text:
Failure of imagination strikes again. From a national security perspective, the political contagion sweeping across the Middle East has an air of déjà vu to it. Haven't we been here before? More than a few times. In a decade punctuated by serial strategic shocks that included 9/11, the Iraq and Afghan insurgencies, and the global financial meltdown – the United States is yet again caught flat-footed by a seismic challenge to the status quo. This is all occurring as if disintegration of the Soviet bloc 20 years ago wasn't enough to energize a more systematic US government approach to asking "What if?"
Unfortunately, failed imagination alone isn't the culprit. Politics and political sensitivities stifle reasoned and imaginative appraisal of all possible strategic shocks as well. Often when prudent planning for very real worst-case conditions is raised as an option, a range of obstacles are thrown up by well-meaning stakeholders inside the bureaucracy. The most common among them: "If this gets out, we might offend country X, make others believe we intend or hope that X happens, or believe with some certainty that X will occur and that we are preparing for it."
Are you smarter than a US diplomat? Take our Foreign Service Exam.
Thus, we find peace in pretending that the worst case simply will not come to pass, or we over-generalize analysis to the point of rendering it useless. Though a common fault of successive administrations, failure to discreetly ask and answer impolitic questions and identify their most dangerous implications is in fact an abdication of government's core responsibility to protect the country's long-term interests by tirelessly peering over the next hilltop.
In practice, this means we persistently find ourselves hoping for the best, while it seems we are constantly reacting to the worst or most disruptive circumstances with only blank stares and shake-and-bake power point presentations to guide crisis planning. We may thrive on calamity. It just may bring out the best in our senior leadership. But surely taking each crisis as it comes with very little advanced consideration can't be the preferred approach to policy development, when almost all foundational assumptions are suddenly laid bare as flawed or fundamentally wrong. Perhaps Egypt will change the way we look into the future. But probably not.
What strategic shocks look like
We know what strategic shocks look like. We have a lot of recent experience with them. They are sudden, watershed moments in history that force governments to fundamentally reorient strategy, irrevocably changing the way they, their institutions, their friends, and their competitors do business. They are "game changers" precisely because they suddenly and permanently alter the context, object, and rules of the game. In this regard, football becomes soccer, catching less vigilant teams totally unaware in the middle of a contest. Then, often just as suddenly, soccer becomes rugby, eliminating the last vestiges of recognizable structure.
The speed of onset and the breadth and depth of impact mark strategic shocks as distinct from run-of-the-mill surprise. After all, Saddam Hussein surprised everyone by invading Kuwait. Yet, the US did not have to fundamentally alter the way it did business to eject Iraq's Warsaw Pact-equipped army from territory it illegitimately seized by invasion. It was a war the US had prepared for since the end of World War II. The only substantive changes were the specific opponent and the venue. Contrast that with the experience of Iraq circa 2006 to 2007 and the wholesale reorientation on counterinsurgency that ensued.
Indeed, most shocks really aren't surprises at all. Instead, they spring either from known threats whose hazard is grossly underestimated or that unexpectedly defy prediction about when they will manifest. The latter suddenly emerge mature with very little strategic warning. In short, a strategic shock most often comes from an unforeseen escalation or mutation of a widely recognized hazard. These hazards are both observable and probably actively observed by someone. However, somebody more important along the way devalued their likelihood or strategic impact and, thus, limited detailed consideration of their potential for far-reaching harm or disruption.
What's really surprising? Our lack of preparation.
A thought experiment is in order here. Was it really surprising that terrorists attacked New York and Washington? Was it really a surprise that the attacks emerged from Afghan sanctuary? Or, that intervention there would collide head-on with a tradition of successful irregular resistance? And, in the current context, is it really surprising that decades of authoritarian rule, a growing Arab youth bubble, and an uncontainable social media revolution might combine into a dislocating Pan-Arab political wildfire? On all counts, not really.
What is surprising in almost every instance is our collective under-preparedness for high impact events that occur without the benefit of adequate policy-level anticipation and that promise fundamental disruption. This is an apolitical blind spot. It knows no party distinction and is born of a bureaucracy captured by the inbox. There is no shortage of blue-ribbon findings on this subject. Yet, sadly, we are getting a clinic on it again.
Six countries in the Arab world where 'winds of change' are blowing
It is high time we recognize the value that advanced consideration of strategic shocks holds for success in the 21st century. In reality, there probably are only a handful of true, game-changing strategic shocks for the United States. Contagious disorder and insecurity across the Middle East is certainly among them. With no other alternative now but reacting to it – doing our best to identify the breadth and depth of its impact and the loci of its likeliest aftershocks – it would be useful to begin asking "What's next?" more systematically. Past experience indicates that flying blind into crises of this magnitude is no longer an option. The world is moving too fast, and the costs are too great.
Nathan Freier is a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.


text:
Monday, July 20, 2009
Strawberry Tart
I am back!
It's been a while since my last post. I know, I know… this blog went into hibernation for almost 2 months. It was never my intention to neglect you guys, but it was a case of the spirit-being-willing-but-the-body-is-weak for me.
It has really been so hot these past few weeks here in Miami. After the initial rainy season as the summer began, the heat came with vengeance! We have been averaging 90+ degrees here everyday, with some days even up to the 100's. Talk about being hot and humid!
The heat sucks up all my energy, it seems, that at the end of the day, I barely have enough left to get through dinner. I'm pretty sure that the heat has affected my brain as well, and has caused the creative side of it to go into its sleep-mode. Hence, the lack of inspiration to blog.
The truth is, I've also been busy. Last month, we went on a road trip to visit Mr. J's family in Ohio. Yep, we drove from Miami to Akron. It was a long drive, but we enjoyed every bit of that adventure. The best thing about driving is being able to do everything at our own pace. We stopped where we wanted to and even did some things that were totally unplannned! I used to not like doing anything not planned, but in the few years that I've been married, I've learned to be flexible. Thanks to Mr. J who taught me how to relax (that means, to do away with planning once in a while) and just enjoy. Spontaneity does bring good surprises -at times- wouldn't you agree?
Growing up in the tropics, it seemed that we have summer all year long - we can practically swim almost the whole year round! In my early teenage years, we lived in an area where the beach was just a few minutes away. My father loved to go snorkeling, so we were at the beach almost every weekend! Can you imagine how dark I got as a young girl?
I have so much memories of our countless family beach outings. Thinking about those times never fail to make me smile.
Just like the berries that abound in summer. They make me smile too.
Another reason why I love this time of the year -- berries. There's the strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, black currants, cherries - you name it, I love them all. (here in Florida, the strawberry season comes a bit earlier, but at this time, we still enjoy the strawberries coming from the other parts of the country.)
I enjoy the berries eaten as is, but I equally love them on desserts as well.
So, here's a classic "strawberry-licious" tart which I've done a few weeks ago. To make this tart extra special, I made the pie crust as well. If you don't have time to make the pie crust, you can use the store-bought ones by all means. Making the crust requires a bit of effort, yes, but it is definitely well worth doing if you can.
Sharing this tart to Lasang Pinoy Sunday (La.PiS)– Crusty – for a flaky, perfect pie crust.
Have lots of fun family get-aways and memories in summer!
Strawberry Tarts
Ina Garten, Barefoot in Paris
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) cold unsalted butter, diced
2 tablespoons cold shortening (recommended: Crisco)
1/4 cup ice water
2 cups Pastry Cream, recipe follows
2 pints whole strawberries, hulled and halved
1/3 cup apricot jelly
3 tablespoons shelled pistachios, halved, optional
Combine the flour, sugar, and salt in a small bowl and place in the freezer for 30 minutes. Put the flour mixture in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade. Add the butter and shortening and pulse about 10 times, or until the butter is in the size of peas. Add the ice water and process until the dough comes together. Dump on a well-floured board and form into a disk. Wrap in plastic and chill for at least 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
Roll out the dough and fit into 4 (4 1/2-inch) tart pans with removable sides. Don't stretch the dough when placing it in the pans or it will shrink during baking. Cut off the excess by rolling the pin across the top of each pan. Line the tart shells with a piece of buttered aluminum foil, butter side down, and fill them with dried beans or rice. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove the beans and foil, prick the bottom of the shells all over with a fork, and bake for another 15 to 20 minutes until lightly browned. Set aside to cool.
Before serving, fill the tart shells with the pastry cream. Arrange the berries decoratively on top of the cream. Melt the apricot jelly with 1 teaspoon of water and brush the top of the tarts. Sprinkle with pistachios, if using, and serve.
Pastry Cream:
5 extra-large egg yolks, room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1 1/2 cups scalded milk
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon Cognac
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 tablespoon heavy cream
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the egg yolks and sugar on medium-high speed for 4 minutes, or until very thick. Reduce to low speed, and add the cornstarch.
With the mixer still on low, slowly pour the hot milk into the egg mixture. Pour the mixture into a medium saucepan and cook over low heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until the mixture thickens, 5 to 7 minutes. Don't be alarmed when the custard comes to a boil and appears to curdle; switch to a whisk and beat vigorously. Cook, whisking constantly, for another 2 minutes; the custard will come together and become very thick, like pudding. Stir in the vanilla, Cognac, butter, and heavy cream. Pour the custard through a sieve into a bowl. Place plastic wrap directly on the custard and refrigerate until cold.
