always subtle, but it's nearly always dead on. Plus, there's a good helping of physical humor, something Pryce does with flair. Note especially his hi-jinks with a shared desk, a priceless routine.
However, if you're the kind of person who hates humor (and you probably aren't fond of puppies, either, you poor oaf), than you must see the dazzling visuals. While they are quite pronounced in the fantasy sequences, it's in the "real world" where they truly shine. If Kafka was a production designer, this would be his masterwork. Ducts everywhere, friendly signs to remind you how to think ("Suspicion breeds confidence"), huge statues, mammoth buildings, unending warren-like corridors. The costumes, too, are something to behold, including a new, and incredibly disturbing, spin on the old executioner's mask. Mere words can do little to describe the feast of visual delights set before the viewer.
Eating up that banquet is Gilliam's camera, which chooes to defy normal camera placement at every turn, but for good reason. When he does something interesting with the lens, it provokes an emotion, something only the best films can do. He manages to make the tone of the movie both hopeless and optimistic. We know that Sam probably can't win, but we're willing to believe, if only for a second, that he can.
Of course, this unpromising faith is as much the work of Gilliam as it Jonathan Pryce, who makes the dreamer in a world of nightmare so likable. It's a performance like this that is truly a wonder, and a lot of the film's believability hinges on him. Let's face it - a man risking everything to pursue a woman he's never met and who has only been previously seen in figments of his imagination isn't exactly easy to stomach. However, Pryce makes it seem like it would be unreasonable not to do exactly that. Genius.
The rest of the cast measures up well enough. Easily the next best is DeNiro as renegade heating engineer Harry Tuttle, but then again, it's DeNiro, so quality isn't a surprise. Katherine Helmond turns in a delightfully over-the-top performance as Sam's youth-obsessed socialite mother. Python comrade Michael Palin plays against type as Jack, a friend of Sam who has climbed to a very important position in the Ministry. Bob Hoskins, Ian Holm, and Jim Broadbent all have small but very funny roles.
The worst actor in the entire film is probably Greist, though. She's absolutely terrible, and Gilliam did right by leaving parts of her work on the cutting room floor. She's wooden, uninteresting...you don't really comprehend what Sam sees in her but subconcious similarities (another reason why Pryce is brilliant...he picked up Greist's slack). Plus, she can't do realistic line delivery to save her soul. Why the studio wouldn't let Gilliam cast Ellen Barkin is beyond me.
Additionally, the movie drags just a bit in the final act with a dream sequence that is visually intriguing but just keeps going... It was a lot of good stuff but it was too much for a climax. Gilliam could have lost a lot of it in the editing booth, and nobody would know any better (and I'd have a review one paragraph shorter).
Brazil overcomes all of its flaws, though, simply because everything else is so amazing. Everything it does well, it does perfectly. Even the tiniest little details are brilliant. In fact, just the movie's background minutiae is better than a lot of films. That says quite a bit.
So...now that you're going to see this movie as soon as possible, what is the best format to see it in? Why, DVD, of course! "But Nate, which DVD? There's a cheap one from Universal and this big blue expensive one from Criterion." Get the Criterion boxed set. It may seem like a chunk out of your wallet, but it's worth every penny. I haven't even gotten to the second disc yet, and I'm very happy with it. It has Gilliam's 142 minute director's cut, plus the studio's 94 minute happy version, which is by all accounts inferior, and merely included to show what a great guy Gilliam is and what stinkers the people at Universal can be. Plus, there's two documentaries and reams of supplemental information.
I'm not the kind of guy to put The Replacements or The Fast and the Furious in my top 5. The placement of those films is quite nearly set in stone, so you can trust me that when I say that Brazil is my fourth favorite movie of all time, it's not a statement to take lightly. I can't guarantee you'll love it (I'm surprised to discover people who hate it), but it will certainly not be boring by any means.
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By Mike Reyes
By Mike Reyes
By Nick Venable
By Mike Reyes
By Nick Venable


text:
Hey Mr. Green,
I am looking for engagement rings for my girlfriend. We are both very eco-minded, and reducing our impact on the planet is very important to us. I have been looking between two companies, Brilliant Earth and Blue Nile. One offers recycled gold for the ring, but buying from them would essentially double the cost of the ring. Any suggestions? —Dan
Well, yes, recycled gold is a good choice, as it requires little processing compared to mining and refining gold, which can cause massive environmental damage by polluting water, using toxic chemicals, releasing toxic heavy metals, and ripping up large areas of land where open pit mining is done. Producing a single gold ring generates an average of 20 tons of mine waste, while the typical large gold mine uses 1,900 tons of cyanide per year to leach the gold out of the ore, according to Earthworks, which monitors mining around the world.
There is at the present time no third-party certification of all aspects of the gold-extraction processes, like there is, say, for organic foods, sustainable forestry, and some other industries. Earthworks, however, has contacted scores of jewelry dealers, inviting them to sign onto the "Golden Rules," which demand a commitment to sound environmental and labor practices. Companies that subscribe are required to report on their sources, and from this information Earthworks has developed a Scorecard to rate jewelry retailers. Brilliant Earth has already received an "A" rating. Blue Nile has agreed to abide by the Golden Rules, but has not yet been rated. A number of larger retailers have earned big fat "F" for refusing to sign the agreement, while others have gotten an "I" for not responding. While this rating system may not be perfect, since it involves self-reporting, it is quite likely that a company flat-out refusimg to sign is burying its dirty secrets as deep as the bottom of a zillion-ton leach heap.
But what about the respected principle of "reuse" in the old triad of "Reduce, reuse, and recycle"? Some authorities I've consulted say that a used ring can be every bit as romantic as a brand-new model, so you might consider that option, especially if your lover appreciates older artifacts (and she might as well get accustomed to old things anyway, because if the marriage endures, you will be one of them). But I must confess to having very little authority in this aspect of relationships, as I practiced "reduce," not giving my wife a wedding ring until after we were married. By a strange twist of fate, our landlord ran a jewelry store, and somehow convinced me that a ring was absolutely essential for a successful marriage, upon which I purchased his cheapest model. It seems to have worked well enough, but then diamonds are not forever, and with gold up to $1,800 an ounce, she may consider selling it.
I wish you a very happy marriage, and before bidding you adieu, am compelled to expand from environmental to romantic advice, and share my formula for lasting marriage that will be more effective than any rings or ceremonies or couples counselors. The harsh fact is that commingled finances lead to those bitter fiscal disputes that have ruined more relationships than all other problems combined. Therefore, I strongly recommend separate checkbooks, separate bank accounts, and separate credit cards.


