text:
The Kenai Peninsula is characterized by stable, steady growth, a diverse economy, a relatively low cost of living and a wide variety of jobs and supporting industries, a state economist contends.
Alyssa Shanks, economist for the Alaska Department of Labor in Anchorage, said the diversity of the Peninsula's economy is a benefit that has helped it grow at a rate just slightly faster than the rest of the state for several years. Shanks said a diverse economy means more opportunities for residents living in the area and a bigger draw for those looking for somewhere to live.
Diversity also means the economy of an area is better able to handle shocks to one industry.
"It is good because you don't have all your eggs in one basket," Shanks said. "So if one of your industries gets hit, if you are all about tourism and you have a really bad tourism year, well then your whole community has a bad year.
"The other nice thing about being diverse is you attract a population of people who can do all sorts of different things, so it adds diversity to your population and it makes you more attractive," she said.
The Kenai Peninsula has several strong industries including health care, oil and gas, fishing, the public sector — such as education and government — and tourism. Shanks is quick to also mention the professional business service industry that supports the area's main sectors. These are jobs like engineers, geologists and surveyors.
The Peninsula's structure and diversity is unique for a community its size, Shanks said.
"I think that location is definitely on your side — you are near natural resources but you are also near another large population center," she said. "I think people refer to the Kenai as Anchorage's playground and that kind of thing, so that's definitely a help in terms of bringing money in and bringing an industry in."
However, Shanks said looking only at diversity can give a false sense of security when considering an economy.
"If you look at jobs and industry data, you'll get a sense that a community is more diverse than it really is," she said. "What I mean by that is, yeah you have jobs in all these different industries so it looks diverse, but when you actually look at what brings money into a community, you are not."
The backbone for the Kenai Peninsula's diverse industries comes back to oil and government — mostly federal — which is much the same support the state receives as a whole.
"When you look at what is keeping the other industries afloat, and what pays the bills in that area, if you can trace the money back to only one or two industries then you are vulnerable," she said.
However, that fact can make both the state's and the Peninsula's economies susceptible to slumps. But it can, at the same time, help during a recession.
"In terms of speed of which we would feel it, I don't know if it would be that different, but when we look at helping or hurting in a recession, it really depends on what caused the recession," she said. "So if the recession was caused by something related to oil and gas then it would be felt here just like anywhere else. If the recession was caused by the housing bubble, because we are so dependent on oil and on federal dollars, then we'll be OK."
The Peninsula's employment growth has remained consistently above the state's through the years — in the 2000s Shanks said that growth was 1.4 percent for Kenai, compared to the state's 1.1 percent.
The area's employment growth from 2010 to 2011 was 1.65 percent. But growth for 2012 — if it continues the same growth for the last quarter of the year — will be up 2.7 percent from 2011, Shanks said.
"That's way more than I thought," she said. "I thought it was going to grow by 1.3 percent."
That growth is coming in areas like health care, oil and gas and professional services — "the places you would expect it to come from," she said.
"I kept being asked about all the activity that's going on, oil and gas on the Peninsula, 'Do you see it, is it in the data?'" she said. "For the longest time I did not and it wasn't showing up in the data."
For 2013, Shanks predicted employment growth of about 2 percent, up slightly from 2012's estimated 1.3 percent job growth.
"There's a lot going on," she said. "… The smaller communities have a lot of things going on that, in the grand scheme, aren't that big, when you put them all together, they make a difference."
"I think the (Peninsula's) amount of growth is the biggest change," she said.
The Kenai Peninsula Borough's unemployment rate in November 2012, the most recent data available, was 7.9 percent, compared to the state average of 6.6 percent and the national average of 7.7 percent. In November 2011, the borough's unemployment was 8.9 percent.
The borough's health care sector grew 1.47 percent year-over-year through the third quarter of 2012, which is less than its previous 3.2-percent growth through the last three quarters of 2010 and 2011. This year's growth is surprisingly less than the U.S. healthcare system's growth of 2.27 percent, Shanks said.
"It looks like a lot of that growth is coming from the smaller clinics and outpatient health care," she said.
The Peninsula's average income —$42,156— from an earned paycheck is higher than the national average, but lower than the state average of $48,851 and the Mat-Su's $37,460.
"I think that in terms of how much people are getting paid and how much it costs to live there … it seems like a decent wage on average," she said.
Kenai's homes are some of the most affordable in the state, Shanks said. According to statistics, the number of average jobs needed to afford a single family home on the Peninsula is 1.21, compared to the state average of 1.32 jobs or the Matanuska-Susitna Borough's 1.66 jobs.
Brian Smith can be reached at email@example.com


text:
Manon Standop & Swing around safari Barrel Racing Italy [00:46]
Trophy Ice Cowboy Guest Ranch Swing Around Safari 16, 79 sc
Italy fear a Scotland desperate to avoid Six Nations wooden spoon [01:03]
Following on from a famous victory over France in the Six Nations last week, Italy coach Jacques Brunel says Scotland always play hardest against the Azzurri as they know they need the win to avoid coming last. Italy have beaten Scotland twice in the past but have traditionally struggled in the Six Nations
Aggressive Qualifying!!! - Karthikeyan AUS 2005 [02:13]
Aggressive qualifying lap from Narain Karthikeyan in Australia in 2005 Extra Tags: Sebastian Vettel Mark Webber Lewis Hamilton Jenson Button Fernando Alonso Felipe Massa Michael Schumacher Nico Rosberg Nick Heidfeld Bruno Senna Vitaly Petrov Rubens Barrichello Pastor Maldonado Adrian Sutil...
F1 1994 - Italy - Monza - Start Crash [01:19]
F1 1994 - Italy - Monza - Start Crash F1 1994 - Italy - Monza - Start Crash F1 1994 - Italy - Monza - Start Crash F1 1994 - Italy - Monza - Start Crash
Tags: youtube editor, Italy (Country), Monza (City/Town/Village), youtube (Business Operation), Racing, Sports, Soccer, Speedway, Nascar, Race, Extreme, Crash, Track, Horse, Football, Action, Motor, Combat, Winter, Basketball, Baseball, Water, Golf, Hockey, Art

subset: commoncrawl


text:
(RNN) – The world will not end if you don't watch this week's installment of viral videos, but it will seem a lot less bright.
And quite frankly, we're all about making people happy.
Work with us, people, not against us. Watch, be happy, and love everyone around you a little more.
Or, make fun of everyone around you because that's pretty much what you would do if you actually knew these people.
The description for this video says that Rikku, a 4-month-old Tamaskan wolfdog, "loves to go for walks outside."
But judging by the dog's reaction, it was either a really bad day for him, or that description was the biggest lie since some dude with white hair redefined the definition of sexual relations.
If Rikku could talk, he would probably say something like this: "The allegation that my owner made was false, and I need to go back to work on my chew toy."
If you were expecting Usain Bolt, an explanation is in order.
You see, while Bolt is unquestionably the last person you would want to face in a footrace, it's doubtful he could have the same prowess while down on all fours
Yep, you heard it right. Kenichi Ito officially has the fastest running time for a human using his arms and legs.
Two questions: Who else is there to compete with? And why would anyone want this record?
Oh well, it's not ours to judge – just to laugh and enjoy.
Here is the definition of a hipster in case you've had your head under a rock for the past, like, five minutes: A person that dresses like he/she is poor despite an ample supply of money; forms an attachment to things that are not trendy and then immediately claims hatred for those things once they become trendy; wears non-prescription glasses that are too large for his/her face; and is just overall annoying.
They hang out in packs and are somewhat paranoid, so observing them in their natural habitats can become quite tricky.
Thankfully, someone has finally started a verbal war against these people in an effort to flush them out.
(WARNING: Some language is strong. Watch at your own discretion.)
Because, really, who wouldn't want to go on the internet and proclaim their adoration of a homely girl with ghastly braces and a morbid attachment to the Goosebumps books?
Do people older than 12 actually still read those?
This has to be one of the weirdest tributes to one of the weirdest internet memes we have ever seen.
This one is a bit dated, but definitely worthy of mention.
First of all, if you watch this and are not immediately in need of an explanation, you obviously did not pay attention in eighth grade science class.
Second, the explanation is here, but don't read it until you have watched this video at least once (preferably twice) and asked that super-smart coworker you barely acknowledge to explain it to you.
Really, ask that coworker. It'll make his day and possibly spare you when he goes postal in the event he is ever laid off. We're just saying.
Copyright 2012 Raycom News Network. All rights reserved.