24 comments:
- Arfi Binsted said...
you've been enjoying summer by the look of it. yum!
- July 21, 2009 at 1:55 AM
- Rosa's Yummy Yums said...
Oh, can I have one? Those tartlets look so pretty and tempting!
- July 21, 2009 at 6:43 AM
- oggi said...
Summer fruits and berries tarts make me happy.:)
I love the addition of pistachios on the lovely tarts. Yummy!
- July 21, 2009 at 7:29 AM
gorgeous photo...
- July 21, 2009 at 7:52 AM
- Grace said...
i'm glad you're back, and with a gorgeous little tart, no less! they're just beautiful, and the strawberry-apricot-pistachio combination just sounds heavenly!
- July 21, 2009 at 9:44 AM
- Zoe said...
These are such sweet tarts. Glad you are back!
- July 21, 2009 at 10:33 AM
- girlichef said...
this sounds and looks tasty!! I love the pistachios w/ it...yum :D
- July 21, 2009 at 11:02 AM
- The Duo Dishes said...
Oooh these sound great. Adding the 'stachios is a nice touch.
- July 21, 2009 at 12:53 PM
- Leelee said...
OMG! It looks delicious!!! Next time I have a dinner party I will try this recipe!!! It's good to see you at it again!!! Love Ya!
- July 21, 2009 at 5:04 PM
- Annie said...
Welcome back! Strawberries are a great inspiration for me as while and your tart looks amazing!
- July 21, 2009 at 5:23 PM
- _ts of [eatingclub] vancouver said...
Welcome back!
- July 21, 2009 at 7:49 PM
- Juliana said...
Wow, lovely tart...great idea since strawberries are in season...and welcome back :-)
- July 23, 2009 at 1:51 PM
- Jude said...
Nice way to get back in the blogging loop again. Welcome back!
Not quite ready to let go of strawberries just yet.
- July 23, 2009 at 9:36 PM
- Mirage said...
Wow, those looks pretty and yummy!
PS. About my post regarding the grudge against the Phil President- doesnt necessarily reflect my views on her---those were what I heard but what I saw when I was there was really troubling...am neutral wehn it comes to govt stuff...
- July 24, 2009 at 12:40 AM
- Dhanggit said...
oh this is a beautiful tart and looks really delicious!
- July 24, 2009 at 3:50 AM
- Lorraine @ Not Quite Nigella said...
Wha a beautiful tart and I love your photography! Very stylish! :D
- July 25, 2009 at 4:16 PM
- Nutmeg Nannyh said...
I love the added pistachios. As soon as I saw a picture of your tart I wondered if it was Ina's recipe:)
- July 27, 2009 at 8:31 PM
- noobcook said...
welcome back! :) what beautiful tarts and such a great use of strawberries.
- July 28, 2009 at 8:30 PM
- faisal said...
That's yummy.
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- July 29, 2009 at 3:27 AM
- Midge said...
I love how the pale green of the pistachios goes with the bold scarlet of the strawberries. And the flavors ~ I can imagine how good these must have been!
- July 31, 2009 at 2:25 AM
- Maris said...
That looks SO pretty. I want one tonight!
- August 9, 2009 at 12:25 PM
- bethany (Dirty Kitchen Secrets) said...
Simple, Beautiful & Perfect!
- October 7, 2009 at 6:51 AM
We bumped into your blog and we really liked it - great recipes YUM YUM.
We would like to add it to the Petitchef.com.
We would be delighted if you could add your blog to Petitchef so that our users can, as us,
enjoy your recipes.
Petitchef is a french based Cooking recipes Portal. Several hundred Blogs are already members
and benefit from their exposure on Petitchef.com.
To add your site to the Petitchef family you can use http://en.petitchef.com/?obj=front&action=site_ajout_form or just go to Petitchef.com and click on "Add your site"
Best regards,
- November 1, 2009 at 1:28 AM
- Jescel said...
Thanks Vincent... I will do that.
- November 2, 2009 at 6:34 AM

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Famous Men's Underwear Ads Replaced With "Real Men"
Though we can hardly imagine replacing male models David Beckham, Cristiano Ronaldo, Freddie Ljundberg and David Gandy, the Sun has turned our preconceptions of who needs to model luxe underwear upside down. In a treatise on the disconnection with reality that men's underwear ads seemingly promote, the Sun has replaced "real men" in the aforementioned's most iconic shots.
Above, a "real man" takes the place of David Gandy for his famed Dolce & Gabbana shot. Just as sexy to us!
Here, a "real man" steps in for Freddie Ljunberg's work with Calvin Klein. Sign us up.
(The next two replaced internationally-known underwear models should be obvious)
What do you think, Instincters? Would underwear ads starring "average Joes" work as successfully?
(Source: Queerty)
What's wrong with beauty? I think it's just natural to use handsome and well-built men as models.
Likewise, should restaurants serve 'Average Joe' food? Should only average people be allowed to university? Should museums buy art from average artists only? Should the olympics consist of average sportsmen, etc? I hope not.
I thought we only had this flair for mediocrity here in Scandinavia ...
I never liked the Calvin Klein-style images, though. They look like porn for women - oiled-in, sweaty and exaggerated. Obviously, male underwear ads are aimed at women who choose their partners' underwear. I don't understand why men will tolerate this, but I am gay anyway ...
David Beckham is a real person, isn't he? You are beginning to see he is not young any more. I think the fact that he is still used as a model proves that the fashion industry is not so narrow-minded any more. At least not when it comes to male models. Unfortunately, they still use mostly uniform and skinny female models.
We expect sports stars to be among the "best" at what they do. I see no reason to expect less from models. And for all the "body dysmorphic disorder" excusemaking, real studies show that in-shape people tend to live longer than overweight or even normal-weight but untoned people who are not fit.
I'll say this: there's no way I'd buy the underwear with the "normal" people on the package.
ArthurV, your comment is totally inappropriate. This article asks for opinions about the modelling. I gave mine, and I gave good reasons for it. If you want to comment on the modelling, fine. But instead you chose to attack me with an insult. That reflects poorly on you, not me.
Let me ask you this: when you go to the art museum, do you expect to see "everyday/ordinary" works of art? If so, you might as well stay home and paint your own picture. I'm certainly not going to waste my resources on people less talented than myself.
There are PLENTY of famous artists who made a living and legacy painting from nature and daily life. Cezanne, Monet, Van Gogh, Picasso... All have done that. you are shallow for thinking skinny athletic boys are better than others. It's the same shit that happens with women - body issues, and how society continuously tells them what to look like, when those models are not even how the majority of society looks. In fact, the models have been photoshopped intensely before they even make it on the magazine.
Granted that health is important, but these normal people are farrrrrr from overweight. They are normal good looking people. And by choosing the models, you send a massage to them that they are not enough, you don't care what they do, who they are as a person, but the models are always better than them because they're toned, muscular and have a 6-pack. So tell me isn't that shallow?
I swear to god, I sincerely --sincerely-- am more attracted to the reenactment men than I am to the original men! Most definitely.
Though, one thing that always bugged me was when models were not referred to as "real". They are just as real as anyone else. I actually have worked in the modeling industry, in front of the camera and behind (why is it that sooo many gay men say that? ;-) ) ...and referring to models as not being real only just pumps up their often unreasonable egos --or it does the opposite, and makes the models feel as if they are disconnected from the rest of the world. Honestly, it is bad to refer to them as not being real. These days, the photos are always touched up to make the guys a little less "real", that it true of course. Even still, these are all real men. -And for me, I would honestly choose the guys on the left-hand column for a romp in the hay.
Love you guys!!
@Bigdaddy. Ewww, that entire sentiment is disgusting and one that only propagates an unrealistic standard of "beauty" that is especially prevalent in the gay community. Gay men and women are the two highest groups to suffer from body dysmorphic disorder (http://www.soc.ucsb.edu/sexinfo/article/body-dysmorphic-disorder-bdd-and-its-effects-gay-males), mostly because of the unrealistic standards created by advertising and the media. Don't get me wrong, the models on the right are hawt but I see this as similar to the Dove beauty campaign that uses real women as opposed to anorexic models. It's similarly important for the gay community to break through stereotypes of beauty and accept our bodies without judgment and self-hatred.
Sorry, nope! Now, don't get me wrong, the "replacement" guys are good-looking men. The original models are models for the obvious reasons. As everything else in advertising, it's the target market that matters. It's visual propaganda, but most consumers imagine they'll look like Beckham, et al, if they purchase that underwear.


text:
(Adds later games)
April 27 (SportsDirect) - Highlights of Saturday's Major League Baseball games
- - -
Yankees 5, Blue Jays 4
Travis Hafner had a three-home run and added a tie-breaking triple in support of starter CC Sabathia as host New York upended Toronto for the third straight day.
Sabathia (4-2) scattered four runs (three earned) on nine hits over eight innings, improving to 14-4 lifetime against Toronto.
Joba Chamberlain worked around a pair of ninth-inning hits to record his first save as manager Joe Girardi opted to rest regular closer Mariano Rivera, who had pitched in three of the previous four games.
- - -
Tigers 7, Braves 4
Omar Infante went 3-for-4 with a two-run homer and three RBIs to power host Detroit to its second straight victory over Atlanta.
