text:
Second Phase of SAON Underway
The Sustaining Arctic Observing Networks (SAON) initiative has now begun a second phase, and the Arctic Council (AC) together with the International Arctic Science Committee (IASC) and the World Meteorological Organization have formed a steering group (SAON SG) to lead its development.
Formed in response to the AC's 2006 Salekhard Declaration, SAON is aimed at advancing multinational engagement in developing sustained and coordinated pan-arctic observing and data sharing systems that serve societal needs, particularly related to environmental, social, economic, and cultural issues.
In the first phase of the initiative, a SAON Initiating Group (IG) composed of representatives of international organizations and agencies and northern residents involved in research and observing was formed to solicit information and advice contributing to recommendations on achieving SAON goals. In 2007 and 2008, the SAON IG held a series of workshops to develop the recommendations and provide an opportunity for the arctic observing community to meet and contribute experience and expertise to the process. Participants addressed five key questions:
- What arctic observing sites, systems, and networks (activities) currently exist?
- What spatial, temporal, and disciplinary gaps exist?
- How will gaps be filled and the entire effort sustained?
- How are these activities coordinated and integrated?
- How is free, open, and timely access to be achieved?
Published in December 2008, Observing the Arctic: Report of the Sustaining Arctic Observing Networks (SAON) Initiating Group is derived from these discussions and makes four recommendations, which are summarized here:
- The AC should lead the facilitation of international collaboration among government agencies, researchers, and northern residents, especially indigenous people at the community level, to ensure a sustainable pan-arctic observing system.
- The governments of the AC member states should commit to: sustaining their current level of observing activities and data and information services and make efforts to increase the scope of those activities in the future; and creating a dissemination protocol to make data and information freely, openly, and easily accessible in a timely fashion at a minimal cost to users.
- Arctic states are urged to increase intergovernmental cooperation in coordinating and integrating arctic observing activities and associated data and information management. Each arctic state is encouraged to create a national agency to coordinate their arctic observing—these agencies will form the basis for increased intergovernmental cooperation.
- Since arctic issues are of global concern, AC member states are urged to welcome non-arctic states and international organizations as partners in the intergovernmental cooperation that will be necessary to sustain and improve arctic observing capacity and information services.
Second Phase
In response to the AC's April 2009 Tromsø Declaration and building on the report recommendations, the second phase of SAON was initiated with the formation of the SAON SG in June 2009. The SAON SG consists of representatives of the eight arctic countries, AC permanent participants and working groups, IASC, and the World Meteorological Organization—it is co-chaired by John Calder (AC Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme [AMAP]) and David Hik (IASC).
The goal of the SAON SG is to identify and implement steps to improve coordination and integration of arctic observing activities, and to promote sharing and synthesis of data and information. To accomplish this goal, the SAON SG interacts with people who use observing data; operate observing sites, systems, and networks; and provide data and information services to promote communication, cooperation, and coordination between all parties. The SAON SG also works with governments to advocate for the resources necessary to sustain and increase arctic observing activities and to encourage intergovernmental cooperation in arctic observing.
The SAON SG has developed a work plan and set priorities for its activities between now and April 2011, when AC ministers are scheduled to meet in Greenland. Priorities of the plan include:
- developing an inventory of existing networks;
- identifying needs, gaps, and opportunities for improving data access and sharing;
- improving linkages between community-based and science-based monitoring; and
- facilitating coordination and integration among activities supported by national agencies.
The SAON SG is sponsoring a workshop to ascertain the views and support of agencies currently involved in arctic observing activities. The meeting will be held on 18–19 March 2010 during the State of the Arctic Conference in Miami, Florida (pages 1–2), and will focus on defining benefits from and ways to accomplish improved coordination and collaboration in funding and performing arctic observations.
For more information, see http://www.arcticobserving.org or contact Odd Rogne (AMAP), Lars-Otto Reiersen (AMAP), or Volker Rachold (IASC) at the SAON Secretariat (firstname.lastname@example.com).


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Ed and I were honored to interview Dr. Jules Goddard, author of Uncommon Sense, Common Nonsense: Why some organisations consistently outperform others (co-authored with Tony Eccles).
Dr. Goddard earned his MA at Oxford, an MBA from Wharton, and his PhD from London Business School. He's a Guest Lecturer at INSEA and formerly Gresham Professor of Commerce and Mercers School Memorial Professor at The City University. He is currently Research Associate of the Management Lab (MLab) at London Business School. He's a teacher, writer and consultant in the areas of business creativity, strategic thinking, leadership and corporate transformation. Lead designer and director of senior-level, high-profile development programmes for many companies, including BP, ICL-Fujitsu, Rolls-Royce, Orange, Prudential, Ericsson, BG Group, Rio Tinto, Mars, Smith and Nephew, SCA, Danone, and Volvo. Over the last 10 years, he has worked with a third of the FTSE 100 companies.
Specialist advisor on strategic issues facing professional services firms, including Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Smith System Engineering, Conran Design Group, Braxton, Banque Paribas, Lazard Brothers, PricewaterhouseCoopers, J Walter Thompson, Benfield, Deloittes, SHL, and Credit Suisse.
Recent publications include articles on futuristic models of management (Sloan Management Review), the economic crisis (Business Strategy Review), cost strategy (Business Strategy Review), a new definition of accountability (Interconnections), as well as a monograph on employee engagement, social media and management innovation (CSC Leading Edge).
My book on organisational strategy, co-authored with Tony Eccles and entitled Uncommon Sense and Common Nonsense, was published by Profile in 2012. He is married, with 4 children, lives in London and Provence.