text:
On Friday night, I was assaulted while walking down the sidewalk in the Mission District of San Francisco.
A colleague and I had just finished covering a march in protest of a Google employee who had recently evicted several tenants after buying and moving into a home in the area.
After more than an hour spent working on the story in a coffee shop, I arranged my laptop, camera, and notes in my backpack. Mindlessly, I put on Google Glass instead of squeezing it in with the rest of my things.
(In retrospect, I can see how that might not have been the best idea.)
The aforementioned colleague and I were on our way to the 16th Street BART station — I'll note that I wasn't using any device at the time — when a person put their hand on my face and yelled, "Glass!"
In an instant the person was sprinting away, Google Glass in hand.
I ran after, through traffic, to the corner of the opposite block. The person pivoted, shifting their weight to put all of their momentum into an overhand swing. The Google Glass smashed into the ground, and they ran in another direction.
Not knowing what to do, I scooped up the remains and continued to follow. We went back in the direction of the intersection where it started when the person ran into my colleague while I was blocked by traffic. After a brief moment, the person got away.
That's when a police car pulled up. I gave the person's description to two officers and they drove in the direction the person ran off. After several minutes, they came back and I filed a police report.
While I was waiting for their return, I tweeted about what happened.
Word got around quickly.
Initial reactions from friends on Twitter were very supportive — and then the trolls and anti-tech crowd showed up.
At first, I failed to see the humor in what had happened to me.
I had just been mugged, right?
After all, people acknowledge that the theft of someone's expensive jewelry is wrong, despite its price. Why were people laughing at my misfortune or implying I somehow deserved it?
But as responses have flooded in and I've looked back on the situation, I've started to understand where the people barraging me with angry tweets are coming from.
While I may not be a resident of San Francisco — I live across the Bay in Berkeley, where rent is affordable — or a wealthy young software engineer, I've worked in the city for three years. I'd like to live and work in or near San Francisco for the foreseeable future.
Unfortunately, anything associated with Google has come to represent gentrification in the city, from the buses that take young software engineers to their corporate campuses in Silicon Valley to Google Glass. This is especially true in areas where gentrification and income inequality have become points of conflict in the community.
People are being evicted or priced out of their homes. What's the difference between losing your home and having property destroyed?
Here's how a resident of the Mission District put it:
I was pretty shaken after seeing someone completely disregard my personal space and property without provocation. I imagine that feeling is only a shadow of what dislocated people in this city experience every day.
And I can see why the person who smashed my Glass did what they did.
I love gadgets. I have for years — in high school, I'd finish my work quickly so that I could check up on Apple rumor sites.
Sadly, the easiest way to spot a techie is to look for the guy or gal equipped with the kind of ridiculous gadgets we're always trying out.
So if you're in San Francisco and see someone wearing Google Glass, it's pretty likely that they work for a company that's had some kind of an impact on the community, from one of the many startups to giants like Twitter or Google.
If those people hadn't moved to San Francisco, people wouldn't be priced out of their neighborhoods, rental properties wouldn't be purchased by wealthy young millionaires, and tenants wouldn't be evicted from the homes they've lived in for several decades.
My love for gadgets makes me look and sound like one of the people whom residents of the city have come to feel oppressed by.
The individual who smashed my Google Glass on Friday — because of political beliefs or a personal impact that has been made by the tech industry — felt that it was appropriate to destroy my personal property in protest against what I seemed to stand for, based on my appearance; never mind the irony in choosing to assault someone based on their appearance as a way to preserve San Francisco's culture.
It's important to note that not everyone protesting the tech industry's impact on the city has taken such an oppositional stance.
At the march we covered on Friday, teachers, tenant rights activists, and other concerned citizens carried banners and chanted slogans that specifically asked Google to live up to the famous "Don't be evil" motto and step in where its employees were displacing longtime San Franciscans:
You don't see a crowd of more than a hundred people go to an investment banker's house when he evicts longtime tenants, to publicly ask his or her employer for help, because of course no investment bank would do something like that.
Google, for all the backlash it's gotten over gentrification, last year's NSA revelations, and personal data collection for ads, still looks like a company that gives a damn.
The company has taken some steps to address concerns of protestors and people's negative reactions to Google Glass. It started paying the city for the use of its bus stops. It has put out guides for Glass users on the behavior that should be avoided so that you don't look like a "Glasshole."
But those don't do anything to address the underlying issues. Something clearly needs to be done to address rising housing costs and gentrification in the city — people on all sides are being forced from their homes and made to feel unsafe on the streets and on their commutes to and from work.
Despite the vitriol portrayed in the news, San Franciscans are ready to work with tech companies. Tech companies like to claim that they're changing the world for the better. The optimist in me believes that both sides can come together to build a city we can all be happy living in.
NOW WATCH: Here's How Much You Have To Buy To Make Amazon Prime Worth It