Jhonny Peralta also had a two-run shot and Miguel Cabrera added a pair of hits and two RBIs to back 6 1/3 solid innings from Tigers starter Rick Porcello (1-2).
Justin Upton clubbed his major league-leading 12th homer and Freddie Freeman had two hits and an RBI for the Braves, who tumbled to their sixth defeat in eight games.
- - -
Phillies 9, Mets 4
Domonic Brown belted a three-run homer to break open the game in the fifth inning and Ryan Howard knocked in a pair of runs as visiting Philadelphia rolled over New York.
Rookie Jonathan Pettibone (1-0) earned his first major-league victory in his second start, allowing three runs and seven hits over five innings.
John Mayberry Jr. also hit a solo homer in the five-run fifth while Michael Young collected three hits for the Phillies, who produced their season high in runs.
New York lost for the eighth time in 11 games.
- - -
Nationals 6, Reds 3
Dan Haren turned in six solid innings and Bryce Harper homered as Washington won its third straight over visiting Cincinnati.
Haren (2-3) allowed two runs and six hits in his longest outing of the season and opened the scoring with an RBI single in the second.
Denard Span added two hits and an RBI and Ian Desmond drove in a run for the Nationals, who will try to complete the four-game series sweep on Sunday.
- - -
Twins 7, Rangers 2
Josh Willingham had two hits, including a two-run homer, and Pedro Hernandez threw five scoreless innings to earn the victory for host Minnesota.
Hernandez (1-0) scattered five hits before relievers Anthony Swarzak, Brian Duensing, Jared Burton and Glen Perkins combined to hold the Rangers down until Mitch Moreland hit a two-run double with two outs in the ninth.
- - -
Orioles 7, Athletics 3
Nick Markakis and Adam Jones hit back-to-back home runs and Chris Tillman worked six strong innings as visiting Baltimore took its third straight from Oakland.
Nate McLouth added a solo homer and J.J. Hardy drove in a run for the Orioles, who have won five of their last six and will go for a four-game sweep of the Athletics on Sunday.
Tillman (1-1) struck out seven while allowing two runs and seven hits to pick up his first win.
Josh Donaldson drove in two runs for Oakland.
The A's, who loaded the bases with none out in the ninth but could not score, have dropped four straight and eight of nine.
- - -
Pirates 5, Cardinals 3
Russell Martin hit a game-tying two-run homer in the seventh inning and later doubled and scored as visiting Pittsburgh rallied after St. Louis pulled starter Jake Westbrook.
Westbrook tossed six scoreless innings but watched as the bullpen gave away his chance at career win number 100.
The seventh-inning rally made a winner of A.J. Burnett (2-2), who allowed two runs in six innings.
Editing by Gene Cherry


text:
Surprise Storm Makes for Sloppy Commute
Sunday's surprise snow has turned to freezing rain and puddles on the road making for a sloppy commute.
There has been some flooding on the Garden State Parkway near the Toms River tolls Melting snow also caused some flooding in Point Pleasant on Monday morning.
The storm that dropped upwards of 10 inches on some parts of has melted away off the nmain roads leaving bare pavement along the shore while the inland areas are around freezing and still transitioning to rain.
A Winter Weather Advisory remains in effect until 10 a.m. for central and northern counties as there is still some freezing rain falling in Hunterdon,Morris, Warren, Sussex and Passaic counties as temperatures are still at or below freezing. South of there the precipitation has changed to rain with bare pavement reported on the major highways.
There are cancelled flights out of the area airports this morning; Newark and LaGuardia have 30 minute delays according to FlightAware.com. NJ Transit has 20 - 30 minute delays on the Northeast Corridor and North Jersey Coastal line. NJ Transit is cross honoring tickets systemwide across rail, light rain and bus.
Many schools especially in Ocean County are either closed today or on a delayed opening.
Surprise Snow
How did a forecast of less than an inch for most of New Jersey grow to 6-9 inches? Meteorologist Alan Kasper says a band of snow developed in south Jersey late in the morning and "just sat there" for several hours. ABC meteorologist Justin Ryan explains that type of snow is called an "inverted trough" that can be "grossly under forecast by the models." He said it was "long, strung out like a pulled piece of taffy." Ryan says the storm was compact and created a narrow axis of heavy snow from Camden and Gloucester counties south into Salem and into Delaware.
The heavy snow is being several dozen accidents reported in Toms River and Stafford alone. There was a fatal accident on Interstate 78 late Sunday night when a car went off the road and into a tree in Union Township closing the roadway.
New Jersey State Police estimate 40 accidents on the Garden State Parkway from Ocean County to Cape May on Sunday afternoon and an additional 10 accidents on the Atlantic City Expressway reports the Press of Atlantic City.
Next Storm
Kasper, Ryan and other meteorsologists are turning their attention to another snow event that should affect us late Tuesday morning with snow falling for just a few hours before ending that could produce 2-4 inches of snow and possibly more along coastal areas.
- Storm drops up to 9 inches of snow in South Jersey, causes 'dozens' of accidents statewide / Star-Ledger
- Winter storm brings snow, traffic accidents to region Sunday / Press of Atlantic City
- Snow melts as Toms River faces messy commute / News 12 New Jersey


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Directions Owosso, MI 48867
*Dealer-installed retail purchases only. Limit one redemption per customer. $100 rebate on Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric, Eagle F1 Asymmetric 2, Eagle F1 Super Car, Wrangler All-Terrain Adventure with Kevlar and Wrangler MT/R with Kevlar. $80 rebate on Goodyear Assurance WeatherReady, Assurance ComforTred Touring, Eagle F1 Asymmetric All-Season & ROF and Wrangler DuraTrac. $60 rebate on Goodyear Assurance MaxLife, Eagle Sport All Season & ROF, Wrangler Fortitude HT, Wrangler TrailRunner AT, Ultra Grip Ice, Ultra Grip Ice WRT and Ultra Grip Winter. $40 rebate on Goodyear Assurance All-Season and Wrangler SR-A. Offer valid 1/01/19 to 2/28/19. Submit rebate by 3/31/19. Rebate by Visa prepaid card. Visa is not a sponsor of this promotion. See Service Advisor for vehicle applications and rebate details. Offer valid with coupon. Expires 2/28/19.
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Public can view plans and comment at February 8 meeting
Mayor Don Wesely today praised students at Lincoln Southeast High School for their efforts to build a fully-integrated, accessible play area in Antelope Park for children of all abilities. He also urged the public to financially support the project, which needs another $50,000 in donations by March 1.
"The students and other members of the community have already raised $145,000 in cash and in-kind donations for the accessible playground project," Mayor Wesely said. "It's a great example of young people recognizing a need in the community and taking positive action. Because of their hard work, we'll be enjoying the largest and most accessible public playground in the region later this year."
Construction on the playground is expected to start in March, with completion by May. The $50,000 yet to be raised would be used to purchase specialized playground equipment. Southeast students have been active in designing the playground and raising funds, and they will also help with construction this spring.
"The students are building a place where all of Lincoln's children can play together," said Brent Toalson, Southeast Student Council Advisor and project coordinator. "Through the process, they are learning some valuable lessons about the importance of community service."
"Knowing that we are doing something that will bring happiness to kids for years to come has made all of the work definitely worth it," said Southeast junior Maggie Stuckey.
The students have been working with the Lincoln Parks and Recreation Department, which has allocated $140,000 for improvements at the park, including $100,000 in keno funds.
"We are all anxious to get this project underway," said Parks and Recreation Director Jim Morgan. "This project shows how public and private funds can be used to make major improvements in our recreation areas." The city maintains 78 public play areas, and about two-thirds of the play areas now have accessible features. Morgan said the city plans to have all the playgrounds renovated within three years.
In 1987, the Lincoln Fellowship of Churches, now the Lincoln Interfaith Council, created the Challenge Playground in Antelope Park for children with disabilities. Some equipment at that playground has been removed for safety reasons, and other pieces are outdated and in need of repair. The other playground at Antelope Park was last upgraded in 1973 and does not meet current guidelines. The two areas will be incorporated into the new accessible play area.
The play area will have several unique features, which increase accessibility, but add to the cost. The 12,000 square feet of surface matting to allow unlimited access to the equipment will cost about $120,000. The playground will be the first in Lincoln to use ramps for wheelchair access to the elevated play structures. The playground will also feature equipment for recreational therapy.
The public will have an opportunity to view the plans for the playground and comment on the project at a meeting at 7 p.m., Tuesday February 8 in Room H103 at Lincoln Southeast High School, 2930 South 37th Street. Room H103 is in a portable classroom on the south end of the school.
Contributions can be sent to the Lincoln Parks and Recreation Foundation, 2740 "A" Street, P.O. Box 204, Lincoln, NE 68502. All donations are tax deductible. Groups or individuals who donate $100 or more will receive a personalized engraved paver that will be integrated into the landscape surrounding the playground.
|Major donors (as of February 1, 2000):
|Ameritas Charitable Foundation
|$ 5,000
|Match from estate of Marjorie L. Barstow
|Cooper Foundation
|Cornhusker Bank
|Nebraska Arts Council
|J.C. Seacrest Trust
|Southeast High School students
|Time Warner Cable community grant
|United Cerebral Palsy of Nebraska
|Woods Charitable Fund
|Individuals and corporations under $1,000
|In-kind donations:
|Master Plan - The Clark Enersen Partners
|Brochure - Bailey Lauerman and Associates, Jacob North Companies,
|Playground Equipment Installation - student volunteers


text:
ZEEK2010 needed a new logo design and created a contest on 99designs.