The Best Business Book Ron Read in 2014 (and Ed's read in 2015)
His book is the best business book I read in 2014, and Ed says the same so far in 2015! There are so many quotable and profound insights in this work it's hard to do it justice in a short review.
We highly recommend you read this work, especially if you've enjoyed some of the topics we've discussed on The Soul of Enterprise. Our thinking seems to be very much aligned with Dr. Goddard's views on business.
He's working on a new book on behavioral economics and we will definitely have Dr. Goddard back on the show!
Here are some of our favorite points from the book, sorted by topic.
Purpose of book?
We believe that most enterprises today are insufficiently entrepreneurial.
The great virtues of markets is that they disproportionately reward firms that have the creativity to see the world differently from their rivals.
The book's thesis is that: market-based competition is a discovery process; that asymmetric knowledge is the object of the search; the business strategist is the intrepid explorer; the effective organisation spurs such exploration.
THE PRINCIPAL ARGUMENT of this book is that profit is a return on knowledge and that therefore decision-making in business should be modelled on problem-solving in science, which is the most reliable and productive form of knowledge acquisition so far invented.
In place of dogmatism, science injects a healthy dose of critical inquiry.
Scientists do not argue from facts to theories, except by showing that some of these facts falsify or refute some of these theories. Facts are used by scientists not as the source for their ideas but as the test of their ideas.
Uncommon Sense, Common Nonsense Defined
The basic law of wealth creation: principle of asymmetric knowledge – that is, any situation when somebody in a market knows something that nobody else in the market knows, and then has the courage to act on that knowledge.
We call this type of knowledge "uncommon sense."
When the same sources of error unite all the competitors in a given space, they become what we call "common nonsense." Most management theories are little more than sophistry or folk wisdom.
Austrian Economics Influence?
The Austrian rather than the neoclassical tradition of microeconomic theory competition is modeled as a discovery process where the rewards flow to entrepreneurs possessing valuable new insights or unique data rather than as a state of equilibrium.
Strategy is less about the application of theory than the activity of theorising.
Chess masters do not achieve their mastery through the application of "best practice." They are their own masters.
Scientific discovery or a work of art, it is a unique, non-repeatable event. It resists generalisation or theoretical explanation.
Strategic solutions do not generalise. They are built on insights, not rules or principles.
Businesses decline as the production of new insights dries up. A theory of business therefore cannot be a substitute for insight.
Any theory that puts forward a winning recipe for commercial success is a fraud. There cannot be an algorithm for making scientific discoveries or creating artistic masterpieces.
Firms outperform their competitors by aiming to be different, not better
"Strategy is about setting yourself apart from the competition. It's not a matter of being better at what you do – it's a matter of being different at what you do." ––Michael Porter
"You don't want to be the best of the best. You want to be the only one who does what you do." ––Jerry Garcia
Budgeting – the undisputed champion of managerial nonsense. Balanced scorecards—the bureaucrat's revenge.
Markets are battles between belief systems.
Ideas vs. Execution?
Aiming to be "better at implementation" is no more a recipe for success than aiming to be better generally.
Efficiency vs. Effectiveness? The Effing Debate
Russell Ackoff, "The righter we do the wrong thing, the wronger we become. Therefore, when we correct a mistake doing the wrong thing we become wronger. It is better to do the right thing wrong than the wrong thing right."
Our favorite insight in the book!
Strategy is the rare and precious skill of staying one step ahead of the need to be efficient.
The true test of the innovative capability of a firm is that it never needs to worry about, let alone wrestle with, the cost competitiveness of its business model. An example is Apple. Immunised it against ever having to resort to such mundane and demoralising activities as operational excellence or change management.
Over the life cycle of a business, efficiency is usually exchanged for effectiveness, as focus is sacrificed for scale.
The pharmaceutical industry, more than any other industry, perhaps, understands the importance of "inefficiency" to innovation.
Best Practices/Benchmarking
Losers look to competitive benchmarks rather than to their own imagination for their model of success
The concept of best practice is perhaps the single most value-destructive idea to have come out of business schools and management consultancies over the past 20 years. All they have achieved is to urge the laggards to catch up with the herd.
The lead indicators of strategic failure are typically three: the firm benchmarks its costs against competitors; managers are set targets to close the gap on the most efficient competitor; managers seek solutions among the latest management fashions, with the result that the half-life of each new panacea gets shorter and shorter. Toyota did not get to outperform General Motors by emulating GM practices.
Business is not about best practice. It is about unique practices.
The day that Google starts to take an interest in competency profiling or balanced scorecards or corporate social responsibility or some other form of management sophistry is the day to sell Google stock.
Accounting Profession
I argue that the accounting profession is suffering from what philosophers call a "Deteriorating paradigm"—that is, as accounting gets more complex as it explains less and less.
It seems Dr. Goddard agrees, quoting James Noble of the FCA:
"Over the past decade the [accounting] profession has completely lost any sense of what accounts are for. …Accounts do not reflect reality. They reflect an extremely complex set of standards comprehensible to a tiny minority of professionals, if that. They are full of weird conventions such as goodwill write-offs, share options accounting and revenue recognition that I defy anyone to call reality…If accounts reflect reality and accounting standards are just fine, how is it that every bank in the UK has in effect become bankrupt when every single one received a clean audit opinion, including a going concern test [within a year of going broke]?" James Noble FCA
Small Visions
ASK CEOS TO NOMINATE the business leaders they have most admired, Richard Branson, Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Alan Lafley. They'll point to their bravery, decisiveness, boldness of their vision, contrarian beliefs, the originality of their strategies, the courage of their convictions, their self-confidence and willpower.