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Womens TV and Movie Character Costumes
Celebrate in party supplies like our festive Party Supplies. You can even customize your party with our themed banners and invitations. Our novelty favors are sure to be a memorable keepsake for your guests. We have a large selection of themed party supplies, so shop today!
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text:
And now that you've been introduced to the main goal of this series, it's time to summarize the topics that were discussed in the last tutorial. In the previous part I went through the development of a file loading class in PHP 5. This class was capable of searching recursively for a determined file on the web server, based on a starting path passed to its "load()" main method.
Having a class like this makes it much easier to dynamically load resources and dependencies that may be located in different folders on the server. Its recursive "load()" method does the hard work and takes care of the whole loading process, independently of the location of a required file.
Nonetheless, the best way to understand how this loader class works and how functional it can be in concrete situations is by setting up several examples that show it in action.
Bearing in mind this idea, in this fourth installment of the series I'm going to provide you with a number of code samples that will demonstrate the actual benefits of using the "Loader" class created in the preceding tutorial.
Now, let's leave the boring theory behind us and see the real functionality of this recursive file loader program. Let's jump in!
{mospagebreak title=Review: the loader() class so far}
Before I start creating some examples aimed at illustrating how to use the file loading class built in the last article of this series, let's recall quickly how it was defined originally.
So, as a reminder, here's the full source that corresponds to that class. Pay close attention to it, please:
// define a recursive loader class
class Loader
private $file = ";
private $path = ";
// constructor (not implemented)
public function __construct(){}
// set file to load
public function set_file($file)
$this->file = $file;
// get file to load
public function get_file()
return $this->file;
// set path to load file
public function set_path($path)
$this->path = $path;
// get path to load file
public function get_path()
return $this->path;
// load recursively specified file
public function load($file, $path)
if (file_exists($file))
if (is_dir($path))
if (FALSE !== ($handle = opendir($path)))
// search recursively the specified file
while (FAlSE !== ($dir = readdir($handle)))
if (strpos($dir, '.') === FALSE)
$path .= '/' . $dir;
$file = $path . '/' . $this->file;
$this->load($file, $path);
Undeniably, aside from the non-implemented constructor, the workhorse of the above "Loader" class is clearly its "load()" method. It actually takes care of loading a targeted file via the "require()" PHP function. Of course, the most important detail to stress here is the method's recursive implementation, which permits us to seek the required file through folders and subfolders within the specified path.
Now that you're hopefully familiar again with the way that the "Loader()" class functions, it's time to begin coding some examples that will demonstrate its functionality in concrete situations.
With that premise in mind, in the following section I'm going to set up a fictional scenario in which the loading class will be used for including a sample file, regardless of its location within a selected directory on the web server.
To learn the full details of how this brand new example will be developed, click on the link that appears below and keep reading.
{mospagebreak title=Recursively including PHP files}
As I explained in the segment that you just read, the best way to understand how the previous "Loader()" class functions is by developing some concrete examples that show how to use it. So, since the class's main task is to include required files dynamically, I'm going to use the two sample files created in preceding articles. They looked like this:
echo ' This file has been loaded with the Loader class.' . '<br />';
echo 'This file has been loaded at the following time: ' . date('H:i:s');
Now that there are two files available to be included by the loader class, it's time to create a hypothetical scenario. Say the files in question are located on a directory called "folder1" on the web server (yes, my creativity really blows me away sometimes, especially when it comes to naming directories in a fancy way), which is one level below the location at which the loader class resides.
Based on this simple directory hierarchy, it's perfectly possible to code an example where the loader class includes the two previous files after performing a recursive search. The corresponding code sample would look as follows:
// create instance of Loader class
$loader = new Loader();
// set file to load
// set path of specified file
$loader->set_path($_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] . '/folder1);
// try to load specified file
$loader->load($loader->get_file(), $loader->get_path());
// set another file to load
// try to load specified file
$loader->load($loader->get_file(), $loader->get_path());
/* displays the following
This file has been loaded with the Loader class.
This file has been loaded at the following time 20:33:25
From the example shown above, it's clear to see how the loader class really works. In this specific case, the starting path we use to look for a required file is simply the aforementioned "folder1" directory, which is located one level below the web server's root — but naturally the path can be easily modified and make the class seek for other locations.
Once the appropriate path has been set, the pertinent "load()" method is called dynamically to include the "sample_file1.php" file, and then the remaining one, called "sample_file2.php." This demonstrates the actual functionality of the "Loader" class when it comes to including specified files using a recursive search.
While the previous example should be illustrative enough to show how the loader class does its thing, I'd like to finish this tutorial by creating a final code sample that demonstrates the capability of the class when the targeted files to be included are located two levels below the web server's root.
This wrapping example will be developed in the last segment of the article. Please click on the link that appears below and read the next few lines. We're almost finished!
{mospagebreak title=Changing the location of required files}
I'd like to end this fourth part of the series by showing you one last example that illustrates how the loader class can be capable of including the same sample files that you saw in the previous section — but this time, these files are placed under a directory that's located two levels below the web server's root.
To demonstrate the recursive search abilities of the class in a case like this, below I included another code sample, where the files to be included now reside in a fictional new folder called "folder2." Study the following example closely to grasp how it works:
// create instance of Loader class
$loader = new Loader();
// set file to load
// set path of specified file
// try to load specified file
$loader->load($loader->get_file(), $loader->get_path());
// set another file to load
// try to load specified file
$loader->load($loader->get_file(), $loader->get_path());
/* displays the following
This file has been loaded with the Loader class.
This file has been loaded at the following time 22:21:09
As you can see above, even when the sample files to be included now are located in a directory that's two levels below the root of the web server, the loader class will load them successfully regardless of their location, thanks to the recursive method it employs to perform the inclusion process.
Also, you may want to create your own examples with the loader class. Try putting your required files at different locations on the file system, and see how the class does a recursive search with the new supplied path. This exercise will be helpful for sharpening your skills in building loading programs with PHP 5.
Final thoughts
Over the course of this fourth article of the series, I proceeded to create some basic examples that hopefully demonstrated the actual functionality of the file loader class that you saw previously.
As you saw in the examples, the class was capable of including a specific file or resource in a recursive way, as long as the file in question was located at the same level and below of the starting search path. This makes it a flexible and effective loading mechanism.
In the article to come, I'm going to discuss how to take advantage of the functionality provided by the loader class, but without having to create an instance of it.
Don't miss the next part!


text:
MARIETTA, Ga. -- One kid on the visiting team threw a seven-inning no-hitter and three kids on the home team combined on a seven-inning two-hitter in one of the showcase first-round playoff games at the 14u/15u Perfect Game-East Cobb Invitational played Saturday afternoon at the East Cobb Baseball Complex.
Unfortunately for the kid who threw the no-hitter -- Game Ready Athletics 15u Orange right-hander Cole Varner -- the game went eight innings and the Perfect Game playoff tie-breaker format was imposed. It was unfortunate for Varner because it was in that extra frame that the Georgia Jackets Baseball 14u team collected their first and only hit.
The PG tie-breaker system mandates that each extra half inning start with the bases loaded and one-out. In the first at-bat in the top of the eighth, Jackets 14u hitter Kale Ledford (2017, Oxford, Ga.) smacked an RBI single -- the first hit of the game off Varner -- and Jason Rooks (2017, Marietta, Ga.) later added a sacrifice fly to give the Jackets 14u all the runs they would need. The Athletics 15u Orange pushed one run across in the bottom of the eighth but it wasn't enough in the Jackets 14u's 2-1 win.
"These guys are super resilient," Georgia Jackets 14u head coach Jeff Auterson said of a 14-man roster that is 85 percent 2017 grads and includes one player each from New York, Alabama and Florida, with the rest are from Georgia. "It's not like they're not proven in battle; they've done this a handful of times already this week.
"But we have to tip our hat to that pitcher over there (Varner) -- dropping down, mixing speeds up and doing what he needed to do. It was a great baseball game, he pitched fantastic; the boys did a good job fighting, but I most definitely tip my hat to that pitcher -- he threw great."
Varner (2016, Alpharetta, Ga.) threw 7 2/3 innings and gave up just the one hit, with one walk, one hit batsman and two strikeouts. It was an especially impressive outing against a Georgia Jackets 14u team that came into the game averaging 7.6 runs per game and hitting .400 as a team.
"That's just baseball," Auterson said. "Some days you're out there hitting the baseball and you can't go wrong and the next day you're swinging a wet newspaper and fighting to get a run. I played this game and I know how it is -- some days you're on fire and the next day you don't know what you're doing.
"But again, I don't think we did a bad job at the plate, I just thought (Varner) did a great job, and sometimes you just have to tip your hat to a good performance and that's what that was by him."
The Jackets 14u got some pretty good pitching of their own in the seven inning shutout. Right-hander Cameron Turley (2017, Dacula, Ga.) worked the first 4 1/3 innings, and gave up only one hit while striking out six and walking three. Left-hander Austin Weiermiller (2017, Alpharetta, Ga.) and righty William West III (2016, Niceville, Fla.) pitched one-hit ball over the final 3 1/3 innings.
"Cam came out and threw a gem," Auterson said. "I thought he got a little tired there in the fifth inning so we brought in a lefty (Weiermiller) who usually throws great with a runner on first. We actually threw three of our better pitchers this game to try to get out of it, to try to sneak that win in."
Rooks and Ledford have been among the Jackets' most consistent hitters at the tournament. Rooks went into Saturday night's quarterfinal game 4-for-11 (.364) with a triple, home run and three RBI, and Ledford was batting 4-for-12 (.333) with a double and two RBI. Chaney Rogers (2017, Ringgold) led the pack at 5-for-11 (.455) with two doubles and a pair of RBI.
The Georgia Jackets program, based in Sandy Springs, Ga., and Milton, Ga., is only in its second year of existence. A second Jackets team, the Georgia Jackets National, also played in the 14u/15u PG-EC Invitational and advanced to the playoffs. The Georgia Jackets 16u played in the 16u PG-EC Invite but did not advance out of pool-play.
"We're just kind of getting our first foot in the door and we're just kind of trying it out," Auterson said. "Right now there's been a great response, great families, great kids and we're just kind of starting it up. A lot of these boys have been playing together for a long time. We've got a lot of good hearts, a lot of good families, and a lot of good people came together and said, 'Hey, this is a good idea.'
"So what we're doing now is trying to build them up, teach them the game, teach them some character and have them learn and leverage the game to fight through adversity," he continued. "These boys ... know how to play and were just kind of nurturing them now onto the next level."
Despite the Georgia Jackets Baseball 14u team's youth and inexperience as far as playing in Perfect Game tournaments, they showed poise beyond their years in their three pool-play wins. They were leading Orlando Baseball Academy 14u, 11-2, before OBA 14u exploded for eight runs in the bottom of the sixth, but still managed to hold on for an 11-10 win. The Jackets 14u then rallied from a 3-2 sixth inning deficit to beat the Knoxville Stars 15u, 4-3, before easing to an 8-0 win over the East Cobb Rockies 15u to clinch their pool championship.
"We go into every game looking to try win every ballgame," Auterson said. "The expectations for the boys are to go out there and play their best and at the end of the day it's not about the wins, it's about their best effort is required. At the end of the day they're still going to be loved, we're still going to see them, we're still going to appreciate their efforts.
"Whatever happens on the field doesn't determine how we feel about them -- this a free place to play fearlessly and not have somebody blasting down their throat where they feel their identity is based on what they do," he continued. "That's not this environment and that's not the Jackets program."
All things being equal, the Jackets were certainly enjoying their first go-around at a Perfect Game tournament early Saturday afternoon, enjoying their eight-inning victory while looking ahead to the evening's quarterfinal. Auterson, who played parts of six seasons in the Los Angeles Dodgers and Colorado Rockies minor league systems, seems to be enjoying himself as much as the players.
"This has been a fantastic experience," Auterson said. "We have a lot of guys from all over this place, so for them to come together this week, and we were able to practice every single days (along with playing games) so, again, it's been a fantastic experience."


