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It's known as "The Land of a Thousand Hills," and over the course of my three-week trek across Rwanda, I do believe I crossed every one of them. If anything, "thousand" seriously underestimates the sheer number of hills packed into this pocket-sized country.
Rwanda rolls across the heights of central Africa in a misted landscape of contoured fields and hidden valleys. The last region of Africa to be reached by Europeans, it lies along the watersheds of the Nile and Congo rivers, deep in the humid heart of the continent. A beautiful country, and tragic.
This year marks the 20th commemoration of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi, when upward of a million people were killed over the course of 100 horrific days. Those events, seared in the collective memory, make Rwanda's current transformation all the more remarkable.
Rwanda today is safe, clean, stable - and welcoming, something that surprises many first time visitors. This is not the realm of budget backpackers and dodgy youth hostels.
As Rica Rwigamba, who oversees Rwanda's tourism and conservation programs, puts it, "We see ourselves as a boutique travel destination."
Indeed, upscale tourism in Rwanda is booming, and though the country's history may be a tale of despair, its future is one of hope. Here then, are some key destinations to help you plan your own itinerary into this new heart of Africa.
NYUNGWE FORE ST Nothing symbolizes Rwanda's newly-minted status as a boutique travel destination than the presence - and pride - of Nyungwe Forest Lodge. A fivestar, low-impact, eco-friendly resort, Nyungwe Forest Lodge offers luxury accommodation in the midst of the African rainforest.
Every aspect of the lodge was designed to minimize impact, allowing travellers to experience the jungle first-hand without damaging the environment - or having to rough it in a tent.
As someone who has spent more than his share of nights in a canvas tent, I can affirm that there is no better feeling in this world, having spent the day tracking tree-bounding mangabey monkeys through the forest or crossing suspension bridges along dizzying canopy walks, than to return, sweaty and satisfied, to a warm springfed bath, fine dining, impeccable service and soft cumulus pillows.
Nyungwe Forest Lodge won an international award for hotel design in 2011. The rooms are located in elevated cabins, facing a wall of forest so thick it looks cross-hatched, and at dusk you can hear the chatter and cry of primates and tropically-plumed birds.
Spotlight Author Will Ferguson will be one of several speakers at an April 12 event, in which the Rwanda Community in Calgary invites people to remember the genocide of the Tutsis in Rwanda. The Rwanda community does not want this tragic event in history forgotten. Featured speakers at the event include Mayor Neheed Nenshi, Jonathan Denis, minister of justice and solicitor general for Alberta and Giller Prize winning author Ferguson, along with keynote speaker Dr. Egide Karuranga, a survivor of Hotel Rwanda who will speak about his experience. The event will occur at Mount Royal University's Glenn Ross Theatre from 3 to 6 p.m.
"Monkeys sometimes wake the guests up," says the lodge's assistant manager Alice Kampire with a laugh. "Like an alarm clock. You can open your balcony and see them jumping in the trees. Guests enjoy that."
As a descendent of the 19th century Scottish explorer David Livingstone, I admittedly have a bias in favour of visiting this historic spot.
The source of the Nile bedevilled and beguiled Europeans for centuries. Livingstone died in destitution, his health ruined, without ever solving the mystery. A German explorer placed it in neighbouring Burundi, others put it in Tanzania, but it was not until 2006 that a British expedition, using GPS and satellite maps, finally tracked the farthest reaches of the Nile - back to an unassuming spring high in the mountains of western Rwanda. (Something, it should be noted, that is still hotly contested in Burundi.) I reached the source of the Nile in a 4 x 4 on a long, rough road that wound its way into the clouds. Hiring a driver is mandatory for most truck rentals in Rwanda - and for good reason! Even with Livingstone as a forebear, I wouldn't have wanted to navigate those tortuous mountain roads on my own. The source itself is just a small pond - a puddle really - in a quiet forested trail. But to stand there, at a site so many explorers dreamed of and died for? I think it's worth it. Even better, it's close enough to the resort town of Karongi on Lake Kivu that you can fall back for dinner and a sunset view at the end of the day.
The rainforests of Rwanda's Volcanoes National Park are home to the endangered mountain gorillas made famous by Dian Fossey. Fossey gave her life for these "gorillas in the mist," confronting corrupt officials and poachers with a fearlessness that bordered on bravado, and although she was murdered at her base camp in 1985, her work lives on.
After many dark years, the population has stabilized, thanks largely to innovative government conservation programs that funnel the money paid for gorilla permits back into the local communities at the base of the volcanoes.
I passed one former "poacher's village" on the way in that now boasts a health clinic, a brand-new elementary school and a clean water supply all courtesy of the revenue generated by the gorillas. Killing or kidnapping these primates would now be considered counterproductive.
The gorillas, many of them fully habituated to the presence of humans, live in several far-flung groups, accessible only on foot, with visits limited to one hour. I made my trek to the distant Amahoro group with a disconcertedly fit band of hikers and arrived, panting and out of breath, to find a dozen gorillas lounging about amid nettles. As the babies tumbled over each other, a silverback rose like a mountain and shoved his way past us. It was, in every sense, breathtaking. I don't think I exhaled till well after he passed.
My best tip? Although there are accommodations near the park entrance, you can easily stay in the pretty lakeside town of Rubavu instead, on the border of Congo. The Lake Kivu Serena Hotel provides information, early morning wake-ups and a box lunch for your trip to Volcanoes National Park, allowing you to once again combine comfort with trail-slogging conservationism.
Rwanda is known mainly for its primate tours - and rightly so. Rwanda's national parks feature some of the largest primate populations in Africa, everything from chimpanzees to golden monkeys to the mountain gorillas of the Virunga forests.
But eastern Rwanda is starkly different. A savannah scrubland bordering Tanzania, it features Akagera National Park, home to spring-loaded impalas, bar-code arrangements of zebras, impossibly graceful giraffes, wallowing hippos, a handful of elephants and more than a few muck-dwelling crocodiles.
True, Akagera doesn't offer the scale of safaris that Botswana or Kenya do - although there are plans afoot to reintroduce lions into the park. (No word on what the zebras and impalas think about that.) But if you want to expand your itinerary after a visit to
Nyungwe Forest, Lake Kivu and Volcanoes National Park, Akagera is an easy overnight trip from the capital of Kigali. There is a hotel near the southern gate of the park, and though you aren't required to hire a guide to accompany you, it is strongly recommended. The area is vast, with plenty of thorn bush forests, and finding the animals can be tricky. But how often does one get to see rainforest mountain gorillas and savannah giraffes on the same trip?
Passes to see the mountain gorillas, arrangements for rental vehicles and drivers (required!), as well as travel to and accommodations inside Rwanda can be arranged through Thousand Hills Expeditions: www.thousandhillsexpeditions.com For more on Nyungwe Forest Lodge, offering luxury in the heart of the rainforest of the Congo-Nile divide, visit www.nyungweforestlodge.com For accommodations on Lake Kivu that can also be used as a springboard to the mountain gorillas farther east, see Lake Kivu Serena Hotel in Rubavu/Gisenyu: www.serenahotels.com/serenalakekivu For accommodations on Lake Kivu closest to the Source of the Nile, see Moriah Hill Resort in Karongi/Kibuye: www.moriahhill.com WILL FERGUSON is a Calg ary author and travel wri ter whose mos t recen t no vel , 419, won the 2012 Giller Pri ze.


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One of the fundamental laws of investing is that when everyone agrees on something there is something important they are not seeing. There are few if any observers today who don't hold that indexing is as perfect an investment strategy as has ever existed: simple, cheap, effective, and with little to no downside (other than the market itself). Try Googling "risks of indexing" or any other permutation of the phrase. The results (or lack of them) are a powerful testimonial of how one-sided is our perception of indexing.
There is a robust intellectual, experiential and statistical foundation for this belief. Indexing just might be the most brilliant investment insight of the last 50 years. Yet hidden in the shadows of indexing's monumental success is a growing body of evidence that this truly elegant idea not only has the potential to threaten the stability of the market, but has already changed market behavior in ways few if any investors understand.
Historic Rise
For most of its life, indexing was a peripheral strategy with a market share rarely rising above the low teens. But over the last decade the popularity of ETFs has pushed that share to more than a third. The Financial Times reported last year that institutional indexing of U.S. equities could increase its market share to 50% as early as the end of 2014. Pensions and Investments recently reported that CalPERS, the largest pension fund in the U.S., had begun a five-month review of all of its investments to see if it is worth continuing with any active managers. And if CalPERS is considering it, you can be sure that they are not alone.
Up until now potential negatives from indexing were mostly academic observations. NYU professor Jeffrey Wurgler's 2010 paper "On the Economic Consequences of Index-Linked Investing" summarizes nearly 40 studies about indexing that go back as far as 1986. He shows us quite convincingly how and why indexing has been affecting the market and its components for decades.