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Identifiers are the names of databases, tables, or columns that you specify in a SQL statement. The rules for identifiers govern what names you can give to things you create, the notation for referring to names containing unusual characters, and other aspects such as case sensitivity.
The minimum length of an identifier is 1 character.
The maximum length of an identifier is currently 128 characters, enforced by the metastore database.
An identifier must start with an alphanumeric or underscore character. Quoting the identifier with backticks has no effect on the allowed characters in the name.
An identifier can contain only ASCII characters.
To use an identifier name that matches one of the Impala reserved keywords (listed in
Impala Reserved Words), surround the identifier with ``
characters (backticks). Quote the reserved word even if it is part of a fully qualified name.
The following example shows how a reserved word can be used as a column name if it is quoted
with backticks in the CREATE TABLE
statement, and how the column name
must also be quoted with backticks in a query:
[localhost:21000] > create table reserved (`data` string);
[localhost:21000] > select data from reserved;
ERROR: AnalysisException: Syntax error in line 1:
select data from reserved
Encountered: DATA
Expected: ALL, CASE, CAST, DISTINCT, EXISTS, FALSE, IF, INTERVAL, NOT, NULL, STRAIGHT_JOIN, TRUE, IDENTIFIER
CAUSED BY: Exception: Syntax error
[localhost:21000] > select reserved.data from reserved;
ERROR: AnalysisException: Syntax error in line 1:
select reserved.data from reserved
Encountered: DATA
Expected: IDENTIFIER
CAUSED BY: Exception: Syntax error
[localhost:21000] > select reserved.`data` from reserved;
[localhost:21000] >
Impala identifiers are always case-insensitive. That is, tables named t1
always refer to the same table, regardless of quote characters. Internally, Impala
always folds all specified table and column names to lowercase. This is why the column headers in query
output are always displayed in lowercase.
See Overview of Impala Aliases for how to define shorter or easier-to-remember aliases if the original names are long or cryptic identifiers. Aliases follow the same rules as identifiers when it comes to case insensitivity. Aliases can be longer than identifiers (up to the maximum length of a Java string) and can include additional characters such as spaces and dashes when they are quoted using backtick characters.
Another way to define different names for the same tables or columns is to create views. See Overview of Impala Views for details.


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The Spring 2012 issue of the Journal of Markets & Morality (15.1) has been posted at www.marketsandmorality.com and should be arriving in print to our subscribers sometime soon in the coming weeks.
In this issue, Jordan Ballor addresses Christian attitudes toward business across confessional lines and throughout history in his editorial. Sam Gregg and Philip Booth respond to Daniel K. Finn's Controversy contribution from last issue. In further exploration of the convergence (or lack thereof) between libertarian philosophy and Roman Catholic social teaching, Bridget Kratz and Walter Block argue for common ground on the topic of immigration. Charles McDaniel and Marek Tracz-Tryniecki engage the all-too-relevant subject of financial crisis, the former pointing to insights from the Austrian, post-Keynesian, and Distributist schools of thought and the latter in the thought of Alexis de Tocqueville. Edward O'Boyle and Walter Schweidler (translated by Philip Harold) each offer contributions on the subject of human development. Johan van der Vyver examines federal and family barriers to children's rights. Hunter Baker reflects on social justice, government, and society. Michael D'Emic demonstrates the logical identity of the sixteenth-century, Spanish scholastic Saravia de la Calle's understanding of just price and modern equilibrium theory. Matthew McCaffrey engages three recent works on the morality of the marketplace in his review essay. We have another installment of our Symposium, offering papers from the Evangelical Theological Society's Theology of Work and Economics consultation. This issue also has yet another stellar Reviews section (if I do say so myself). And lastly, this issue's Scholia offers an update and translation (respectively) of two works of the English bishop John Jewel on the moral issue of usury, a selection from his commentary on 1 Thessalonians and some private notes that were written in Latin and never before translated into English.
Needless to say, it's a full issue.
The release of issue 15.1 means that now content from 14.1 is open access to non-subscribers. Given the current financial climate, I would highly recommend James Alvey's article "James M. Buchanan on the Ethics of Public Debt and Default." I would gladly detail the whole contents of this issue as well, but I think I'm out of breath.


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One of the research objectives of Michigan Tech is to "promote the utilization of new discoveries for the public benefit." A key means to achieve this objective is through the licensing and commercialization of technologies created by Michigan Tech faculty, staff and students.
The Office of Innovation and Commercialization (I&C) supports the commercialization process from disclosure of the technology through to licensing the technology to end-users or producers. While it is not always necessary, this process often includes filing for formal legal protection such as patents or copyrights. IIE manages the process on behalf of the Inventors and the University and incurs the front-end costs of filing for patents, marketing the technology, and executing and enforcing license agreements.