A winner was selected from 203 designs submitted by 24 freelance designers.
Zeek's Treats
I'm an urban planner in my 30s who grew up with dogs and decided to rescue a dog when I moved to NYC, small spaces be damned. As a dog owner, I'm passionate about animals and always wondered why I didn't become a vet or work with animals for a living. Well, the time has finally come for me to try to see if I can do something about my passion by baking all natural dog treats.
My dog, Zeek, is my primary tester, but I'm testing my treats with all the neighborhood dogs, and they are a hit! I'm now focused on turning my hobby into a home business by baking ALL-NATURAL DOG TREATS that are low in fat, sugar, salt and everything else that is bad and artificial in this world. I use organic ingredients whenever possible and am working on a wheat-free line for dogs with allergies. I'm doing what I can to help not only Zeek, but all dogs live longer, healthier lives, and I couldn't be happier.
I'm targeting dog owners who take the time to think about where their food comes from, and by extension, care enough to think about where their pets' food comes from. Dog owners who don't pamper their dogs with material goods, but who really care about their dogs' health and nutrition. My demographic believes that you are what you eat, so they won't mind paying a few cents more to ensure that their dogs get the very best. My plan is to start selling at local dog runs and farmers' markets before moving to the Internet and natural food stores, including Whole Foods supermarkets.
I'm looking for a CLEAN & MODERN, FUN & FRIENDLY design that would put a smile on a kid's face just by seeing it. Nothing cluttered or fancy, but SIMPLE & RELAXED... just like Zeek! I've attached some pictures for inspiration.
(1) Design should be CLEAR & BOLD, and incorporate a dog (preferably one that looks like Zeek) and/or a bone;
(2) Typeface should be SIMPLE & EASY enough for your grandmother to read;
(3) Feel free to experiment with COLOR, but no shadows or gradients;
(4) Feel free to incorporate the TAGLINE "All Natural" if it works (before the brand name), but no pressure; and lastly,
(5) No clip art or photos--my plan is to use the winning logo on business cards, a future website, t-shirts and other marketing brochures, etc. so it needs to be SCALABLE and an ORIGINAL, UNIQUE work of art.
Here's an example of a logo that works (see "farmdog" but obviously don't copy it for this contest!): http://www.fuelyourcreativity.com/5…spiration/
Here's what doesn't work: http://www.brandsoftheworld.com/logo/b-dog
Preferred file formats:
Print file format - .ai (CMYK)
Web file format - .jpg and layered .psd (RGB)
Thanks and good luck!! Zeek and I can't wait to see what you come up with!
Find out how a design contest works or learn more about our logo design services.


text: So we're all awaiting, perhaps any minute now, the text message telling us who Barack Obama has picked as a running mate. My guess is we will hear it today so the news cycle starts with today's evening news and dominates that weekend talking heads TV shows. The mobile strategy is brilliant on many levels. Future Tense host Jon Gordon spoke at length with Tom Crann on All … [Read more...]


text:
Jeff Geller necesitaba un nuevo diseño de logotipo y lanzó un concurso de diseño en 99designs.
Un ganador ha sido elegido entre 103 diseños de 25 diseñadores freelance.
We need a company logo designed into a jpg file that we can upload to our website. Something colorful and child like however, interesting for adults to look at as well! Something that grabs the attention of all ages.
We are an IT Consulting/Staffing Company and our people are just too busy to do this for us right now. We started in eCommerce division last year and we're currently building our first site called Silly Buster which specializes in Childrens Furniture. We're going live in about 4-6 weeks and we need a catchy and color logo done.
Update 2/02/09: Thank you everyone for your entries so far. We feel very fortunate to have received such a response from so many talented people.
#26 from Knox is our esteemed favorite so far!
#23, #18, #14 & #12 have all made it into our top 5 choices so far. We also like #34.
We would really like to stress simplicity - color- and character with this logo and let the domain name and slogan underneath kind of speak for itself (if that makes any sense)
- Again, the main name is: Silly Buster with the subtitle being:
- Adventures in Kids Furniture! We want something that has a lot of color and dimension! Something childlike and swirling that really grabs your attention no matter what age range you're in.
- Maybe a cartoon character with a touch of class?
- We don't want something that is corporate looking. We do want it to look professional though.
Descubre cómo funciona un concurso de diseño u obtén más información sobre nuestros servicios de diseño de logo.


text:
|URGENT, should I start right now?
Aug 31, 2007
Hi, sorry I'm asking you to respond as soon as possible, but I'm feeling anxious about the time sensitivity of the decision I'm making. I'm ending the acute phase of Hepatitis B and I still haven't made surface antibodies. My liver functions have returned to normal only 2 weeks ago, and I experienced the heaviest symptoms around the 20th of June; a doctor suggested that I probably have two to four weeks left to make the antibodies. The Aaron Diamond Aids Research center recommended that I start HIV therapy even though, based on my CD4 counts (avg. 370) and Viral Load, it's not necessary. He thinks that therapy may help strengthen my immune system in a way that might be beneficial to the development of a surface antibody for Hep B. My regular physician didn't return my call and went on vacation so her opinion is unavailable to me. Do you think that the stronger, refortified immune system is worth the risk of starting treatment earlier than I need? I have the prescription and have been just holding the bottle for the last two days, wavering about what I should do. Please, please give me some advice.
Yours: Gabriel
Response from Dr. Pierone
Hello, and thanks for posting.
There is a reasonable argument to be made for starting HAART a bit early in the face on acute hepatitis B infection. The guidelines call for initiation of HIV medications when the CD4+ lymphocyte count drops below 350 so your levels are just above this threshold. Atripla contains Viread and Emtriva as the nuke backbone and these agents have excellent activity against hepatitis B so I assume this is the prescription that you are holding. Best of luck to you and let us know what you decide to do and how things turn out.
Nail discoloration
if a cure
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text:
Starwood group operates over 1200-structures in 100-countries worldwide, including renowned names like Sheraton® Hotels & Resorts, Four Points Hotels by Sheraton,® Le Meridien®, Aloft, Element, St. Regis®, The Luxury Collection®, W Hotels® and Westin® Hotels & Resorts worldwide.
In order to earn miles, you will first need to become a member of Starwood Preferred Guest, Starwood Hotels & Resorts own loyalty program. If you are not yet a member, you can join at SPG.com/moremiles, by calling the SPG® Customer Contact Center or at one of the participating hotels and request to earn Alitalia miles.
If you are already a Starwood Preferred Guest member, you need to update your accrual profile at SPG.com/moremiles, by calling the SPG Customer Contact Center, or at one of the participating properties, requesting to earn Alitalia miles.
You can earn miles on the entire amount you spend at the hotel as follows:
- Starwood Preferred Guest® members ® earn 2-miles for every American dollar they spend
- Gold Preferred Guest®and Platinum Preferred Guest® members earn 3-miles for every American dollar they spend
Miles can be earned worldwide for stays at qualifying rates at the following hotel chains: Sheraton® Hotels & Resorts, Four Points Hotels by Sheraton®, Le Meridien®, Aloftsm, Elementsm, St. Regis® Hotels & Resorts, The Luxury Collection®, W Hotels® and Westin®.
As both as Starwood Preferred Guest member and MilleMiglia member you can also convert Starpoints® into Alitalia miles, at the following ratio:
- 1 Starpoint® = 1 Alitalia mile
When Starpoints are transferred to a frequent flyer account, both accounts must belong to the same member, otherwise the airline will reject the transfer. This is to avoid transfers between unauthorized accounts and ensure members' protection. Please keep in mind that only one miles transfer transaction per member, per airline program, is permitted within a 24-hour period.
Visit the websites Starwood.com and Spg.com.
Dedicated numbers :
- Japan: +81 3 5423-6062,-+81 3 5423-6062
- Cork: +353 21 4511056, +353 21 4511056
- Singapore: +65 6836 7688, +65 6836 7688


text:
I'm excited to offer another fun 12 Days of Christmas series at Deal Seeking Mom. Each day through 12/7, I'll post a new 3-day giveaway! Browse all of the giveaways here.
Have you been to Buxr.com yet? Buxr is dedicated to bargain shopping online, which is perfect for all your holiday shopping. They'll help you find the best deals on the internet so that you can treat yourself to a fun new toy or find the perfect gift for that special someone without breaking the bank. Plus, win daily and monthly prizes by submitting deals to Buxr or by voting on other deals posted on the site. And if you're a blogger, you can also earn a commission when you share Buxr's deals with your readers!
Five lucky Deal Seeking Mom readers will each win a $50 Amazon.com gift card & Buxr mug! Ten additional winners will each win a Buxr-branded ceramic mug as well!
To enter, browse the Buxr deals, pick your favorite and leave a comment with the link to your favorite deal.
Every reader has four methods available to enter this contest. Choose one each of any combination of method one, two or three, for up to a total of 3 entries!!!
