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The Statistical Average Challenge...Part 1
Oracle Database performance tuning requires the use of numbers... lots of numbers. We have all been taught that the statistical average of a list of numbers, is their sum divided by the count. Yes this is true, but when we rely on an average for input into a more complex formula or we use it when making an important tuning decision what it implies and communicates becomes very important.
Why is this important?
Here are some sobering examples about why this topic is so important.
Oracle statistics are commonly provided as an average. But as I will demonstrate (and you can validate) an average can be a poor representation of the underlying values.
Just because the average multiblock read takes 30ms does not mean it usually takes 30ms, yet this is how most DBAs think, talk, and act. In fact, the typical read could take only 5ms!
Most DBAs assume that if the average log file parallel write takes 10ms, then most of the writes will center closely around 10ms and also that it is just as likely the writes will be less than 10ms than greater than 10ms...not true.
If two different SQL statements retrieve 100 blocks from outside of Oracle's buffer cache it may take one statement 10 seconds and the other statement 2 seconds to prepare the blocks for access.
If a SQL statement retrieves 100 blocks from outside of Oracle's buffer cache it may take one execution 10 seconds to complete while another execution only 2 seconds.
My point in this blog series is to highlight that it is important for us as performance analysts to be aware, understand, and properly use averages and also to have the ability to derive more appropriate ways to describe what's occuring. Better said, we need to use the best representation of the data to suit our performance analysis needs. If this something you are interested in, then read on!
Our Misguided Past
Suppose we look at an AWR report that shows the average log file parallel write time is 17ms. This is validated by looking further into the report, which shows that over the AWR report interval the total log file parallel write wait time was 1200 seconds with 70,588 associated waits (the count). What was stated and gathered is true, but from this point is where the allusions begin...
Many DBAs will make three incorrect assumptions. First, that most of the log file parallel write waits are close to 17ms and if they are not, then they are an anomaly, an outlier, and unimportant. And because they probably don't occur that often, it's nothing to be concerned about. Second, because most of us are conditioned to think of averages as part of a bell curve (i.e., normal distribution), most DBAs will envision there being just as many waits (i.e., wait occurrences) slightly less than 17ms as there are waits slightly greater than 17ms. Third, if there is a problem with using the mathematical average (i.e., mean), then everyone else is in the same boat as me and there is nothing we can realistically do anyways...so doing something about this is unusual, irrelevant, and unrealistic. All three of these assumptions are incorrect and thankfully we can address each one.
Important side note: For simplicity in this initial "average" blog entry, I am not going to use Oracle wait event times or focus on SQL statements. The reason will be clear in the subsequent blog entries. Instead I will use Oracle server and background process operating system trace output from a stressed Oracle 11.2 instance running on Linux.
The Experimental Setup
To demonstrate these assumptions and help get us thinking correctly, I created a free buffer wait load, which really stresses the IO subsystem, typically both reads and especially writes. I used a four CPU core DELL server running Oracle 11gR2 on Oracle unbreakable Linux. Here is the OS command I ran to gather the stats:
$ ps -eaf | grep lgwr
oracle 23162 1 0 Nov08 ? 00:02:30 ora_lgwr_prod18
oracle 29231 13752 0 15:11 pts/1 00:00:00 grep lgwr
$ strace -rp 23162 >lgwr_2min.trc 2>&1
$ ./crunchdata.sh lgwr_2min.trc pwrite64 mb > lgwr_2min.txt 2>&1
After two minutes, I broke out of the trace using a control-C providing me with a 1.5MB trace file with over 1000 multiblock pwrite64 system calls. I created a special shell script called crunchdata.sh to extract only the pwrite64 system call times and place this data into a single column text file. I then took the single column text file and loaded it into a pretty straightforward Mathematica notepad file to quickly crank out a nice histogram and some associated statistics. All the data shown in the blog entry and the associated analysis programs can be downloaded here.
The Results
Let's first look at the histogram shown below. The horizontal axis is composed of bins, that is, groupings or intervals of how long something took, in milliseconds. For example, the far left bin is related to pwrite64 times that were between 0ms and 10ms. The second bin is related to pwrite64 times between 11ms and 20ms. And on and on. The vertical axis is the number of samples gathered, that is, the number of occurrences associated with a bin. For example, there were just over 400 pwrite64 samples whose time was between 0ms and 10ms. And while you can't see this on the graph clearly, there were 11 samples whose time was between 111ms and 120ms. If we add up all the occurrences shown in the graph it will be total the number of samples, which in this case is 1006. If you're wondering why the horizontal axis goes out to over 350ms, it's because there were some writes that actually took over 350ms and I allowed Mathematica to include all our sample data when creating the histogram. These outliers or anomalies are more important than many DBAs think and will be discussed below.
Looking at the histogram above, the first observation and the most obvious is the pwrite64 duration samples are not normally distributed. No even close! It is very skewed. To highlight this point, in the graphic below, I overlaid a normal distribution based on the same dataset's key normal distribution inputs; average and standard deviation. As you can see, the LGWR's pwrite64 times, are clearly not normally distributed.
But is this non-nomality just a convenient anomalous sample set I selected from a large number of experiments to make a point? No. To provide additional examples of this skewness, shown below are two other examples (DBWR and a server process) based on the same database server load. Each sample set was gathered like the one detailed above, except the sample time was three minutes instead of two.
The histogram below captured the database writer's 1,832 multiblock pwrite64 calls over the three minute sample period. As you can see, most of samples were between 0ms and 25ms, which is what we would hope. Also notice there were writes that took over 1400ms (1.4 seconds!) to complete. What do you think the average write time is? (The answer is provided below.)
The histogram below captured a server process's 4,019 multiblock pread64 calls over the three minute sample period. As you can see, most of samples were between 0ms and 25ms, but there was a sample just below and above 1000ms. What do you think the average read time is? (The answer is provided below.)
What's the big deal?
What's the big deal about a skewed distribution? The samples that take much longer than the rest wreak havoc on creating a meaningful and useful average. Said another way, the calculated average has an implied meaning that is not what most DBAs expect. And to demonstrate this, let's focus on the initial LGWR pwrite64 histogram. To increase clarity I modified the histogram so each bin represents a single millisecond (not 10ms as above) and I also limited the x-axis to 150ms. This allows us to effectively zoom into the area of interest. Looking at the initial and zoomed area on the below histogram, what do you think is the average write call time now? And what do you think is the most common write call duration?
Most of us would guess the average is around 15ms. Visually it seems correct. But statistically the average is 24.7ms. This may seem strange because of the large number of very short duration samples and a grouping around 20ms. The reason is there are enough longer duration samples to effectively pull the average to the right. What may be thought of as outliers or anomalies occurred often enough to significantly impact the average.
This is actually a fairly tame example. I've seen many examples where the skew is more intense and therefore the average is pulled much further to the right. So looking at the histogram directly above, would you feel comfortable stating the average is 25ms? Perhaps, but you would probably would feel much more comfortable saying the likely pwrite64 time is 15.6ms and it is highly likely the time will be less than 31.64ms. Where did I come up with these numbers and what do they mean? Read on...
What's better than the average?
In this case and as we'll see with Oracle wait times and various statistics related to SQL statements, for our purposes the average is not the most useful way to describe what happened. As I have learned with developing predictive models and communicating with others about what has actually occurred (i.e., discussing the sample data), the statistical median and other similar statistics work much better than the average.
The median is the 50th percentile value: If you ordered all the samples and selected the middle value, that would be the median and the 50th percentile value. In our LGWR two minute sample set, the median is 15.6ms, which visually seems more useful when describing our sample set than the average of 24.7ms. The 31.64ms value I wrote above is the 80th-percentile. That is, 80% of our samples are 31.64ms or less. Also, the 10%-tile is 0.5ms and the 25th%-tile is 2.0ms. Both are typically more useful than simply stating the average is 24.7ms.
There are other statistics and visualizations that can be used to describe our sample sets. I will introduce some of those in subsequent blog entries and demonstrate how to calculate the median and other percentile figures when you encounter skewed distributions. But for now, the median nearly always provides us with a better way to describe Oracle performance analysis (background and foreground processes, SQL statement resource consumption and duration) related samples.
Referring to the DBWR histogram above, the average pwrite64 took 30.2ms and the median is 1.3ms. Referring to the server process multiblock read historgram above, the average pread64 took 24.1ms and the median is a staggering 0.1ms. This common yet intense server process physical IO read time skewness has a profound impact on modeling an Oracle system providing predictive analysis. Though sometimes it is difficult to visually see without zooming into the histogram, the difference between the average and the median is because of the large sample time variation combined with a few samples that have relatively large times. But in every case, the larger the difference between average and median the more intense the skewness.
What's the point of all this?
Understanding skewness, that the average calculation is of limited value, and that the median better (among others) communicates the performance picture allows me to be more effective in my Oracle performance analysis work. More practically, when I commonly talk about an IO wait times, I try to differentiate the average wait time and the likely wait time. As as I am beginning to demonstrate, the likely wait time value will always be less than the average wait time. But how much less? And how can we calculate and predict this? These are the topics for subsequent blog entries.
This skewness actually have far reaching implications in Oracle performance analysis. I have just touched the surface and introduced the situation which, hopefully peaked your interest. As I will subsequently blog about, this skewness also occurs when analyzing Oracle wait time and in many areas of SQL statement analysis.
Thanks for reading!
Start my FREE 18 lesson Machine Learning For Oracle Professionals E-Course here.
Craig Shallahamer is a long time Oracle DBA who specializes in predictive analytics, machine learning and Oracle performance tuning. Craig is a performance researcher and blogger, consultant, author of two books, an enthusiastic conference speaker a passionate teacher and an Oracle ACE Director. More about Craig Shallahamer...
If you have any questions or comments, feel free to email me directly at craig at orapub.com.
|The Thrill Of Solving The Puzzle
|What Machine Learning Means For The Oracle DBA
|How To Change The Priority Of Oracle Database Background Processes