When a stock becomes part of an index its behavior changes instantly. "It is as if it has joined a new school of fish," Wurgler writes. In summarizing the implication of all of these studies he turns the conventional wisdom about indexing on its head: "The popularity of indexing may not be simply a reflection of the fact that active managers are unable, on average to beat the index; it may actually be contributing to their underperformance." If Wurgler is even close to being right, our perception of indexing may be due for a major adjustment.
Some observers have suggested that indexing will never become large enough to pose a systemic threat to the market because there will always be enough investors to offset the mispricing that excessive indexing might produce. However, in the real world extreme behavior in markets is driven by powerful forces and rarely has a benign end. I'm reminded of the quote, often attributed to Lord Keynes, that "Markets can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent."
Wurgler notes that the more popular indexing becomes, the harder it will become for active managers to beat it. If that scenario plays out, and indexing continues to trounce active management, it would reinforce the growing conclusion among large institutional investors that their only sensible choice is to increase their exposure to passive strategies, setting the stage for an index-driven investment bubble (or if Wurgler's hypothesis is correct, exacerbating the one that has been in existence perhaps for years).
But there's more: When investors like CalPERS consider eliminating all active strategies, what is the real message of that choice? By choosing to index, they are, in effect, saying that attributes like intelligence, experience, expertise, wisdom, intuition, patience and discernment—which we all prize as guides for every other aspect of our lives—don't apply to investing.
They are saying that there is no good reason to understand the difference between a good business and a bad one, between a good CEO and a thief, between a healthy balance sheet and a dangerous one, between a temporary problem and one that can lead to devastation. There is no reason to understand what a business does, who works there, what they make, whether it's a good product or a bad product. They say it doesn't matter, because if you just own the whole market you'll make more money.
Logical Extremes
One way to evaluate the legitimacy of any idea is to take it to its logical conclusion—an intellectual stress-test. If it maintains its rational and intellectual integrity at the extreme, that is one way of evaluating and eliminating possible risk. If CalPERS is considering the active versus passive choice, so should we; and by taking both to their logical extremes we might be able to see them more clearly.
What would the investment world be like if it was all active, if everyone was trying their hardest to make good choices? It probably wouldn't look much different than it has looked since modern stock markets emerged less than a hundred years ago. Some investors would do very well, some would do horribly, and most investors would probably be somewhere close to above or below average. More importantly, the market mechanism would reflect that diversity and the elements for an efficient market would be in place.
And what would the investment world be like if it was all passive—if everyone was indexed? No one knows because the idea is absurd. Without active investors—without optimists or pessimists, without long-term investors and short-term traders, without people actually making value judgments about the businesses whose stocks are publically listed—there would be no supply or demand, there would be no efficient market, and more importantly, there would be no average to index.
As long as indexing appears to be the perfect solution, to have no particular risk (other than the market itself), the choice to index is close to self-evident. But if indexing is really not such a perfect solution, and its increasing success is actually perverting the supply and demand of the market itself, perhaps dangerously, then underperforming that market may no longer be the badge of shame it appears to be. In fact, underperforming the market could turn out to be a low-risk way to avoid climbing on a mechanical strategy whose endgame is chasing an abstraction that it is in the very process of destroying.
Investors who are attracted to indexing because it avoids the risks of human judgment should reflect for a moment that it also avoids the benefits.

subset: commoncrawl


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| 12°C Dublin
Robert Snodgrass' cool finish earned manager Chris Hughton yet another stay of execution at Carrow Road as Norwich tip-toed past Tottenham 1-0 in the Barclays Premier League.
Glaswegian midfielder Snodgrass fired the Canaries to just their second win in 12 league clashes, with goalkeeper John Ruddy producing a string of first-class saves.
Chief executive David McNally has admitted Norwich would be "delinquent" not to keep eyes and ears open for a replacement for embattled boss Hughton.
McNally's revelation raised rumours Neil Lennon could trade Celtic for Norwich, but this nervy victory may keep Hughton in post just that little bit longer.
A circumspect first half left the hosts the more frustrated with the deadlock at the break.
Dutch midfielder Leroy Fer would have harboured most of the Canaries' annoyances all on his own, after missing the half's only clear-cut chance.
Fer's chance was positively gilt-edged in fact, the 24-year-old failing to tuck away Martin Olsson's threatening cut-back.
Nathan Redmond sent Olsson in behind Kyle Naughton on Norwich's left flank, and his accurate cross begged for a finish from the penalty spot.
The onrushing Fer could not quite arrive in the box quickly enough though, failing to capitalise on a completely static Tottenham defence.
Spurs struggled for rhythm and pace throughout the half, the visitors as much at fault for their midfield shortcomings as Norwich merited praise for continually hassling them off their stride.
Joseph Yobo's hefty clearance handed Ricky van Wolfswinkel a chance to terrorise the poorly positioned Michael Dawson on the cusp of the Spurs box.
Instead he dallied and was dispossessed with little more than a whimper.
So out of sorts and hesitant before the break, Van Wolfswinkel somehow managed to leave his meekness in the changing rooms.
Straight from the second-half kick-off the Dutchman produced a telling contribution that sparked the counter-attack for the opening goal.
Sneaking up on Bentaleb, Van Wolfswinkel picked the green Spurs midfielder's pocket before releasing Bradley Johnson.
Snodgrass immediately picked a smart diagonal run in behind the Tottenham defence and Johnson slid him the perfect ball.
Scotland international Snodgrass latched onto the pass, steadied himself and buried the ball past the helpless Lloris, making a mockery of Norwich's first-half profligacy and indecision.
Van Wolfswinkel's goalless run since August is not over, but at least he found the wherewithal to produce a telling contribution.
The Norwich goal sparked an inevitable Spurs reaction, but Chadli wasted acres of space with a poor cross, before Rose spoiled a fine 50-metre break with a loose pass.
Adebayor then bustled past Canaries centre-backs Bassong and Yobo, muscling a fine opening.
But John Ruddy raced off his line to slide onto the ball and deny the Togo striker.
Lennon and Adebayor's one-two sent the rangy Spurs forward through on goal again, but once more Ruddy was equal to the challenge.
Spurs boss Sherwood threw Roberto Soldado into the mix, and the switch to a two-man strikeforce almost paid immediate dividend.
Adebayor played Soldado through on the inside-right channel, but the Spaniard hit only side-netting.
The former Valencia striker had another clear opening moments later, but headed Lennon's pinpoint cross wide of goal.
Chadli headed back across goal with no team-mate in attendance, then Adebayor could not direct the winger's cross to trouble Ruddy.
Tottenham's increasing threat cranked up the tension, and Ruddy was forced to deny Chadli at point-blank range.
Norwich were not to be denied though, and rallied once more in the closing 10 minutes.
Johnson struck the bar from a firecracker free-kick, before Lloris parried the follow-up from Redmond.
Gary Hooper raced clear and squared the ball across the empty net, but no yellow shirt could provide a finish.
Online Editors


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538.H. Documentation
Parties to any EFRP transaction must maintain all documents relevant to the Exchange contract and the cash, OTC swap, OTC option, or other OTC derivatives, including all documents customarily generated in accordance with relevant market practices and any documents reflecting payment and transfer of title. Any such documents must be provided to the Exchange upon request, and it shall be the responsibility of the carrying clearing member firm to provide such requested documentation on a timely basis.
Pursuant to an offer of settlement Nidera US, LLC ("Nidera") presented at hearing on April 15, 2015, in which Nidera neither admitted nor denied the rule violations upon which the penalty is based, a Panel of the NYMEX Business Conduct Committee ("Panel") found that it had jurisdiction over Nidera pursuant to Rules 402 and 418 and that on trade date December 10, 2013, Nidera entered into an EFRP transaction that did not contain adequate documentation of the related swap transaction, and therefore was not a bona fide EFRP.
The Panel found that as a result, Nidera violated Legacy Rule 538.H.
In accordance with the settlement offer, the Panel ordered Nidera to pay a fine to the Exchange in the amount of $7,500.


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How do you top the iPad? Well, adding features Apple's tablet lacks is a good start, and BlackBerry makers Research in Motion's upcoming PlayBook is doing just that with front and rear cameras for video chat. That, and the company also wants the PlayBook to come in at under $500.
For that sub-$500 price you'll be able to pick up a Wi-Fi only version of the PlayBook. The Wi-Fi only iPad, by comparison, is currently smack-dab at $500, and adding 3G connectivity bumps up the price by $130.