Now inquire into what strategies and policies they themselves are advocating in their own businesses, the answers that you get are depressingly familiar: cost reduction, 360-degree feedback, outsourcing, downsizing, margin improvement, shared services, process re-engineering and change programmes. Actions of most executives fall far short of their aspirations and ideals.
Simplicity is always the result of design
"There seem to be many people making things more complex but very few people trying to make them simpler." Edward de Bono
Perhaps we should be as worried by complexity as we are about cost. TSM (total simplicity management).
"Black Belts" in simplification.
Many people in an organisation have a vested interest in making things complicated and keeping them that way. No one cuts costs by eliminating their own job.

subset: commoncrawl


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The TMRpcm software uses the standard SD library (coming with Arduino IDE 1.0 and later) to read WAV files from SD card. To output the audio while buffering the content of the SD file, TMRpcm uses ISR triggered by internal timer. The buzzer/speaker can be connected only to certain pins of the processor. For ATmega1284/ATmega644 (used in Wise Clock 3/4), these pins are D3, D4, D12, D13, D14 and D15, as shown in the definition below (from sanguino core file pins_arduino.c).
From the perspective of TMRpcm library, the buzzer in Wise Clock 4 is connected to the "wrong" pins, D22 and D23, which are not eligible for this trick. I chose to connect another speaker to pin D13, but that's already taken by the display (CS, pin 1). So I had to cut the trace from D13 to the display, and connect pin 1 of the display to D18 (another choice was D19, the only other available I/O left).
From now on it's only software.
- modify this line in HT1632.cpp:
- add line
Then follow from step 4 of this previous post.
Unfortunately, this will not work with Wise Clock 4 software as is, and the main reason is the timer interrupts used by TMRpcm library, which disrupt the "SPI-like" commands for the display.
The video above may seem like another Wise Clock "app", but it is just a "cheating" sketch running standalone, shown below.
#include "Arduino.h"
#include "Wire.h"
#include "DS3231.h"
#include "HT1632.h"
#include "AlarmClock.h"
#include "WiseClock.h"
#include "SD.h"
#include "TMRpcm.h"
#define SD_ChipSelectPin 4
#define AudioPin 13 // must be PWM pin
TMRpcm tmrpcm;
void setup()
// disable JTAG (to use pin D18);
uint8_t tmp = 1<
MCUCR = tmp;
MCUCR = tmp;
tmrpcm.speakerPin = AudioPin;
void loop()
alarmClock.isAlarmEnabled = true;
Serial.print("Time is: ");
Serial.print(alarmClock.hour, DEC);
Serial.print(alarmClock.minute, DEC);
Serial.println(alarmClock.second, DEC);
if (!tmrpcm.isPlaying())
ht1632_putTinyString(0, 0, "Playing", RED);
wiseClock.displayTime(8, false);
The display is statically updated once, before the WAV file starts playing.
It would probably be possible to update the display between playing short WAV files (with interrupts disabled right after each file is played). But that may open a door to other set of problems, since the display is practically frozen for the duration of the file playing. On the other hand, the I2C (through Wire library) works just fine (that's because I2C is hardware driven), so getting the current time from RTC while playing music is not an issue.
Although in theory would be possible to integrate TMRpcm library in the Wise Clock software (to play WAV files from SD card while the clock functionality is not affected), in practice that would take a lot of programming effort. A much easier and cheaper way to include audio into Wise Clock 4 (hardware and software) would be through the use of serially controlled audio-playback specialized modules, like this one (or maybe even the radio/MP3 module I reviewed here, if I ever find it in my pile of stuff).


text:
Consider the symmetry group of the square (the cyclic graph C4). It can be generated by two permutations:
> :load Math.Algebra.Group.PermutationGroup
> let a = p [[1,2,3,4]]
> let b = p [[1,2],[3,4]]
We can list various relations that are satisfied by these generators:
a^4 = 1
b^2 = 1
a^3 b = b a
Of course, there are other relations that hold between the generators. However, the relations above are in fact sufficient to uniquely identify the group (up to isomorphism).
Since a and b generate the group, any element in the group can be expressed as a product of a's and b's (and also their inverses, but we'll ignore that for now). However, there are of course an infinite number of such expressions, but only a finite number of group elements, so many of these expressions must represent the same element. For example, since b^2=1, then abba represents the same element as aa.
Given two expressions, it would obviously be helpful to have a method for telling whether they represent the same group element. What we need is a string rewriting system. We can think of expressions in the generators as words in the symbols 'a' and 'b'. And we can reinterpret the relations above as rewrite rules:
"aaaa" -> ""
"bb" -> ""
"aaab" -> "ba"
Each of these rules consists of a left hand side and a right hand side. Given any word in the generator symbols, if we find the left hand side anywhere in the word, we can replace it by the right hand side. For example, in the word "abba", we can apply the rule "bb" -> "", giving "aa".
So, the idea is that given any word in the generator symbols, we repeatedly apply the rewrite rules until we can go no further. The hope is that if two words represent the same group element, then we will end up with the same word after rewriting. We'll see later that there's a bit more to do before that will work, but for the moment, let's at least write some Haskell code to do the string rewriting.