If you are reading this in your email or feed reader, please CLICK HERE to visit the original blog post to enter. Email entries will not be counted.
Methods of entry:
1. Browse the Buxr deals and pick your favorite. Leave a comment with the link to your favorite deal. This is a required entry. Do this one first to prevent your other entries from being disqualified!
2. Join the Buxr and the Deal Seeking Mom community on Facebook for more conversation, additional deals and a peek at the freebies I receive in the mail each week. Come back and leave a separate comment letting me know you've done so!
3. Follow @DealSeekingMom and @Buxr on Twitter and tweet the following. Be sure to come back and leave a separate comment with the link to your tweet!
Enter to win 1 of 5 $50 Amazon.com gift cards from @DealSeekingMom and @Buxr: https://dealseekingmom.com/?p=62541 #DSM12days
(5) $50 Amazon.com gift cards and Buxr-branded travel mugs
(10) Buxr-branded travel mugs
This giveaway ends at 9:00 a.m. EDT on Monday, 11/29 and is open to all U.S. residents 18 years or older. I'll use Comment Contest to select the winning comment. Winner will be notified by email and listed on my Giveaway Winners page. Winners must respond within 48 hours of notification to claim their prize. Good luck!


text:
T-Mobile teases MOGA Gaming System for Android phones, Note II comes with an optimized game
The MOGA Gaming system is a Bluetooth game controller with dual analog sticks, buttons, as well as shoulder buttons that should be perfectly enough to control any game out there as long as it's optimized. Speaking about optimization, T-Mobile informs us that its version of the Galaxy Note II scheduled to arrive later this year will come with a preloaded racing game that'll include three free levels. This game, T-Mobile says, will be optimized to work with the MOGA Gaming System.
Otherwise, we hope that companies around the world will continue developing the area of mobile gaming, and who knows, we might even see a standard for mobile game controllers some day!
In case you're wondering, T-Mobile is yet to announce a release date for the MOGA controller.
source: T-Mobile
13 Comments
1. Joshing4fun (Posts: 1242; Member since: 13 Aug 2010)
Here we go. Put all those cores and all that ram to work. I can't wait to see real games; same caliber of Xbox and PC.
3. remixfa (Posts: 14605; Member since: 19 Dec 2008)
I dont know if we will see that caliber of game anytime soon on a phone just because of the exorbitant costs of making a AAA console game vs how little most mobile games sell for. But, the power is pretty much there. With the introduction of true A15 chips, comes the literal power of the Xbox360/PS3 in your phone.
6. darac (Posts: 2156; Member since: 17 Oct 2011)
Well, imagine 3 billion android phones and almost billion iPhones..selling an heavily budgeted high end game for a few bucks starts to look feasible.. lucrative even
10. downphoenix (Posts: 3165; Member since: 19 Jun 2010)
I'd hope so, the 360 is 7 years old next month. I moved on to PC gaming mainly lately because the consoles are just out of date. Well still got my PS3 and 360, just got RE6 on PS3, but haven't played it all that much, maybe 6 hours worth.
12. EclipseGSX (Posts: 1759; Member since: 18 Oct 2011)
WOW 7 years! Has it been that long?
11. 12013E12T (Posts: 37; Member since: 08 Sep 2009)
If anything, this might give those handhelds (Nintendo DS/PS Vita) some competition.
2. eman99 (Posts: 409; Member since: 03 Aug 2010)
game consoles will be something of the past
4. Cyan3boN (Posts: 446; Member since: 23 Feb 2012)
Unless they evolve
5. exo2u (Posts: 27; Member since: 10 May 2012)
The ouya should take care of all of this for me. Until you can somehow add copious amounts of space to a phone( no matter what not enough through sd, then its a little far fetched and doesn't really hold much merit.) Real gamers who would bother buying a controller like this will agree. Nice article though, a little healthy competition is nice.
7. JonBjSig (Posts: 176; Member since: 17 Nov 2011)
It looks a LOT like the Onlive controller.
8. legend1 (Posts: 104; Member since: 08 Oct 2012)
this is soooo awesome street fighter 4 is gonna be a lot easier now with this
9. nyamo (Posts: 274; Member since: 19 Mar 2011)
how is this any different than a bluetooth controller? sixaxis has had this available with a ps3 controller for quite some time


text:
06 November 2012
Change Scoring Algorithm for Playoffs?
I would like to share some thoughts about Playoff rankings. It is not about my own results, just some thoughts of how to make it more fair. Don't you think it is not too fair, for example, to answer 100% for 35 mins and finally lose to one having 80% correctness and a much shorter time (15 min)?
I know you the same system for the daily quiz as in the playoff, and a player can sometimes win with some errors if they are quick enough. But there is no time limit in the daily quiz, so it's OK there.
Regarding playoff, it is all quite different. Existing situation rewards very quick answers. Even if you make a lot of mistakes, you will probably be among the best. Conversely, if you used almost all the time available, even 100% correctness doesn't guarantee a first place showing.
Why not rank playoff with a very simple algorithm, like that shown below (unweighted_score is the score based only on % correct, independent of time taken to submit the answer):
select player_name, unweighted_score, time
from playoff_results
order by unweighted_score desc, time asc
I see many advantages in this approach. Simplicity, fair, tendency to thoughtful answers. It will stimulate thinking and not guessing...but time still plays an important role. Do you see any limitations?
I would very much like to know what you think, especially players who have participated in a number of playoffs over the past few years. First, though, some background:
The quarterly playoff has changed quite a bit from its original form back in 2010. Originally, the playoff consisted of 10 quizzes to be completed in 10 minutes. The idea was that you should have no or very little time to write code to verify answers and certainly not much time to look up answers or consult with others.
This didn't work out so well. First problem is that it turned out to be very hard for me, Steven, to judge the amount of time needed for a player to read and think through a quiz. So many, many players ran out of time.
The second problem was that coming up with ten new and tough quizzes for the playoff was, well, a challenge.
The third problem had to do with a very hard to track down bug that causes errors when players did run out of time.The site was supposed to very smoothly and elegantly notify you that you had run out of time, and save all answers you'd entered. Ah, software...instead, players would encounter a variety of errors and in some cases, we lost answers.
We were never able to reproduce the error. So we took the following steps instead (to address both of the problems mentioned above):
1. Cut down on number of quizzes from 10 to 5. Ah, what a relief!
2. Extend the amount of time in which players can complete the competition. It is now up to 35 minutes.
3. Remove the countdown clock from the page. We theorized that the Javascript needed for the clock was somehow interfering with other processing on the page and leading to the errors.
And how did this work out for us? Pretty well. We haven't seen those errors since, though that may also be because fewer players are actually running out of time. But this also means that players have a lot more time to research their answers, as opposed to relying solely on their own knowledge and experience to answer the quizzes.
I am not terribly comfortable with the current situation in the playoffs; it's hard not to want to give the 1st place prize to the person with 100% correct answers. Yet I am also reluctant to assign prizes by unweighted score, using submission time only to break ties, at least if we give players 30 minutes to submit their answers.
So...what do you think?
25 comments:
I suggest changing the time adjustment factor and recalculate all of the playoffs. See who filters to the top and who to the bottom.ReplyDelete
When you come up with a value (whatever that value may be) go with that value.
Alternatively to to blindly looping in incremental trials, arrange the results how you want. Then see which sql generates those results. Then apply that sql to another playoff and see if it returns similarly palatable results.
or- better yet. Post some sample data for multiple playoffs (use real data if you want) and preferred results.
And see who can come up with an algorithm/factor/ordering/etc that best fits.
You may see the pattern to my suggestions - get results YOU want.
While I appreciate being asked for input, a large part of the value in a playoff certificate is that it is signed by Steven Feuerstein.
If you're not comfortable putting your name on the results, then I'm not comfortable publishing my results.
"Not terribly comfortable" is not the same thing as not accepting the results or feeling they are illegitimate.ReplyDelete
We may come up with a better algorithm, but certainly the one we've been using for 2.5 years has overall served us very well. I stand by the results and I hope you will publish your certificate with pride. Certainly, no past results will be chagned.
Text-based communication can be tough to parse sometimes. Sean, are you being sarcastic above ("get results YOU want")?
I definitely do not want to jigger the algorithm to get to a particular set of results. I want to use an algorithm that is fair and sensible.
Thanks, SF
Hello Steven, All,ReplyDelete
Well ... the poster of this suggestion definitely does have a lot from my older ideas regarding the Playoffs ...
There are indeed many aspects that can be discussed related to the Playoffs.
If I am allowed a personal opinion, I would state from the start that, in spite of the fact that the current Playoff formula does allow moving back and forth among the quizzes, this possibility
is probably lost for most players, because probably no one takes the time to first visit ALL the 5 quiz pages, just for "getting a flavor" of the topics and decide in which order he/she
will work on them ... such a visit would also "eat up" time ...
And, then, what happens is that if you are "lucky enough" to master better the topic of the FIRST one or two quizzes, you final score will be much higher than the score of a player who
masters better the topics of the LAST one or two quizzes ...
As I suggested once in the past, an introductory page with the 5 titles/topics of the 5 quizzes ( a one row link for each one ) would be extremely welcome.