text:
A Catholic on the Obama ticket?
Two Catholic governors are on the short list for the Democratic vice presidential candidate, according to an article in The New Republic [1]. Kathleen Sebelius, governor of Kansas, and Tim Kaine, governor of Virginia, are both said to be on the close to the top of possible choices. Both have executive experience, and both are governors of so-called "red states" key to an Obama victory. As Catholics, both may help Obama with his alleged "Catholic problem," a reference to his wide losses to Hillary Clinton among Catholics in the Democratic primaries, especially in must-win states such as Pennsylvania and Ohio. The fact that Sebelius is a woman might help Obama return to the good graces of especially middle-aged, middle class women who were the backbone of Clinton's campaign.
But the article's author, Michael Sean Winters, thinks Sebelius might actually hurt Obama among Catholics because of her controversial veto of a partial birth abortion ban. That ban, which Sebelius argued was unconstitutional and aimed at a single Topeka doctor, elicited a warning from Kansas City, Kansas Archbishop Joseph Naumann, who asked Sebelius to refrain from presenting herself for Communion until she fulfilled certain conditions set by the archbishop. Kaine, according to Winters, has a better relationship with his bishop, Francis Xavier DiLorenzo of Richmond, Virginia, whom Winters claims is "level-headed."
No matter what, however, the VP candidate won't be dictating abortion policy, so any Catholic on the ticket is going to have a hard time on the issue. If either is chosen, it will be interesting to see how they respond to the inevitable pressure from the more vocal members of the U.S. hierarchy.


text:
Editor's Comment: Sicca, or dry eyes and mouth, is included in both the Canadian and International case definitions for CFS/ME. In 1996, researchers in Japan found that fully one-third of the CFS/ME patients met the diagnostic criteria for Sjögren's.
Novel aspects of Sjögren's syndrome in 2012
By Angela Tincani et al.
Sjögren's syndrome (SS) is a systemic progressive autoimmune disease characterized by a complex pathogenesis requiring a predisposing genetic background and involving immune cell activation and autoantibody production. The immune response is directed to the exocrine glands, causing the typical 'sicca syndrome', but major organ involvement is also often seen.
The etiology of the disease is unknown. Infections could play a pivotal role: compared to normal subjects, patients with SS displayed higher titers of anti-Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) early antigens, but lower titers of other infectious agent antibodies such as rubella and cytomegalovirus (CMV) suggest that some infections may have a protective role against the development of autoimmune disease.
Recent findings seem to show that low vitamin D levels in patients with SS could be associated with severe complications such as lymphoma and peripheral neuropathy. This could open new insights into the disease etiology.
The current treatments for SS range from symptomatic therapies to systemic immunosuppressive drugs, especially B cell-targeted drugs in cases of organ involvement. Vitamin D supplementation may be an additional tool for optimization of SS treatment.
Source: BMC Medicine 2013, 11:93 doi:10.1186/1741-7015-11-93. Angela Tincani, Laura Andreoli2, Ilaria Cavazzana1, Andrea Doria, Marta Favero, Maria-Giulia Fenini, Franco Franceschini, Andrea Lojacono, Giuseppe Nascimbeni, Amerigo Santoro, Francesco Semeraro, Paola Toniati and Yehuda Shoenfeld.


text:
The ever-growing landscape of Queenstown's dining scene has a new attraction, Sasso. Meaning "stone" in Italian, Sasso Italian bistro is the creation of two local businessmen who both share a love for Italian cuisine.
Mark Rose, CEO of The Rees Queenstown and David Matthews, a British property developer, felt Queenstown was missing a modern Italian dining option so they've sunk their teeth into renovating the historic McNeill's stone cottage, in the centre of Queenstown village. Marble counters and a wooden bar have been sourced from Italy but when it came to selecting the chef they wanted to find a local as passionate about Italian food and wine as they were. Enter Chef Sal Grant. Having worked alongside prominent hospitality figures like Antonio Crisci at Poderi Crisci on Waiheke Island and his nephew Sergio Maglione at Toto, Grant is inspired by all things Italian and we caught up with him to find out how a boy who grew up in Paradise Valley, close to Rotorua, ends up with such a passion for Italian food.
Can you remember the first time you decided being a chef was for you?
When I was about 9 years old I was helping my grandma in her kitchen which was large and busy and always full of ingredients. The pantry shelves were overloaded with food and recipe books and there was a large kitchen table to work on - the perfect setting for a kid to get seriously motivated about food and cooking. So when Grandma asked me the proverbial "What are you going to be when you grow up?" I said, "I'm going to be a cook." She immediately gave me a lamb casserole recipe to make for dinner that night for the entire family. I made it straight away without any help from her. I just followed the recipe and it turned out to be pretty good - good enough to win over Grandma and the rest of the family. Their praise for my lamb casserole was all the encouragement I needed to really get into cooking.
Was she your first food hero?
Yes, my first inspiration was my Grandma - she is a magnificent cook - but since then I've worked with and sought inspiration from lots of exceptional cooks and chefs around the world. A personal favourite is Antonio Carluccio - he is the Godfather of Italian cuisine. He cooks naturally with ease and handles ingredients with a lot of love, attention to detail and pure passion - true rustic style. (Antonio Carluccio was born in Italy but set up shop in London where he went on to write 13 books and make numerous television programmes including the hugely popular Antonio Carluccio's Northern Italian Feast andSouthern Italian Feast.)
We hear the term "rustic" applied to Italian cuisine a lot - what does is mean to you?
Quality ingredients, prepared simply. For example we'll be serving fresh burrata, which is an Italian cheese made from mozzarella and cream, which we simply char-grill with pumpkin, thyme and a splash of balsamic vinegar and it is so unbelievably delicious.
You've worked in some of New Zealand's best Italian restaurants - what attracts you most about Italian cuisine?
Delicious ingredients simply executed with tonnes of passion.
If you want to create an authentic Italian meal, what are the essential ingredients you'll need?
Buffalo mozzarella, ripe tomatoes, fresh basil and high quality extra virgin olive oil.
Traditional or new spin when it comes to creating a dish?
Often I'll use a traditional recipe as a starting point and then tweak it using some of my own techniques and favourite ingredients to put a fresh spin on my version. Our timpano dish on the menu at Sasso is made with local smoked goat's cheese from Gruff Junction and really takes the dish to another level. It's our modern take on a traditional dish.
How well does our local produce align with the traditional Italian recipes?
We have exceptional local produce in this country and when locally grown Wakatipu herbs and vegetables are incorporated into a traditional Italian dish they add another dimension, creating an exceptional southern hemisphere flavour.
Favourite three ingredients you'd take to a desert island?
Olive oil, garlic and a bottle of pinot grigio.
Lastly, who would you most like to sit down and dine with?
Antonio Carluccio - I imagine it would be more of a culinary journey than just a meal. Failing that, Marilyn Monroe who could sing happy birthday to me.


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I don't have time to bake very often and there are a number of grains and seeds in my kitchen going to expire now. There is also a 2-day old rye sourdough in the fridge. It smelt very sour. Therefore I made this bread in an attempt to clear these stuff, and the result is not bad!
The bread contains a soaker with sesame seeds, rolled oats, linseed, semolina and sunflower seeds. The soaker had a strong semolina flavor but the flavor was not noticable in the bread. Instead the bread has a stronger sesame flavor especially in the crust.
The most interesting thing is the bread is only mildly sour. Maybe I don't have to throw out a 2-day old sourdough now. The bread is mildly sweet because of the grains too. I quite enjoyed this bread, especially enjoyed throwing anything I have on hand to the bread and returned with pleasing result. 😛
My recipe (600 g bread dough):
100% high gluten flour
20% rye sourdough (2-day old)
90% water (40% for soaking the seeds overnight with some salt added)
2% salt
1% instant yeast
30% seeds (sesame seeds, rolled oats, linseed, semolina, sunflower seeds)
Baked at 230C.


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Feb. 11, 2001
Santa Barbara, Calif. -
On Saturday, the UC Santa Barbara men's basketball team piled up an impressive 22 point second half lead over visiting Cal Poly, and then held on to defeat the Mustangs, 95-88 in a Big West Conference game at the Thunderdome.
Sophomore swingman Mark Hull scored a career-high 31 points, including 20 in a row over a five minute span bridging the first and second halves, to lead UCSB to its fifth straight win. Hull's 31 point effort was the most points scored by a Gaucho player since the 1998-99 season, and it bested his previous career-high by eight points.
"Mark was outstanding tonight," said Gaucho head coach Bob Williams. "He really stepped up and played at the top of his game. He has been so good all year that we sometimes take him for granted, but tonight he was really special."
Hull's effort was special, but in the final minutes, so too were the efforts of freshmen guards Nick Jones and Jacoby Atako.
With 5:47 remaining in the game, Mustang guard Mike Burris knifed through the lane and made a layup to cut UCSB's lead to 75-73. Jones responded with a layup of his own to make it 77-73. Cal Poly's David Henry then hit a pair of free throws with 5:00 to go, making it a two-point game for the last time, 77-75. Atako was then fouled by Burris on the inbounds play, and he hit both free throws to extend the advantage to 79-75.
After the Mustangs missed a shot, the Gauchos came down and, with time running out on the shot clock, Atako pulled up just inside the free throw line and nailed a 15-foot jumper, extending the lead to 81-75. UCSB then forced Cal Poly into a turnover and Jones took a pass and drove the left side, making a spectacular layup. In addition to the basket, Jones was fouled by Burris and he hit the free throw to extend the lead to 84-75.
Following a media timeout, Burris hit a three-pointer and then a layup to cut the Gaucho advantage to 84-80 with 2:36 remaining. Atako then made one of two free throws to give UCSB a five point lead. The Gauchos then forced Cal Poly's Chris Bjorklund to miss a short jumper and Jones came down and hit another layup to expand the lead to make it 87-80 Gauchos with 1:35 remaining.
Santa Barbara made 8-of-10 free throws in the final 1:15 to secure the win.
Hull led the way with 31 points, five rebounds and a pair of steals. Jones finished with 15 points and four rebounds. Atako had a career-high 11 points to go with four assists and three rebounds. Another freshman, Branduinn Fullove, had 14 points (on 4-of-5 from the field), five assists and two rebounds. Mike Vukovich, who fouled out in 15 minutes, had nine points, five rebounds and three blocked shots. Cal Poly was paced by a pair of freshmen as Jamaal Scott had 21 points and Varnie Dennis wound up with 15 points and eight rebounds.
For the game, the Gauchos made 29-of-43 shots from the field, 67.4, the fourth best mark in school history and the best since November of 1989. UCSB, however, committed 19 turnovers and allowed Cal Poly to grab 22 offensive rebounds. The Mustangs were limited to 37.7%, but they attempted 26 more shots than the Gauchos.
UCSB has now won five games in a row and they are alone in third place in the Big West with a 7-4 league mark. Overall, the Gauchos improve to 10-11. Cal Poly is now 8-13 overall and 2-8 in the Big West.
Santa Barbara returns to the court on Thursday, February 15 when they host defending Big West Champion Utah State in a 7:00 p.m. game at the Thunderdome.