So the first thing we are going to need to do is try to find the left hand side of a rule as a subword within a word. Actually, we want to do a bit more than that - if X is our word, and Y the subword, then we want to find the A and B such that X = AYB.
import qualified Data.List as L
splitSubstring xs ys = splitSubstring' [] xs where
splitSubstring' ls [] = Nothing
splitSubstring' ls (r:rs) =
if ys `L.isPrefixOf` (r:rs)
then Just (reverse ls, drop (length ys) (r:rs))
else splitSubstring' (r:ls) rs
Then if our rewrite rule is L -> R, then a single application of the rule consists in replacing L by R within the word:
rewrite1 (l,r) xs =
case xs `splitSubstring` l of
Nothing -> Nothing
Just (a,b) -> Just (a++r++b)
Okay, so suppose we have a rewrite system (that is, a collection of rewrite rules), and a word. Then we want to repeatedly apply the rules until we find that no rule applies:
rewrite rules word = rewrite' rules word where
rewrite' (r:rs) xs =
case rewrite1 r xs of
Nothing -> rewrite' rs xs
Just ys -> rewrite' rules ys
rewrite' [] xs = xs
For example:
> :load Math.Algebra.Group.StringRewriting
> rewrite [("aaaa",""),("bb",""),("aaab","ba")] "abba"
So far, so good. However, there are some problems with the rewrite system that we constructed above. Suppose that the word we wanted to reduce was "aaabb".
If we apply the rule "aaab" -> "ba", then we have "aaabb" -> "bab".
However, if we apply the rule "bb" -> "", then we have "aaabb" -> "aaa".
Neither "bab" nor "aaa" reduces any further. So we have two problems:
- The same starting word can end up at different end words, depending on the order in which we apply the rules
- We can see from the example that the words "bab" and "aaa" actually represent the same element in our group, but our rewrite system can't rewrite either of them
What can we do about this? Well here's an idea. Let's just add "bab" -> "aaa" as a new rewrite rule to our system. We know that they are equal as elements of the group, so this is a valid thing to do.
That's good, but we still have problems. What about the word "aaaab"?
If we apply the rule "aaaa" -> "", then "aaaab" -> "b"
On the other hand, if we apply the rule "aaab" -> "ba", then "aaaab" -> "aba"
So let's do the same again, and add a new rule "aba" -> "b".
What we're doing here is called the Knuth-Bendix algorithm. Let's take a step back. So in each case, I found a word that could be reduced in two different ways. How did I do that? Well, what I was looking for is two rules with overlapping left hand sides. That is, I was looking for rules L1 -> R1, L2 -> R2, with
A pair of rules like this is called a critical pair. If we can find a critical pair, then by looking at the word ABC, we see that
So we are justified in adding a new rule R1 C -> A R2
So the Knuth-Bendix algorithm basically says, for each critical pair, introduce a new rule, until there are no more critical pairs. There's a little bit more to it than that:
- We want the rewrite system to reduce the word. That means that we want an ordering on words, and given a pair, we want to make them into a rule that takes the greater to the lesser, rather than vice versa. The most obvious ordering to use is called shortlex: take longer words to shorter words, and if the lengths are equal, use alphabetical ordering.
- Whenever we introduce a new rule, it might be that the left hand side of some existing rule becomes reducible. In that case, the existing rule becomes redundant, since any word that it would reduce can now be reduced by the new rule.
Here's the code:
-- given two strings x,y, find if possible a,b,c with x=ab y=bc
findOverlap xs ys = findOverlap' [] xs ys where
findOverlap' as [] cs = Nothing
findOverlap' as (b:bs) cs =
if (b:bs) `L.isPrefixOf` cs
then Just (reverse as, b:bs, drop (length (b:bs)) cs)
else findOverlap' (b:as) bs cs
shortlex x y = compare (length x, x) (length y, y)
ordpair x y =
case shortlex x y of
LT -> Just (y,x)
EQ -> Nothing
GT -> Just (x,y)
knuthBendix1 rules = knuthBendix' rules pairs where
pairs = [(lri,lrj) | lri <- rules, lrj <- rules, lri /= lrj]
knuthBendix' rules [] = rules
knuthBendix' rules ( ((li,ri),(lj,rj)) : ps) =
case findOverlap li lj of
Nothing -> knuthBendix' rules ps
Just (a,b,c) -> case ordpair (rewrite rules (ri++c)) (rewrite rules (a++rj)) of
Nothing -> knuthBendix' rules ps -- they both reduce to the same thing
Just rule' -> let rules' = reduce rule' rules
ps' = ps ++
[(rule',rule) | rule <- rules'] ++
[(rule,rule') | rule <- rules']
in knuthBendix' (rule':rules') ps'
reduce rule@(l,r) rules = filter (\(l',r') -> not (L.isInfixOf l l')) rules
For example:
> knuthBendix1 [("aaaa",""), ("bb",""), ("aaab","ba")]
A few words about the Knuth-Bendix algorithm
- It is not guaranteed to terminate. Every time we introduce a new rule, we have the potential to create new critical pairs, and there are pathological examples where this goes on forever
- The algorithm can be made slightly more efficient, by doing things like choosing to process shorter critical pairs first. In the HaskellForMaths library, a more efficient version is given, called simply "knuthBendix"
Back to the example. So Knuth-Bendix has found three new rules. The full system, with these new rules added, has no more critical pairs. As a consequence, it is a confluent rewrite system - meaning that if you start at some given word, and reduce it using the rules, then it doesn't matter in what order you apply the rules, you will always end up at the same word. This word that you end up with can therefore be used as a normal form.
This allows us to "solve the word problem" for this group. That is, given any two words in the generator symbols, we can find out whether they represent the same group element by rewriting them both, and seeing if they end up at the same normal form. For example:
> let rules = knuthBendix [("aaaa",""), ("bb",""), ("aaab","ba")]
> rewrite rules "aaaba"
> rewrite rules "baabb"
> rewrite rules "babab"
So we see that "aaaba" and "baabb" represent the same group element, whereas "babab" represents a different one. (If you want, you could go back and check this using the original permutations.)