Second, as far as I understand, there is no "individual scoring" for each quiz separately, because there is no separate timing for each quiz, and this means that if you spend a very long time
on one of the quizzes, this will probably lower your overall score also for the quizzes on which you were really fast.
All in all, regarding this aspect, I can say that I was "much more fond of" the previous Playoff formula, that of 10 quizzes, with limited time for each one and even without the possibility
of backward navigation.
Of course, it is clear for me that 10 quizzes require more work from your and the reviewers side first of all ( and I really know what are you talking about ! ) but, let's face it, a quiz that should be answered within a time limit of 2 minutes is by its very nature supposed to be much more focused and, in my humble opinion, better reflect the "bare knowledge" of a player,
in addition to the fact that it allows covering 10 topics instead of 5 only, so "larger knowledge" has an additional chance to get materialized.
( a long thread as usual ... will continue ... )
( continued )ReplyDelete
Regarding the technical issue, as far as I understand, the problem of receiving errors when hitting the time limit was already solved by automatically registering (saving) the current choices made by the player on the current page on which the time-out happens, exactly in the same way as the choices are saved when navigating from one page to the next.
I don't see why is this supposed to be different for the 5 quiz Playoff than for the 10 quiz one, the mechanism should be the same (and for the 10 quiz playoff applied for each quiz when its
individual time expires and the automatic navigation to the next quiz is triggered).
Regarding the calculation algorithm proposed by the player who wrote to you, I definitely see the advantage (and justice!) of attempting to reduce the influence of the "time" factor
in comparison with the "correctness" factor.
Using a simple ORDER BY just puts the "correctness" before the "time", so, as you said, the time only serves as a tie-breaker.
Maybe the "golden way" could be achieved by calculating a "global (scalar) result" ( kind of a well-thought MAP method ) based on BOTH the correctness and the timing, some form of "weighted average" of the two factors, but by still affording to the "correctness" a much higher "weight" than to the "timing" ...
and the relative proportion between the two can indeed be open to the players' debate.
Another idea, maybe somewhat much "further shooting" would be to have 2 types of Playoffs:
a) A Quarterly Playoff, that would be more similar to the previous 10 Quiz Playoff formula (shorter and more focused quizzes)
b) A Yearly Playoff, more similar to the current 5 Quiz Playoff formula, the qualification for the Yearly Playoff being of course based on the playing results for the entire year,
with the addition of some kinds of "bonus points" for the qualification(s) in the Quarterly Playoffs of that year and even for the results in those Playoffs, a.s.o.
Couldn't this make life easier for everybody ?
I dare bet that once this topic (re)open, many ideas from the players will continue to arrive.
Last but not least, in the spirit of the suggestion in this post, maybe here is the place to congratulate Frank Schrader
for his 100% correctness in the last Playoff,
as far as I can remember, the first time when somebody achieves such a result, KUDOS :) :)
Thanks a lot & Best Regards,
Iudith Mentzel
Actually no, I wasn't being sarcastic.ReplyDelete
I agree the results of previous playoffs are still legitimate, all players played by the same rules and win or lose, the scores came out according to those rules. So it's fair and I'm not trying to besmirch previous scores.
I also agree it does seem odd when a perfect score doesn't win. So, something ought to change.
As already mentioned, your name has weight. When you publish the results but include an asterisk (effectively) on 1st and 2nd place, I think it does diminish the shine a little. Again, I'm not trying to say the higher score with lower accuracy doesn't deserve it; but I don't think 1st place should require an explanation.
Also, if you do decide to change the rules, I assume you'll test any new algorithm on existing data and see if it produces logical results or not. If it doesn't then you'll reject it. Which basically means any suggestion will have to pass the "satisfy Steven" test anyway - and that's not bad.
So, I'm not suggesting you actually change previous results; but you can use that data as a test bed to see "what if" those same scores happen in the next playoff.
Would those results, when ranked in some new way, be more palatable?
For instance, change the scoring that the fastest perfect score is the winner, after that, score 2nd place on down by normal weight and timing. If nobody gets a perfect score, then simply score as normal.
Run that on previous results, how do things sort out? Do they make sense or does that simply make 2nd and 3rd place look odd instead of 1st and 2nd?
Alternatively, instead of changing the timing scores as I mentioned previously, change the correctness scores. Same effect but different math.
If you want to ameliorate your own bias: post data, let us generate some sample code and then we vote on most desirable results out of some set of submissions you select.
My thoughts on the issue:ReplyDelete
On the daily quiz the time factor in the weighted is (in my opinion) not really so much about rewarding fast players - it is more to discourage using a long time reading documentation, typing the quiz, and so on, in order to get high score. How "big" the factor is (how high time is weighted) must be set at some suitable value that seems fair to most players - some would benefit from a high factor, some would benefit from a low factor. I believe the factor for the daily quiz is about right as it is - pretty much as fair as you can get, much fairer than the US election system ;-)
For the playoffs there is a time limit anyway, so discouraging taking your time is not as important. I think it did not matter as much when you had 10 quizzes in 10 minutes - most players probably used between 8 and 10 minutes and time factor would not change ranking much. It is after we now have fairly long time that the time factor matters more - finishing in 15 minutes versus 30 minutes makes weighted score much in favor of the 15 minute player, even if he has more errors.
The previous playoff I was in, I had the feeling that the 5 quizzes were really tough needing all that time to think. This playoff my feeling was that I could answer in much shorter time (not that I answered much correctly, but I just had to guess more where I felt taking my time to think wouldn't work anyway, I could not deduce as much but had more to rely on knowledge - which wasn't there ;-)
My suggestion would be to use unweighted score for playoffs - since there is a time limit anyway, you don't need time factor to discourage slowness. But instead cut the time limit to 20 minutes. The playoff "time factor" should more be a matter of whether you are able to finish in time.
I think the playoff is most fairly judging knowledge if most players in the playoff finish "just in time" - perhaps by having to rush a guess or two if they don't know. And a few players may finish early, which might prove bad for them if they didn't stop to think it through. And a few players might only answer 3-4 quizzes within the time limit.
That would IMHO encourage using the time limit in the playoff to try and optimize your score in correctnes, and thereby discourage both fast and slow ;-)
From Niels Hecker:ReplyDelete
I find the actual scoring algorithm good. When I read the comment above I would think that the player with the 80% in 15 minutes has more knowledge in his brain and deserves a higher ranking than the player with 100% in 35 minutes which looks more like he has tried some of the choices in the database.
If the time wouldn't be calculated into the scoring everybody could use the complete 35 minutes to type in the choices to a tool and executes them in a database and so the ranking wouldn't rely on the knowledge but only on the speed of your typing or your ocr-software (
Kind regards, Niels
- Anonymous06 November, 2012 21:55
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.ReplyDelete
I think that the scores should still be weighted. If one player manages to get 90-95% in half the time of a player who got 100% I would rate the first as "better". I can't decide how low the quicker player's correctness % would need to be before I thought the second better, but it would probably be in the 80s.ReplyDelete
I think that the weighting could be reduced however, but only if the total time limit was brought down as well. 35 minutes is quite a long time and gives a lot of scope to type code in a database or look things up. If the time was reduced to 15-20 minutes then it would be harder to do this.
This would still benefit a player who answers significantly faster. For me this shows greater skill.
I think the current algorithm does a reasonable job of rewarding better knowledge/ability. Any scoring algorithm will have some level of "unfairness" (produce some results that just don't feel right), even if it becomes impossible to get 2nd place for 100% correct. However, so long as the scoring algorithm is understood in advance, each player has the option of modifying their behaviour to "suit" the algorithm.ReplyDelete
Certainly from my perspective, reducing the time available would appear to be the simplest option to reduce the chance of a 2nd place 100%. Having said that, if the time weighting on the playoff scoring is adjusted to make time less significant (reasonable given an overall time limit), that would probably produce a better end result, although it would probably take some fiddling to get it look right with the existing playoff results for sample data.
Hello All,ReplyDelete
Answering 90-95% correct in half of the time is indeed a remarkable result, but, I still don't think it is more valuable than the 100%.
Ultimately, we play for becoming better developers for the REAL daily life.
Yes, speed is important, but only if doubled by correctness. If in any of our competitions a 90-95% correctness is remarkable and really worth to be rewarded, in real life a 1% mistake
can be extremely significant.
Maybe far from this debate, but I cannot avoid telling you about a real life case that we experienced recently:
Users complained about slowness of some certain operations, involving a few very specific SELECT statements, which were running satisfactorily fast in 2 of 3 production databases, but excessively slow in the 3-rd database.
After 2-3 days of checking Network, EDI traffic, System issues, tracing, a.s.o, they concluded that the problem was solved and everybody was happy ... This was about 2 months ago ...
In parallel with their checks, I took one of those SELECT statements and spent a few hours with it, checking data statistics and understanding the business problem (not being one of my own applications) and then I knew where the real problem was residing, of course, without having any one asking
for my opinion ... But ... problem declared solved ( and "prizes awarded", to be "in tone" with our debate ).
Now, after two months, the exactly same complaint arose again, from the same place, in the same context ... and, this time, the answer of the DBA team which checked the issue was that
"Oracle has different statistics in the different databases (which is true, of course) and therefore it uses different executions plans for the same statement (also true)
and ... the statement is a complicated SELECT, involving understanding much application logic (also true) and in summary the DBA team cannot do anything more about it", issue closed.