Other than that, the PlayBook — as well as pretty much all of Apple's tablet competitors runs Flash, which may or may not be a big deal to you. It'll be interesting to see how big of a seller video conferencing is one the PlayBook lands at the beginning of next year. While the iPad doesn't have even a single camera for the time being, a second generation of the popular tablet is inevitable, and you can bet your biscuits it'll have video chatting. Apple just expanded FaceTime to allow users to talk between mobile devices and Macs, after all.


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Having just launched this site in late 2016, we are just beginning to build our database of blog entries related to commercial real estate in South El Monte, California. While we are working on that, you will now be redirected to our homepage, where all of our commercial real estate articles in the San Gabriel Valley are located. Thank you!
SGV Office: Coming soon!
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Los Padres National Forest
Contact Information
Los Padres National Forest
(office temporarily closed - but phones are being answered Mon-Fri 8-430)
Phone: (805) 865-0416
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Forest Headquarters
6750 Navigator Way, Ste 150
Goleta, CA 93117
Mt. Pinos Ranger District
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Phone: (661) 556-6110
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When we went to El Salvador in 1999, I was woefully under-prepared. With a trip to Europe and an afternoon in Tijuana under my belt, I thought I knew what to expect, but El Salvador threw me for a loop.
The weather was hot, I got sunburn and a urinary tract infection, the mosquitoes ate me alive, Suegra arranged for the baptism of my baby without permission, I had to sleep in a hammock, no one in the family had hot running water – (and that's when the water wasn't completely shut off), the baby had colic and cried almost non-stop, there were no seat belts so I thought we would all die in a car crash and I was starving because my gringo doctor scared me off eating most of the food saying I could get really sick.
And yet, ever since we left I've been saying that I want to go back — I guess I've always known that none of this was El Salvador's fault – it was my fault because I wasn't ready for it and I was being a spoiled American, (and come on, traveling with a baby can be hell even under the best circumstances.) I could see El Salvador's beauty even through my tears. There was so much I loved, but I was so completely overwhelmed that I couldn't take the time to experience it the way I wanted to. The only thing that has prevented another visit has been the expense – year after year, we just haven't been able to afford it.
More than a decade later, everything has fallen into place so that we're finally able to return, and the kids, (thankfully at an age that won't require diaper changes or preparing bottles) – deserve to see where their father came from – a place which probably seems more make-believe than real to them at this point. El Salvador – as if Carlos and I invented a fairytale land of volcanoes, paletas, stray dogs, careening buses, pupusas, debris of war, the sound of green parrots flapping their wings, unexpected downpours which disappear as suddenly as they came.
And so, we re-new our passports with plans to travel sometime in August. We hope to bring back plenty of photos of us smiling, laughing, eating pupusas, climbing a volcano, riding the bus, and abandoning Suegra at a Tio's house, lest she unexpectedly arrange my forced baptism.


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Soaring Demand for Metals Calls for Rethink of Recycling Practices, Says International Resource Panel
Raising Recycling Rates through Product-Centric Approach Can Mitigate Negative Environmental Impacts
BERLIN, Germany, April 24, 2013/African Press Organization (APO)/ — The growth in demand for metals, which could see needs rise by almost ten times current levels, calls for a rethink of recycling practices in order to address negative environmental impacts, according to two reports released today by the UNEP-hosted International Resource Panel.
Launched during a high-level dialogue on Resource Efficiency and Sustainable Management of Metals in Berlin, Environmental Risks and Challenges of Anthropogenic Metals Flows and Cycles provides an overview of the environmental challenges of metals and the potential contribution of recycling to mitigate them. Metal Recycling – Opportunities, Limits, Infrastructure outlines improvements required to metal recycling systems in the 21st century.
"As populations in emerging economies adopt similar technologies and lifestyles to those currently used in OECD countries, global metal needs will be three to nine times larger than all the metals currently used in the world," said UN Under-Secretary-General and UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner.
"A far more sophisticated approach is urgently needed to address the challenges of recycling complex products, which contain a broad variety of interlinked metals and materials," he added. "Product designers need to ensure that materials such as rare earth metals in products ranging from solar panels and wind turbine magnets to mobile phones can still be recovered easily when they reach the end of their life."
Metals are an essential part of the global economy as core raw materials for infrastructure. Demand is expected to remain strong in the future: in developing countries because of rapid industrialization, and in developed countries because of modern technologies. While renewable energy technologies—as part of the transition to an inclusive green economy—cut greenhouse gas emissions from metals production, they are likely to increase demand as they are more metal-intensive than fossil-fuel energy sources.
"An increased share of recycling of metals can be expected to alleviate some of the adverse environmental pressures from the use and production of metals," said Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker and Ashok Khosla, co-chairs of the IRP, in a joint statement. "However, increased recycling rates alone will not be sufficient but need to be accompanied by a levelling off of the demand curve for metals."
The integrated use of metals and their compounds cause local impacts from mining and use 7-8 per cent of the global energy supply. There are also issues related to metal emissions from sources such as fossil fuels and phosphate fertilizer, and the need for a final disposal solution for certain metals where supply has exceeded demand.
Recycling requires significantly less energy per kilogramme of metal produced than primary production, and also decreases the overall local impact of mining. Recycling also slows down the need for exploiting low-grade ores—a more energy-intensive process that is likely to become more common as demand grows—and can help ward off future scarcity of certain commonly used precious metals.
Theoretically, metals can be recycled almost indefinitely, thus presenting a valuable opportunity to reduce environmental degradation, energy and water use and contribute to the transition to a low-carbon, resource-efficient Green Economy.
However, the growing complexity of products makes it difficult to extract all and reuse valuable metals due to the laws of physics and related economics. For example, a mobile phone can contain more than 40 elements, including base metals such as copper and tin and precious and platinum-group metals such as silver, gold and palladium.
In order to boost historically low recycling rates, a global move from a Material-Centric to a Product-Centric approach, in which recycling targets specific components of a product and their complexity at its End of Life (EoL) and devises ways to separate and recover them, is essential.
Optimizing the recycling of EoL products can avoid losses in efficiency throughout the chain of recycling. The global mainstreaming of such a Product-Centric view would be a remarkable step towards efficient recycling systems, resource efficiency and a Green Economy.
"Our aim must be to beak the raw materials spiral by using materials more consciously," said German Federal Environment Minister Peter Altmaier. "In Germany, raw materials are already applied much more efficiently than ten years ago. But we can achieve even more: By 2020 we want to double raw materials efficiency compared to 1994 levels."
The potential for recycling is enormous when the amount of electrical and electronic equipment waste being generated is considered. Such waste is estimated at 20 to 50 million tonnes, or three to seven kilogrammes per person, each year.
In Europe alone, the amount of such waste generated is about 12 million tonnes per year. This is expected to increase in the coming decades at a rate of at least four per cent annually—about three times higher than the growth of municipal waste.
However, recycling rates have been consistently low—a previous report by the IRP found that less than one-third of some 60 metals studied have an end-of-life (EoL) recycling rate above 50 per cent and 34 elements are below one per cent recycling.
The reports issued a series of recommendations to attain a workable sustainable metals management system, including:
• Certified systems based on Best Available Technologies (BATs) and other measures increasing energy and entropy efficiency for mining as well as recycling industries have been developed and need to be applied on a global level. These techniques differ between regions, and do not necessarily need to be high technology.
• Weight-based targets hinder rather than promote recycling of the many critical elements in complex products, usually present in very low concentrations. Priorities have to be set for different metals, such as base metals, special metals, critical-technology metals, etc.
• Policy targets for recycling must account for the loss of metals due to mixing, must not exceed physical, technological and thermodynamic limits, and should not prioritize one or two metals at the inadvertent expense of others. Targets that go beyond what is thermodynamically possible are likely to fail. Policy makers can set appropriate targets from a life-cycle perspective by drawing on the expertise and tools available within the recycling industry.
• System optimization and design can further increase recycling rates and decrease environmental impacts. Product designers should take life-cycle approaches as well as metallurgical knowledge and rigorous process recycling system simulation into account when designing new products. Research and education is critically important for preserving this knowledge and for driving innovation that maximizes resource efficiency
• Policy goals for the recycling system must dovetail with economic drivers. With so many operators in the collection and recycling industry, regulation enforcement is unlikely to be sufficient by itself for determining the destination of metal-containing waste-streams.
• Primary production energy-efficiency increases can be achieved by improved process efficiency and use of waste streams (fly ash, sludge, slags, precipitates and suchlike) as sources of metals.
The full reports can be downloaded from the following links:
Environmental Risks and Challenges of Anthropogenic Metals Flows and Cycles
Metal Recycling – Opportunities, Limits, Infrastructure
About the Resource Panel
The International Resource Panel was established in 2007 to provide independent, coherent and authoritative scientific assessment on the sustainable use of natural resources and the environmental impacts of resource use over the full life cycle.