We can even list (the normal forms of) all elements of the group. What we do is start with the empty word (which represents the identity element of the group), and then incrementally build longer and longer words. At each stage, we look at all combinations that can be formed by pre-pending a generator symbol to a word from the preceding stage. However, if we ever come across a word which can be reduced, then we know that it - and any word that could be formed from it at a later stage - is not a normal form, and so can be discarded. Here's the code:
nfs (gs,rs) = nfs' [[]] where
nfs' [] = [] -- we have run out of words
nfs' ws = let ws' = [g:w | g <- gs, w <- ws, (not . isNewlyReducible) (g:w)]
in ws ++ nfs' ws'
isNewlyReducible w = any (`L.isPrefixOf` w) (map fst rs)
elts (gs,rs) = nfs (gs, knuthBendix rs)
For example:
> elts (['a','b'], [("aaaa",""), ("bb",""), ("aaab","ba")])
As expected, we have eight elements.
That's enough for now. Next time (hopefully) I'll look at some more examples.


text:
Queens is the largest of New York City's five boroughs and one of the most ethnically diverse city areas in the world. Queens includes a variety of diverse neighborhoods, such as Bellaire, Bayside, Astoria, Flushing, Long Island City, and Sunnyside.
Though no single industry is responsible for the majority of Queens' economic success, the aviation industry is worth mentioning. Queens' two airports make the airline industry very influential, accounting for more than 27 percent of all jobs in the borough. John F. Kennedy International Airport and LaGuardia Airport, the two busiest airports in the world, generated $64.5 billion in economic activity in 2017.
Though the aviation industry is an impressive economic driver, it's just one of many successful industries in Queens. "The Queens economy is booming," New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said. "Over the past decade, Queens has seen a growing population and a rapid rise in jobs and in businesses, and this is a historic time for the borough."
Other important industries contributing to Queens' diverse economy include healthcare, retail trade, film, construction, and manufacturing. The borough is home to JetBlue Airways; watchmaker Bulova; piano manufacturer Steinway & Sons; and Glaceau, which makes Vitamin Water.
What Our Brokers Say About Queens Office Space for Lease
Queens' unemployment rate is lower than the national average, and the borough has seen a 0.5 percent increase in the job market this year. It is cheaper to live in Queens than it is to live in Brooklyn. About one-third of the Queens population has a bachelor's degree, and the borough houses 11 colleges and universities, including St. John's University and the CUNY School of Law. Businesses hiring interns or recent grads will have plenty of choices.
Queens' population has increased by 25 percent since 1980 to 2.4 million. Immigration has played a key role in both the increase in population and the borough's economy. "We have 190 countries and 200 languages represented here," said Queens Borough President Melinda Katz. "Our diversity here is our strength . . . and 69 percent of our small business owners are folks who were born in other places." That percentage is even more impressive when taking into account that 98 percent of New York City businesses are considered small businesses (they have 100 employees or fewer).
If you're planning a business lunch or event, check out Abuqir Seafood, D Angelos Sausage Truck, Bill's Townhouse, or Ltauha Restaurant. If you just want to take a break from the office and go for a brainstorming stroll, visit one of Queens' many parks such as Astoria Park, Brookville Park, or Queensbridge Park.
Queens has something for everyone. Sports fans can enjoy a Mets game at Citi Field or watch a US Open tennis tournament. Swimming, tanning or surfing enthusiasts can enjoy Rockaway Beach. In fact, this beach is the city's only legal surfing beach. Visitors can enjoy a variety of concessions and outdoor activities along with the surf and sand. And those who just want to take a stroll can explore Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, the largest park in Queens and the fourth largest park in New York City. This 897-acre park offers a wide variety of activities including a recreation complex, a zoo, an art museum, a science museum, and a botanical garden. Popular tourist destinations include the Museum of the Moving Image, the Bohemian Hall and Beer Garden, the Unisphere and the Panorama of NYC, and P.S. 1 Contemporary Arts Center.
Queens became a borough on May 4, 1987, as a result of the New York State Legislature's vote. It used to be larger until Jan. 1, 1899, when the eastern 280 square miles were partitioned and designated as Nassau County. Queens' economy and population both grew with the implementation and improvement of transportation options in the area. In 1905, the Long Island Rail Road was electrified. In 1909, the Queensboro Bridge opened, offering travelers an alternative to using the ferry to get to Brooklyn. After 1915, almost the entire borough became connected to the New York City Subway system. Queens hosted both the 1939 and 1964 New York World's Fairs at Flushing Meadows Park. This exhibition for mid-20th century American culture and technology included more than 140 pavilions, 110 restaurants, 45 corporations, and 80 nations. In 1948, an airport then called Idlewild Airport opened in Queens; it is now called JFK Airport.
Queens Commercial Space For Lease | By the numbers
|Office Space for Rent
|Price per square foot
|Class A
|Class B
Queens Office Space | Lease and Data Trends
Queens is 109 square miles in size and offers a wide variety of options for office space. Queens office space leases cost an average of $41 per square foot, which is well below the Manhattan average of $74 per square foot and asking rents in popular Brooklyn submarkets such as DUMBO ($71 per square foot) and Williamsburg ($71 per square foot). About 17 percent of office space in Queens is currently vacant.
Queens' most dense business district is Long Island City, which is undergoing massive changes and commercial real estate expansion. New Long Island City office space is primarily in Class A office towers, drawing both established brands and fast-growing startups. Those looking for Class A spaces in Long Island City can expect to pay an average of $57 per square foot. Class B spaces in Long Island City are slightly cheaper to rent at just above $40 per square foot.
Though many people expected Amazon's move to Long Island City to boost the area's economic growth, but the tech giant backed out, LIC is still thriving. Actually, Amazon's intentions to move to LIC put the neighborhood on the map because it highlighted the incentives other companies could enjoy by moving to the borough, Joseph Grotto, senior management director at Cushman & Wakefield, said. For example, the Relocation and Employment Assistance Program might help a company move from Manhattan to a comparable office space in Queens for a 30-50 percent discount.