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In advocating on behalf of children with exceptionalities, CEC examines policy issues, develops appropriate responses to those issues and influences local, state, provincial and federal legislation. CEC also monitors and makes recommendations for program regulations and funding. In addition, CEC maintains a network among its state units and special interest divisions for influencing policy.
As the recognized leader for special education professional standards, CEC develops standards, ethics and practices and guidelines to ensure that individuals with exceptionalities have access to well-prepared, career-oriented special educators.
Through the vision and dedication of more than 22,000 members, CEC sets the standard for high quality education for children and youth with exceptionalities. And, CEC is known as THE source for information, resources and professional development for special educators.
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CEC publishes and distributes products designed to help practitioners work more effectively in the classroom. Learn more about CEC's publications and journals.
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Bucs continue to rise in national spotlight
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (September 27, 2011) – For the first time in program history, the ETSU men's soccer team has broken into the NSCAA national rankings, coming in at No. 24 in this week's poll, as released on Tuesday.
The Bucs are also ranked No. 22 in the Soccer America national rankings, and check in at No. 26 in the College Soccer News Top 30.
Barely missing out on last week's NSCAA top-25 – placing as the highest vote getters of the unranked teams – the Bucs were slated to face Virginia Tech, Winthrop and then-No.25/23 Furman. ETSU went 1-0-1 in that stretch, defeating Virginia Tech, 1-0, and playing to a scoreless draw against Furman. The Winthrop game scheduled for Friday was cancelled due to inclement weather.
Sophomore David Geno (Kingsport, Tenn.) was the hero in the Tech match, scoring the game-winning goal in the 77th minute. Geno's goal wound up as the only score for the Buccaneers through the week, as redshirt sophomore goalkeeper Ryan Coulter (Dublin, Ireland) posted shutouts against both Tech and Furman en route to being named Atlantic Sun Defensive Player of the Week. Coulter has now earned the honor twice this season – his other selection coming the week of September 6.
The ETSU men's soccer team will defend its NSCAA ranking on Thursday, September 29, when it travels to Nashville, Tenn. for its first conference game of the season against Belmont.
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Popular American Hayden To Stay In MotoGP With Aspar, Honda
- Updated: October 17, 2013
INDIANAPOLIS, Thursday, Oct. 17, 2013 – 2006 MotoGP World Champion Nicky Hayden will stay in the premier class for at least two more years after signing a deal to ride a Honda for the Aspar Team in 2014 and 2015.
Hayden, from Owensboro, Ky., will ride a Honda RC1000R for Aspar, a Spanish privateer team run by former 125cc World Champion Jorge "Aspar" Martinez.
The bike is a "customer" version of Honda's RC213V prototype and is believed to be only a small step down in specification from Honda's factory machine, upon which rookie and 2013 Red Bull Indianapolis GP winner Marc Marquez is leading the World Championship this season. Retired World Champion Casey Stoner is testing the bike for Honda this year, and he recently said the machine's performance exceeded his expectations.
The move to Aspar ends a frustrating five-year stint as a Ducati factory rider and signals a return to Honda for Hayden, 32. He raced for the Repsol Honda factory team for the first six seasons of his MotoGP career, from 2003-08, and won the world title with Honda in 2006. He has earned all three of his career MotoGP victories on a Honda.
"It is great news for the Power Electronics Aspar Team to have the acquired services of Honda and a rider of the profile of Nicky Hayden," Martinez said. "We are taking a huge step forward in terms of quality, prestige and image. We have grown a lot in a short space of time, and we are all very excited about this new project with Honda. It is the factory that the Aspar Team first started with back in 1992, and I have great memories of that period. Our objective is to continue being a reference point in the premier class.
"I think the combination of Honda's MotoGP production racer and Nicky Hayden is going to be a very successful one. We are thrilled to be working with a manufacturer with the history that Honda has and a rider like Nicky, a World Champion with huge experience."
The signing ended a tense week for Hayden, one of the most popular riders in the sport. He was in final negotiations earlier this month to sign with Aspar to ride an Aprilia "customer" bike, but that deal disintegrated when Aprilia Racing boss Gigi Dall'Igna announced last week he was leaving the manufacturer to become the leader of Italian rival Ducati Racing starting in mid-November.
Aspar owner Martinez was reluctant to continue with Aprilia after the departure of the well-regarded Dall'Igna. The Aspar team considered leasing a customer Ducati next season, as Dall'Igna and Martinez are longtime friends and Aspar was a Ducati satellite team in the past. But running a Ducati may have forced Hayden to look elsewhere, as he was winless and scored just three podium finishes in five years with the Italian manufacturer.
So Martinez decided to run the Honda RC1000R, which also kept Hayden – who has strong ties to Honda's racing arm and American Honda – committed to the Aspar team.
"It will be a big change for us after so many years working with Italian factories, but we have high hopes for this new project," Martinez said. "We are up for the challenge, and we will give maximum effort to making sure the Power Electronics Aspar Team continues achieving top results."
Hayden's teammate in the two-bike team was not announced. Former 250cc World Champion Hiroshi Aoyama of Japan has been mentioned as a primary candidate due to his longtime ties with Honda.
The seventh Red Bull Indianapolis GP is scheduled for Aug. 8-10, 2014 on a revised motorcycle circuit at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway that will create even more exciting action. Hayden finished second at the inaugural event in 2008 on a Honda and third in 2009 on a Ducati.