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Atlassian Sourcetree is a free Git and Mercurial client for Windows.
Atlassian Sourcetree is a free Git and Mercurial client for Mac.
So you use several media players, sometimes at the same time (like 'shell-fm' running in a terminal, and something else with a GUI), and sometimes you like to try out new media players for a while. And you want the the media buttons on your keyboard to Do The Right Thing without having to reprogram keyboard shortcuts. This package is a solution to that problem.
You can set up keyboard shortcuts to map the play/pause button to 'player_do playpause' etc, and player_do generally does the Right Thing.
There is a command 'install_gnome' to help set up keyboard shortcuts on GNOME.
The currently supported programs can be seen by running 'player_do help'. Those that have been tested include the following:
- Audacious
- Amarok
- Banshee
- Clementine
- cmus
- Exaile
- Guayadeque
- moc
- Quodlibet
- Rhythmbox
- shell-fm
- VLC (2.0 and later)
Many other players will be supported due to support for the MPRIS DBUS protocol, without a specific backend. If you only need support for those players, consider using MPRIS-remote.
To add more supported programs, see the existing code in the 'backends' directory. Patches gratefully received!
Source code: http://bitbucket.org/spookylukey/playerdo/src
Bug tracking: http://bitbucket.org/spookylukey/playerdo/issues


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Marin Outdoors
Marin Outdoors
Sea Trek Kayak
There's no better way to explore the still beauty of Sausalito's Richardson Bay than by kayak. Paddle past artistic houseboats and take in the splendor of Mt. Tamalpais while otters and sea lions frolic nearby. No kayaking know-how? No problem. All gear and training are included.
Bay Breeze Sailing
Come aboard a 51-foot "Morgan Out Island" staysail ketch and get a view of the Bay Area from the water. Enjoy romantic sunsets under the Golden Gate Bridge, take in the glittering skyline of San Francisco and get an up-close look at historic Alcatraz.
Stinson Beach
Located just 20 miles north of San Francisco, Stinson Beach is part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area and rests between the shores of the Pacific Ocean and the foot of Mt. Tamalpais. There are 3 miles of sand, hundreds of miles of trails, and more than 100 picnic benches in a 51-acre park adjacent to the beach.
In the 1800s, sailors and whalers were drawn to the area's safe harbor, saloons, bordellos and gaming houses. Today Sausalito is a favorite tourist destination for its art galleries, restaurants and boutiques lining Bridgeway.
Pt. Reyes Station
At the south end of Tomales Bay sits this rustic community that has resisted development and retains its romantic, small-town atmosphere. It's also gateway to the Point Reyes National Seashore and nearby Point Reyes Lighthouse.
Muir Woods National Park
This lush, 560-acre park, featuring old-growth redwood trees, lets you experience the grandeur and natural cycles of a redwood forest. The park offers six miles of trails, including both leisurely walks and strenuous hikes. Unpaved trails lead hikers out of the canyon and connect with trails in Mount Tamalpais State Park.
Mount Tamalpais State Park
Stretching 2,571 feet above sea level, Mount Tamalpais affords visitors spectacular views of the ocean, San Francisco and the Bay. The 6,400-acre park offers ample picnic grounds, a hillside amphitheater and campsites throughout.
Golden Gate Bridge
Painted a cheery International orange, the Golden Gate Bridge connects San Francisco and Marin County and spans one of the most famous harbor entrances in the world. A tourist hot-spot, this is considered to be the most photographed sites in San Francisco.
Angel Island
Angel Island State Park offers 740 acres of undeveloped land right in the middle of the San Francisco Bay. Popular among hikers, bikers and picnickers, it provides spectacular views of Marin County, San Francisco and the greater Bay Area. It is only reachable by water, but a ferry from the Tiburon waterfront offers easy access.
Marin Headlands
The Marin Headlands was a former military reservation that is now an urban national park where you can take in some of the most dramatic views of San Francisco from its hillsides. This 12,000-acre protected area situated north of the Golden Gate Bridge is a great spot for hiking, biking and camping enthusiasts, and visitors can take docent-led tours of Point Bonita Lighthouse.
San Francisco
Spend a day in beautiful San Francisco, just over the Golden Gate Bridge. Take advantage of the museums, restaurants and attractions that make the city one of the top tourist destinations in the world. And explore neighborhoods like Chinatown, Fisherman's Wharf, the Mission, the Castro or North Beach to discover San Francisco's vibrant mosaic of cultures and lifestyles.
Wine Country
Just under an hour's drive from Marin, California's beautiful wine country boasts award-winning wineries and restaurants, small historic villages and dynamic large towns, and endless possibilities for enjoyment and exploration.


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Barcelona have drawn up a shortlist of players to replace Thiago Alcantara if he leaves this summer – and it includes Jack Wilshere and Juan Mata.
El Mundo Deportivo claims the Catalan giants are currently in the dark over the future of the Manchester United and Bayern Munich target, but are prepared should the Spanish international midfielder leave for pastures new.
The player's father, Mazinho, also claims to know 'nothing' with regards to the future destination of his son, with David Moyes hoping to secure a first major red Devils additions since taking the helm from Sir Alex Ferguson at Old Trafford.
Should the worst happen, in Barcelona's opinion at least, then the club is ready to move on quickly, with the paper claiming their technical secretary has drawn up a shortlist of targets.
Arsenal starlet Jack Wilshere is one of the names in the frame, after the England international impressed against the Blaugrana in the Champions League in 2011.
His progression with the Gunners has been affected by injury, but the 21-year-old remains one of the Premier League's top talents, and manager Arsene Wenger will be eager not to lose another gem to the Spanish giants following Cesc Fabregas' return 'home' from the Emirates Stadium two years ago.
Chelsea ace Juan Mata is also reportedly on the Barca hit-list, having been linked with a move for the Spanish star back in June.
Mata was in fine form for the Blues last season, impressing at Stamford Bridge under both Roberto Di Matteo and Rafa Benitez.
Jose Mourinho is now at the Chelsea helm, and given his frosty relationship with Barca, it's unlikely he would want to sell to his old rivals.
Other names on the Barcelona list include Ilkay Gundogan, Christian Erikson, Ander Herrera and Borja Valero.
Do YOU want to write for GiveMeSport? Get started today by signing-up and submitting an article HERE: https://www.givemesport.com/writeforgms


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Get the item back, and mention (as I think you should have when you first reminded her) that you needed the costume for an event. Then stop lending her things. Saying no is okay. We have a friend and neighbor who used to borrow food items from my mom all the time rather than drive 5 minutes to the grocery store. Finally mom started either not picking up the phone (neighbor would leave a message if it was important) or saying she didn't have the item. Neighbor stopped asking.
We have lived across the street from a large family since they moved in around 10 years ago, we used to be very close, but gradually drifted apart and my friendship with the mother is now just very casual. From time to time we'd borrow items from each other (an egg, a spice, etc on my end) On her end: garden tools, endless jars of pasta sauce, halloween costumes, a bottle of irish cream, etc. Not a big deal but, she NEVER returns the items that are not consumable. NEVER EVER. I always have to ask for them back. Not to mention the times when we were close and if I was going out to the store, she'd ask me to pick her up something (not cheap mind you, ie, saline solution!) and NEVER pay me for it.So, here is my problem right now. One of her children (she has 6) borrowed a Halloween costume my daughter used last year to use for a party this past Halloween. I remembered that I didn't see it in my daughter's closet, so I sent her a text around the end of November. She said she thought it had been returned, and if it wasn't it was packed away with the Halloween stuff. So I checked with my DD who said it had been returned. However, my DD obviously didn't check because it's not here. There was an activity at school today where you could dress up as a character from a book (which was this costume) I sent her a text on Monday, apologizing that we were mistaken, the costume had not been returned and we needed it by today. She said she'd get it back to us by Wednesday (yesterday). I had a business dinner and didn't get home until close to 10pm (too late to call or text) and found that the costume had not been returned. Thank Goodness my DD had a 2nd costume in backup that was appropriate for the theme.I am really annoyed at this point and want to let her know that it's not acceptable to do this. How can I (without being a big jerk)
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Most Pueblo residents probably thought the smoking ban debate had been "snuffed out" for good after voters approved a new city ordinance. Instead, the issue is heating up again. Voters will now have to go to the polls to decide another aspect of the smoking ban.
In May, Pueblo voters overwhelmingly approved a strict smoking ordinance. Since then, smoking has been banned in all public buildings, including bars and restaurants. Most everyone thought the special election would end the debate. But that's not what happened.
The bar owners say they've been losing money ever since smokers were forced outside. And cigarette butts now litter the pavement outside their businesses.
"We're starting to feel the pinch, let's put it that way." Ed Courtner owns the Eagle Bar in downtown Pueblo He wants voters to pass a new ordinance that allows smoking in bars. "I hope it does, and the people who support us get out and vote to let the bars smoke," he says.
Opponents of the initial smoking ban have collected more than 2,000 signatures to put a new smoking question on the November ballot. The amended smoking ordinance would allow smoking in free-standing bars. Restaurants could also allow smoking, depending on their profit ratio between food and alcohol.
Supporters of the smoking ban say that's not what voters wanted when they cast their ballots in the special election.
The Pueblo City Council will take up this issue on Sept. 8. But the only option the members have is to send this back to the voters in November.