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TIPS have a surprisingly interesting history, one that is both longer and shorter than you might expect. Though inflation-indexed bonds made a brief-lived appearance in Massachusetts in 1780, they then disappeared for more than two centuries. TIPS were not issued until 1997, at the urging of then Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin. This is the first of a series of posts I will write about inflation-indexed securities. In this post, I describe their history. In future posts I will review the evidence on whether TIPS have lived up to Rubin's claims that they would benefit savers and reduce the government's borrowing costs, as well as exploring other implications of this teenage asset.
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts created the earliest known inflation-indexed bonds in 1780 in the Revolutionary War. Robert Shiller writes, "These bonds were invented to deal with severe wartime inflation and with angry discontent among soldiers in the U.S. Army with the decline in purchasing power of their pay. Although the bonds were successful, the concept of indexed bonds was abandoned after the immediate extreme inflationary environment passed, and largely forgotten until the twentieth century."
Commonwealth of Massachusetts inflation-indexed bond, 1780, from Shiller (2003). |
"Both Principal and Interest to be paid in the then current Money of said STATE, in a greater or less SUM, according as Five Bushels of CORN, Sixty-eight Pounds and four-seventh Parts of a Pound of BEEF, Ten Pounds of SHEEPS WOOL, and Sixteen Pounds of SOLE LEATHER shall then cost, more or less than One Hundred and Thirty Pounds current money, at the then current Prices of said ARTICLES—This SUM being THIRTY-TWO TIMES AND AN HALF what the same Quantities of the same Articles would cost at the Prices affixed to them in the Law of this STATE made in the Year of our Lord One Thousand Seven Hundred and Seventy-seven, intitled, 'An Act to prevent Monopoly and Oppression.'"
Shiller explains that this historic episode is a good example of the role of economic theory in financial innovation. "John Maynard Keynes is widely quoted as asserting that most economic innovations derive ultimately from some 'academic scribblers.' But, in fact, in the case of indexed bonds, there was no academic precursor." He adds,
"It seems here that necessity was the mother of this invention. The example of the creation of indexed bonds in Massachusetts in 1780 appears to deny the importance of the "academic scribblers" that Keynes extolled, for the invention appeared long before the scholars wrote about it. And yet, in another sense, it only reinforces their importance, for the practice of indexation of bonds did not take hold at that time. It is a reasonable supposition that the indexed bonds did not continue because there was no well-conceived model that would justify and explain them."Certain developments in index number theory, for example, did not take place until the twentieth century. A simple price index like the one used on the 1780 bond has what is now a well-known problem. If the price of one of the goods rises, consumers can shift some of their consumption to other goods. Because of the ability to substitute, the increase in the price index is more than the increase in the true cost of living. Irving Fischer proposed a solution in 1922.
It wasn't until later in the twentieth century that inflation-indexed government bonds reappeared. This time around, academic scribblers abounded. The UK was a much earlier adopter than the US. On the recommendation of the Wilson Committee Report of 1980, then Chancellor of the Exchequer Geoffrey Howe announced the Government's intention to issue index-linked gilts.
Other countries, including Canada, Sweden, and New Zealand, followed in subsequent years. Whereas the high inflation in the Revolutionary War prompted inflation-indexed government debt, the high inflation in the US in the late 1970s did not have the same effect, at least not immediately. Shiller became one of the academic scribblers, coauthoring "A Scorecard for Indexed Government Debt" with John Campbell in 1996. Their scorecard came out in favor of creating inflation-indexed government debt. TIPS were introduced in 1997, and have since grown as a share of debt and of GDP (see figure below).
Source: Campbell, Shiller, and Viceira 2009 |
(Since I'm writing about finance, I should add the disclaimer that this is not intended to be investment advice.)


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Long-term brain damage caused by stroke could be reduced by saving cells called pericytes that control blood flow in capillaries, reports a new study led by scientists from UCL (University College London).
Until now, many scientists believed that blood flow within the brain was solely controlled by changes in the diameter of arterioles, blood vessels that branch out from arteries into smaller capillaries. The latest research reveals that the brain's blood supply is in fact chiefly controlled by the narrowing or widening of capillaries as pericytes tighten or loosen around them.
The study, published this week in Nature, shows not only that pericytes are the main regulator of blood flow to the brain, but also that they tighten and die around capillaries after stroke. This significantly impairs blood flow in the long term, causing lasting damage to brain cells. The team of scientists from UCL, Oxford University and the University of Copenhagen showed that certain chemicals could halve pericyte death from simulated stroke in the lab, and hope to develop these into drugs to treat stroke victims.
"At present, clinicians can remove clots blocking blood flow to the brain if stroke patients reach hospital early enough," explains Professor David Attwell of UCL's Department of Neuroscience, Physiology & Pharmacology, who led the study. "However, the capillary constriction produced by pericytes may, by restricting the blood supply for a long time, cause further damage to nerve cells even after the clot is removed. Our latest research suggests that devising drugs to prevent capillary constriction may offer new therapies for reducing the disability caused by stroke."
"This discovery offers radically new treatment approaches for stroke," says study co-author Professor Alastair Buchan, Dean of Medicine and Head of the Medical Sciences Division at Oxford University. "Importantly, we should now be able to identify drugs that target these cells. If we are able to prevent pericytes from dying, it should help restore blood flow in the brain to normal and prevent the ongoing slow damage we see after a stroke which causes so much neurological disability in our patients."
The new research also gives insight into the mechanisms underlying the use of functional magnetic resonance imaging to detect blood flow changes in the brain.
"Functional imaging allows us to see the activity of nerve cells within the human brain but until now we didn't quite know what we were looking at," explains Professor Attwell. "We have shown that pericytes initiate the increase in blood flow seen when nerve cells become active, so we now know that functional imaging signals are caused by a pericyte-mediated increase of capillary diameter. Knowing exactly what functional imaging shows will help us to better understand and interpret what we see."
Story Source:
Materials provided by University College London. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.
Journal Reference:
Cite This Page:


text:
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Do the really smart thing — Let a Pro deal with those stopped up gutters!
Since 2001, we have been in the gutter maintenance business. We have cleared thousands of gutters. We know how to do the job right and won't charge you a fortune. For Gutter Cleaning In Lincoln, we are the best!
Lincoln is the capital city of the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Lancaster County. The city covers 100.4 square miles (260.035 km2) with a population of 292,657 in 2021. It is the second-most populous city in Nebraska and the 73rd-largest in the United States. The city is the economic and cultural anchor of a substantially larger metropolitan area in the southeastern part of the state called the Lincoln Metropolitan and Lincoln-Beatrice Combined Statistical Areas. The statistical area is home to 361,921 people, making it the 104th-largest combined statistical area in the United States.
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text:
No Complaints
Although the Patriarch Avraham was promised the entire land of Canaan, which would eventually become the Eretz Yisrael homeland of his descendants, he was unable to find a burial plot for his wife in the land he owned and was compelled to purchase one from the Hittite inhabitants.
The fact that Avraham voiced no complaints to G-d about the irony of such a situation is repeatedly cited in our sources as a tribute to his unquestioning faith in G-d.
As descendants of Avraham who have merited living in the Land given to him, we must internalize the lesson he taught us. Although this Land is truly ours we find ourselves repeatedly challenged by our neighbors and their champions as to our right to live here in peace. We too are enjoined to maintain our faith and make no complaints to Heaven.
It is such faith, together with our prayers for peace, which will inevitably secure Israel forever.


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The Japan School Singapore
RPA solution "UiPath" applied to student admission procedures.
Automation achieved without large costs.
The Japan School Singapore, which was founded in 1912 and started as a provided of supplementary education for Japanese children in Singapore, is now one of the largest schools in the world aimed at educating Japanese children living overseas. Two elementary school campuses and a junior high school campus comprise the school of over 2,000 students. As the school has grown in scale, it has aspired to improve its efficiency, such as by putting its admission application procedures online. Now, in order to further cut down on the work involved with admissions, the school has introduced the RPA solution "UiPath". Thanks to this, they have greatly reduced workload and mistakes in the previously manually-done work of data copying and inputting. This has also allowed them to free their employees from this routine work and allow them to focus on more productive activities.
Multiple issues were solved by introducing UiPath
The construction of a large automation system would be difficult
Due to costs and other obstacles, the construction of a large-scale automation system would be difficult, and so large amounts of work continued to be done manually.
Human error prevented productivity from rising
Manual work led to unavoidable errors, which then required time to fix them.
Employees were bound to routine work, preventing them from developing their abilities
Only limited time was available for training employees, preventing them from having their multitasking skills raised or making their work more productive.
Work automation achieved without a large cost
Mistakes eliminated and work quality dramatically improved
Time became available to train employees, setting the stage for them to do more productive work
- Going forward, by applying RPA to their accounting work, the school should be able to devote more resources to work such as analysis of its finances.
- RPA can be a good educational tool for teaching the students about work efficiency, a skill that will be required in their future.
Why and how did you choose UiPath?
Automation possible across multiple applications at a low cost
In order to reduce the burdens on parents & guardians and cut workload, the school put our admission applications online. However, they did this through piecing together existing technology, and it wasn't complete automation, with people required as a bridge to move data between applications. Mr. Takahashi explains why the school chose UiPath, saying, "We succeeded in cutting down the workload, but simple, routine work remained, and to address this we considered RPA. The RPA solution "UiPath" allows automation between multiple applications at low cost, making it the optimal match for our needs."
Effects of using UiPath
Time required per work item down from around 5 minutes to only a few seconds
Previously, employees in charge of admission would download from the server the information inputted on the website by parents and guardians, then copy it line-by-line into an Excel file to create an admission request, and print it. Mr. Yamada explains that, "By automating this process with RPA, what took about 5 minutes per case now takes only a few seconds. Around January to March, before the new semester, every day around 20 applications arrive, and for this period we have achieved a large cut in the workload."
Robot development left to KDDI, who provided a smooth development-to-installation process
Development of the automated robots was handled by KDDI. Mr. Takahashi says, "We explained the work process, then they designed the workflow, and we were able to do a smooth installation." Mr. Yamada adds, "When doing the installation, we received explanations from KDDI, and became knowledgeable about RPA, including how to do troubleshooting. Running the robots is very simple, being just a button press, so when the employee in-charge changes, we don't have to re-train them like would have been necessary before, so this is another part where we cut workload."
Contributed to improved quality of service by allowing school to focus on value-added work
RPA did not only cut the school's workload, it also greatly opened the way to high value-added work. Mr. Takahashi says, "By releasing our employees from routine work, we became able to spend time on developing their abilities. By training them to multitask and produce added-value, I think we have improved the service quality of the school overall". Mr. Takahashi explained his further ambitions for RPA, saying, "Going forward, in addition to completely automating the admission reception process, we would like to use RPA in our accounting section, allowing our employees there to focus on their true duties like financial analysis."
Comment from KDDI salesperson
KDDI Singapore sales,
Mr. Saeki Ryota
I am much honored that we were able to put together an RPA (UiPath) solution for the Japan School Singapore. I hope that we can continue to contribute in some way to the "workplace revolution" at educational facilities in various countries.
Customer profile
The Japan School Singapore
- Head office
- The Japanese School Singapore Primary School, Clementi Campus 95 Clementi Road, Singapore 129782
- Establishment
- 1965
The Japanese School Singapore provides elementary and junior-high educations in the Republic of Singapore according to the educational curriculum established by Japan's Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. The school is composed of 3 campuses, the elementary campuses at Clementi and Changi, and the junior high school campus at West Coast, and aims to "Raise students with rich international sensibilities who will try to connect with the peoples of the world."