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Easy Money (aka Snabba Cash), from director Daniel Espinosa (Safe House), is a Swedish crime thriller based on the international best-selling novel by Jens Lapidus, now being presented in the U.S. by Martin Scorsese. The story follows JW (Joel Kinnaman), a lower-class business student living a double life with Stockholm's wealthy elite. To keep up his lifestyle, he finds himself in deep with the dark world of organized crime and in an intensely dramatic struggle for life and death.
For the film's press day, Collider spoke to actor Joel Kinnaman (The Killing), in both a roundtable and a 1-on-1 interview, about what it's like to finally have U.S. audiences get to see the 2010 film, his desire to tell stories in the moral grey zone, how he finally ended up landing the role of JW, and what he finds most appealing about acting. He also talked about taking on a film with as much attention as the RoboCop re-imagining, how proud he is to have the opportunity to work with Gary Oldman, how surreal it is that the film already has a viral campaign, that he wants to do as much of his stunts as he can, how he felt about the Season 2 finale of his AMC drama series The Killing, and his hopes for a Season 3. Check out what he had to say after the jump.
Question: What's it like to have someone like Martin Scorsese behind finally bringing this film to theaters in the U.S.?
JOEL KINNAMAN: It's very flattering, and it makes us all very proud. I know Daniel Espinosa was very moved by that. If you see our movie, you'll also feel that we've been seeing Mr. Scorsese's movies growing up, and loving them very much. Of course, he's been a huge inspiration.
A lot of gangster films focus very much on morals, and you don't really know where a lot of the characters' morals are in Easy Money. Was part of the appeal of this film the fact that it really sits in those grey areas?
KINNAMAN: Yeah. I think life takes place in the grey areas, or at least the interesting parts of life. I like to be a part of the stories that take place there. When it's a moral grey zone, the audience has to think about what they feel and what they think is right or wrong. You want to affect your audience and make them think.
What was it that initially attracted you to the character of JW?
KINNAMAN: It was a best-selling book in Sweden, and I was in the last year of acting school when I read it. At that point, I had done three movies, one small part and two medium-sized parts, and only one of those movies was successful. I wasn't a name in Sweden, at all, but I was feeling pretty confident. I read this book, and then I started to say to everybody, "I'm gonna play this character." The book had just come out and it hadn't even been adapted, but I was like, "I'm gonna do this. This is gonna be me. I'm just saying, this is gonna be me!"
And then, me and Daniel [Espinosa] had become friends. I got to know him when I auditioned for his first feature. I was up for a part in that movie, but then I had to turn it down because I got into the acting school that I had been trying to get into for a long time. It was a four-year commitment that was very prestigious. It's actually the second most expensive education in Sweden, for the government, 'cause all our colleges are free. That's how it should be here, too. So, when I finished acting school, we started to develop this script together and were trying to get the funding for it. The movies in Sweden are at least 50% financed by the government, so we were trying to get that approval to get that money 'cause then it's really easy to get the other part. But, the script wasn't 100%. And then, Daniel got Snabba Cash, or Easy Money, and he had just seen me do Crime and Punishment on stage, so he said, "This is you, man. You've gotta do it! Do you wanna do it?" I was like, "Are you kidding?! Of course, I wanna do it! I got it?" And he was like, "Yeah, you got it!" I'm such a fucking idiot that I went and told everyone I knew.
I was bragging for five months, "I'm gonna do JW! You know who's gonna play JW? Me! I'm gonna do JW!" I'd started to get more movie parts and was on a roll, but I was not a name. He was really naive when he gave the role to me, and then he realized, "Wow, that's gonna be a huge battle to just tell the producers of the biggest Swedish movie of that year that this guy is going to do the lead." So then, he came back to me and was like, "You're gonna have to audition for it." It was six months later, and I was like, "What?!" I had told everyone. Now, all of a sudden, I had to audition for this movie that I had already thought I had gotten, and it made me so nervous. I had to audition seven times. It was mine to lose, and it was really traumatic. I was an emotional and psychological wreck, after that. But then, finally, I got it.
How do you view this guy? Is he a victim of circumstances or his own machinations, or is he just naive?
KINNAMAN: I think he was a lot of those things. My first thoughts around JW were based on the idea that he had a complex nature that is contradictory. He's a very confident person, but with very low self-esteem. I think that's an interesting combination. It's more common than we think. And then, he's also a chameleon, in many ways. I read it as that he has this void within him. For him, it's often been enough to seem [a certain way]. It's not as important to him to be something real. The choices of his life have led him further and further away from who he, himself, is. At this age that he is at out, he has no idea who he is. That leads a person with initially a very good heart to make extremely bad decisions. That was very fun to play. It's also very fun to play a character that is an actor in his reality. Part of the performance that English speaking audiences won't pick up on is that I made a big effort to have his dialect change with every person that he meets. When he's with the upper-class, he talks like they do with their dialect. When he's with the criminals, his way of speaking and his cadence changes. That was quite difficult. It took a lot of work and research, but it was one of those fun things to do.
JW goes through a lot of physical and emotional ups and downs, throughout the course of the film. Do you enjoy doing that kind of work, or do you prefer one over the other?
KINNAMAN: What I enjoy most with acting is when it's a good scene with one or two other actors, and you feel a strong connection and you don't know how you're going to respond, and everybody is listening to each other and getting affected by each other, and even though you've rehearsed it many times, it feels like it's happening right now. That's when I get my biggest kick out of acting. In many ways, the biggest kick I can get out of acting is on stage, in a very good play with great actors. That is what I enjoy the absolute most, but it's so fucking scary, too. It's so scary to go on stage. I used to throw up before I went on stage, every time. Even though it's only 200 people in the audience, and a movie like RoboCop is going to be seen by many, many people, I know I'd be much more nervous doing a play than being on set shooting. You're always trying to look for material that is as challenging as possible, so that's why I like stuff where the characters go through the most difficult times they've ever had in their life. It makes me push myself further and learn more about myself, and to deal with experiences that I've had. That's what's most appealing to me.
What do you enjoy about collaborating with director Daniel Espinosa? Was working with him on a big studio film like Safe House the same as when you worked together on Easy Money?
KINNAMAN: Yeah, he's the same director and I'm the same actor. It was really fun! We were at this music festival in the north of Sweden, just a few days ago, and I had this conversation with him. It's not so much what's being said. It's knowing him, having his energy, and knowing what he likes that brings out something in me. He also knows me very well, so if I have a problem and we don't really reach where we want to go, then he knows what to say. But, it's very much what I know that he likes. That puts me in a special place and it brings out the best in me.
How would you describe how you've progressed in your acting, and what you learned from Easy Money that you take with you into your current roles now?
KINNAMAN: Well, a big moment for me was when I did a play that was a new adaptation of Dostojevskij's Crime and Punishment, and I played Raskolnikov. It was actually the first thing I did, when I got out of acting school. In Sweden, and a lot of Europe, there is this old romanticized idea of the wounded artist. In Sweden, a lot of the acting community are afflicted by that idea and gave themselves the right to be alcoholics because they are a wounded artist. I always felt that that idea was just such a stupid thing that I felt came from bad confidence that you can't access those areas or experiences of your life, or that maybe you hadn't had those experiences, so you're trying to create it by yourself.
So, I'd gone through four years of acting school and was like, "That's just bullshit!" The people that were in that whole world of being a wounded artist and presenting themselves that way to the world, I always felt that their performances were usually very limited and you could never see the struggle in the person because they were actually trying to be depressed. A depressed person is not trying to be depressed, they're trying to be better. Somebody who is mentally ill is striving to feel good and be normal, and I could never see that strive in their performances. So, it was up to me to prove my point with Raskolnikov. It's a character that I read as borderline schizophrenic, who's starving himself to death, and then he goes through this severe psychosis, while he's finding true love for the first time. It's an incredible journey. I really tried to implement this idea, and it really worked. I was really happy with that performance, and people said that they'd never seen more light in that character and not as much depression.
That's how I think it is. If you raise the high, the low is going to be lower. Usually, when you meet a person, you get an idea of who they are and you place them in a cabinet. It's not until that person does something that completely contradicts that, that you get the feeling of, "Oh, that's who you are." Then, you see the whole span of that personality. That's something that I try to bring to my performances. You can make an interesting character in a small portion of a movie, for a character that doesn't have that much on the page, if you just find the contradictions. You have a lot more leeway to be contradictory than most of the scripts have in them. That's how we all are. We have so many different sides of ourselves and we're so different, in meeting with different people. The audiences relate more to that and find that more believable.
What can you say about Easy Money 2?
KINNAMAN: Well, it picks up where the first one ends.
How do you feel to be taking on RoboCop next, and what can you say about it?
KINNAMAN: It's a re-imagining. There are ideas from the first movie that have been remade in the second one, but it's a completely new take on it. We have a fantastic director, Jose Padilha, who reminds me of Daniel Espinosa, in some ways. He's a very confident, bold director. He wrote, directed and produced Elite Squad and Elite Squad 2, which he also distributed. They're the two highest-grossing films in Brazil, which is an audience of 150 million people. You need that kind of a strong force in a director that's going to do his first movie with a big studio. You need a person that can stand his ground on certain things, and know which battles are worth fighting and where you compromise. If you've seen his movies, you know that he's a very talented actor's director. The acting is superb in his films, and the action is very, very believable. He also has a history of being a physicist. His knowledge of where robotics and neuroscience is now is a complete understanding of where the cutting edge is. He's working with the writers on a plausible version of 2041, and that's going to be very interesting. The core of it will be something of substance, and then you have the fireworks around it.
Since you were cast in RoboCop, Gary Oldman, Samuel L. Jackson and Hugh Laurie have been added to the film. What are you looking forward to, in working with a cast like that?
KINNAMAN: I don't think I have any scenes with Samuel L. Jackson, but I have a lot of scenes with Gary Oldman. I've followed Gary Oldman for a very long time, even before I was interested in acting. But then, after I started making acting my profession, I've studied him. I've seen Nil by Mouth, the only movie that he wrote and directed, and I know that it's based on his childhood. I've seen that movie five times. I find him incredibly inspiring to watch, so I couldn't be happier. I'm so proud to get an opportunity to work with him.
Are you going to do your own stunts?
KINNAMAN: I won't do any stupid things. I won't jump off buildings. But, I'll try to do as much as I can.
What's it like to be a part of a movie where there's already a viral campaign, even though it doesn't come out for more than a year?
KINNAMAN: It's pretty surreal. I saw it online. It's cool! I realized, quite early, when I did a couple of interviews. You say just a few things about the movie, and it gets such traction. You understand that there's going to be a lot of attention on it, and you adapt to that. That's what's reality.
Was that something you thought about, before signing on to do the film? Were you looking to get that kind of traction, or did you have any hesitation about taking on something so high-profile?
KINNAMAN: I was looking for a high-profile job. I was not eligible for a lot of different parts because I hadn't done something with this kind of attention around it and that was really frustrating. I met with directors who said, "I'd love for you to play the lead in this movie. You're the perfect person to play this, but there's no way I can cast you in this because you don't have that kind of a name and we need a name for this, so that we can get the financing." So then, that made me want to get to that position where somebody wouldn't not pick me because of that reason, at least.
Was the appeal of a character like this figuring out how to bring humanity to the role while wearing the metal suit?
KINNAMAN: Yeah. At first, when I heard about a RoboCop remake, I was like, "Okay, I'll probably watch that movie, but I don't think I wanna be in it." And then, they told me that Jose Padilha was going to direct it and I was like, "Wait, the guy that did Tropa de Elite 1 and 2?" When they said, "Yeah," I was like, "Oh, okay." And, he wanted to meet me. I was like, "Oh, shit! Yeah, I'd love to meet him!" And then, when he told me about his take on this, I was like, "Wow, this is something really good and really worth trying to get." Now, when I've been reading the scripts, his vision is really interesting. From an acting perspective, it's really challenging and difficult stuff that I think can really say something.
Were you happy with the way Season 2 of The Killing wrapped up Rosie Larsen's murder? Did the finale feel satisfying?
KINNAMAN: Yeah, I really liked the finale. I thought Patty Jenkins did a fantastic job on it. I was very, very happy that she was the one that directed it. It was a very difficult episode to direct. It could have gone wrong. But, I think she did a fantastic job on it. I thought it was satisfying. I thought people really deserved to get closure, after sticking with it for 26 episodes.
Do you know if there will be a Season 3 of The Killing?
KINNAMAN: No, I haven't heard a thing.
Are you hoping for a Season 3, or do you feel like you have closure, if it doesn't happen?
KINNAMAN: I won't be devastated, but I'm really looking forward to playing another season. I really like Holder, and I'd love to continue his and Linden's (Mireille Enos) journey together.
How much of the flavor of Holder was on the page when you were cast, and how much came from how you envisioned the character?
KINNAMAN: There were small indications in the pilot script that I went with. There was this line that he said when she asked him, "How was it in Narco?," and he said, "You know, Brahim shooting Rakim, blah blah blah." That line was what took me in that direction with him and gave him an urban flavor. That's where his wiggerisms came from.
Easy Money opens this week in limited release.