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Christina's LIS Rant
Tag archives for libraries
I've only been a college student and grad student at one institution and I have to confess, the library treats students as second class citizens. Particularly technical services. When I mentioned in a sociology class that I am a librarian, a whole bunch of grad students piled on with complaints about interlibrary loan. One guy…


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What are they gonna do? Dismantle the postal service? Just consider it infrastructure and pay for any loss from taxes. Surely the people of the US don't want to be without a postal service?
Privatize it. UPS didn't lose $8.5 billion, it made $2.15 billion in profit.
USPS already adopted the "run government like a business" philosophy.
That doesn't work because it's not their money. People run things far more efficiently when it's their money or their bosses money on the line, rather than "everybody's" (i.e nobody's) money.
Right. And then they would say, I'm not going to spend my money delivering to those people out in the country. The postal service has the responsibility to deliver to every region of the country. A private company doesn't have the same responsibility. We could make it a prerequisite for whoever wins the contract, but then they would raise the prices significantly.
Right. And then they would say, I'm not going to spend my money delivering to those people out in the country. The postal service has the responsibility to deliver to every region of the country. A private company doesn't have the same responsibility. We could make it a prerequisite for whoever wins the contract, but then they would raise the prices significantly.
Which would then prove that the USPS is an effective organization, that has just been given an expensive mission then? Sure you can get a system that costs half what the USPS does but only does half too, seriously if private companies can't compete in an apples-to-apples bid to take over what's the point? What is wrong with the government negotiating a SLA on behalf of the people of what is to be delivered? These are our requirements. These are our penalties for failing to meet those requirements. Seriously, I've never understood the US on this, giving it all to one company then letting them have free reign is just to ask people to lube up and bend over. Most every such regulated industry here in Norway has strings attached, which is considered fair as long as all bidders compete under the same conditions.
Wake up. Do you want you post delivered as cheaply as possible or do you want you postal service to be a profitable as possible, you can not have both, profit you fool comes from gouging the consumers pocket.
Government services attempt to provide as much service as possible whilst charging as little as possible, sometimes resulting losses. Corporations attempt to provide as little service as possible whilst charging as much as possible for it, often resulting in multimillion dollar bonuses for corporate executives. Competition is what corporation strive to cripple by forming cartel, buy buying out the opposition and then ramping up prices to pay for it, by lying to consumers, by lobbying for reduced worker rights, by not paying tax, by seeking corporate welfare from the local, state and federal government.
So more efficient letter carriage, drop Saturday deliveries, drop pick up of mail from letter box have localised post boxes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post_box [wikipedia.org], just those simply changes will substantively reduce cost. Of course it you really want to do what a for profit corporation would do, simply drop all postal services to rural areas unless they are willing to pay substantially more for the service.
As for corporations as far as they are concerned your money is their money and they will and do lie, cheat and steal to 'er' recover it.
Hell no. America has an amazingly secure post system. You rarely have mail stolen (an enforced Federal Crime, USPS have Postal Inspectors that are very good at their job and I say this with personal experience). I know privatized systems in other countries -- THEY SUCK. Stolen packages, no accounting (everyone passes the buck, etc) while Postal workers are people THAT will most likely work there next year, with a good benefits, and do care if they lose their job or pension.
Cut some service, close down some unnecessary offices (I know a few miles from each other) and do some other tweaks. But the PO is Constitutionally mandated service, and it's ridiculous to get rid of it when all it needs are tweaks.
You rarely have mail stolen...
This should be emphasized. I visited a gold mine in the US once. Was astounded when they told us they mail their raw ingots (that contain gold, silver and platinum all mixed together) to their refiner by USPS. They matter-of-factly told us that only USPS had the kind of government-force-backed security and guarantees that made transporting around >$100K bars every day feasible.
I have never had USPS gore my package with a forklift and then try to tell me it was "inadequately packed" so they won't be paying the insurance claim. I can't say the same for other carriers.
You rarely have mail stolen...
This should be emphasized....
And the government sends secret documents [navy.mil] by the U.S. Postal Service.
+1 informative. The document linked by the parent is very interesting.
Perhaps that's part of the problem with USPS: a vastly over-the-top type of service -- it can hardly be cheap. I do understand that such service is good to have, but it should come at a hefty price. I presume that plenty of private companies would be glad to ship $100K bars around for 1% of their value. USPS can't profitably offer that service for anything less, yet they do precisely that. All that government-backed-security costs lots of money. It's not free just because it's law, enforcement costs real dollars.
Citation needed. From personal experience just in the last year, I've had my mail stolen once, I received other people's mail several times and I failed to receive some mail that I know was sent - probably delivered wrongly to god knows whom. Meanwhile, going to the post office is one of the most dreaded things for me because it ALWAYS means waiting in line for at least an hour and dealing with employees there who are understaffed, overwhelmed by the number of angry customers, demoralized and rude. I can't
I have to agree with the other posters; the USPS workers I've dealt with (and I've dealt with many, as I send a lot of international packages) are usually quite friendly, despite the angry and sometimes even insane customers they have to deal with. Yes, the lines can be long if you go during peak hours (usually lunch hour and after 5PM), but if you go during other hours it's not so bad. It also depends on the location. It's not the PO's fault the lines are long, the problem is that the general populace i
The post office nearest my house (14610) is used to capacity, perhaps even a bit understaffed relative to the lines.
The only reason they are loosing money is b/c Congress won't let them raise prices to what they need to be. Look at the USPS 2009 annual report, the first page brags about being the cheapest postal service in the world. So is it any wonder they are loosing money? If they raised the price of a stamp just 5 cents they'd be in the black again.
No doubt, lobbyists from Fedex and UPS are paying off our politicians to sabotage the USPS. First they will get rid of Saturday delivery, which, contrary to the stated reasons for it, will actually further erode their bottom line. That will ultimately lead to full privatization. Shortly after that happens expect the cost of mailing a letter to quickly approach 10 times of what it costs today in order to pay massive executive bonuses and shareholder dividends.
Psychologists should be writing books about this kind of thinking, it really is something and it is so common as well. Let me rephrase what you just said so it's more clear: Government causes trouble, in this case by not allowing USPS to raise rates to a realistic level. Why is that so? Presumably out of some misguided altruistic motives, so that poor people can afford to send mail etc or at least because that way it appears that they care more about the poor and all that crap, but lets assume for a moment
The problem isn't government, the problem is the lack of policing, and the lack of penalties for bribery and corruption. Bribery is a way of life in the US government, except they call them "campaign contributions".
In China, corruption is definitely a problem with their growth, but when they find it, the punishment is severe: a bullet in the brain. If we had punishments like that here for corruption or corporate malfeasance, there wouldn't be as much of it.
Aw, not more Ayn Rand nonsense. Those who have power manipulate those who don't, it can be like in China where the government manipulates corporations or in the US where corporations manipulate the government. Same with the branches of government where Congress is trying to tell the President what to do, the President is trying to tell Congress what to do and they both have their run-ins with the Judicial branch too. And they pretty much all try to manipulate the public, because the people are powerful but
No, not five cents, damnit.
They should raise postage rates to the next highest five cents, and then raise them again by five cents when those get too low.
The idiotic 'raise them random amounts' is part of what's reducing the amount of stuff people mail. First class letters should always be a multiple of 5 cents, so you just throw another 5 cents on there if they raised the rate.
Which means the next rate raise should be to 50 cents, because it's 44 cents right now.
In fact, all rates should be a multiple
UPS isn't under the same universal service obligations as the USPS.
Surely the people of the US don't want to be without a postal service?
Is it really that big of a deal?
All of those businesses that send you pointless letters all the time (TV/internet service, banks, etc) would suddenly have a huge incentive to convince people to accept them in email form (less waste).
It's a good thing that everyone has email access in their home.
I didn't say they'd go away, I said businesses would have more incentive to get people with email access to use it.
Surely the people of the US don't want to be without a postal service?
I could live without it. Nothing but crap in my mail box. Stuff gets lost or stolen all the time. It's a prime source of identity theft. It gives those with a nefarious purpose (lawyers) a way to claim they sent you something. I'm sure I lose stuff all the time in trying to find anything actually useful buried amongst the garbage. About the only things I every send through the mail are to services living in the internet dark ages of yesteryear (primarily government services).
They've got to be very careful; most of their revenue comes from bulk mail right now. If they destroy that market, they'll be insolvent much faster. A small increase in the cost of bulk mail might be survivable; a large increase will make bulk mail unaffordable for the local pizza place, which will quit using it, leaving the postal service much further in the hole. They'd do much better by being in grocery or prescription delivery service in a large way, like cheap next day delivery of refills from your loc