Getting Around: Transportation in Queens
Though there are fewer MTA subway stations than Manhattan or Brooklyn, residents and visitors alike have numerous public transit options for traveling to and from Queens and getting around within it. To fly, use JFK International Airport or LaGuardia Airport. The AirTrain can deliver passengers from JFK to the NYC subway or to the Long Island Rail Road.
To take the subway, choose between one of 81 stations on seven main lines. The A, G, J/Z, and M lines take passengers back and forth between Queens and Brooklyn without first traveling to Manhattan. The E, W, and 7 trains bring passengers from Queens to Manhattan.
To travel by commuter rail, take the Long Island Rail Road, which operates 22 stations in Queens to take passengers to Manhattan, Brooklyn and Long Island. The Jamaica station in Queens is the nation's busiest commuter rail hub. The borough also has approximately 100 local bus routes that run within Queens and around 20 express routes that bring passengers from Queens to Manhattan and back again. You can even travel by ferry between Queens and Manhattan.
Like in most of New York City, many streets in Queens are named with numbers. Consecutive streets with the same number—such as 52nd Road, 52nd Drive and 52nd Court—can cause confusion, even for residents. Queens is home to the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge, Queensboro Bridge, the Queens Midtown Tunnel and the Roosevelt Island Bridge. Popular colleges in the area include Queens College, York College, and Queensborough Community College. Three east-west highways cut through Queens: The Long Island Expressway, Grand Central Parkway, and the Belt Parkway.
Popular neighborhoods in Queens
Queens rests on the western part of Long Island and also includes some islands. Queens, coterminous with the County of Queens, is NYC's easternmost boroughs. Brooklyn lies to the southwest, and Nassau County lies to the East. Interestingly, residents of Queens typically feel an allegiance to their neighborhood. The following are some popular neighborhoods in Queens:
Flushing: Though most of Flushing is residential, the neighborhood's downtown is the fourth largest business district in NYC. It is a very diverse neighborhood and has NYC's second-largest Chinatown. A New York Post writer called Flushing the "most dynamic outer-borough neighborhood" in the city. Reach this neighborhood via subway 7, which stops on Main Street. Buses M12, M13, M14, M15, M16, M17, M20, M21, M25, M28, M34, M44, M65, and M66 serve the area as well.
Long Island City: Long Island City (LIC) comprises the southwest corner of Queens and is known for having a high number of art galleries. It is home to more than 6,600 businesses, including JetBlue's corporate headquarters, the nation's largest fortune cookie factory, and various legal, advertising, Internet, financial, and technology firms. Many of the office buildings in LIC used to be factory buildings but have been repurposed. Class A office space rents for $33 per square foot, and Class B typically rents for around $24 per square foot.
Bellaire: Bellaire is part of Queens Village and comprises the area around Jamaica Avenue and 211st Street. The neighborhood tends to attract recent college graduates and has excellent transportation access.
Bayside: Bayside is known as a safe neighborhood with plenty of affordable housing. Whitestone borders it to the northwest, the East River to the north, the Long Island Sound to the northeast, Douglaston to the east, and Queens Village to the south. Bayside locals can travel using the Bayside station or the nearby Flushing—Main Street station. Locals can reach Manhattan in less than 30 minutes via the Long Island Rail Road.
Astoria: Astoria is a commercial neighborhood in Queens next to LIC, Sunnyside, and Woodside. It is one of the best NYC neighborhoods for young professionals. Some old neighborhoods in Astoria's waterfront areas along the East River have recently been redeveloped. A recent study indicated that Astoria had among the highest rate of business sales of the neighborhoods in Queens. The neighborhood is served by trains E, F, M, R, and 7.
Jamaica: Jamaica is an affluent, primarily commercial neighborhood that houses several government buildings, such as Queens Civil Court, the Queens County Family Court, and the Joseph P. Addabbo Federal Building, where the Social Security Administration's Northeastern Program Service Center operates. This neighborhood also includes the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Northeast Regional Laboratory and the New York District Office.
Sunnyside: Sunnyside is a middle-class neighborhood located about 15 minutes from Grand Central via the 7 train. Sunnyside is one of Queens' most diverse neighborhoods and contains the Sunnyside Gardens Historic District, a historic district and one of the nation's first planned communities.
Top Commercial Properties For Lease In Queens
Curious about office space in Queens? Read about these three SquareFoot-recommended properties or contact one of our experienced brokers to learn about more rental opportunities!
22-15 43rd Avenue: 22-15 43rd Avenue is a four-story office building that was constructed in 1918. Located in Long Island City, this Class A building features on-site security, onsite parking, and key card access. It is 61,408 square feet in size, and currently, eight units ranging from 1,371 to 17,062 square feet in size are available for lease. Contact us to learn more about pricing. Access 22-15 43rd Avenue via trains E, F, G, M, and R. The LIC Market, Gordo's Cantina, and Triple Short World Atlas can be reached on foot in just a few minutes.
16717 146th Road: Built in 1965, 16717 146th Road is an industrial warehouse located in Queens between 167th and 168th Street. American Airfreight Trucking is a current tenant. Right now two units are available to rent in the building, and both are 15,335 square feet in size. The building doesn't have many restaurants nearby. The Locust Manor Station Commuter Rail and the Laurelton Station Commuter Rail are both more than a mile away.