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text:
Applying for Job Opportunities
Applying for Job Opportunities
Qualified applicants should submit a letter of application indicating the position or area of interest and a resume to:
email@example.com (please reference job title in subject line) PREFERRED METHOD
or to our mailing address at:
Office of Human Resources
Point Park University
201 Wood Street
Pittsburgh, PA 15222
NO PHONE CALLS PLEASE. Due to the high volume of resumes received, we regret that we are unable to respond to inquiries regarding the status of your application. If we determine that your skills and experience match the position requirements, we will contact you to discuss the opportunity further. If you do not hear from us, we encourage you to revisit our Web site to review the status of the position as well as future opportunities.


text:
Palookaville Vol. 21
Intended for mature audiences
Continuing the new semiannual hardcover format for Palookaville in volume 21, Seth presents two very different autobiographical pieces, and the continuation of Part Four of the ongoing Clyde Fans serial. In the latest dispatch from the beautifully crafted Clyde Fans, Abraham muses further on the ruins of his life. Then, in the first sustained sequence of the two Matchcard brothers, Abraham and Simon finally sit down together and begin to talk. "Nothing Lasts" is the first half of a sketchbook memoir about Seth's childhood and adolescence in small-town Ontario. It is a wryly self-conscious, often moving visit to the attic of Seth's memories: from his first attempts at cartooning to the last time he kissed his mother good night, "Nothing Lasts" is a masterpiece of the graphic short story. Finally, the third section of this volume consists of entries from the comic-strip diary Seth has been keeping for almost a decade. He employs a mixture of hand-drawn panels and rubber stamps of his own work to tell anecdotes about moments from his life. Nothing from this diary has ever been made public before. This lushly designed collection of stories comprises an anthology of the different types of cartooning work Seth has done over his two-decade-long career.
Fresh Comics may earn a commission from purchases made from the links above.
Thank you for your support!


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One of the largest botnets ever to be discovered has infected 1.9 million computers around the world, including corporate and government machines, according to a security firm.
Finjan's Malicious Code Research Center (MCRC) uncovered the huge botnet when researching command and control servers operated by cybercriminals. It is reportedly at least four times larger than botnets that have been discovered in the past, which have tended to include 200,000 to 500,000 computers.
Britain's Police Central e-crime Unit (PCeU) and the FBI are working to hunt down the hackers responsible for the botnet, according to Finjan.
A cyber gang made up of six criminals based in the Ukraine are believed to be responsible for the giant network of remotely-controlled PCs.
In the UK alone, more than 500 companies were caught in the network of infected machines, including several PCs inside six UK government bodies. In total, 77 government-owned domains from around the world, at both federal and local government level, were infiltrated.
The malware spreads when victims visit compromised websites. Then hackers can remotely control the malware to execute almost any command on the end-user computer as they see fit, such as: reading emails, copying files, recording keystrokes, sending spam, making screenshots, Finjan claims.
The security firm said it has contacted affected corporate and government agencies to let them know that they were part of the infected computer names.Yuval Ben-Itzhak, chief technology officer of Finjan, said: "The sophistication of the malware and the staggering amount of infected computers proves that cybergangs are raising the bar."
According to Finjan, 78 percent of infected computers were running Internet Explorer, 15 percent were using the Firefox Web browser and the remaining were using Opera, Safari and other browsers.
Almost half (45%) of the infected computers were in the US. Six percent of the botnet computers were in the UK.