That "bulk rate pre-metered" stuff that costs next to nothing for a business to send, but still must be routed and delivered just like the payments I mail.
That might not actually be the right approach. If the postal service has to make the trip anyway, this bulk stuff can be delivered pretty much when they please. It might actually be making the most profit for them. The standard mail needs to be delivered on time, so the truck is already making the trip around - why not just pump some trash mail into your mailbox at the same time?
It might not be profitable to do those runs as a trip on its own, but I can't imagine that there is a lot of extra cost when pushing three envelopes into a mailbox rather than just one - meaning that carrying all those extra envelopes is almost pure profit.
Ah but why does the postal service "need to make this trip anyway"? If you cut out all the bulk stuff, they would probably only need to send a truck once a week. It would be way more convenient for me to only have to go out to my mail box once a week, and nobody is going to send anything urgent via regular mail (they always suggest it could take about 2 weeks anyway, and they don't guaranty even that).
The only reason we need daily USPS service is because our box would be overflowing with all the crap mail w
Ah but why does the postal service "need to make this trip anyway"? If you cut out all the bulk stuff, they would probably only need to send a truck once a week.
They need to make the trip every day as they have a volume of deliveries that have been sent first class. They might only have one first class delivery per street, but as that is the service they are promising when accepting a first class mail to be sent, they therefore have to "make the trip anyway" - so at that point they may as well fill the rest of the truck with crap and try to make a few bucks off it.
The point is, unless you change "first class" mail to be deliverable once per week rather than on a
I was under the impression that junk mail was how the USPS made all of its money already. I suspect they've carefully considered the rates for it.
Deliver Route 1, deliver Mo-We-Fr on Week 1, and Tu-Th-Sa on Week 2. On Route 2, do the opposite.
One carrier then can take care of 2 routes, cutting the workforce, vehicles, gas, and vehicle maintenance needed quite significantly. Make exceptions only for Express Mail, which is rare to Residential Addresses anyway.
Ravnitzky suggests a variety of useful data that could be gathered by postal trucks outfitted with sensors:
detailed weather readings,
Once a day? Not useful at all. There are already tens of thousands of automated weather stations scattered across the country - I bet the author isn't aware of that.
road conditions during storms
I don't see a detailed record of how road conditions are, once a day, on mostly minor roads would help - and the state police already do this for major highways.
road quality (e.g. pothole)
This is not particularly transient - just ask the carriers to phone them in.
gaps in cellular network coverage, sources of radio frequency interference
Um... I don't see the market case, but maybe this one is at least plausible.
and in a homeland security context, detection of chemical or radiological agents.
Again - once a day?
Once a day? Not useful at all.
Once a day may not make sense in the context of a sensor that captures data for a wide area, but it may in the context of sensors that capture data for very small, localized areas. Especially with regards to the security application that you dismiss out of hand - if postal trucks were driving around with radiological sensors while the Radioactive Boy Scout was building his breeder reactor, once a day would have been more than enough to detect what was going on before he gave hi
-Evening hours to make it easier to ship (i.e. easier to hand them MONEY!)
-Drop Tuesday/Thursday mail delivery.
-Switch to Hybrid trucks, as their driving habits are about as ideal as it comes for a hybrid rig (low speed, lots of start/stop driving).
-Offer a "Spam" blocker service as a subscription to stop junk mail for a fee.
-Make their package tracking actually track packages, not just magically go from "In Transit" to "Delivered".
-Contract with Google to put cameras on top for nearly daily updates to Google Maps Streetview.
More distopian:
-Use lobbyists to subvert things so that email/online cannot be legally used to conduct business.
-Figure out how to be another "Too Big To Fail" organization.
> Switch to Hybrid trucks
Here in Australia, deliveries in the suburbs are done on small, fuel effient motorcycles:
postie bikes [google.com.au]
They also have the advantage that they can be ridden right up to the mailbox, then across the driveways/footpath to the next letterbox.
So far as the spam blocker... as much as I'd like to be rid of junk mail, the USPS isn't the organization to do it.
It is inappropriate, immoral, and no doubt illegal to accept money from party "A' to deliver something to "B", and also accept money from "B" to not deliver that same thing.
If someone pays the post office the correct rate to deliver something, they have entered into a contract. The post office has to deliver it. They can't just throw it away.
Certainly the cost of delivery should reflect on the postage.
Let's say there is a house 5 miles away from the post office in its own secluded neighborhood, and the road's speed limit is 20 mph. It takes 15 minutes to drive there, and 15 minutes to drive back, for a total of 30 minutes. At a pay rate of $50k/yr [payscale.com], that's about $24 an hour. The total cost of that delivery, assuming there is only one first class mail in the truck for that house, is $12. The postage you pay right now for a first class mail is 44
Congratulations, you've just described exactly how the USPS works.
Bajillions of people who live in rural areas (like me) pick up their mail at the post office, because the cost of delivery to their homes is prohibitive. Universal service is not, in fact, universal, and never has been. Even UPS won't deliver to my house—I've got to pick up their packages at the post office (!), too.
Also, your example is ludicrous. Have you ever heard of a house so isolated that it's in a "neighborhood" (?) five miles away and yet, mysteriously, this five-mile-long stretch of road, devoid of any homes or businesses, has a 20 MPH speed limit on its road? Because I can't summon any scenario in which that would be the case.
You've apparently never lived in Vermont. But thanks for blaming your frustration on me, for the lack of universal postal service because you chose to live in a rural area.
Both sides of my family are from Vermont—Rutland, on one side, and the White River Junction area, on the other. I've spent a lot of time there, and I think I'm about as familiar as somebody who doesn't live there could reasonably be. And I can say that with fair confidence that Vermont's rural areas are no more rural or isolated than the rural areas of Virginia, where I live. (Compare Vermont's population density [wikipedia.org] and Virginia's population density [wikipedia.org]. While you're at it, compare the Blue Ridge Mountains t
I'm only presenting this argument, take it or leave it:
Google Map indicates that in vast majority of the rural area (pick any state you want), post offices are 10 miles apart in Euclidean distance. However, roads are not straight. That means you easily have to drive for 5 miles from the post office to a postal address. And these roads are curvy and in the woods, so 20 mph is a reasonable speed limit. How fast do you expect trucks to drive anyway? You're not driving a Ferrari.
I'm not arguing literally that t
The problem with the USPS is that it while it is not funded by the Federal Government, it is controlled by it. This quasi-enterprise status is completely impractical.
To illustrate the issue the USPS has massive overcapacity for the service level it provides. Any business faced with this would consolidate or downsize in order to save money. Unfortunately Congress won't let them do it. Any time the USPS wants to close a branch, the people living in the immediate area protest to their Congresscritter who then blocks it. The result is gross inefficiency.
If it were possible to slap the Congress upside the head on this issue the USPS would have a chance. Right now it doesn't.
The post office is going to lose money because unlike UPS, they can't raise rates. They have to visit everyone's house 6 days a week.
It's actually a very very efficient organization. It's the constraints put upon it that make it so that it loses money. Congress won't allow this cost saving, Congress won't allow to cut service. Congress won't allow it to raise rates.
If you know anyone that's a postal carrier, you know it's a stressful job. Hence the term, going postal.
The post office is going to lose money because unlike UPS, they can't raise rates. They have to visit everyone's house 6 days a week.
It's actually a very very efficient organization. It's the constraints put upon it that make it so that it loses money. Congress won't allow this cost saving, Congress won't allow to cut service. Congress won't allow it to raise rates.
Actually it has made profits fairly consistently in the past, it posted a profit of $910 million in 2006. Since then it has taken it on the chin with the economy, and - as you note - the refusal of Congress to allow cost reductions or raising rates to allow it to adapt.
Any number of service cut backs that a private company would make in a heartbeat can restore it to profitability, as can appropriate rate increases.
It is a highly efficient operation - you cannot find another postal system in the world that d
If the service benefits most US taxpayers. Besides which, if I were going to spend a fortune on sensors, I'd put them on garbage trucks instead. You *know* the garbage is getting picked up, but the mail truck doesn't necessarily go everywhere, all the time
The 'Wanted' posters at the post office...
You're there, you got your package, you're trying to mail something, this guy's wanted in 12 states.
Yeah, now what? Ok.
I check the guy standing in line behind me...
if it's not him, that's pretty much all I can do.
Actually they are over-funding their pension liabilities.
The following paper demonstrates that the current system of funding the Postal Service's Civil Service Retirement System pension responsibility is inequitable and has resulted in the Postal Service overpaying $75 billion to the pension fund.
The postal service is having money extracted from it each year, channeled to other parts of the federal government pension systems (mostly military). This is to help disguise how bad the federal budget is overdrawn. If the post office were allowed to fund their peoples' pensions the way every other government agency is, they'd be showing a profit.
I have had this idea for a long time for the postal service to both make and save money. I would pay a small monthly fee for the post office to NOT deliver my mail.
Specifically, I want a virtual PO Box. All my mail would go to a processing center where the front and back of each item is scanned, OCRed, and placed on a web site where I can look at it all. I can then direct them to send or shred any individual item. Because the return address, etc, is OCRed, I can also set up filters for mail I want autom
"No, no, I don't mind being called the smartest man in the world. I just wish it wasn't this one." -- Adrian Veidt/Ozymandias, WATCHMEN