By providing up-to-date information and the best science available, the International Resource Panel contributes to a better understanding of how to decouple human development and economic growth from environmental degradation. The information contained in the International Resource Panel's reports is intended to be policy relevant and support policy framing, policy and programme planning, and enable evaluation and monitoring of policy effectiveness.
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)


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CASE73839: Horary consultation concerning Mrs Margaret Anderson (PERSON42694)
Question asked by the patient on 21 February 1632 at 13:10
U[1624–34] Mrs. Margaret Anderson. \of Tringe/ 16. y. Febr 21. ♂. h. 1. 10. p m. 1632
Shee tooke her Phisick wch wrought very well, but her Leggs doe nowe swell very much toward night, & pitt into the flesh wth great paine, her thighes & Belly swell alsoe
Desires to knowe what should bee done:
Transcribed excerpt from MS Ashmole 212, p. 455 (bottom right part of page)
Mrs Margaret Anderson (PERSON42694)
Medical >Treatment (Treatment follow-up)
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Disney's California Grill, a long cool drink replete with swank, sizzle and sass, reopens Monday.
The restaurant atop Disney's Contemporary Resort hotel was closed for a seven-month makeover that included a menu overhaul, a new kitchen and updated decor.
"We will be finessing up until the first guest walks in, this is our passion. We're ready and excited to show off our new menu and our new look," says executive chef Brian Piasecki, who has kept the focus on fresh seasonal creations.
One new offering is an omakase service featuring 12 to 14 courses of top-notch seafood with no menu, simply chef's choice.
A few fan favorites from the old menu still are available, but presentations and recipes have been updated. Pork and goat cheese polenta, for example, is now "pork two ways." The wood-grilled tenderloin will be served with lacquered pork belly with a side of country applesauce.
Since it opened in 1995, the view from the California Grill has been unmatched in a theme-park setting. The expansive windows look out on to Walt Disney World's Seven Seas Lagoon, the Magic Kingdom theme park and the nighttime fireworks over Cinderella Castle.
But before sunset, the new dining room on the resort's 15th floor is noticeably more luminescent than before. New floor-to-ceiling windows allow in more natural light, creating a pleasant shimmering effect. New white countertops in the lounge and along the expansive open kitchen enhance the clean lines and overall brightness of the room.
It's not easy to take your eyes off the windows but do look down. The graphic print carpet was inspired by iconic Disney designer Mary Blair. Her vibrant style is a colorful signature of several classic Disney animated films including "The Three Caballeros," "Cinderella" and "Peter Pan." Blair also created the giant mosaic wall in the Contemporary Resort.
The new decor with pops of yellow and orange includes a mix of stand-alone tables and chairs as well as long banquettes that link a string of seating areas. The overhead lights in the mid-century modern dining room seem to have been plucked from George Jetson's last garage sale in Orbit City.
"They are very Sputnik," says Piasecki of the retro linear, architectural fixtures.
In a nod to the now-popular communal dining trend, the California Grill also has added two solid teak tables. Each seats 10 guests, and the tables are so big they had to lifted into the space by a crane.
The look is stunning, but it is Piasecki's seasonally-inspired menu and general manager Michael Scheifler's team of 20 sommeliers that still will be the main draw. When the high-end dining room first opened almost 20 years ago, it quickly garnered rave reviews from food critics and industry watchers.
When guests enter the California Grill, they immediately will see a wall of wine — 1,600 bottles — displayed in a state-of-the-art temperature controlled cabinet.
The wine list will include about 250 selections, with California vintners leading the way. There will be 80 wines by the glass, up from 50 choices on the previous wine menu. The bar also will offer 10 varieties of sake and eight craft beers and numerous signature cocktails.
During a recent preview the new kitchen was a beehive of energy as the culinary team practiced all of the menu items,
Piasecki went over the artfully plated dishes such as baked local prawns with charred lemons and blistered tomatoes, wild Columbia River salmon with Zellwood sweet corn pudding and pan-seared halibut with a velvety with parsnip "silk."
House-made charcuterie will be served on olive boards. And the kitchen has new custom, flat-top grills just for cooking fish. Sushi, a California Grill signature element since opening day, commands even more attention with an expanded prep area and a glass case to showcase seafood.
Pastry chef Jeff Barnes brings more playful elements to the menu with his creative desserts.
"Everyone has a lava cake," says Piasecki. "We wanted to reinvent the classic robust flavor so Jeff created a dense chocolate pudding cake made with a 70 percent dark chocolate from Belgium."
The sundae sampler platter is an imaginative trio with a mini version of a Coke float, flanked by two twists on the sundae theme: a berry-basil icy treat with a glittery strawberry "disco ball" on the side and a caramel corn sundae. Each is about three bites with presentations that break new ground in the mini dessert category.
"The energy level here is unbelievable. We are ready to raise the curtain on the new California Grill," says Piasecki.
California Grill
Where: Contemporary Resort, 600 World Drive, Lake Buena Vista; Check in at the podium on the second floor before taking an elevator to the 15th floor,
When: From 5 p.m. daily
How much: Entrées $30-$50
Extras: Prime fireworks viewing, two private dining rooms
Dress code: Men may wear khakis, slacks, jeans or dress shorts and collared shirts. Sport coats are optional. Women may wear capri pants, skirts, dresses, jeans or dress shorts. Not permitted are tank tops, swimsuits, swimsuit coverups, hats for men, cutoffs, torn clothing and T-shirts with offensive language or graphics.
Reservations: disneyworld.com/dine or call 407-939-3463


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Game of Choice
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Matt has decided to run a D&D adventure for his kids, but now comes the hard part - which edition to play?
Me and Dungeons&Dragons broke up awhile ago, we tried to stay friends but after seeing it in the hands of others I just couldn't take it anymore, we wanted different things out of gaming and we both knew it and could barely stand the sight of each other, thus we both went our separate ways.
Since then D&D has changed a great deal, it has shed the cumbersome crunch of 3.5 and replaced it with a shiny veneer of clever combat mechanics whilst removing what little narrative support elements it had. The result was a brand new D&D that was faster and smoother than it's old self. Unfortunately, I was still unimpressed, especially since I'd been hooked up with D&D's more interesting middle sibling Star Wars SAGA Edition whom gave me what I needed despite some neglect from its parents, Wizards of the Coast.
However I have recently been dragged back to D&D by some friends, reacquainting myself with D&D's strange clone Pathfinder, and while I must admit that Pathfinder is a better time than 3.5 ever was, it still has most of the same problems of the original. Thus I find myself longing after the refined Door Kicking, Stuff Taking, Monster Killing machine than D&D has become, instead of the bloated Pathfinder beast that now holds me in thrall.
In brief, if you want to play "Dungeons and Dragons" I cannot think of a better way to do it than by playing 4th Edition.
I'd recommend either 3.5 or 4. The rules are faster, the math is transparent, and the archetypes fit the common MMO archetypes closer than older versions. 4 is most likely best to start right now, since you won't be gambling on overstock to secure needed rule sets.
Resist all temptation for Basic, AD&D or 2nd ed. Those hellish times when THAC0 lent us a chilled hand...
All good suggestions but I would go with Palladium. It's the most versatile and it's probably got one of the easiest sets of rules to grasp... for a versatile rpg: like if they want you to make it high-tech, involve super-heroes, involve mutants, or anything else.
You're kidding right? That Game System only makes sense if you beat the rules with a hammer until they work. I played it when I was 14, thought about going back to it, took one look at the rules and nearly had a heart attack! Woefully Unbalanced Character Options, a confusing as hell battle system and nearly meaningless skill choices with a very cumbersome Percentile System.
It's like a "How To Guide" of bad rules design.
Besides, the column author already knows of a system that does what That Game System does better than That Game System it's called Savage Worlds, and it is awesome.
3.5 and 4 are faster then Basic, AD&D or 2nd ed? We can practically run an entire dungeon in Basic/Expert in the time it takes to finish a decently sized fight from 3rd or 4th edition. While I will agree that new tabletop gamers familiar with MMOs will pick up and identify with the concepts of 3rd/4th possibly easily then earlier editions.
I know everyone like ragging on THAC0, after 100+ hours of Baldur's Gate I still didn't understand what it was fully, but after playing in a Basic/Expert game for awhile now I really don't see why it gets so much grief. It's certainly no more complex then attack roles + untold number of modifiers seen in later editions.
I think Matt put it quite well, and I believe this statement applies even in the realm of the editions of a single game.