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Authorities say that this was a brazen and surprisingly long-lived scheme. Another educator spent 15 years helping aspiring public school teachers to cheat on their Praxis exam.
According to NBC News, teachers in three Southern states paid Clarence Mumford Sr. to send someone else to take their Praxis exams in their place. Each time he sent one of his test ringers with fake identification into the Praxis exams, Mumford received a fee between $1,500 and $3,000. In return, his customers got a passing grade and began their careers as cheaters, according to federal prosecutors in Memphis.
This scheme affected hundreds, if not thousands, of public school students who ended up being taught by unqualified educators.
Mumford has been charged with more than 60 fraud and conspiracy charges. These charges claim that Mumford created fake driver's licenses with the information of a teacher or an aspiring teacher and attached the photograph of a test-taker.
Prospective teachers have been accused of giving Mumford their Social Security numbers in order for him to make the fake identities.
Prosecutors say that the fake test-takers went to testing centers, showed the proctor the fake license, and passed the certification exam. The indictment alleges that the aspiring teacher then used the test score to secure a job with a public school district. So far, 14 people have been charged with mail and Social Security fraud, and four people have pleaded guilty to charges associated with the scheme.
Mumford accumulated tens of thousands of dollars during the alleged conspiracy which began back in 1995. The scheme involved three states (Arkansas, Mississippi, and Tennessee) and ended in 2010.
Among those charged is former University of Tennessee and NFL wide receiver Cedrick Wilson.
Wilson was accused of employing a test-taker for a Praxis physical education exam. He was charged in late October with four counts of Social Security and mail fraud. Wilson has pleaded not guilty and is out of jail on a $10,000 bond. He has been suspended by the Memphis City Schools system.
If convicted, Mumford could face between two and 20 years in prison on each count that he was charged with. The teachers also face between two and 20 years in prison on each count if convicted.


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Cairo International Stadium, Egypt
The Opportunity
An extension of Cairo International Stadium, the Cairo Stadium Indoor Halls Complex is a multi-use facility featuring four Olympic-standard indoor sports arenas. Over two weeks in January 2021, the venue hosted the 2021 World Men's Handball Championship in its 16,900-capacity Main Hall and 1,620-seat Hall 2. Although functional and visually impressive, the venue wasn't designed with acoustic performance in mind, possessing a long reverberation time which made providing intelligible sound reinforcement challenging. Additionally, the venue's structural design limits the amount of weight that can be hung from the ceiling, creating the need for a lightweight yet high-quality audio solution. Adding yet another challenge, the International Handball Federation (IHF) enforces a maximum sound pressure level (SPL) limit, as well as a mandatory minimum standard of speech intelligibility.
The Solution
To overcome the venue's limitations and meet the IHF's stringent audio standards, event organizers turned to Audio Technology, a Cairo-based full-service provider of professional audio equipment. Audio Technology designed and implemented a full HARMAN Professional audio solution across both halls featuring JBL loudspeakers, Crown amplifiers, BSS signal processors and Soundcraft mixing consoles.
In the Main Hall, Audio Technology Installed JBL VTX V20 three-way line array speakers on a circular truss hanging from the center of the room. With dual 10-inch neodymium Differential Drive woofers in each 88-pound cabinet, the VTX V20 delivers low-frequency response down to 60 Hz, eliminating the need for heavy subwoofers. In Hall 2, Audio Technology hung four clusters of compact JBL VTX A8 line array speakers with VTX B18 subwoofers from a ceiling-mounted circular truss similar to the Main Hall. The combination of lightweight dual 8-inch loudspeakers and powerful 18-inch subwoofers provided the ideal balance of sound quality and power while staying within safe weight limits. Both the VTX V20 and VTX A8 feature advanced, proprietary waveguides for broad, consistent coverage throughout both halls.
In addition to the audience-facing VTX Series speakers, Audio Technology deployed four JBL AC2212/95 loudspeakers in each hall to provide sound coverage for the players and referees on the court. With their wide dispersion angle, the AC2212/95 speakers ensured players could clearly hear instructions from officials, as well as the bell marking the end of each half.
To power the sound systems in both halls, Audio Technology selected Crown I-Tech HD Series and DCi Network Series amplifiers, which feature onboard EQ and delay for crystal-clear sound quality, as well as remote monitoring tools for convenience and speaker protection. For precise control of sound reinforcement, Audio Technology provided Soundcraft Vi1 and Si Performer 3 mixing consoles, which feature a variety of flexible input and output options, powerful digital signal processing capabilities and color-coded FaderGlow technology for intuitive operation and visual feedback. BSS Soundweb London BLU Series networked signal processors provide flexible routing capabilities, allowing sound reinforcement personnel to easily configure and monitor the system.
The audio systems deployed by Audio Technology at the Cairo Stadium Indoor Halls Complex met and surpassed the IHF's standards, providing clear, intelligible sound at safe sound pressure levels without the need for any acoustic treatment in the Main Hall or Hall 2.
The Impact
"When we started the project, we were concerned that the hall would need to be treated because of a high reverberation time," said Mario Abadeer, Presales Pro Systems Head, Audio Technology. "We suggested some materials that would improve this, but when we installed the speakers, what they heard was so impressive, they decided they didn't need any sound treatment after all."
"We had to remove the subwoofers, and for that we needed to use a larger Differential Drive in order to achieve the lower frequencies," said Abadeer. "This was in the specs of the JBL VTX V20. It's a very, very impressive speaker. And, when playing music through the VTX A8, the organizers could hear a complete frequency response. They were very pleased with the quality."
"The Crown amplifiers already have the full presets for our speakers," said Abadeer. "Through the software, you can see every circuit. You have everything, and you can manage it from one place. You don't need to go through different software in order to check the status of the system or the status of the amplifiers."
"Hosting the 2021 World Men's Handball Championship was an incredible privilege," said Samir Shawkey, Project Coordinator. "Going into the event, we wanted to ensure that spectators and players alike had the best possible experience. With the help of Audio Technology, we were able to install a JBL Professional speaker system that met the requirements of the International Handball Federation, as well as our own high standards. The quality and clarity is excellent. We're thrilled with the results."