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KLRU-Q's Saturday Night at the Movies presents a full-length feature film every Saturday night, plus extra content that gives the evening an exciting spin. Each film explores the work of legendary actors and actresses through many important films from their careers. Here is a peek of what this Saturday has in store:
8:00pm – Platoon
Two sergeants and a private join others lost in war along the 1967 Cambodian border. Cast: Tom Berenger, Willem Dafoe, Charlie Sheen.
10:00pm – Vietnam War Stories
Three million Americans served in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War. Most veterans are reluctant to speak of war experiences, but Vietnam veterans have been even more reluctant because of the controversy surrounding their war and the often hostile reception on their return. They put away their uniforms and tried to put away their memories, but these are memories that cannot be put away. "Vietnam War Stories" shares these personal memories of service and sacrifice, and gives us insight into the experience of war.


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Maria Damanaki
European Commissioner for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries
"The Arctic at a time of change"
Arctic Future Symposium
Brussels, 12 October 2011
Your Highness, Dear Mr Hubert, dear Minister, distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,
The Arctic is really at a time of change. But time is accelerating since our meeting last year.
A recent and alarming study from the NASA confirmed that Arctic Ocean could be entirely ice free in late summer 2013, as the ice is decreasing faster than all models predicted.
And what happens in the Arctic ocean, has consequences for the rest of the world an obviously for the European Union.
The European Union funded programme CLAMER (climate change and European marine ecosystems research) demonstrated last September that the European Seas are submitted to unprecedented quick changes, due to the Arctic ice melt. This change accelerates the rise of the sea temperature and the sea life migration and increases the erosion of European coastline.
At the same time, we are witnessing the increase of human activity in the Arctic. The big oil and gas companies Exxon and ROSNEFT have recently signed a Strategic Cooperation Agreement under which they plan to undertake joint exploration and development of hydrocarbon resources in the Arctic.
These two examples illustrate how time is going faster in this fragile and unique sea basin.
What's happening there is our common concern. It is our common responsibility to tackle not only the risks but also the opportunities that are opening, in order to ensure the sustainable development of the Arctic.
The EU plays its role here. We will continue to be a constructive and dynamic actor of the Arctic community by implementing the policy objectives defined in the European Commission's Communication on Arctic in November 2008. Three objectives here:
We have to contribute to the preservation of the Arctic with the people of the region. We have to ensure that the emerging industrialization and exploitation of the Arctic resources will follow the highest environmental and safety standards and will be accessible to all businesses on a level playing field. We have to contribute to enhanced governance in the Arctic through implementation of relevant agreements, frameworks and arrangements.
A first step was to discuss it with representatives of States other than those of the EU that have territory in the Arctic. I have visited Moscow, Washington and Ottawa. Later this month I will be in Oslo. In all these places I listened carefully to what these representatives in these capitals had to say about the Arctic – about their Arctic territories and about what they thought the EU ought to be doing.
There was a general agreement concerning the first two objectives of our policy –preserving the Arctic and promoting sustainable exploitation. The third objective took more explaining. I was asked what "enhanced governance" means in practice.
In hindsight we might have used a different wording. However I made it absolutely clear that we have no desire to impose any new structures. The EU fully upholds the existing law of the sea and respects the sovereign rights of the Arctic states.
In this context, we welcome the April 2010 agreement between Norway and Russia which divided a previously disputed area of the Barents Sea between the two countries and outlined how they would cooperate on hydrocarbons exploitation. This clearly demonstrates that existing law is sufficient and refutes vague suggestions of "security issues" or "potential conflict" in the Arctic.
So what did we mean by "contributing to enhanced governance in the Arctic ?
Simply this: We want to ensure that what we do in the Arctic aligns with what others are doing. We are doing a lot.
Up to now the EU's Seventh Framework Programme for research which started in 2007 and ends in 2013 has funded 46 projects or scholarships that are directly related to the Arctic. This comes to something like 20 million euro a year.
We have projects that study Arctic glaciers, Arctic ecosystems, icebreaker designs and the impact of human activity on its regions.
Now, as part of our effort to take a more integrated approach to the sea, a new project – Arctic Access – has started that will evaluate expected climatic impacts in the next twenty years on economic activity in the Arctic - marine transportation (including tourism), fisheries, marine mammals and the extraction of hydrocarbons. By covering all these activities within one project, cross –sectoral implications can be taken into account.
The European Space Agency coordinates a joint European effort to build and operate satellites for monitoring snow and ice. The most exciting recent development has been the successful testing of the Cryosat satellite. We have long been able to measure the extent of sea-ice but we now have the means to monitor the thickness. The next stage is even more exciting. The EU plans to use the Cryosat technology in future Sentinel satellites. Thus it will not only be useful for research but, by delivering measurements quickly, it will also help those who live and work in the Arctic.
Does this research and monitoring correspond to what is needed? This is what our "enhanced governance" means. Better cooperation. Are we building on what others have done or are we duplicating it? It is a simple matter of efficiency.
You are no doubt familiar with the objectives of the Arctic Council, or those of the Prince Albert Foundation, or those of International Polar Foundation.
All these use different words but the meaning is the same. It makes sense to work together.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It has been said that the EU wants more influence on the Arctic. A better way to put it would be that we want to ensure that what we do in the Arctic is in line with our Arctic needs and our Arctic objectives. We already influence the Arctic through our greenhouse gas emissions, or our imports of fuel and of fish. We already influence the Arctic through EU laws. Because some Arctic states are also EU Members, they need to follow EU rules in matters such as fisheries management, safety of vessels, control of hazardous chemicals, energy conservation, or greenhouse gas emissions.
A more urgent aim is for the Arctic to influence the EU. As I said, what we do makes a difference to the Arctic. We want more input from those who live and work in the Arctic to avoid unwanted mistakes. Does what we do meet our objectives of preserving the Arctic region? Are resources exploited sustainably? If not, what can we do to change?
The golden rule is to get in early. Understand when a change is in the air, speak to other stakeholders, and make your concerns known. We have begun a structured dialogue. We held a first meeting with indigenous people last year in Brussels, and a second this year in Tromsø. We encouraged them to look into different funds and cooperation instruments of the EU, such as the INTERREG IV North Sami programme, the Kolarctic cross-border cooperation programme, the Northern Periphery Programme, the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights. You have probably never heard of these programmes. Well, nor had the indigenous people who came to our meetings - even though those programmes were partly set up for their benefit. So we need to follow up these initial meetings.
Your highness, ladies and gentlemen,
Let me finish by giving you an example of our urgent challenges. The EU is committed to reducing carbon dioxide emissions, and all industrial sectors will be expected to contribute - including shipping or oil and gas exploitation. A Northern route across the summer ice-free Arctic, that cuts the distance between Asia and Europe by a third, is going to be extremely tempting for the shipping sector. In the meantime the offshore exploitation of hydrocarbons will increase in the Arctic region. How will this affect the people who live there? How will this affect the environment? What will happen if there is an accident? Cooperation is absolutely necessary.
Later this year we will report on the progress made since our 2008 Communication. This will be the launching pad for a reflection as to what our next steps should be. The governments of the Arctic States and the representatives of indigenous peoples will of course be included in the reflection process.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Mr Charles Emerson wrote something I really liked in his famous book "A future history of the Arctic":
"The Arctic has become a lens through which to view the world, and this ultimately, is why the Arctic matters".
I really think that we have to treat with the upmost respect the far north and its people. Because what is at stake there is the future of the planet..
Thank You
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Andres Marquez
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
PO Box 999
Richland, WA 99352
Send Email
Dr. Márquez is a computer and compiler architect who has worked on the design and development of the German Supercomputers Suprenum and MANNA, on design studies for the Hybrid Technology and MultiThreaded (HTMT) technology funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), National Security Agency (NSA), and Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and on academic multithreaded projects such as the Efficient Architecture for Running Threads (EARTH) and the Compiler Aided Reorder Engine (CARE).
Research Interests
- Dr. Márquez is the technical manager of the Energy Smart Data Center (ESDC) project that investigates the potential of cooling computing platforms with aerosols. His interests also include emerging architectures and compiler technologies that can be leveraged for the HPC domain such as field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), Graphics Processing Units (GPUs), Application Service Processors (ASPs), and novel interconnects and exotic computing technologies.
Education and Credentials
- Ph.D., Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Delaware, 2004
- M.S., Electrical Engineering, Technical University of Berlin, 1990
Affiliations and Professional Service
- Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
PNNL Publications
- Suetterlein JD, JB Landwehr, A Marquez, JB Manzano Franco, and GR Gao. 2016. "Asynchronous Runtimes in Action: An Introspective Framework for a Next Gen Runtime." In IEEE International Parallel and Distributed Processing Symposium Workshops, May 23-27, 2016 Chicago, Illinois, pp. 1744-1751. IEEE, PISCATAWAY, NJ. doi:10.1109/IPDPSW.2016.191
- Tan J, S Song, K Yan, X Fu, A Marquez, and DJ Kerbyson. 2016. "Combating the Reliability Challenge of GPU Register File at Low Supply Voltage." In Proceedings of the 25th International Conference on Parallel Architectures and Compilation (PACT '16), September 11-15, 2016, Haifa, Israel, pp. 3-15. ACM, NEW YORK, NY. doi:10.1145/2967938.2967951