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Welcome back. Site looks great, you did a nice job.
Glad to have the site back......It looks great......nice work guys
Welcome back. Site looks great, you did a nice job.
If at first you don't succeed..Reload
Excellent !!! Thanks.....
Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote.
Benjamin Franklin
Damn, this alooks GOOD!!
Perusing the new site is like riding in a Bentley!
That's a compliment
Good work guys!
Charter member-Busted Box Club est. 2006
"I will adhere to the Patriot Act, the one signed in 1776"
- Marc Anderson
i guess I'm just fond of the old layout :sniff sniff:::
If any punk kid ever comes up to you asking for your `Gang Sign` Tap your chest twice then your forehead once. After doing that only upon a threat do you draw your glock and show him what you meant.
Looks good! Easier to use now!
Buy It Cheap!
Stack It Deep!


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Three Aroostook County Residents Busted for Mobile Meth Lab
Three Aroostook County residents are in jail after police found ingredients for the manufacturing of methamphetamines in two vehicles at a hotel in Ellsworth, Maine.
Officials say an employee of the Hampton Inn called Ellsworth police Thursday night to report suspicious activity in the hotel parking lot.
Police say they searched two vehicles--a car and a truck--and found ingredients for making methamphetamine in one vehicle and meth being made in the other.
Three people have been arrested on drug trafficking charges: 29-year-old Jessica Jones of Fort Fairfield, 22-year-old Ezra Brady of Bridgewater and 31-year-old Jesse Sawyer of Linneus. All three were guests at the hotel.
Ellsworth Police have said that more than $12,000 in cash was confiscated from the hotel room.
The Maine Drug Enforcement Agency was on the scene Friday to remove the dangerous materials from the two vehicles.
The three suspects are being held on felony charges at the Hancock County Jail. They face the possibility of up to 10 years in prison.


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The Easy Way to Add an Image to a QualityCentral Report
By: Jeremy North
Abstract: Learn about the various ways to add an attachment to an existing QualityCentral report using JED, QC.
I was looking at some QualityCentral reports tonight; I'm always on the lookout for reports relating to the TActionManager control.
I stumbled across the following report:
Report No: 28688 Status: Reported
TStaticListAction paint bug
I created the report summary above from the JED, QC client as displayed in the following screen shots.
The first thing I hope for in a report is an attachment. Unfortunately this report didn't have an attachment. So I switched to the tab with the steps on it and thankfully there were steps there.
I followed the steps and could reproduce the report. As I had created a sample project to reproduce this report I generally also add the sample project to the report for future reference. Also adding screen shots where I find it necessary.
For this report I felt that adding a screenshot or two would be necessary so I switch back to my BDS2006 IDE and activated Visual Forms (https://www.jed-software.com/vf.htm) for the project.
The Visual Forms context menu provides a function that allows you copy the captured form to the clipboard. If you use this function often, you can add it to the Visual Forms toolbar.
I copied the design time version of the form to the clipboard using the Copy Form command, then switched back to the running instance of JED, QC and clicked on the attachments tab.
Since the report did not have any attachments, JED, QC automatically presented me with an option to add one. These options are also available on the attachment screen's context menu.
I selected the "Add Image from Clipboard…" command and JED, QC opened the following dialog which conveniently displayed the image on the clipboard.
You can resize the dialog as well as resize the image according to the dialog dimensions. Clicking on the OK button adds the image to the active report.
The attachment view then changed to display the file that I just added to the report.
Earlier in my testing, I had saved a screenshot of the running project to disk. I wanted to add this image to the report as well, so in Windows Explorer I right-clicked on the file name and used the free and extremely useful Ninotech Path Copy utility (https://home.worldonline.dk/ninotech/index.htm) to copy the filename to the clipboard.
Back in JED, QC I right clicked on the attachments page and selected "Add Attachment/From Clipboard as FileName".
The following dialog displayed to confirm the filename. Multiple filenames are supported.
I clicked OK and the following dialog appeared allowing me to either add the new attachment to the existing attachments, or to replace the existing attachments with my new one. I selected "Combine with existing attachments" and clicked OK.
The attachments window updated to show my new attachment in the list.
Finally, I needed to add my sample project to the attachments list. JED, QC allows me to add all of the project files individually if I wish, but since the project already had two attachments (my image files) I decided it would be cleaner to upload the project files in a zip archive. This way the project files are all together and it is easier to view the image files (more on this below).
I created the zip file and selected the "Add Attachments" menu item. I then selected the zip file from the Open File dialog. I was again presented with the "Replace or Combine" confirmation dialog and choose the Combine option.
The attachments list again updated and I could now see that my zipped project was among the other attachments.
Since I had uploaded the image files separately from the project files, I could now double click on one of the images in the list and JED, QC would automatically display the image in the default image viewer. I could also right click on a file in the list and choose "Open With" to open the file in any application I wished. Of course this works on any file, not just images.
To verify that the project screen shot had uploaded properly I double clicked on the runtimescreenshot.png and JED, QC opened the image in the Windows Picture and Fax Viewer:
You can download the Release Candidate of JED, QC Version 1.0 from https://www.jed-software.com/qc.htm.
Version 1.0 of JED, QC, is scheduled to be released in July. This is also when the new name will be announced.
Published on: 7/6/2006 10:25:58 AM
Server Response from: ETNASC04
Copyright© 1994 - 2013 Embarcadero Technologies, Inc. All rights reserved.