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I know that one can photograph a color-neutral card (white, gray, black) and use it for white balance, either in-camera or in post-processing.
Using an image of a color-neutral card taken under given lighting conditions, is there a way that the color temperature number can be measured by examining the color values in the image file? Presumably one knows or assumes the tone of the card, e.g. all-white, 18% gray, or all black.
It'd be nice to develop a feel for color temperatures by measuring various sources.


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PEYTON, JOHN, fisherman and trapper; b. 1749 in Christchurch (Dorset), England; m. 12 Dec. 1788 Ann Galton of Wimborne Minster, England, and they had a daughter and a son; d. 1829 in Exploits, Nfld.
John Peyton arrived in Newfoundland as a youth, resided for a while in Fogo, and once travelled on the coast of Labrador. By 1781 he was residing, at least during winters, at Lower Sandy Point, in the Bay of Exploits, a locality which lay along one of the main migration routes of the Beothuks. Here he was engaged in salmon catching and the fur trade in partnership with Harry Miller. A few years later, Peyton struck out on his own and seems to have had some degree of success. In summer, he likely reside at Exploits, on the more northerly of the two Exploits Islands; in winter, he probably continued to live at Lower Sandy Point. He owned his own schooner, and references to him in the papers of several merchants represent him as an independent and successful trader.
Although Peyton was but one of many fishermen and furriers who had contact with the Beothuks, he was among the most prominent. Allegations and circumstantial evidence in a number of different sources suggest that Peyton behaved brutally towards them. An inquiry conducted by naval officer George Christopher Pulling in 1792 produced much testimony that hints at his activities. Evidently Peyton participated in several excursions into Beothuk territory in the 1780s and 1790s, each bent upon reprisal for various thefts of goods. Peyton's behaviour and reputation incensed John Bland, the magistrate of Bonavista who took a great interest in the Beothuks. In 1797 Bland claimed that Peyton had "rendered himself infamous for his persecution of the Indians" and that "the stories told of this man would shock humanity to relate." He recommended that Peyton be expelled from the Bay of Exploits.
Bland also noted that Peyton was then residing near Poole, in Dorset, evidently conducting his Newfoundland trade through hired hands. Indeed, until 1812 Peyton maintained his family in England. In that year, both his daughter and his wife having died suddenly, he decided to bring his 19-year-old son John to Newfoundland and take him into partnership. Young Peyton had, like his father, been raised in Christchurch, and he was educated at Wimborne Minster Boys School. He had served three years at Somerset House in London as a junior clerk. In 1818 he was appointed justice of the peace for northern Newfoundland by Governor Sir Charles Hamilton*. His early career entailed some contact with the Beothuks but on a more positive level than that of his father. Nevertheless, confusion in the facts and details of the lives of the two Peytons has often resulted in the younger being tarnished with a reputation earned by his father.
The last expedition to the Beothuks that John Peyton Sr took part in was led by John Jr, who in 1818 had represented to Governor Hamilton that he had suffered extensive injury to his fishing establishments occasioned by the pilfering Beothuks over a four-year period. The governor empowered him to search for his stolen property and to capture one of the Indians in order to gain an envoy who might later serve to establish friendly relations. Accordingly, in March 1819 the Peytons and some men struck inland. They came upon three wigwams and about a dozen Indians. A woman, Demasduwit*, was captured, and there was a scuffle between the elder Peyton and an Indian man which ended with the Indian being shot.
There may be some irony in the fact that the last known Beothuk, Shawnadithit, and John Peyton Sr lived under the same roof during the last few years of their lives. Shawnadithit was captured by William Cull, an erstwhile servant of Peyton Sr, in 1823. She was given into the care of Peyton Jr and became a servant in the Peyton household at Exploits for five years. John Peyton Sr died in 1829, aged about 80 years. John Jr spent most of his later years in Twillingate. He died in 1879 and was interred in the family plot at Exploits.
BL, Add. ms 38352: ff.1–44. Dorset Record Office (Dorchester, Eng.), D365, F2–3, F8–10; P227/RE3–18. Hampshire Record Office (Winchester, Eng.), Christchurch parish records, 1682–1804 (transcripts at Maritime Hist. Arch., Memorial Univ. of Nfld., St John's). PANL, P5/25; P7/A/6. G.B., Parl., House of Commons papers, 1793, no.4393, First report from the committee appointed to enquire into the state of trade to Newfoundland; no.4407, Second report. . . . C. R. Fay, Life and labour in Newfoundland (Toronto, 1956). Howley, Beothucks or Red Indians. Prowse, Hist. of Nfld. (1895), 385. F. W. Rowe, Extinction: the Beothuks of Newfoundland (Toronto, 1977).
© 1987–2024 University of Toronto/Université Laval
Cite This Article
W. Gordon Handcock, "PEYTON, JOHN," in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 6, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–, accessed February 23, 2024, http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/peyton_john_6E.html.
The citation above shows the format for footnotes and endnotes according to the Chicago manual of style (16th edition). Information to be used in other citation formats:
Permalink: | http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/peyton_john_6E.html |
Author of Article: | W. Gordon Handcock |
Title of Article: | PEYTON, JOHN |
Publication Name: | Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 6 |
Publisher: | University of Toronto/Université Laval |
Year of publication: | 1987 |
Year of revision: | 1987 |
Access Date: | February 23, 2024 |


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He's the center and focus of the gospel. Simply put, we believe Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6). Everything we are and everything we have comes from Him and works together for His purpose.
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