If only the invested time matters (and it does matter indeed !), then probably the final decision would be to leave the issue as it is, because no one would allow any one else to start and spend a lot of time ( most probably unknown from the start ) to try and solve the problem ...
Yes ... but the problem is STILL THERE and it still continues to annoy the users, to create long processing queues, a.s.o.
I am the one who usually does not make any time calculations, I simply took the problem and insisted (for myself, without any one asking me) to understand why things work as they do ... aka ... badly ... and did not stop until I found the real reason.
Yes, it required some research time, but if we ultimately add up all the time that was spent checking things that proved not to be relevant for the issue, sending e-mails back and forth
WITHOUT solving the problem, I think that all the time that I invested was fully justified ( for my own knowledge anyway ! ).
What I wanted to illustrate with this example was that in real life, in most of the cases, the TIME factor matters much less than the CORRECTNESS .
If a problem really exists, then you should solve it, no matter how much time that demands.
That specific SELECT statement was in fact correct, in the sense that it returned the expected result, but was it "100% correct life-wise" ? Surely not !
And its 90-95% correctness was NOT enough for the real life !
( will be continued )
I agree with Kim's statement above, that probably you have no chance to answer correctly in a Playoff a quiz for which you have no idea about that specific feature and have to look it upReplyDelete
somewhere ... typing is also not a chance when you have a very short time ... and the code is not simple and short ...
But, even if you do master a feature, you need some thinking time for comprehending correctly a usually not every day scenario, without a full understanding you can really only guess.
I think that the Playoff loses a lot from its value if you have
to decide to begin "to guess" just for running to the next quiz (one that you may master better), for avoiding to remain entirely unscored for a quiz/topic in which you can be really 100% correct.
Managing time is important, but for being able to do this in a reasonable way, you SHOULD KNOW from the start ALL that you have to accomplish, that is, ALL the quizzes, so that to divide your time in the most efficient way, just like in the real life, when you know ALL that you have to do.
Of course, without any knowledge, you cannot do anything correctly, neither in the Playoff nor in real life ( back again to the case of that SELECT statement, about which no one did anything because they did not posses the necessary knowledge and past experience ... which also means time invested ) ...
But I think that scoring 0 in a Playoff for a quiz which you even did not arrive to read because of not having enough time is something that should be avoided by any means.
And in this sense the 10 quiz Playoff formula was definitely better.
Regardless of who wins the Playoff by applying one algorithm or another, I still think that for making the Playoff results valuable indeed, they should somehow reflect a player's knowledge also, not just his speed and ability to act under time pressure.
Being both correct and fast is of course ideal, but, if it comes to choosing one of them only, real life proves us every day that correctness is THE one who matters most (not to say ONLY !), being just fast (and, deciding "to guess" only instead of "to think") usually DOES NOT solve your effective problem and then the fact that you did not invest time in it becomes meaningless.
I'm sure that the debate will not stop here, just like real life ...
Thanks & Best Regards,
Maybe the U.S. elections algorithm was not that bad after all ? :) :)
Firstly, I may be biased because I'm one of those who goes fast at the expense of correctness. I've also come first in the Quarterly Challenge once (and lower down the rankings other times).ReplyDelete
Time managing in the playoff is tricky. You start assuming the first question is 'typical' of the others, but you might find that it is significantly easier or harder than the last. Not necessarily for everyone, it just may be a topic you know well or not at all.
Five questions allows some scope for breadth of knowledge, but there is that element of chance about whether you get topics you are familiar with. Given a different set of questions the results would differ. There's no 'right' answer about who's best. There's probably a whole bunch of equally good PL/SQLers who, because of any manner of reason, don't compete often enough in the daily challenge to make the playoffs.
To me the Quarterly Challenge serves as an extra safeguard that, like the 'too fast answer adjustment', stops people who might game the Daily Challenge. As long as it succeeds in that, I don't believe any player is significantly better than any other.
In my (somewhat biased) opinion, scores should be still be weighted. If the time were used only as a tie-breaker among players with the same percentage of correctness, this would favour extensive googling and trying things out on your database, whereas the PL/SQL challenge should reward players for their *knowledge*, not for their typing / googling skills.ReplyDelete
I'd suggest two modifications, though:
- use only advanced quizzes in the Playoffs - this would prevent people (at least me :-) ) from getting confused by the playoff rankings, where players with (apparently) same % correctness were not ranked by time (due to the fact that some players got the one intermediate quiz right and some one of the advanced quizzes)
- cut the time limit. 35 minutes is too long, 20-25 should be enough
Kind regards,
Frank Schmitt
- Kevan Gelling07 November, 2012 10:49
Kim Berg Hansen makes a good point - the play-off has a time limit so the time weighting on the score is less relevant.ReplyDelete
In a playoff, maybe time taken should only used when scores are tied.
I can't help but feel that an IT quiz should value accuracy over speed - would you prefer code that is 80% correct or 100% correct but took longer to create?
I do believe that the time should be included, but perhaps with less weight so that it would be difficult for someone with 80% to be ranked above someone with 95-100%. Try using 1/2 the current weight of the time taken and see the results (don't publish, leaving past results as is).ReplyDelete
I would think targeting a bump of about 5% with the time factor would be OK (95% could beat 100%, but 90% could not?).
For me, there's a clear distinction between a quiz and a real-life situation.ReplyDelete
In a quiz
- I "work" alone
- I test my knowledge
- I am curious to learn about new things / features
- I am not too worried about getting something wrong (since it's only a playground); on the contrary, I *expand* my knowledge by getting things wrong and checking the correct answers afterwards
In real life (as a professional SW developer)
- I always double-check my decisions / code (if possible, by consulting with a colleague)
- I mostly rely on well-known features
So for me, a quiz and the "real" world are two completely different things, and therefore no need to value 100% correctness over speed in a quiz, but YMMV.
Kind regards,
- Anonymous07 November, 2012 15:17
From Viacheslav StepanovReplyDelete
I think the time should only be used as tie-breaker. Let's consider weightlifting or highjumping for example.
Is it possible that the winner is the one who lifts less / jumps lower but does it quicker?
When two or more results are the equal, then, and only then, some tie breaking should be used. In our case time is perfect as tie breaker.
When I see 2 players (80% in 15 minutes and 100% in 35 minutes) I think the second has more knowledge in his brain and deserves a higher ranking than the player with 80% in 15 minutes which looks more like he was just lucky.
If a player clicked the "no correct" option on each question as fast as they could, he/she probably could finish the quiz in about 10 seconds and would have a 61% accuracy for a final score of 2129.ReplyDelete
That's not a top score, but a race of blind guessing would outscore a fourth of the participants, all of whom are probably pretty good with pl/sql. That does seem to indicate time is overly weighted.
I don't know what the best weighting would be, but it does seem odd to me that someone can use a strategy of "I may not be right, but at least I'm wrong really fast"
I like the idea of shortening the test time a little bit. 25 minutes for 5 Advanced questions seems like adequate time pressure. In addition maybe skew the time factor to 1 point per 5 seconds instead of 1/3.
Hello All,ReplyDelete
As long as time DOES matter in the final ranking, I really don't understand what's exactly the point of shortening the overall playing time.
The only effect of this would be that players who are slower (like me) would miss more and more the chance to at least visit each quiz before the overall time expires.
I don't think it is fair to receive a ZERO score for a quiz that you haven't even read !!!
If somebody already compared this to the sports area, it is like running alone after others were cancelled from the start.
If the time matters, then the faster one will always win if he is also correct enough, so our problem here is to try to agree upon what do we mean by "correct enough" combined with
"fast enough".
If someone is fast and self-confident, nobody stops him from pressing submit after 10 minutes only or even less, regardless of the total time being 20, 30 or 35 minutes.
He will of course have a better chance to rank high, but for others, even if they will not rank in the top part of the list, they still deserve a chance to acquire the maximum correctness
that they are able to, because ultimately correctness is what matters for life.
Along my many school years, at all levels, I was always taught that in any exam, if you still have time left, then use that time to read once again your answers and make sure you are as correct as you can be, instead of finishing it too early and being wrong.
I totally agree with Sean in that pressing "No choices are correct" and finishing in 10 seconds is indeed a problem ... and it is the same problem as the one we have in the daily quiz
with marking more than one choice as correct, "to be on the safer side", when the quiz text itself only allows for one single correct answer (even if not defined as a One choice quiz).
The idea which several players raised, namely to allow for a "maximum difference" in correctness between two players (like for example a 5% difference) before allowing the time factor to become decisive seems to me a good and reasonable one, though I don't have yet the effective SELECT statement for it ... but start to think about it ...
Thanks a lot & Best Regards,
I think Iudith and Gary Myers both have very valid points, and, they are direct opposites when it comes to "playing" for the championship. One takes advantage of time and the other spends as little time as possible. Both, I am convinced, are brilliant PL/SQL developers yet they achieve significantly different scores.ReplyDelete
Adding a notation of "brilliant" to the scoring algorithm may prove difficult, even for Steven ;-) so what to do?
Thinking real world scenarios, I would much rather see 99% correctness in 10 minutes than 95% in 5 minutes, and I believe the algorithm should better reflect that!