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You may think given my adoration of Christmas cookies, that I don't make anything else for the holidays. That's not true. I make cake. No, not fruit cake. Bad, bad childhood memory. I prefer this Spiced Sweet Potato, Cranberry, and Pecan Cake with Orange-Cinnamon Glaze.
I created this recipe last Thanksgiving and have made it a couple more times since, tweaking here and there as I go. With cranberries, pecans, cloves, and orange, it smells and tastes just like Christmas.
Spiced Sweet Potato, Cranberry, and Pecan Cake with Orange-Cinnamon Glaze
Serves 12-16
Print recipe only here.
This cake tastes even better the next day, so it's ideal for a Christmas brunch.
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1 1/2 sticks butter, room temperature
1 cup light brown sugar
3/4 cup sugar
1 3/4 cups cooked mashed red-skinned sweet potatoes or garnet yams
3 large eggs
1/2 cup, plus 2 tablespoons whole milk
3 tablespoons honey
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup chopped pecans, plus 2 tablespoons for optional garnish
1/2 cup chopped Medjool dates (or prunes)
2/3 cup frozen, unthawed cranberries, coarsely chopped
zest of 1 orange (about 1 tablespoon)
1 cup confectioners' sugar
zest of 1 orange
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
several droplets of milk
1. Place rack in center of oven and preheat to 350 degrees F. Butter or coat with cooking spray a 9-10-inch Bundt pan.
2. In a large bowl, stir the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves.
3. In a separate bowl, add butter and sugars. Using an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat the butter and sugars. Add the sweet potatoes and eggs and beat. Add milk, honey, and vanilla, and beat. Add the flour mixture in small batches, beating after each, until just incorporated. Stir in pecans, dates, cranberries, and orange zest.
4. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes, or until the cake is golden brown and a cake tester inserted deep into the center comes out clean. Transfer the cake to a rack and cool for 10 minutes before unmolding. Cool at least 30 minutes before glazing.
5. Icing: In a small bowl whisk 1 cup confectioners' sugar, orange zest, and cinnamon. Add a few droplets of milk, and continue whisking until the icing is smooth and thin yet clings to the back of a spoon. Using a spoon, drizzle the icing in the grooves of the cake. Garnish with a few orange zest curls and/or chopped pecans, if desired. Allow to set for at least 15-20 minutes before slicing.
Here are more desserts you might like to have on your holiday table from Food Blogga:
Pear and Cardamom Cake
Upside-Down Clementine Cake
The Best Ever Pineapple Upside Down Cake
Italian Almond and Orange Torte with Blood Orange Compote
Here are more sweet potato desserts I'd like to try:
Sweet Potato Cake recipe at Foodaphilia
Sweet Potato Walnut Bread recipe at Culinary Types
Cinnamon Ripple Sweet Potato Bundt recipe at The Food Librarian
Sweet Spud Cake with Pralines and Pecans recipe at A Southern Grace
Mini Sweet Potato Cheesecakes at recipe Cake, Batter, and Bowl


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NORWALK — Paul Simon and his wife Edie Brickell are due back in a Connecticut court for a hearing in the couple's disorderly conduct case.
The hearing is set for Tuesday morning. A police report says the 48-year-old Brickell and the 72-year-old Simon became physical with each other during an April 26 argument inside a cottage on their property in New Canaan.
Brickell told police that he shoved her and that she slapped him. The report says that Simon suffered a superficial cut to his ear, and that Brickell, who smelled of alcohol, had a bruise on her wrist.
Both said in court April 28 that they did not consider the other a threat, and no protective order was issued.
The singers were married in 1992. They have three children.


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Our next-door neighbor of 18 years — the kindest, most generous, happy person John, accidentally fell to his death last Friday in Maine.
You know you're an adult when you have to go outside and play with your 8-year-old as if everything is OK when the world has been turned upside down.
Our next-door neighbor of 18 years — the kindest, most generous, happy person John, accidentally fell to his death last Friday in Maine.
The night before he left, John played outside in our backyard with Ava and my husband. He talked of how he couldn't wait to leave at 530 a.m. Friday to be with his guy friends in Maine. He loved our Ava and our Ava loved him. She would go into the backyard and just yell his name "John." "John." "John." And if he was home and outside he would always, always come over. Hold his arms open wide and she would run in to them.
The saying is true. You don't appreciate people until they are gone. We just thought John would be here forever. He and my husband are buddies. They each mow both yards. I laugh at their dueling tractors. He was like family to us. Cookouts. Burning piles. Chopping wood. When my husband had surgery, he picked up 100 percent of the mowing for a month or more.
John — you will be sooooo very missed. We miss you already. Walking up the hill in my backyard tonight I had tears in my eyes knowing I would never see your smiling face and happy greeting again.
God bless you and your whole family.
I don't know how I'll ever tell Ava that her beloved John is gone.
Sometimes I hate being an adult.
Kathy Horigan Dye


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Rio+20 "What Happens on Monday Dialogue" Features Partnerships for Green Job Training and Skills Development
22 June 2012, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. On the final day of the Rio+20 Summit, an interactive dialogue entitled "What Happens on Monday" took place to take stock of the outcomes of Rio and discuss opportunities for taking implementation forward. The event convened by Stakeholder Forum brought together more than 200 governmental and non-governmental stakeholders with goal to advance information sharing and networking. The United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR)/ UN CC:Learn contributed to the dialogue with an intervention on training and skills development for a green and climate resilient transition.
In the opening session Ambassador Juan Manuel Gómez-Robledo, Deputy Foreign Minister of Mexico, pointed out that participation of Major Groups was crucial for the success of international negotiation processes like the UNCSD and that Mexico was committed to further advancing the democratization of international governance. Mr. Derek Osborn, Director, Stakeholder Forum, highlighted that Major Groups had not only a role to play in decision-making but even more importantly in implementing outcomes and advancing the sustainable development agenda.
A focus of the conference was on learning from examples of successful implementation strategies and sharing plans for future efforts. Mr. Achim Halpaap, Associate Director and Head, Environment Unit, UNITAR said that the Rio+20 outcome document included several important reference on training and skills development for green development. UN agencies were scaling up their efforts to support Member States in this area through inter-agency collaboration. As examples, Mr. Halpaap introduced UN CC:Learn, a collaboration of 32 multilateral organizations to advance global knowledge sharing and national capacity development to strengthen climate change and the Inter-agency Working Group on Greening Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) and Skills Development that advocates international partnerships and cooperation/collaboration for promoting the necessary capacities in TVET and skills development.
Mr. Halpaap announced that as a contribution to international action in the area of green training and skills development UNITAR will team up with ILO, UNESCO and other international partners to organize in 2013 an "International Knowledge Sharing Forum on Training and Skills Development for Green and Climate Resilient Jobs". The event will bring together international and national organizations offering relevant training services with representatives from partner countries to discuss how training approaches and resources can best meet country needs. The workshop will also explore how to organize and sustain knowledge sharing concerning green training and skills development. Coordination of the event will be undertaken through UN CC:Learn and the Inter-agency Working Group on Greening TVET and Skills Development, and seek to engage other interested stakeholders outside of the UN.
For further information contact email@example.com .


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Posted 9 years ago
(1 item)
Please note that I have 6 "Hiram L. Piper Railway signal lanterns" of the 4 lens type and 2 lens type, 18 inches tall, with round fresnal lenses that are made by Corning Glass Co., and these lenses are 5 and 3/8 in. diameter. The Hiram L. Piper Company patented these lanterns in 1909, and they were made in Montreal, Quebec, Canada for CN Railways and CP Railways. They are in good condition, with the lenses all intact, but the lanterns do show wear and a bit of rust on some of them.
My question is this: Is it o.k. to strip and repaint my lanterns or should I leave them in their original condition? They can be electrified without damaging them, which is what I intend to do eventually, but I don't want to reduce their value if restoration attempts (to strip and paint) diminish their value. Please, please, please let me know if I should leave them alone, or go ahead and make them look new again, by sending me an email at: firstname.lastname@example.com. Many thanks!
Lorne Jordan


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This old blog will stay in place as an archive, and heaven forbid, a safety net should there be some kind of bunny uprising in the new digs.
(openpandora.wordpress.com, September 2009)
The bunnies have risen. And they broke stuff. The WordPress installation at pandorapress.net is having a very bad day, and atomicthumbs is busy re-installing and restoring backups. So here we are in the old digs, just letting you know we're still alive. Bits and pieces of production news are still trickling out, and there will be some catching up to do once pandorapress is back online. In the meantime, Twitter is what's for dinner.
Update: Pandorapress is back. Mostly.