21-07 Borden Avenue: 21-07 Borden Avenue is an office building located in Long Island City. It has six stories, is 75,600 square feet in size, and has six units available for rent. The open units range from 5,640 to 15,120 square feet in size. Trains 7 and G bring passengers to the area, and I-495 is also closeby. The area is peppered with restaurants that 21-07 Borden Avenue tenants can try out. Visit Manetta's Ristorante, Creek & Cave, Mu Ramen, Jora, Slice, or Green Street LIC.


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The last time the Visit Koh Rong team stayed on Koh Touch – the main tourist area on Koh Rong Island – we decided to try out Paradise Bungalows.
Paradise Bungalows tends to get quite good reviews (though many people confuse it with Paradise Villas on Koh Rong Samloem – The same company but two very different experiences). I would recommend you stay here if you're looking for a quiet laid-back holiday on Koh Touch, but as with most resorts on this part of Koh Rong, there are a few things you need to be prepared for…
Koh Touch on Koh Rong
The bungalows are located a short 10 min walk away from the main bars, restaurants, and night clubs (head right as you get off the ferry). In my opinion this is the best area on Koh Touch, as you are just far enough away to not be bothered by night time noise, while the beach is cleaner, quieter, and more beautiful.
The bungalows themselves are quite rustic-looking, but when it comes to the general standards on Koh Touch, they are up there with the better options.
We stayed in a bungalow designed for 2 couples – There were 2 (reasonably spacious) adjacent rooms and a shared bathroom with an outside shower. The outside shower is enclosed by high walls so you don't have to worry about being seen. The rooms were clean and well-kept, and each bed came with a fan and a mosquito net. As with most hotels on Koh Touch, the rooms aren't designed to be sound proof, so bare that in mind if you're looking to share a bungalow.
A Room at Paradise Bungalows
All in all I'd say the bungalows are of a pretty good standard for Koh Touch – Remember you'll only really be using them for sleeping, so as long as you have a fan, some clean sheets, and a mosquito net you'll be fine. The extra you pay for with Paradise Bungalows (our 4-person bungalow was $80 / night) is an extra level of privacy and comfort, and, of course, easy access to the best part of the beach.
Now for the things you need to be prepared for… Firstly, the electricity in the bungalows switches off at 6am, so there's no chance of a lie in as it gets very hot after that. If you're the kind of person who likes to get up early and make the most of the sunshine, then this won't bother you too much. However, if you're more of a night time dweller, I'd definitely recommend you stay elsewhere.
White Beach on Koh Touch
Secondly, make sure you ask the staff to clean your rooms when you go out or they will not be cleaned. Nobody told us this when we arrived, and although there are instructions in the rooms, we didn't have the time to study them in detail as we were very busy.
Finally, some of the staff were a little difficult on our visit, but this might just have been specific to our stay. In general, please remember to try to keep patient with the Khmer, as many of them are not used to western standards and logics. Otherwise, lie back and enjoy the beautiful scenery!Book Paradise Bungalows Now
- Q: When is the best time to visit Koh Rong?
- Q: How do I get to Koh Rong?
- Q: What activities are there?
- Q: Is Koh Rong a party place?
- Q: Where can I see the glowing plankton?
- Q: Where are the best beaches?
- Q: What should I bring with me?
- Q: Is it easy to get a Cambodian Visa?
- Q: Is there an ATM on the islands?
- Q: Is there a medical facility on Koh Rong?
- Q: Is it a family-friendly place?
- Q: When is the rainy season?
- Q: Where was Survivor Kaoh Rong filmed?
Middle of November / December / January / February: Warm and dry. 25°C daytime.
March / April / May: Hot and dry. 35°C daytime.
June / July / August: Hot and wet. 35°C daytime.
September / October / Early November: Warm and wet. 25°C daytime.
Please see our Weather Guide for more information.
It will take about 40 minutes to get to your destination if it's the first stop. If the boat first stops elsewhere, it may take 1 hour or so.
All 5 services will charge roughly $25 return, though prices can vary depending on time of year, special offers, etc. All services leave from the Ochheuteal (AKA 'Serendipity') pier in Sihanoukville and go to the main tourist beaches on the islands. If your hotel is not on the main beaches (Koh Touch / Saracen Bay), please read Sihanoukville to Koh Rong.
The 5 services offer modern speed boats with comfortable chairs, life jackets, and the option to buy food and drink on board. Not all of the ferries have air-conditioning, but once the boats set off there is a strong cool breeze throughout the sitting areas which more than makes up for it.
All ferry services tend to be very busy – we strongly recommend you buy your tickets in advance. You can buy your tickets online now here: Book Ferry Tickets Online Now
The islands are known for their stunning underwater panorama. Whether it's snorkeling or scuba diving that you're after, there are plenty of superb locations.
Kayaking & Paddle Boarding
Enjoy the crystal clear ocean waters by Kayaking or paddle boarding your way around – An ideal activity for couples and families alike.
Mountain Biking & Jungle Trekking
Explore the exotic jungle habitat by foot or via a mountain bike.
Bioluminescent Plankton
Sparkling like a starry sky all around you, the bioluminescent plankton are a wonderful sight to behold at night times.
Jet Skiing & Windsurfing
For some fast paced action on the beautiful clear waters, hire Jetskis or Windsurf.
To learn more, please read our Activities Guide.
As such, if you're staying on Koh Touch (the main tourist area on Koh Rong) or on Saracen Bay (the main tourist area on Koh Rong Samloem), the easiest way for you to see the plankton is by booking a boat tour (you can also walk to Police Beach on non-party nights (15 minutes left from the main pier) and Tree House Bungalows (15 minutes right from the main pier) on Koh Touch, or make your way to Long Set Beach around the corner from Koh Touch).