I played a little AD&D when I was in junior high, and found it quite a nice way to waste a saturday night. Unfortunately, I was always the DM. I had the best grasp of the game mechanics and no one else was willing to take the helm, so the job was mine. To this day, I've always thought sitting in on an expertly run game of AD&D would be an unforgetable experience. Your children are lucky, and I hope they enjoyed the experience.
Personally, I've found you can't really go wrong with FUDGE.
But then I was brought up on original Basic D&D, back when you were only an elf when you elfed!
And I still love ThAC0.
I would say that I miss the days of Elf being a character class but I'd be a total liar. AD&D 2nd Edition will always be my edition of choice, but if I had to choose between the later editions I think I'd have to go with 4th.
I never agreed with exception-based game mechanics being a positive feature in the 3.5 to 4th edition switch. Its easier to learn and functions well at first but the more content that is added to the game the more exceptions get placed on the very basic core system. As time goes on this accumulation of exceptions creates situations where the system starts contradicting itself and unintentional combinations of abilities start breaking things. In games like M:TG (which I've been playing for 8 years) this is only kept to a minimum by restricting the use of cards older than a given point in the release schedule and D&D isn't the kind of game that will work with. Given how much content WotC obviously plans on releasing for 4e we are going to reach the point in this edition that we reached in 3.5 when there was too much published work much faster. Sure as a DM it should be your job to filter what content does and doesn't end up in our games but lets be honest, some DMs don't always have that much control over there player base.
4th Ed... would be fine if it didn't have tieflings and Dragonkin as basic races.
You... do realise that by now, he's already chosen, right? Hell, he's also -run- his game. Your reasons are good, but... little late, aren't we?
I fail to understand how that is a significantly detrimental quality of 4th Edition.
What narrative support elements were there in 3.5?
I've found that the formalisation/re-formalisation (I was never too knowledgeable of 3.5) of Skill Challenges has made out of combat encounters much easier.
Indeed, Dungeon Master Guide 2 for 4th edition has -heaps- of storytelling and story-writing support and information. More than I've ever seen in a single place, in fact, not that I've looked especially hard.
This supports my general idea of DnD - the DM comes up with the story, and simply implements it within the provided rulesset. 4th edition allows you to simulate almost any given combat, or noncombat challenge, based on the rules provided in PHB1, DMG1 and DMG2, with the help of any number of MM books.
What did 3.5 do that 4th didn't do, here? I'm really curious, because I know a vast number of people seem to prefer 3.5 to the "simplified" 4th.
You can talk about easier/harder games, but I think 4th is a better fit for new gamers. Simply put, while a 3.5 character is an Adventurer, a 4E character is an Action Hero. The entire system is based around kicking ass and looking good while doing it. 3.5 is grittier in comparison (while still being fairly low in realism).
My group still plays both systems, as they scratch different itches. The big 3.5 advantage is that there are a lot of "reskins" out there to change the feel of the game without needing to learn another ruleset. (Two that come to mind are Arcana Evolved and Iron Heroes, from Monte Cook).
I take your point about dead games - I still run and play a lot of dead games simply because of rule familiarity, and how well some of these games introduced great new ideas to the game. For example, my group recently unearthed a long-lost copy of the Marvel Superhero game and, you know what? The basic ruleset is a lot of fun, and makes for a really colourful and rules-light game night.
My only issue with D&D, ultimately, is that in any edition it tends to struggle hard to suppress the innate storytelling desire inside every player. The player, and kids especially, want to DO things and make things HAPPEN, but D&D puts a rule on it and says "Only if you roll the dice".
Newer (and indie-er) games have taken the mechanic and twisted it around, allowing the game system to support the players rather than fighting them every step of the way.
But, you know what? It took me a heck of a lot of playing D&D to realise why it wasn't really roleplaying, and I still believe it's a very good game in and of itself. So, yes, it's a great place to start the kids.
Oh, before I forget - if you have the time, I do recommend the basic Pendragon ruleset and some of the official "adventures" books. The rules were simpler than D&D, and the game had a rather interesting "passions" mechanic to govern character actions, and the adventures were so well written that through a few of them is bound to be fun. No need for a campaign, actually, just a few one-offs :)
I always play fast and loose with the 3.5 rules, any tabletop game rules for that matter. For us, at least, the game is about the adventure, the roleplaying, the story; not about the combat situations.
Oh, and Pathfinder fixed the classes.
I'm currently in 3.5 right now for my D&D.
Fights take like 2 hours.
I comment that DnD has few "narrative support elements" because well... it doesn't. Elements of Narrative Support are System Mechanics that help to drive The Story, not just The Action. DnD drives The Action just fine, but point out to me a good "Story Support Mechanic" in DnD, a specific rule that helps the PC's and the DM create a better story.
You may think I'm wrong in this, but first I recommend you look at a system like FATE (http://www.vsca.ca/Diaspora/diaspora-srd.html) or Burning Wheel, both which have a very unique way of integrating Character Backstory, Character Personality and Character Relationships with Game Play. These games do not however do the "Kick Down the Door, Kill The Monsters, Take their Stuff" part so well though, FATE has little to no equipment and Burning Wheel is a very gritty game.
I guess what I was initially getting at is that saying 3.5 had MORE Roleplaying than 4th Ed is folly, DnD has NEVER had good roleplaying rules and as you point out, the two DMG's are some of the best Campaing Help Books I've ever seen.
Quite so. My friends and i were in cahoots over how 'easy' everything in 4e felt. In 3e and 3.5 (and all its variants), your character is fairly good at a few things and woefully inefficient at all others. In 4e, he'll be incredibly good at a number of things and somewhat average in all others. The focus and skillsets in 4e are definitely more action-oriented - boiling it down to the aforementioned door-kicking, orc-bashing, and stuff-taking, with a real can-do attitude to it all. If you're dealing with a younger audience, 4e is obviously the way to go, but I personally prefer 3.5 for its massive customising options and background resources, and for the fact that everything is much more difficult, which emphasizes tight and well-thought character/party setups.
Oh, dear. Not That Game System. It's right down there with Steve Jackson's GURPS in terms of convoluted rules complexities. If you need to know calculus to stat a vehicle, something is terribly, terribly wrong with your game. Both suffer from being so-called 'universal' games. There's so much rules lawyering in both because they must encompass almost every possible game situation. Overall, they just collapse under their own weight, and they don't have a specific stylistic flavour to them that makes the slog through rules hell worth it.
The (new) World of Darkness system by White Wolf is fantastic. Lightweight but very versatile rules, excellent storytelling and background resources, easy to learn but very fulfilling to play, and with an impeccable neo-noir flavour element to it. That game has everything in my opinion.
As a young kid (13 or 14) I would spend nights reading the AD&D 2nd ed. player's handbook. It was a lot of rules, but honestly, I didn't find it much more complicated than trying to learn the 4th ed. rules at age 21. I'd say, find a ruleset that you understand and are comfortable with and use that; you can put a good campaign on top of any ruleset.
That said, 4th ed. did take a turn for the better in making the system easier to comprehend. THACO0 was confusing and there was almost too much freedom in the way classes could be built. On the other hand, the abilities in 4th ed. seem limited, kinda like playing an MMO where you have a small handful of attacks that you just repeat over and over. I found myself relying on the abilities I was given rather than trying to invent new ways to turn the tide of battle.
Of any system I've tried (basically 2nd, 3rd, and 4th ed AD&D), my suggestion for a newcomer would be 4th ed. The rules are simpler and cleaner with less confusion of what does what and whether or not you hit.
I advise a high school game club. They play it all from video games to card games to paper and pencil RPGs. The paper and pencil crew is hip deep in 3.5 D&D and d20 modern. More than half are new players, none seem to be having any great difficulty and all seem to be having a blast. They loooked over 4E and chose 3.5. The relative complexity doesn't seem to bother them. Given the rate at which WotC is cranking out books (each thinner, often subdivided, and more expensive than it's 3.5 equivalent) for 4E I suspect the complexity issue is relative. Different players will like each (or in some cases both). My own game is rolling over to Pathfinder with some house rules. It's a better fit for my homebrew campaign. I see it as a differnt balance between world simulation (3.5) and game (4E).
*edit* My campaign world originated with the original D&D game in 1974-5. Too many differences for a comfortable transition from 3.5 to 4E.
Not to make this an argument about THACO, but it's unreasonable to attack the Basic/1e Combat System for its Armor Class rules. Armor Class is just a modifier to the attacker's die roll. If (Die Roll) + (AC) + (To Hit Bonus) = 20 you hit. THACO is just (20) - (Attack Bonus) which some peopel find intuitive and others don't.
But if my fighter has +3 attack bonus, my target has AC3, and I roll a 15. 15+3+3=21. I hit. That's it.