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text:
Getting started with vegetarian meal planning
- Choose a variety of foods, including whole grains, vegetables, fruits, legumes, nuts, seeds, and, if desired, dairy products and eggs.
- Try gradually decreasing the amount of animal protein to allow time to adjust to a plant-based diet.
- Substitute soy products (tofu, meat substitutes) and legumes for meat, poultry and fish.
- When using soy products, choose lower-fat versions, such as low fat soy milk and reduced-fat tofu.
- If you use milk products and eggs, choose lower-fat versions of these foods, such as skim or 1% milk and yogurt, and egg whites or egg substitutes.
- If you are a vegan, be sure to include a regular source of vitamin B-12 in your diet along with a source of vitamin D if sun exposure is limited.
- Use fats sparingly; choose unsaturated fats, such as olive, canola and peanut oils, nuts and seeds, instead of saturated fats, such as butter, margarine and cream cheese.
- Limit your intake of high-fat foods, such as cheeses, whole milk, nuts, seeds, avocados and oils, especially if you are trying to lose weight.Be sure to count the carbohydrates in foods – many vegetarian diets can be very high in carbohydrate. Keep your carbohydrate intake consistent and read food labels carefully for their carbohydrate content.
- It's important to monitor your blood glucose regularly if you are changing to a vegetarian diet. Your diabetes medication or insulin dose may need to be adjusted, especially if you are eating more carbohydrate than before.
Page last updated: November 07, 2019


text:
So, remember how last week a guy got accidental access to a "mock" debug menu for the Wii U? There might be more to it than that.
While messing around in there, a description of a game called Yoshi's Land Wii U was found. That listing has since been found on retail sites.
Seeing as Nintendo is yet to announce the game, don't count this as confirmation, as retailers are free to conjure up whatever fantasies they want for their systems. But having them listed alongside the Miiverse description is certainly interesting.
Yoshi's Land [Future Shop]


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(We apologize as we're unavailable for our normal direct CTWhale coverage for the next couple of games due to scheduling conflicts…)
The Connecticut Whale were defeated by the Bridgeport Sound Tigers, 4-3 in overtime, Sunday afternoon at the Webster Bank Arena. Matt Donovan scored the game-winning goal for Bridgeport with two seconds left in overtime with the Sound Tigers on the power-play.
Andre Deveaux, Mike Vernace and Tommy Grant each scored for Connecticut.
"It's obviously getting a little redundant, pretty frustrating to come in after games and say your margin of error is going to be so slim and they're going to be one-goal games, you've got to do a little better job securing the puck," said Whale head coach Ken Gernander.


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It's all coming together at the new stadium site.
Schuff Steel installed the first beams for the team and office building, and none other than newly-minted head coach Mark Watson, Quakes President Dave Kaval and GM John Doyle signed the first cross beam.
Momentous day at the stadium site. John Doyle Mark Watson & @QuakesPrez sign the first steel crossbeam. #neversaydie pic.twitter.com/olsRzRXv9P— San Jose Earthquakes (@SJEarthquakes) November 5, 2013
Last week, signing contracts. This week, signing stadium steel. Watty's in it for the long haul. pic.twitter.com/JSC5ejGHuO— San Jose Earthquakes (@SJEarthquakes) November 5, 2013
Beam signing #neversaydie @sjearthquakes https://t.co/SrbMMw60Ch— Dave Kaval (@QuakesPrez) November 5, 2013
First signed cross beam #BuildingItNow https://t.co/xzKttQoM3o— Dave Kaval (@QuakesPrez) November 5, 2013


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I teach bridge for a living. (Before that I was in the sports betting business).
My favourite bridge book is Culbertson's Red Book on Play.
Reese and Kelsey are my two favourite authors - they opened my mind up to what bridge is really all about.
I've represented my country, South Africa, in a few World Championships, and always look forward to coming up against the world's best players.
When I think about how much of my life I've devoted to the game, I'm reminded of what the great writer, Somerset Maugham, said;-
'I would have children taught it as a matter of course, just as they are taught dancing; in the end it will be more useful to them, for you cannot with seemliness continue to dance when you are bald and potbellied; nor, for that matter, can you with satisfaction to yourself or pleasure to your partner continue to play tennis or golf when you are well past middle age. But you can play bridge so long as you can sit up at a table and tell one card from another. In fact, when all else fails - sport, love, ambition - bridge remains a solace and an entertainment.'
The other three at the table are all aggressive players.
The opponents are weak.
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text:
Well folks, it's that time again for the Mad Marketing Podcast. If you're looking to make your drive to work a lot quicker this week, I promise this episode will be fast, furious, and as always–FUN. I recorded this baby around 1am in the morning, so the goofiness can be attributed accordingly
But in all seriousness, if you're looking for content marketing advice or just want to get inspired, give it a listen and if you're able, please review on iTunes. (or find it on Stitcher here)
Thanks and have a great week everyone!!!
Your Questions (Answered in this Episode)
Hi Marcus
Great presentation today. Thank you.
My biggest struggle with Content Marketing (don't know what "Inbound Marketing" is – can you explain?) is TIME! So much to do at work that doesn't involve publishing, plus the learning curve is significant (especially since listening to #SSMS13)! I feel like I have to take a week (or maybe a month) off after the Summit to actually put what I've tried to learn into practice. I know, "Patience Grasshopper".
Again, thanks for the great info. Look forward to reading your eBook too.
Hi Marcus,
I just discovered you via the writtent website and promptly visited your site and subscribed. I love that you did this for your own business and have results to prove its efficacy!
My main fears are:
A blog that no one reads
This is all so complex I need to study this for months to start!
Any Advice?
I've recently discovered the term content marketing and have been reading up vocariously. I subscribe to a number of content marketing blogs and writers…Its interesting that you're the first person who's said:
Ask me if you have a question.
So Thank you.
My biggest struggles are: 1) a lack of comprehensive step-by-step roadmap/outline, as seeing the specifics of how I get there will diminish the uncertainty and apprehension surrounding embarking on the journey and, 2) the fear that somewhere along the line (as with so many other worthwhile intentions), I will fall off the wagon for what really needs to be a permanent "from now on…" change in my daily/weekly task behavior.
Hi Marcus,
I attended one of your talks last March.
We have a website now, but it sucks to be frank.
I would like to start making a difference getting noticed on the web. We do not have a big budget.
So, who or how do I get to making our site great and begin do the Inbound you speak of.
I am terrible at writing and design, my brain is technical, not creative communications.
Help, Help, Help
Hi Marcus,
I actually have a client that has a very unique business service offering, they've struggled with SEO and Content management. The biggest struggle I've had is 1. Getting them to create the content & 2. Convincing them that this form of marketing is valuable (as they don't think their audience will be Googling for this type of service.)
After watching your Webinar from on Spin Sucks, I thought your tools (particularly you're e-book) would give me the correct ammunition to convince the clients on this strategy.
So thanks in advance! By the way I'm a huge fan of your strategies.
Thanks again,
I attended the webinar Monday and it was very good. Our engineering company provides professional services so I was trying to understand what I could put on our website and LinkedIn page to help attract more potential customers? I know you mentioned pricing regarding your pool company but in my mind, not sure we could put pricing on engineering services because there are so many variables when designing a project.
Source: http://www.thesaleslion.com/content-marketing-roadmaps-bad-websites/