Going for top speed is a bit like gambling. Top score for correct answers vs. nothing for wrong answers. If you have general sound knowledge of PL/SQL, you can be quick and still get a fair number of correct choices which (due to top score) will outweigh the wrong ones to an extent that players who take their time and get more correct choices will lose.
I do not have a ready-to-go solution, but I do believe that some kind of time based adjustment is warranted.
I have been watching the discussion from the beginning and a lot of good points have been made. Let me share my point of view.ReplyDelete
Usually I play with correctness in mind. That is clearly visible in lifetime ranking, where no one can beat me in the time spent on solving quizzes (at least in top 10). ;)
So someone can think that I will vote for the correctness as primary factor and time only for tie breaking. However, I know that the time factor is also important (especially in real life) so it should also be one of the main ranking criteria.
Consider following example: 2 players end up with scores 95% (in 30 minutes) and 94% (in 10 minutes). Using the time only to break the ties the first one would be the winner. Do you think it is correct? For someone yes, for me no.
I share the same opinion as Iudith on shortening of the time limit. It will not please me much when I will not have chance to go through all the quiz questions. I know that I will be "punished" for taking extra time to think and validate my answers, but that's that same in real life and I accept it.
It is all about the good balancing of current system. If we want to favor correctness, then we can decrease the amount of point taken for each second of play.
Michal Cvan
Hello All,ReplyDelete
Maybe an idea for a ranking select, using a results table similar to the one in the first post:
SELECT p1.player_name, p1.correctness_pct, p1.unweighted_score,
p1.weighted_score, p1.time,
FROM playoff_results p2
WHERE ( p2.correctness_pct >= p1.correctness_pct - 5
AND p2.weighted_score > p1.weighted_score )
OR ( p2.correctness_pct >= p1.correctness_pct + 5 )
) AS count_preceding
FROM playoff_results p1
ORDER BY count_preceding ASC,
weighted_score DESC
I did not test it, just thought of it theoretically.
Here i used a difference of maximum 5% allowed in correctness, before allowing the weighted score to prevail as a ranking criteria.
It is just an example, maybe the 5% difference is not the appropriate one, it would be interesting to play around with the existing data and see the effect.
Also, using such an ordering does not exclude the eventual modification of the calculation algorithm of the weighted score itself, by lowering the impact of the time factor, as suggested by several players.
Thanks a lot & Best Regards,
- Anonymous13 November, 2012 16:34
A few thoughts.ReplyDelete
The existing formula seems to provide a pretty fair way to rank the results. The formula is known going in, so it is up to the individual to determine how they want to play. Answer quickly with the potential for more mistakes or take more time and be more thorough. If this weren't a competition, I think most of us would strive for 100%, as we couldn't turn in non-functioning code and expect our jobs to be completed. I have tried both methods during the playoffs, with inconsistent results, so I don't know if there is a right way or a wrong way to attack the playoff competition. Somewhat ironically, in my best placing, I did not feel that I had performed any better than previous playoffs, but several things just fell into place. (everyone else seemed to struggle more than other playoffs, resulting in a relatively low winning percent correct; several of the questions were topics I was more familiar with, so I could answer them quickly; the one question I did not know, I was able to rule out one option, then successfully guessed that 2 of the 3 remaining would be correct, so picked all three, resulting in a quick time to answer with only one miss). Would I just guess during a production database recovery or guess that I could introduce a hint to production code without testing? Of course not. But in the framework of the playoffs, that was the smart choice at that time and in that sample, I benefited.
Looking at the playoff results, although there are a few individuals that regularly place in the top 3, for the most part, a large number of different individuals have placed near the top at one time or another and are consistently in the hunt with top 10 placings. This seems to indicate a very balanced and competitive field each quarter. If the scoring were modified, players would adjust their approach to account for it. It might impact who is at the top for a given quarter, but would likely not impact the wide variety of individuals that see their name at the top over time.
I did not participate in the playoffs when it was the 10 questions in 10 minutes. Although I would likely not perform very well in this format, as I tend to take relatively longer to answer, I do see the appeal of this format. Either you know the answer or you don't. It was mentioned that in this format, many players did not complete all quizzes and it was difficult to come up with 10 new challenging questions. Perhaps this format could be modified. Do all of the questions need to be advanced or intermediate? Why not throw in a few beginner questions? Do all of the questions need to be new questions? Perhaps increase the number of questions to 20, raising the time limit to 20 - 30 minutes, but also include some of the questions from the existing question library. Reusing existing questions does not seem out of the realm of possibilities, as answering those questions faster and/or with fewer missed choices than when taken during the daily quiz would seem to indicate that some learning has taken place, and ultimately that is what we are after.
And finally, just for fun. Perhaps we could weight individual question choices differently. Perhaps 50 pts possible for question 1 choice 1, 250 pts possible for question 1 choice 2, 0 pts possible for question 1 choice 3 (or any one of the other choices where I was incorrect), etc. Of course, this choice weighting would have to be determined post-competition completion based on how I answered, such that I would end up number one. I'm not quite sure how to deal with the situation where someone else gets 100% correct and has a faster time than me. Maybe in that case time to answer could be discarded and a tie declared.
Wow! Thanks for all of your very thoughtful feedback. It certainly would have been nice if a consensus grew out of the conversation, but that was surely asking for too much.ReplyDelete
As I read through these, I would think, "Yes, that sounds reasonable: Cut down the time, remove time as a factor." and then "Yes, that sounds reasonable: keep things are they are." and then "Yes, that sounds reasonable: come up with a complex algorithm for when and how we break correctness ties." and then...
I will think more about this, and read these entries a few more times, and then report back as to any changes we will make for the Q4 2012 playoff.
But I won't think about any of this tonite...when my wife and I babysit for our granddaughter for the very first time!


text:
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text:
November 06, 2018
- intend (verb)
- \in-TEND\
- What does it mean?
- : to have in mind as a purpose or aim : plan
- How do you use it?
- "I've never known a Trumpeter Swan to need a trumpet, but your case is different. I intend to get you what you need." (E. B. White, _The Trumpet of the Swan_)
- Are you a word wiz?
We intend to tell you more about "intend"specifically about other meanings the word has. Which of the following do you think is one of them?This statement is intended to be an explanation: "intend" can mean "to want something to express a particular meaning." "Intend" has the Latin word "tendere," meaning "stretch" at its root. A number of words you're likely familiar with also trace back to "tendere," including "pretend," "attend," and "extend." Another "tendere" word has to do with stretching in a physical way: a "tendon" is a tough piece of tissue in your body that connects a muscle to a bone. Without tendons, you wouldn't be able to stretch out your arms or legs.


text:
For many years now, I have had a user interface which is driven from the keyboard and is customisable (to a probably unreasonable level). This started with ratpoison, continued with fvwm and finally settled on xmonad. All of these were/are configured to do as little as possible to interfere with a terminal session (uxterm or urxvt) that runs "screen".
The use of graphical utilities is limited to situations where text-based alternatives were unavailable/impossible:
A conky/xmobar line which shows me some current info.
Accessing certain commercial websites needs Iceweasel/Firefox
Editing/Annotating PDF files and forms needs flpsed, xournal
Some people send me word/excel/ppt files which can only be edited using OpenOffice/LibreOffice
Viewing PDF files, DJVU files and pictures required Evince. (Though it has recently stoppped supporting PNG/JPEG files to my annoyance!). Occasional rare uses of video using vlc.
and (of course!) the time-sink called sgt-puzzles.
Network connections are handled through a number of scripts that handle wireless (using wpa_supplicant), ppp, openvpn, ssh, socks etc.
In fact, even other hardware related issues such as volume control, multiple displays (for presentations), suspend, etc. are all handled through such scripts and keyboard controls.
A colleague who works at MicroSoft Research looked at my laptop and declared me "masochistic", little realising that using the touchpad and dragging things around (especially text!) is what I really find painful/pointless. My personal computer (to paraphrase the advertisement of a big computer firm) is "truly personal again".
However, there is one major drawback of not being "mainstream". The configuration that one uses is not checked sufficiently. There are not enough "eyes" to "make all bugs shallow". When I had the time to be more active with Debian development, this was a good thing as it meant that I would find, report and (occasionally) fix bugs in the packages that I use.
So in the interests of laziness on the computer front, it would be nice to have a more "modern" GUI, which:
Is "mainstream" enough that common features for configuration and mobility would be ensured by in-built functions provided by upstream authors.
Is customisable through text-based editing if required. A reasonable programming language for customisation would be a "plus".
Will not interfere a full-screen "screen" session when instructed to stay out of the way!
It may seem strange, given the outpouring of web pages that decry the low customisability of Gnome 3, that I find that it seems to fit the bill after a first look. The network manager suite has grown to a stage where it can (almost!) replace all my custom scripts. The gnome shell is almost like Fvwm or xmonad in allowing me to programme it using Javascript (in place of perl or haskell). My way of using the system is already based on "activities" rather than "workspaces".
However, to truly "go GUI" it should become possible to do replace mutt for mail, newsbeuter for newsfeeds, w3m for browsing, wyrd for the calendar and the usual shell by the gnome shell (perhaps via its drop down javascript interpreter). It would also be necessary to configure these to drive them via the keyboard and it should be possible to access the data stored/used by the replacing application from scripts as well.