The higher the armor class, the bigger the bonus to the (attack) roll. I genuinely don't understand why this is perceived as complex. If I told you "Large creatures are Size Class 10 because they are easy to hit; you get to add the Size of +10 to your attack" and "Small creatures are Size Class 3 because they are harder to hit; you only add the Size of +3 to your attack" and "Tiny creatures are Size Class -2; you subtract 2 from your attack" that wouldn't be hard to understand. So why is it hard to understand to say "Unarmored creatures are Armor Class 10 because they are easy to hit; you add the Armor of +10 to your attack", etc.?
As for speed of play, we ran a battle in Basic D&D last week that pit a party of 5 5th level characters and 6 2-4th level NPCs against 480 skeletons. The entire battle took only 30 minutes to adjudicate. Fighting that battle in 3.5 or 4 would take hours.
I enjoy 3.5 or Pathfinder most, because of the complexity to it. It's the exact right amount of rules for my group and I, whereas 4th edition is far too simple in some regards to really hold my interest. 4th edition also feels less dangerous, and I have a hard enough time challenging my players in 3e.
My last gripe against 4th is probably the largest in my mind. That's the fact that all the classes feel too 'same-y'. I like that wizards start out wimps and rise to out power the warriors in 3e (though, oddly enough, the guy that plays warriors in my games is just such an insane twink he normally gets in just as many good hits). I like the unbalance of things, it makes things more interesting.
I have a number of other small gripes against 4th, but I do have to say that there are quite a many things I've pulled from it to use in my 3e games. It's not a bad game, it's just not for me.
Savage Worlds does the same Universal System dance, only much faster and easier. However GURPs is still a better system then That Game System, it's mostly balanced and while it takes a million years to figure out, it can be quite rewarding when you do. Also Steve Jackson learns from his mistakes and is by all accounts a stand up guy.
I think 4E is better fit, not so much for new gamers but for younger gamers. The very nature of 4E with its at-will, encounter and daily powers are very easy to understand and manage, and they are very similar to the concepts of many current MMORPGs. They are much easier than the previous (A)DND editions where you had to keep track of spells per days and resting. I'm not saying they are better, I'm just saying they are easier.
Having started with ADND2E and following up with 3E, 3.5E, 4E and Pathfinder I now tend to look at more generic rules. Apart from the modern day setting Modern d20 already went a long way in this. True20 is also an amazing ruleset but I don't think their alternative HP-less rules are much easier to track. Combined with Unearthed Arcana's Injury variant however it is probably one of my favorite systems. Making things even more generic I'm now looking at some Robin Laws systems like Over The Edge or the narrative HeroQuest (the RPG, not the boardgame).
I'm looking forward to the follow-up article to see how it all went!
By the love of Thor, go with 3.5.
4th edition feels more like a WoW/Diablo knock off on pen and paper.
I completely agree. I think the thac0 issue is more myth than reality, and it is usually used by people who never played a game that actually used thac0. Most current systems aren't any less complex when it comes to combat. You usually have to compare a die + str + combat modifiers against a die/number + dex + armor + defense modifiers.
Out of curiosity: was this the game with Chris Brackett?
This is exactly what it appeals to a younger generation, which has one big advantage: It keeps Dungeons and Dragons as "the first role-playing game I ever played" for this generation. A whole lot of role-players, myself included, first came in contact with it through on of the many DND installments. And those players either stay with that version of DND or they move to an older version or they start exploring the vast world of non-DND systems.
I think that's just D&D playing to its strengths. D&D has never been a very narrative-driven game, it was all action and the story is just what you make of it. While I have no strong feelings about whether that's a good thing or not, I do like that 4e basically says "I'm an action game, you make up a story to go with it if you want to".
I've often heard people claiming that 4e discourages roleplaying because it doesn't have a huge list of skills, classes, prestige classes etc like 3.5 did, but it's that focus on simple action that makes it so attractive. People who want action get it in spades, and people who want roleplaying aren't restricted by an arbitrary skill-value on your sheet telling you how good your character is at something that has little to no value when it comes to the mechanics of actually playing the game.
Games that focus on the narrative can be a blast (with the right group), but D&D has never been one of those, and IMO it's a good thing that it isn't trying to be one.
Ha ha, good luck getting kids to have fun with 4E. 4E is much harder than 3.5, and not in a good way. The encounter balancing is completely out of whack and the available customization options to the players are distressingly thin. Magic items are total weaksauce and buff spells basically don't exist. In fact 4E essentially doesn't have magic at all!
The purpose of 4E was not to create a better game it was to evade the open gaming license, which Wizards of the Coast felt was stealing their profits.
4E kills all the creativity of the game. Want your character to do something? You need to have a "power" for it. What are powers? Pretty much just regular attacks with a lot of fluff attached to them. Right now my 3.5 game all the PCs are impossible to make in 4E. A mage who specializes in illusion and enchantment? All those spells are gone. A cleric summoner? Gone. A dual-wield rogue? Two-weapon fighting is now ranger only. The design concept behind 4E seems to be how limited they can make it and how many things they can take out.
Argh, I hate 4E and I hate what it's doing to the industry. It makes me sad to think of that as someone's first "D&D" experience.
You should very well know that they announced there would be no decent conversion from 3E or 3.5E to 4E, and definitely not on a class-to-class basis. Here is an official guide for you. Here's a nice example:
So 3E barbarians should now look for the fighter or ranger class. Other examples suggest converting a bard to a warlord, wizard or warlock. So if you want to convert a dual-wielding rogue and you still really want him to dual-wield, then start off by playing a 4E ranger. Don't hang on too tight on the name of the class and what it used to represent in previous editions. You are absolutely correct about the Illusionist though, there are no real illusion spells to speak of. Even in their Wizard Act they only included combat illusions instead of "real" illusions like Major Image. For me that was a major let-down as well.
Of course no one is forcing you to switch to 4E. You can keep playing 3.5 or Pathfinder or True20.
It has been quite a long time since I've played 1st edition D&D. I think my uncle has the red box. I need to do that so I can do a side-by-side comparison of my own.
Okay but I wasn't badmouthing Palladium.
Check out FATE, Savage Worlds or Feng Shui, they do the same thing only better. Rules Light games that let you focus on story. Though I suppose Palladium does do one thing well, it leaves a lot open to interpretation, which can lead to either a lot of creativity, or a lot of boredom.
I genuinely tried giving 4th ed a try... but I could leave 3.5 behind. I think it is still the best system for my group and myself. AND... 4th ed doesn't seem dumbed down, but it feels like alot of the diversity and control you had in sculpting your own characters has been lessened since 3.5.
I hate that 4th ed is what the next gen is starting with. I started with AD&D and it was great (despite some of its probs). At least start with 3.0.
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IDF Intel's first mainstream quad-core processor will be branded Core 2 Quad, the company confirmed at its bi-annual developer forum today. The chip family will ship in Q1 2007 - at least two months after the first Intel quadie, a new Core 2 Extreme, debuts in November 2006.
Quad-core Xeons - codenamed 'Clovertown' - will also debut in November, as the 5300 series, Intel CEO Paul Otellini said today, promising a performance boost of around 50 per cent over the dual-core 'Woodcrest' Xeon DP.
Otellini claimed the new quad-core Extreme - aka 'Kentsfield' - would be up to 70 per cent faster than the current, dual-core incarnation, the X6800. That said, he was quiet on the subject of power consumption - unsurprising, perhaps, since the quad-core chip is expected to consume more power than its predecessor. That's certainly the case with Clovertown, which is expected to consume 120W in its top-of-the-line form, though Otellini touted a 50W quad-core Xeons - low-voltage parts, presumably - later in 2007. There will also be 80W, "mainstream" parts.
Presumably Otellini was referring to the 1.6GHz L5301 down for a Q1 2007 debut on Intel's roadmap, according to recent reports.
Expect four 5300-series Xeons: the E5310, E5320 and E5345, clocked at 1.60GHz, 1.86GHz and 2.33GHz, respectively, and the 2.66GHz X5355. The first three CPUs run over a 1066MHz frontside bus, while the X5355 has a 1333MHz FSB. All four contain 8MB of L2 cache, split between two core pairs that make up each processor.
Intel's going top plug these into its 'Caneland' platform in Q3 2007, which supports 667MHz FB-DIMM memory and a 34GBps frontside bus.
Intel also unveiled the Xeon 3200 series, aimed at single-processor workstations, and said it will ship in Q1 2007 alongside the desktop quadies, largely because they're all essentially the same chip, Kentsfield.
The first Kentsfield will be the QX6700, Intel confirmed, though the company didn't admit it's a 2.66GHz chip, as is believed to be the case. The first Core 2 Quad will be the 2.4GHz Q6600. Some 13 system builders have confirmed they will ship machines based on quad-core Extreme CPUs at launch, Otellini said.