- Landwehr JB, JD Suetterlein, A Marquez, JB Manzano Franco, and GR Gao. 2016. "Application Characterization at Scale: Lessons learned from developing a distributed Open Community Runtime system for High Performance Computing." In Proceedings of the ACM International Conference on Computing Frontiers (CF 2016), May 16-28, 2016, Como, Italy. ACM, NEW YORK, NY. doi:10.1145/2903150.2903166
- Tallent NR, KJ Barker, R Gioiosa, A Marquez, G Kestor, S Song, A Tumeo, DJ Kerbyson, and A Hoisie. 2016. "Assessing Advanced Technology in CENATE." In Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Networking, Architecture, and Storage (NAS 2016), August 8-10, 2016, Long Beach, California. IEEE, PISCATAWAY, NJ. doi:10.1109/NAS.2016.7549392
- Shrestha S, JB Manzano Franco, A Marquez, JT Feo, and GR Gao. 2015. "Jagged Tiling for Intra-tile Parallelism and Fine-Grain Multithreading." In Languages and Compilers for Parallel Computing: 27th International Workshop (LCPC 2014), September 15-17, 2014, Hillsboro, Oregon. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol. 8967, ed. J Brodman and P Tu, pp. 161-175. Springer , New York, NY. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-17473-0_11
- Shrestha S, JB Manzano Franco, A Marquez, S Zuckerman, S Song, and GR Gao. 2015. "Gregarious Data Re-structuring in a Many Core Architecture." In IEEE 17th International Conference on High Performance Computing and Communications (HPCC), 2015 IEEE 7th International Symposium on Cyberspace Safety and Security (CSS), 2015 IEEE 12th International Conference on Embedded Software and Systems (ICESS), August 24-26, 2015, New York, pp. 712-720. IEEE, Piscataway, NJ. doi:10.1109/HPCC-CSS-ICESS.2015.291
- Shrestha S, GR Gao, JB Manzano Franco, A Marquez, and JT Feo. 2015. "Locality Aware Concurrent Start for Stencil Applications." In IEEE/ACM International Symposium on Code Generation and Optimization (CGO 2015), February 7-11, 2015, San Francisco, California, pp. 157-166. IEEE , Piscataway, NJ. doi:10.1109/CGO.2015.7054196
- You Y, H Fu, S Song, A Randles, DJ Kerbyson, A Marquez, G Yang, and A Hoisie. 2015. "Scaling Support Vector Machines On Modern HPC Platforms." Journal of Parallel and Distributed Computing 76:16-31. doi:10.1016/j.jpdc.2014.09.005
- Marquez A, JB Manzano Franco, S Song, B Meister, S Shrestha, T St. John, and GR Gao. 2014. "ACDT: Architected Composite Data Types Trading-in Unfettered Data Access for Improved Execution." In The 20th IEEE International Conference on Parallel and Distributed Systems (ICPADS 2014), December 16-19, 2015, Hsinchu, Taiwan, pp. 289-297. IEEE, Piscataway, NJ. doi:10.1109/PADSW.2014.7097820
- You Y, S Song, H Fu, A Marquez, M Mehri Dehanavi, KJ Barker, K Cameron, A Randles, and G Yang. 2014. "MIC-SVM: Designing A Highly Efficient Support Vector Machine For Advanced Modern Multi-Core and Many-Core Architectures." In IEEE 28th International Parallel and Distributed Processing Symposium (IPDPS 2014), May 19-23, 2014, Phoenix, Arizona, pp. 809-818. IEEE Computer Society, Los Alamitos, CA. doi:10.1109/IPDPS.2014.88
- Vishnu A, S Song, A Marquez, KJ Barker, DJ Kerbyson, K Cameron, and P Balaji. 2013. "Designing Energy Efficient Communication Runtime Systems: A View from PGAS Models." Journal of Supercomputing 63(3):691-709 . doi:10.1007/s11227-011-0699-9
- Sego LH, A Marquez, A Rawson, T Cader, KM Fox, WI Gustafson, Jr, and CJ Mundy. 2013. "Implementing the Data Center Energy Productivity Metric in a High Performance Computing Data Center." Chapter 4 in Design Technologies for Green and Sustainable Computing Systems, ed. PP Pande, A Ganguly and K Chakrabarty, pp. 93-116. Springer, New York, NY.
- Chin G, Jr, A Marquez, S Choudhury, and JT Feo. 2012. "Scalable Triadic Analysis of Large-Scale Graphs: Multi-Core vs. Multi-Processor vs. Multi-Threaded Shared Memory Architectures." In Proceedings of the 2012 IEEE 24th International Symposium on Computer Architecture and High Performance Computing, (SBAC-PAD) October 24-26, 2012, New York, NY, pp. 163-170. IEEE Computer Society, Los Alamitos, CA. doi:10.1109/SBAC-PAD.2012.39
- Evans J, G Sandeep, K Karavanic, A Marquez, and G Varsamopoulos. 2012. "Evaluating Performance, Power, and Cooling in High Performance Computing (HPC) Data Centers ." In Handbook of Energy-Aware and Green Computing, ed. I Ahmad and S Ranka. Chapman and Hall/CRC, Boca Raton, FL.
- Sego LH, A Marquez, A Rawson, T Cader, KM Fox, WI Gustafson, Jr, and CJ Mundy. 2012. "Implementing the Data Center Energy Productivity Metric." ACM Journal on Emerging Technologies in Computing Systems 8(4):Article No. 30. doi:10.1145/2367736.2367741
- Shrestha S, CY Su, AM White, JB Manzano Franco, A Marquez, and JT Feo. 2012. "MODA A Framework for Memory Centric Performance Characterization." In Workshop on High-performance Infrastructure for Scalable Tools (WHIST), June 29, 2012, Venice, Italy. Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY.
- Chin G, Jr, S Choudhury, LJ Kangas, SA McFarlane, and A Marquez. 2011. "Evaluating In-Clique and Topological Parallelism Strategies for Junction Tree-Based Bayesian Inference Algorithm on the Cray XMT." In Proceedings of the IEEE International Symposium on Parallel and Distributed Processing Workshops and Phd Forum (IPDPSW 2011), May 16-20, 2011, Anchorage, Alaska, pp. 1710-1719. IEEE, Piscataway, NJ. doi:10.1109/IPDPS.2011.328
- Knapp R, K Karavanic, S Krishnamoorthy, and A Marquez. 2011. "Power- and Cooling-Aware Parallel Performance Diagnosis." In Parallel and Distributed Computing and Systems (PDCS 2011), December 14-16, 2011, Dallas, Texas, pp. Paper No. 757-114. ACTA Press, Anaheim, CA. doi:10.2316/P.2011.757-114
- Minnich RG, CL Janssen, S Krishnamoorthy, A Marquez, M Gokhale, P Sadayappan, E Van Hensbergen, J McKie, and J Appavoo. 2011. "Fault Oblivious eXascale Whitepaper." In Proceedings of the 1st International Workshop on Runtime and Operating Systems for Supercomputers (ROSS 2011), held in conjunction with the 25th International Conference on Supercomputing, May 31, 2011, Tucson, Arizona, ed. K Iskra and T Hoefler, pp. 17-24. Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY. doi:10.1145/1988796.1988800
- Vishnu A, S Song, A Marquez, KJ Barker, DJ Kerbyson, K Cameron, and P Balaji. 2010. "Designing Energy Efficient Communication Runtime Systems for Data Centric Programming Models." In IEEE/ACM Internationall Conference on Green Computing and Communications (GreenCom 2010) and the International Conference on Cyber, Physical and Social Computing (CPSCom 2010), December 18-20, 2010, Hangzhou, China, ed. P Zhu, et al, pp. 229-236. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc., Piscatawy, NJ. doi:10.1109/GreenCom-CPSCom.2010.133
- Chin G, Jr, S Choudhury, LJ Kangas, SA McFarlane, and A Marquez. 2010. "Fault Detection in Distributed Climate Sensor Networks using Dynamic Bayesian Networks." In Proceedings of the 6th IEEE International Conference on e-Science (e-Science 2010), December 7-10, 2010, Brisbane, Australia, pp. 121-128. IEEE Computer Society, Los Alamitos, CA. doi:10.1109/eScience.2010.22
- Shah AR, JN Adkins, DJ Baxter, WR Cannon, D Chavarr�a-Miranda, S Choudhury, I Gorton, DK Gracio, TD Halter, N Jaitly, JR Johnson, RT Kouzes, MC Macduff, A Marquez, ME Monroe, CS Oehmen, WA Pike, C Scherrer, O Villa, BJM Webb-Robertson, PD Whitney, and N Zuljevic. 2010. "Applications in Data-Intensive Computing." In Advances in Computers, vol. 79, ed. M Zelkowitz, pp. 1-70. Academic Press Inc., San Diego, CA.
- Scherrer C, TR Shippert, and A Marquez. 2009. "Accelerating Numerical Calculation on the Cray XMT." In Proceedings of the IEEE International Symposium on Parallel & Distributed Processing (IPDPS 2009), May 23-29, 2009, Rome, Italy. IEEE Computer Society, Los Alamitos, CA.
- Cader T, V Sorell,, L Westra, and A Marquez. 2009. "Liquid Cooling in Data Centers." ASHRAE Transactions 115(pt. 1):231-241.
- Chin G, Jr, A Marquez, S Choudhury, and K Maschhoff. 2009. "Implementing and Evaluating Multithreaded Triad Census Algorithms on the Cray XMT." In IEEE International Symposium on Parallel & Distributed Processing (IPDPS 2009), May 25-29, Rome, Italy. IEEE, Piscataway, NJ. doi:10.1109/IPDPS.2009.5161109
- Sisk DR, MA Khaleel, A Marquez, DD Hatley, T Cader, and RR Schmidt. 2009. "Real-time Data Center Energy Efficiency At Pacific Northwest National Laboratory." ASHRAE Transactions 115(Part I):242-253.
- Tuma P, A Marquez, LH Sego, R Schmidt, and T Cader. 2009. "Energy Efficient and Sustainable HPC at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory ." In Laboratories for the 21st Century (Labs21) Annual Conference, September 16-18, 2008, San Jose, California. International Institute for Sustainable Laboratories, Arlington, VA.
- Villa O, D Chavarr�a-Miranda, V Gurumoorthi, A Marquez, and S Krishnamoorthy. 2009. "Effects of floating-point non-associativity on numerical computations on massively multithreaded systems." In Cray User Group Meeting (CUG 2009), May 4-7, 2009, Atlanta, Georgia. Cray User Group, Inc., Corvallis, OR.
- Chavarr�a-Miranda D, A Marquez, J Nieplocha, KJ Maschhoff, and C Scherrer. 2008. "Early Experience with Out-of-Core Applications on the Cray XMT." In IEEE International Symposium on Parallel and Distributed Processing, IPDPS 2008. , pp. 2379-2386. IEEE , Piscataway, NJ. doi:10.1109/IPDPS.2008.4536360
- Chavarr�a-Miranda D, DK Gracio, A Marquez, J Nieplocha, C Scherrer, and HJ Sofia. 2008. "Cray XMT Brings New Energy to High-Performance Computing." SciDAC Review Fall 2008(9):36-41.
- Beckman MT, and A Marquez. 2008. "PNNL streamlines energy-guzzling computers." DOE Pulse 272(October 6, 2008):2.
- Nieplocha J, D Chavarr�a-Miranda, V Tipparaju, Z Huang, and A Marquez. 2008. "A parallel WLS state estimator on shared memory computers." In Proceedings of The 8th International Power Engineering Conference, IPEC 2007, pp. 395-400. IEEE , Piscataway, NJ.
- Chavarr�a-Miranda D, and A Marquez. 2007. "Assessing the Potential of Hybrid HPC Systems for Scientific Applications: a case study." In Proceedings of the 4th ACM International Conference on Computing Frontiers, May 7-9, 2007, Ischia, Italy, pp. 173-182. ACM Press, New York, NY. doi:10.1145/1242531.1242558
- Cader T, L Westra, and A Marquez. 2007. "Technologies for the Energy Efficient Data Center." In Proceedings of ASME InterPACK '07 (IPACK2007) July 8-12, 2007, Vancouver, British Columbia, CANADA, p. 12 pages . ASME International, New York, NY.
- Cader T, LJ Westra, A Marquez, HJ Mcallister, and KM Regimbal. 2007. "Performance of a Rack of Liquid-Cooled Servers." ASHRAE Transactions 113(Part 1):101-114.
- Nieplocha J, A Marquez, F Petrini, and D Chavarr�a-Miranda. 2007. "Unconventional Architectures for High-Throughput Sciences." SciDAC Review (5, Fall 2007):46-50.
- Nieplocha J, A Marquez, J Feo, D Chavarr�a-Miranda, G Chin, Jr, C Scherrer, and N Beagley. 2007. "Evaluating the potential of multithreaded platforms for irregular scientific computations." In Proceedings of 4th ACM International Conference on Computing Frontiers, May 7-9, 2007, Ischia, Italy, pp. 47 - 58. ACM Press, New York, NY. doi:10.1145/1242531.1242541
- Nieplocha J, A Marquez, J Feo, D Chavarr�a-Miranda, G Chin, Jr, C Scherrer, and N Beagley. 2007. "Evaluating the Potential of Multithreaded Platforms for Irregular Scientific Computations." In Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Computing Frontiers, Ischia, Italy, May 07 - 09, 2007, pp. 47-58. ACM Press, New York, NY.
- Scherrer C, N Beagley, J Nieplocha, A Marquez, J Feo, and D Chavarr�a-Miranda. 2007. "Probability Convergence in a Multithreaded Counting Application." In Parallel and Distributed Processing Symposium (IPDPS 2007), pp. 1-5. IEEE , Piscataway, NY. doi:10.1109/IPDPS.2007.370688
- Nieplocha J, A Marquez, V Tipparaju, D Chavarr�a-Miranda, RT Guttromson, and Z Huang. 2006. "Towards Efficient Parallel State Estimation Solvers on Shared Memory Computers." In Highspeed Computation Panel of the Proceedings of the 2006 IEEE Power Engineering Society General Meeting, 18-22 June 2006 , pp. 1-5. IEEE , Piscataway, NJ.


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Programmr.com has an ongoing coding contest sponsored by http://www.dice.com/ and we are giving away $800 in cash prizes. All you have to do is visit our contest page http://www.programmr.com/dice-jobs-coding-contest , write 100 lines of codes, submit your entry and get a chance at being one of the winners.
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