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Maui High School wins Hawaii Ocean Science Bowl for fourth straight yearUniversity of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology
HONOLULU - This past Saturday, February 25th, high school students from all over the state and Guam competed in the fourth annual Hawaii Regional competition for the National Ocean Science Bowl (NOSB), the "Aloha Bowl." Five high school students from Maui High School won the competition, and will represent Hawaii in the National Ocean Science Bowl in Pacific Grove, CA, May 13-15, 2006. Members of the winning team include Caine Jette, Aaron King, Nathaniel Salazar, Alex Collias, Vanessa Viloria and Coach Edwin Ginoza. Kalani High School took second place, with the Guam Team coming in third.
This educational program was developed to stimulate interest in the ocean sciences among high school students and demonstrate to the public the importance of the oceans in our daily lives. One of the long-term goals of the program is to foster the next generation of marine scientists, educators and policy makers for the ocean sciences.
During the competition, students were asked three types of questions: toss-up, bonus and team-challenge. Toss-up and bonus questions are in a multiple-choice or short-answer format. The team-challenge question is written out and handed to both teams at the half time of each round. These questions require higher cognitive skills, often use visual aids such as charts, maps, and graphs and the students work together to earn as many points as possible, which may make the difference between winning or losing the round of competition. Question difficulty increases as the competition progresses.
For more information contact, Tara Hicks Jouhnson, SOEST Outreach Specialist, at 956-3151, 429-7007 (cell) or email@example.com.
Information and pictures can be found at www.soest.hawaii.edu/SOEST_News/News/NOSB/
Reach the coach for the Maui High School team, Ed Ginoza, at firstname.lastname@example.com
About the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology
The School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST) was established by the Board of Regents of the University of Hawaii in 1988. SOEST brings together in a single focused ocean, earth sciences and technology group, some of the nation's highest quality academic departments, research institutes, federal cooperative programs, and support facilities to meet challenges in the ocean and earth sciences. Scientists at SOEST are supported by both state and federal funds as they endeavor to understand the subtle and complex interrelations of the seas, the atmosphere, and the earth.
For more information, visit: http://www.soest.hawaii.edu/SOEST_News/News/NOSB/


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Blocks and Files A Cisco boss fired a warning shot across Brocade's bow after the rival networking biz bragged that it had a two-year lead over Cisco in the 16Gb/s Fibre Channel arena.
Cisco's product manager for Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE), J Michel Metz, took exception to boasts made by Brocade's chief technology officer Dave Stevens, who was speaking this month at an investor meeting. The comments were picked up by financial analyst Aaron Rakers of Stifel Nicolaus.
For the uninitiated, Fibre Channel is a technology that transfers data at multi-gigabit-per-second speeds over copper or optic cable, and is aimed at supercomputers and enterprise-grade storage gear. FCoE replaces the FC1 and FC0 layers of the stack by running the FC frames over Ethernet, allowing Fibre Channel-connected kit to integrate with existing corporate networks.
Although Brocade is flogging 16GBit/s Fibre Channel kit, Cisco's Metz said there are no storage devices available at the moment capable of sustaining this speed end-to-end - adding that installing Fibre Channel is a "rip and replace" job compared to Cisco's FCoE offerings, which will work with existing Ethernet setups. Brocade had said end-to-end FCoE networks are not appearing in any meaningful way.
"Customers can deploy FCoE right now, end-to-end if they wish, through top-of-rack switches to director-class core FCoE switches to FCoE-based storage arrays from a variety of vendors," said Metz.
"Ultimately, having something available right now versus next year does not sound like it's lagging behind; in fact, 16Gbit/s FC has a lot of catching up to do to FCoE in terms of use cases, feature sets and deployment scenarios. Cisco isn't falling behind. Brocade is pushing technology that is far ahead of the majority of customers' needs. Customers appreciate being able to prolong their investments whilst seamlessly accommodating future growth."
Adding that Cisco's FCoE kit is outselling FC, Metz says: "While Brocade should be congratulated on a successful product launch (after all, a lot of time, effort, and engineering brilliance goes into the development of milestone technologies - especially in storage) it seems that their enthusiasm far exceeds their sense of perspective." ®


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Our Company
- Hitachi ID Systems offers comprehensive identity management and access governance, privileged access management and password management solutions.
- Hitachi ID solutions improve IT security, support internal controls and regulatory compliance, lower access administration and IT support cost and improve user service.
- The Hitachi ID Identity and Access Management Suite grants and revokes access both on-premises and cloud-hosted systems and applications.
The Hitachi ID Suite includes three products:
- Hitachi ID Identity Manager to manage accounts, attributes and entitlements using automation, requests/approvals, access certification and policy enforcement.
- Hitachi ID Password Manager to enable users to manage their own credentials -- passwords, tokens, smart cards, certificates, security questions and biometrics.
- Hitachi ID Privileged Access Manager to control access to privileged accounts and security groups, through password randomization/vaulting, access requests and session monitoring.


text:
INSPECT YOUR pancheros gift card balance
Bear in mind the preliminary gift card and after that track the balance on your card after each purchase.
You can inspect the pancheros gift card balance in the adhering to means:
1. visit the site of your card issuer
2. call customer support number, this service is for free
If you want to purchase something, however, the quantity of your acquisition is greater than the pancheros gift card balance, tell the cashier the quantity you want to pay with the gift card before settlement, as well as you can pay the distinction in the quantity indifferently.
HOW TO CHECK YOUR pancheros gift card balance
In order to learn your pancheros gift card balance, you need to take a few straightforward actions:
1. You need to check out the gift card suppliers website
2. On the website of the vendor in a specific form, you must get in the information of the gift card this is the number of the gift card and also the PIN code of the card. This information is on the back of the pancheros gift card balance.
If you do not have the chance to inspect the pancheros gift card balance online, you can call the phone number that is specially offered to inspect the balance of your gift card. This phone number is additionally on one side of the gift card.
IN WHICH TO CHECK YOUR pancheros gift card balance
There is plenty of different resources where you can see your pancheros gift card balance:
1. On the site of the vendor of your gift card
2. On other sources, where there are unique types for examining your gift card balance. Such resources can easily be found in the online search engine browser this expression: WHERE TO CHECK YOUR pancheros gift card balance.


text:
This material has 3 associated documents. Select a document title to view a document's information.
written by
Wolfgang Christian,
Mario Belloni, and
Anne Cox
educational validator: Bethany Zach
The GR Schwarzschild Light Wavefront program simulates the path of light emitted in all directions near a black hole using the Schwarzschild metric. The default setting is an explosion with an r-coordinate value of 6.0. The user can also see the effective potential of any of the light trajectories.
GR Schwarzschild Light Wavefront Parameter is part of a suite of Open Source Physics programs that model aspects of General Relativity. It is distributed as a ready-to-run (compiled) Java archive. Double clicking the gr_schwarzschild_light_wavefront.jar file will run the program if Java is installed. Other programs provide additional visualizations. They can be found by searching ComPADRE for Open Source Physics, OSP, or General Relativity.
Published May 23, 2008
Last Modified May 23, 2008
This file has previous versions.
A pdf document that briefly describes the GR Schwarzschild Light Wavefront program. It describes how to use the gr_schwarzschild_light_wavefront.jar file and contains short tutorial exercises for use with the gr_schwarzschild_light_wavefront.jar file.
Published May 23, 2008
Last Modified May 23, 2008
The materials distributed in this zip file are in support of the GR Schwarzschild Wavefront program. This distribution contains the GR Schwarzschild Light Wavefront program, documentation, and exercises.
Published May 23, 2008
Last Modified May 23, 2008
This file has previous versions.


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Top Microsoft Infrastructure Exec Chrapaty Heads to Cisco
One of Microsoft's top execs, Debra Chrapaty (pictured here), who heads its infrastructure business, is leaving the software giant to take a top job at Cisco (CSCO), sources said.
Chrapaty–whose title is corporate VP of Global Foundation Services–is also one of increasingly few top women tech execs at Microsoft (MSFT), where she has worked for seven years.
The job put her in charge of, as a Microsoft site notes, "strategy and delivery of the foundational platform for Microsoft Live, Cloud and Online Services worldwide including physical infrastructure, security, operational management, global delivery and environmental considerations. Her organization supports over 200 online services and web portals from Microsoft for consumers and businesses."
In other words: A lot of plumbing.
She was featured onstage with other key execs at Microsoft's Financial Analysts Meeting earlier this summer.
Sources said Chrapaty will now shift to products at Cisco, running the collaboration software group.
That unit's former exec, Doug Dennerline, recently moved to Salesforce.com (CRM) to take a job as its EVP of sales for the Americas.
At Cisco, as had Dennerline, Chrapaty is likely to play a large role in forming the networking giant's cloud computing and software-as-a-service strategies.
Chrapaty has worked at a lot of tech companies, including Organic, AllBusiness and Etrade Technologies. She was also CTO of the National Basketball Association.