Otellini didn't address the mobile market, but Intel VP Stephen Smith admitted the company needs to get the thermal envelope down before we see Core 2 Quads for notebooks. However, he hinted that initial mobile chips may focus on gaming, suggesting a laptop-oriented version of the Core 2 Extreme is on the cards. ®
Read Reg Hardware's complete IDF Fall 06 coverage here


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Please answer just this one question.
atheism is:
A. the disbelief of gods
B. the belief that there are no gods
C. Other (explain.)
Views: 1817
Ultimately, this is really my attitude. There are no gods, because there is NO EVIDENCE for any form of deity, as surely as there is no evidence for mermaids, fairies (Sookie Stackhouse NOT withstanding!!!) or left-handed zindlefingers. Present credible evidence and a claimant may BEGIN to have a case. That evidence will have to go through the wringer, though, as surely as any other new scientific theory does. If it passes muster, then we have learned something new and indeed very radical in its concept. If it doesn't, then another ill-conceived hypothesis bites the dust.
With only an ancient book and a bunch of unsubstantiated assertions, any claim of the existence of a god is weak tea at best. All the hand-waving done by people like WLC and his fellows is not convincing, either. I hold no belief in gods of any sort, which is why my original answer was "A". Ultimately, though, I have no interest in giving religion any slack at all as regards any of their claims, but this one most of all. Until and unless someone can show me a proper indication that would persuade me otherwise, There Are NO GODS ... PERIOD.
oxford dictionary : 'disbelief or lack of belief in the existence of God or gods'.
Personally I think it's impossible for any God or Gods to exist.
B; The belief that there are no gods. This one works best for me, but a revised A is also OK.
A + theist = without + god. That is all the word means. It carries no other baggage other than what humans put on it. Some say atheist is a lack of belief in god. I feel no "lack". Without does not necessarily imply lack, i.e. one is without cancer, not one lacks cancer.
"Atheist +" is without god + a lot of other things, i.e. social consciousness, conscience, environmental concerns, the wealth gap, values definition, stuff like these.
I don't care for euphemisms, they muddy the waters, i.e. abuse renamed discipline. When one softens the language the impact becomes wishy-washy. War becomes an engagement. Torture becomes interrogation.
I like atheism because it is clear, definitive, explicit, simple. When others add meaning to it and express their understanding, often in an accusatory manner, an opportunity opens to discuss what the word means to me and its implications.
I have no interest in converting anyone to atheism; I am interested in getting my understanding into the soundwaves. If I remain silent, I imply agreement.
me too.
Yesterday, a thought hit me (ouch!). If atheist means without god, then doesn't that mean everyone in the world is an atheist?
Because there is no god, everyone is without.
Atheism is not a belief, such as "I believe there are no gods". Atheism is a lack of belief in gods. Saying, "I believe there are no gods", is a positive claim, and is subject to burden of proof as is the claim, "I believe in God(s)". To say, "I have no god beliefs", is a negative claim, and is not subject to burden of proof.
Atheism is much more than just rejection of gods. It is mode of thinking in a logical and scientific way.
I like this statement.
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text:
Plane Search Raises Questions About Sea of Floating Junk
The search for debris from missing Malaysia Airlines flight 370 has not turned up any evidence of a crash, but it has trained the world's gaze on thousands of pieces of junk floating on the ocean's surface.
Much of that debris could be made up of plastics, old appliances or parts of homes that have washed away from fragile communities, and cargo containers from ships, according to ocean advocacy group One World One Ocean.
Check out some of the facts about what's really floating in our oceans:
The Pacific Garbage Patches: The most heavily-researched and well-known example of plastic pollution in the ocean is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, made up of some 3.5 million tons of plastic beverage bottles, grocery bags, and plastic goods that have been pushed together by water currents that circulate between the west coast of North America and the east coast of China and Russia.
The Five Ocean Gyres: Pollutions can easily get caught in one of the five "gyres" of the ocean: the northern and southern Atlantic gyres, the Indian Ocean gyre, and the northern and southern Pacific gyres. The term describes water that moves in a circular, rotational current over a vast space in the ocean, pulling in stray plastics as it moves until they collide and merge with one another. Because these gyres are trafficked heavily by cargo ships, the garbage patches contain large objects that have gone overboard from ships, including entire cargo containers.
Indian Ocean's Plastic Problem: Researchers only began focusing on plastic pollution in the Indian Ocean in recent years, and in 2010 discovered garbage patches much like the famous Pacific Garbage Patch, according to Coastal Cares, another clean ocean advocacy group.
Plastic Breaks Down: As the garbage floats into the gyres it is broken down by salt and UV rays and begins releasing chemical properties into the water that then enter the food system, according to the Scripps Institute at the University of California San Diego. The plastics also fall into smaller pieces that can make them difficult to clean up.


text:
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 - 1882 / Boston / United States)
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To love and be beloved;
Men and gods have not outlearned it;
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Aquino Says China Violates Informal Code On Sea
Send a link to a friend
[May 19, 2014]
By Manuel Mogato
MANILA (Reuters) - Philippine President
Benigno Aquino accused China on Monday of violating a 12-year-old
informal code of conduct in the South China Sea with land reclamation
work in a disputed shoal.
China has stepped up activity to assert its claim to most of the
energy-rich South China Sea.
But Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Taiwan also have
claims over parts of the sea through which about $5 trillion of
ship-borne goods pass every year.
China's activity has in particular raised alarm in the Philippines
and in Vietnam, where a dispute over an offshore drilling rig
sparked deadly anti-Chinese riots last week.
China and the 10-member Association of South East Asian Nations
(ASEAN) signed an agreement in 2002 to refrain from occupying
uninhabited reefs and shoals in the sea, and from building new
structures that would complicate disputes.
"In our view, what they are doing there now is in violation of what
we had agreed in the Declaration of Conduct of Parties in the South
China Sea," Aquino told reporters.
"The problem is this code is not binding, not enforceable, so we
need to come up with a formal code of conduct to resolve the dispute
and prevent any potential conflict."
Last week, the Philippine foreign ministry released surveillance
photographs of China's reclamation work in Johnson South Reef in the
disputed Spratly Islands. China appears to be building an airstrip,
its first in the Spratlys.
Peter Paul Galvez, a Philippine Defense Department spokesman, said
the military noticed the reclamation work early this year. A Chinese
airstrip in the area could pose a serious threat to security and
stability in the region, he said.
[to top of second column]
China has rejected the Philippine protest over its work on the reef
saying it is its territory so China has the right to develop it.
Elsewhere in the South China Sea, Vietnamese and Chinese vessels are
squaring off in disputed waters where China wants to place the oil
China and ASEAN, which includes the Philippines and Vietnam, have
been negotiating a formal code of conduct but some ASEAN states are
getting impatient with the slow pace of progress.
Aquino said Vietnam and the Philippines were pushing for the code of
conduct to be concluded quickly.
(Editing by Robert Birsel)
[© 2014 Thomson Reuters. All rights
Copyright 2014 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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text:
LLVM can be used as an alternative to GNU's compiler, GCC. The main benefit of using LLVM compilers instead of GCC is their lower memory usage, faster compile time and better diagnostics. There are some Benchmarks on the Clang and Phoronix homepages.
It may happen that some programs do not compile (like glibc) because they depend on GCC-specific language extensions [1] (this is why the whole BSD code can be compiled with LLVM but some GNU code cannot) or segfault after successful compilation with LLVM (like xorg-server) but after following this guide, the system will still be able to compile packages with gcc. So if something goes wrong, it can be switched back to gcc for the particular package by uncommenting lines in /etc/make.conf and the bug should be reported.
LLVM's C/C++ frontends clang and clang++ version 3.0 are stable enough to be self-hosting [2] and compile Boost [3], Qt [4], LibreOffice [5], FreeBSD [6], some parts of the Linux kernel [7] and more.
Further, using LLVM 3.0 and up, there is a third way to compile with LLVM: the dragonegg package creates a gcc-plugin, that uses LLVM's optimizers but parses the code and creates binaries with gcc, which means that everything that compiles and works with gcc should work with dragonegg also. This plugin can be enabled by using a single CFLAG. Since LLVM 3.0 the old llvm-gcc package is deprecated and replaced by dragonegg, so it will disappear from portage with llvm version 2.9.
LLVM Frontends
To be able to compile some sourcecode of a specific language, LLVM needs an appropriate frontend. There are clang, llvm-gcc and dragonegg in portage.
The goal of the Clang project is to create a new C, C++, Objective C and Objective C++ front-end for the LLVM compiler.
llvm-gcc is a modified version of gcc that compiles C/ObjC programs into native objects, LLVM bitcode or LLVM assembly language, depending upon the options. As written in the previous section, dragonegg replaced llvm-gcc in version 3.0.