text:
Well, so Andrew Gelman, posting at fivethirtyeight.com, got ahold of the map, and it seems to have irked him. Says Gelman:
Is Alaska really so developed as all that? And whassup with D.C., which, according to the table, is #4, behind only Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New Jersey? I know about gentrification and all that, but can D.C. really be #4 on any Human Development Index worth its name?Gelman goes on to bring his statistical chops to bear on the data, which came from this table from Wikipedia, and his analysis is frankly a bit beyond my pay grade. The upshot is, he's an expert, and he's dubious about the data. So I decided to look into the matter a bit more.
Time to look behind the numbers.
The Wikipedia page that lists HDI by state claims that the data come from the American Human Development Project. So I contacted them to find out if the numbers from the Wikipedia page were reliable. Kristen Lewis, a Co-Director of the project, emphasized that the AHDP's HDI index - though calaculated based on measurements of education, health, and income, just like the UN's index - uses, as she put it, "different indicators that serve as more reliable and meaningful proxies in the U.S. context." She went on to say:
To avoid creating the impression that our index was comparable to the UNDP global HDI published every year that ranks all the world's countries, we used a different scale. Rather than 0 to 1, we used 1 - 10. In addition, we said in several places that our index was not directly comparable to the UN index.So there you have it. Who knows where the numbers on which the above map is based came from? It seems, to the extent that anyone drew their data from the AHDP report, their methodology must necessarily have been flawed, since the AHDP data are incompatible with the data the UN uses for their HDI, and the table used for the map above used values based on the UN's scale.
We still wanted to make international comparisons, but we did so in our book by using more discrete indicators. So for instance, we compared our incarceration rate to those of other countries, noting that ours was higher than those of China or Russia; we compared our infant mortality rate, noting that in parts of Mississippi, the infant death rate was on par with those of Libya and Thailand, etc.
I have no idea who created that table in Wikepedia and what methodology they used to convert our scale to the UN scale. We have data tables on our website where the person could have gotten the LIEX by state; I'm not sure what he or she used for income, but if they used median personal earnings, it's not comparable to the UN scale and if they used state GDP, they would run into the problems described above; and in terms of education, he or she may well have used school enrollment, which we have, but I don't know what they would combine it with as we don't have literacy by state and, again, the educational attainment figures would not be comparable.
However, the AHDP does have its own maps of their data, to wit:
Note that the HDI presented here is, as Lewis points out, on a 1-10 scale, rather than the UN's 0-1 scale. Note also that this map closely mirrors the Wikipedia map; indeed, the ordering of the states is nearly identical. But the ratios of HDI between the states are not. For instance, look at the bottom 15 or so states on the AHDP list (pdf):
36. Missouri - 4.54
36. Nevada - 4.54
38. South Dakota - 4.53
38. Wyoming - 4.53
40. New Mexico - 4.49
41. Idaho - 4.37
42. Montana - 4.34
43. South Carolina - 4.27
44. Kentucky - 4.12
45. Tennessee - 4.10
46. Oklahoma - 4.02
47. Alabama - 3.98
48. Arkansas - 3.86
49. Louisiana - 3.85
50. West Virginia - 3.84
51. Mississippi - 3.58
There does seem to be something of a "long tail" - several states seem to be pretty significant outliers from the national median. But the conclusion I had drawn based on the Wikipedia table was that there was a core of eight states - the bottom eight on this list - that were relatively close to each other on the development scale but which were collectively far below not just the other states in the US, but just about anywhere else in the developed world. But based on the AHDP table, there is not such a clear break - more of a gentle downward slope as you get towards the tail end of the distribution. And while it may or may not be the case that the level of development of these states are well outside the mainstream of other developed countries, there's no way to tell based on this data alone.
For Gelman's part, he tongue-in-cheekily proposes another metric for levels of development of US states:
Gelman reflects:
Why do I have such strong feelings about this? It's probably a simple case of envy, that this little bit of index-averaging has probably received more publicity than all of my life's research put together, envy that it has received so much funding. I'm sure they all have had good intentions, but I think something went wrong, at least with this part of the project.To that I can only say: map away, sir!
But maybe I'm thinking about this all wrong: these folks are clearly doing well, so maybe I should emulate them. I'll start by making maps of everything ranked by state, and we'll see how that goes.
So, to sum up, I have a couple points. First: it is really danged difficult to find a measure of HDI by US state that can be compared to other countries. But it's such an inherently interesting - even important - question. The US is a huge country, diverse in every way. To really understand our place in the world, we need more fine-grained data than national scale measurements provide. That's what makes the AHDP cool. And it's nice to be able to make intra-US comparisons between states. But it would be fascinating to be able to compare states, in as close to an apples-to-apples way as possible, to other countries. It was curiosity about such comparisons that led me to write the original post, and it was probably a similar sort of curiosity that led whoever drew up the map on Wikipedia to do so. But in all the vast, vast internets, I can find no such comparisons. So, social scientists, what's the hold-up? Is West Virginia more developed than Serbia? The people want to know!
Second: good lord, but things do get a life of their own on the internets, don't they? Please note that the American Human Development Project has done some really nice work. I mean, their report has a foreword by Amartya Sen, for crissakes! The greenish map above is not their responsibility, but the brownish one IS theirs. And I encourage everyone to go check it out at their site; there is a ton of interesting information there.


text:
CARSON, Calif. – Pat Noonan scored a dramatic stoppage-time equalizer as the LA Galaxy salvaged a draw against visiting FC Dallas, with the Western Conference rivals tying 1-1 at Home Depot Center on Saturday.
FC Dallas held a 1-0 lead in the second minute of stoppage time when Noonan slipped a ball into the left corner of the net. The goal canceled out Brek Shea's 61st-minute penalty kick.
Neither team had its starting goalkeeper available – Chris Seitz started for the third consecutive match in place of Kevin Hartman as FC Dallas' stalwart 'keeper missed another match with back spasms. Josh Saunders, meanwhile, was out due to personal matters, leaving Bill Gaudette to make his first-ever Galaxy start.
Early on, FC Dallas seemed intent on testing Gaudette. Twice in the first minute the visitors had shots but neither attempt was on frame. Landon Donovan, meanwhile, broke free in the 11th minute and got around Seitz but rattled a shot off the right post.
Seitz kept the Galaxy scoreless with two stellar saves just before the intermission. In the 42nd minute, Seitz turned away Robbie Keane from close range after Keane had gotten free inside the box. One minute later, the Galaxy had a scramble in front of the goal on a corner kick and Seitz sprawled out and pounced on the ball just as it was about to cross the goal line.
Just four minutes into the second half, the Galaxy were awarded a penalty kick after Jair Benitez hauled Donovan down from behind inside the penalty area. However, Keane stepped up to take the penalty kick instead of Donovan. The Republic of Ireland captain sent his attempt wide, though, as the Galaxy failed to take advantage of the opportunity. It was the first time since June 2007 that a player other than Donovan took a penalty kick for the Galaxy.
OPTA Chalkboard: FCD firm in defense
The visitors took the lead on the hour after being awarded a spot kick of their own. Gaudette took down Blas Perez inside the box and picked up a yellow card for his trouble. Shea stepped up and buried the attempt as Gaudette barely moved, and FC Dallas went up 1-0.
The Galaxy had several late opportunities, including a Beckham free kick from 20 yards out that sai, but were unable to get closer until Noonan's stoppage-time winner. After a few passes inside the penalty area, Noonan collected himself and placed the ball into the left corner of the goal.


text:
Research in the News: Out-of-network doctors: Worth the cost?
A Yale team of researchers has looked at the cost of seeking out-of-network medical care, and whether private insurance companies are transparent about the cost.
They sought to determine the proportion of privately insured adults using out-of-network physicians, the prevalance of involuntary out-of-network visits due to medical emergencies, and whether patients experienced problems with cost transparency. They found notable problems with cost transparency among insurance companies and regulatory agencies, and urged stronger measures to protect consumers from having to pay high, unanticipated charges.
The study was supported by a grant from the Women's Health Research at Yale Pilot Project Program and funding from the Yale Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) Clinical Scholars Program. The research team included Dr. Kelly Kyanko (now of NYU School of Medicine, and formerly a RWJF Clinical Scholar at Yale), and Leslie Curry and Susan Busch of Yale School of Public Health. The study appears online in the Health Services Research journal.
Media Contact
Helen Dodson: firstname.lastname@example.com, 203-436-3984