So after installing llvm, clang and dragonegg, you will be able to choose between gcc and llvm whenever you like or use them both at the same time.
Install LLVM and its Frontends
Simply emerge the packages on ~arch systems. On arch systems you have to unmask some packages first. dragonegg requires gcc's lto USE-flag to be set and works with gcc 4.5 and gcc 4.6.
root # emerge llvm clang dragonegg
Note, that for clang++ the C++ headers search path is hardcoded to the active gcc profile. If you change the active gcc profile, or update gcc to a new version, you will have to remerge clang to update the search path.
To use dragonegg, run gcc as usual, with an extra command line argument
If you change the active gcc profile, or update gcc to a new version, you will have to remerge dragonegg to update the plugin.
After the installation, check which CPUs are supported by using the command
root # llvm-as < /dev/null
and then add the following lines to
/etc/portage/make.conf (uncommenting the lines you need) to enable compilation via LLVM, adapting the march-option according to the previous command:
/etc/portage/make.conf (bash source code)
# llvm-gcc for C++ code and fortran
# llvm-gcc is deprecated and only used with LLVM 2.9
# Flags for clang: Insert your arch here instead of k8 and have a look at the manpage of clang for flag descriptions.
# Some gcc flags like -pipe and -pthread also work, though they might be ignored by clang.
#CFLAGS="-march=k8 -O2"
# Flags for dragonegg; just use all the gcc flags you like and append -fplugin=/path/to/dragonegg.so
#CFLAGS="-march=k8 -O2 -fplugin=/usr/lib64/llvm/dragonegg.so"
Have a look at clang's manpages for additional information. If you get errors that your compiler cannot produce code, you should check your flags, e.g. don't use
-O4 -flto -S or stuff like that; the examples above will work.
Using clang with portage
Although the Funtoo portage tree is not designed to be used with any compiler other than GCC, clang can be enforced on most of the packages through the
CC and
CXX variables. Please note, however, that many of Gentoo packages still don't build with clang and a few don't work correctly after being built. That's why we suggest using
/etc/portage/env file to enable the use of clang per-package. In order to do such, first create a new environment override to use in
/etc/portage/env/clang (bash source code)
Then you can enable use of clang for packages:
/etc/portage/package.env (bash source code)
app-foo/bar clang
app-bar/baz clang
If you want to use clang by default, you can. and need to specify some core packages. Here is small list of core packages that are currently failing on clang, but that are most likely not outdated:
CC=gcc CXX=g++
in addition, it is recommended to add compiler flags there (/etc/portage/env/gcc:
CFLAGS="-O2 -march=native -mtune=native -pipe" CXXFLAGS="-O2 -march=native -mtune=native -pipe" LDFLAGS="-Wl,--as-needed" #You can disable gold link here #EXTRA_ECONF="--enable-gold=default"
And in
#---------------CORE PACKAGES TO BUILD WITH GCC: sys-apps/which gcc sys-fs/reiserfsprogs gcc sys-libs/ncurses gcc sys-libs/zlib gcc sys-apps/busybox gcc sys-fs/e2fsprogs gcc sys-devel/binutils gcc sys-libs/glibc gcc sys-devel/dragonegg gcc dev-libs/openssl gcc sys-boot/grub gcc #---------------USER PACKAGES TO BUILD WITH GCC: app-editors/emacs gcc sys-apps/pacman gcc www-client/firefox gcc x11-libs/cairo gcc media-libs/mesa gcc
If you have app-portage/flaggie installed, you can modify
/etc/portage/package.env by running the following:
root # flaggie app-foo/bar app-bar/baz +clang
Enabling link-time optimizations
The link-time optimization feature defers optimizing the resulting executables to linking phase. This can result in better optimization of packages but is unsupported in Gentoo, and many packages simply fail to build.
When using LTO, clang compiles units into LLVM byte-code rather than machine code. In order to support linking such object files, the gold linker must be installed and set as the default linker, as it does support plugins.
Similarly, ar needs plugin support as well. Sadly, binutils ar doesn't support passing '--plugin option before the actual command. Thus, we need to create a wrapper for it in
#!/bin/sh firstarg=${1} shift exec /usr/bin/ar "${firstarg}" --plugin /usr/lib/llvm/LLVMgold.so "${@}"
If that's done, you can create a new environment override profile for LTO-enabled clang in
CC='clang' CXX='clang++' CFLAGS="${CFLAGS} -O4" CXXFLAGS="${CXXFLAGS} -O4" LDFLAGS="${LDFLAGS} -O4 -Wl,-plugin,/usr/lib/llvm/LLVMgold.so" AR='/usr/local/bin/clang-ar' RANLIB=':' NM='nm --plugin /usr/lib64/llvm/LLVMgold.so'
Note that the link-time optimizations were indirectly enabled here via -O4. If you don't want to enable other optimizations enforced by -O3, please use -flto instead. You need to also pass optimization flags when linking because that's where clang needs them.
You may also need to adjust the libdir path to plugin. Newer (live) versions of clang add `-plugin` when linking automatically, so `-Wl,-plugin`… is no longer necessary.
Using clang with distcc
In order to use clang on distcc client, additional symlinks have to be created in
root # ln -s /usr/bin/distcc /usr/lib/distcc/bin/clang root # ln -s /usr/bin/distcc /usr/lib/distcc/bin/clang++
|Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States
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text:
THE SQL Server Blog Spot on the Web
Microsoft released the CTP3 of Microsoft SQL Server Code Name "Denali", as you can see in the SSAS product group blog post.
This is the first public release of Denali and after many months of forced silence (I was under NDA) I can finally write my first hand experience with this new version! In the next months I will write on the blog more technical content, but today I start with my setup experience.
The setup experience is similar to SQL Server 2008 R2. I installed Denali as an instance on my Developer Notebook side by side with an instance of SQL Server 2008 and an instance of SQL Server 2008 R2. Everything was fine and it seems that all the services (old and new ones) are still working regularly. Default settings are usually good, but there are a couple of notes important for BISM Tabular.
There is also a new CTP3 release of PowerPivot for Excel. I removed the previous version of PowerPivot to install the new one on my developer notebook. Everything seems ok and I appreciated that the user interface already has a good quality (no missing icons in the ribbon, for example).
I'll start playing with this CTP3 as soon as possible, and I will have more content to blog about.
Hey Marco - to clarify, if I wanted to use both Multidimensional and Tabular models, I would have to setup two instances of SSAS? One SSAS instance can't support both?
Hi Marco and thanks for sharing!
The question I have: how about BIDS?
Visual Studio 2010 has no BIDS (Business Intelligence Development Studio) and does not support SSAS projects. It means that one need to use 3+ years old Visual Studio 2008 for Analysis Services projects (or BIDS from SQL Server 2008). So my question is:
does CTP3 and Denali enabling/adding support for Analysis Services projects or we need to wait until some future release of Visual Studio for that?
you have to install two instances of SSAS. To do that, you need to run the setup again after the first instance setup (you cannot install two instances in the same setup). I think it is important to carefully plan instance names (I avoid to install default instances - every instance has a name, but I have at least three different version installed on my developer machines)
Finally, CTP3 has BIDS and SSMS integrated in VS2010 shell.
We'll be synchronized with latest VS, at least as soon as a new version of VS will be released!
Any decent instructions exist for setting up Sharepoint + SQL + PowerPivot - especially for a VM environment? Can never seem to get that quite right and Sharepoint is definitely not my strong point, but we can't use some of the cooler features without it. :( (Really wish MS could give us this stuff without requiring Sharepoint - make some other way that gives us a way to NOT set up a new SP environment or something)
Thanks Marco. Do you know of a way to find out if an installed instance of SSAS is using the Multidimensional or Tabular model?
Vidas has the guide to use at:
Hope he gets around to updating it for CTP3
@James Serra
Issue the below XMLA command against the instance:
<Discover xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:xml-analysis">
and you will receive a response, which will contain either
In any case when you connect to the instance using SSMS, you will notice that multidimensional instance has Assemblies folder and an icon that looks like a yellow cube.
When you connect to the tabular instance though, you get the blue spreadsheet-like icon and the only folder available will be Databases.
Thank you Valentin!
I also wrote a blog post here about all methods available:


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gussied up.
Posted by Mackenzie on Monday, January 31, 2011
Valentine's Day is coming up! Or if you don't do Valentine's Day, maybe Date Night? My friends Jason and Deirdre have L.A.R.D. (Love And Romance Day). Whatever winds your clock!
Black lace lingerie is for beginners, how about the whole dress? Half the dress? A classy red one? The strapless one looks to me like a pink heart tucked into a red envelope! How perfect?
All from Mod Cloth.