For more information, please read: Glowing Plankton on Koh Rong
1) Lonely Beach – Possibly the best beach on the islands (even bettering Lazy Beach on Koh Rong Samloem), is Lonely Beach to the northern side of Koh Rong Island. Although it is not in the most convenient location, it really is absolutely stunning. The small alcove feels like a real island-paradise, with crystal clear ocean waters, soft white sandy beaches, and tall palm trees all around. The atmosphere is quite serene – so peaceful and quiet with just a few crickets chirping in the background. There are very few people around, so you feel quite isolated and secluded out in a truly beautiful setting.
2) 4K Beach (Long Set Beach) – We would say that 4K beach is number two on the list, though there are now several resorts built along this wonderful stretch of white sand, sparkling turquoise ocean, and tropical jungle wilderness. What's great about this beach, apart from the stunning scenery and inviting pristine waters, is that it's a short walk away from the main tourist area on Koh Rong Island (Koh Touch).
3) White Beach – At number 3 we are going to put White Beach – A 10 minute walk from the main pier on Koh Touch. Admittedly, there are probably better beaches, but the convenience of White Beach and the quality of the resorts around this area push it up a place or two. Despite what you might read elsewhere, this far side of Koh Touch is not a party location and does not suffer from the same setbacks that other more popular areas experience. The beach on this part of the touristy stretch is clean and well-kept, with soft white sands and beautiful clear ocean waters.
For example, those that visit during the rainy season get to enjoy half-priced accommodation and beautiful rainy scenes, and because it never gets too cold in Cambodia, swimming in the ocean is still a very pleasurable experience (the water rarely drops beneath 25°C). Take a look at this article for more information: 5 Reasons to Visit Koh Rong Island in Rainy Season
In 2012, a special edition of the French Survivor ('Koh Lanta') was filmed near Sok San Village with an All-Star cast. The production team returned in 2013 and again in 2016 to film the regular editions.
In 2015, the American version of Survivor produced Season 31 (Survivor: Cambodia – Second Chance) and season 32 (Survivor: Kaoh Rong – Brains vs Brawn vs Beauty) on Koh Rong Island.
The 16th edition of Expedition Robinson (Sweden's Survivor) was also filmed on the island.


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Important Information
The information on this site relates primarily to 2021/22 entry to the University and every effort has been taken to ensure the information is correct at the time of publication. The University will use all reasonable effort to deliver the courses as described, but the University reserves the right to make changes to advertised courses.
In the event of a course being withdrawn or if there are any fundamental changes to your course, we will give you reasonable notice and you will be entitled to withdraw your application. You are advised to revisit our website for up-to-date information before you submit your application. Further legal information.


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Weekly challenge: Avoid sunscreen sprays near hot spots
I've been relying on sunscreen sprays a lot this summer for their quick, easy application. But these sprays frequently contain flammable ingredients, and the FDA in July warned consumers not to wear such products near an open flame. The agency issued this warning after becoming aware of "five separate incidents in which people wearing sunscreen spray near sources of flame suffered significant burns that required medical treatment,'' according to the FDA's website.
In all five cases, the burns occurred after the sunscreen spray had been applied. One person was lighting a cigarette; another was standing too close to a lit citronella candle, and someone else walked near a grill.
All of the sprays involved in these incidents have since been removed from the market, but the FDA said most sunscreen sprays still contain flammable chemicals.
For this reason, you should avoid applying a product near any source of a flame. The agency also advised consumers to consider daily plans before choosing which sunscreen to apply. If you're heading to a barbeque or bonfire on the beach, for example, stick with the cream products.
"This recommendation is particularly important when it comes to choosing a product for children,'' the FDA added, "since they are frequently active and may get near a flame source.''
For added summer safety, avoid these 5 other grilling mistakes that could be hazardous to your health.
Be civil. Be kind.Read our full community guidelines.


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Another animated video done using Motion, Inkscape, GIMP, and Final Cut. We used Logic, Ableton, Battery, and an assortment of other stuff to make the music. Words and music by Stacy
Archive for music
Second animated videoPosted in bass, electronic music, music, rock, sound design with tags Ableton, ableton live, Absynth, digital music, electronic, electronic music, ethan, final cut, finer, gimp, inkscape, Live, logic, Logic Pro, logic pro 9, Massive, music, music production, music video, Native Instruments, Operator, production, rock, sound design, stacy, synthesis on March 4, 2013 by finerethan
Finer's first animated music videoPosted in bass, electronic music, music, music production, rock, sound design with tags Absynth, animation, band, battery, final cut, gimp, inkscape, kontakt, Logic Pro, Massive, motion, music, music video, Native Instruments, sound design, synth programming, vocals on January 29, 2013 by finerethan
Sorry for my hiatus from educational writing. I've been drawing things into the computer… a lot. This is our first animated video, done with Motion and Final Cut. Hope you enjoy. If you listen to the song, you will hear lots of synth programming. I used the ES2 in Logic, Massive, Absynth, and Operator to make most of the sounds. The drums were programmed in Battery and Kontakt.
I will now have some time to finish my series on synth programming!
Production 101: making your own sound easily part 2Posted in Uncategorized with tags ableton live, Absynth, Analog, digital, dj, electronic, electronic music, electronica, logic, logic pro 9, Massive, music, Native Instruments, Operator, production, sound design on December 24, 2012 by finerethan
In the previous post, we started to break down the interfaces of a couple of software synths in order to understand oscillators (the thing that makes the sound). Now we will look at the filter section.
How do you locate the filter section? It almost always has a label that reads "filter." See below
If there isn't a filter label, you're looking for knobs or sliders that say "cutoff" and resonance" as below
A filter removes frequencies from a sound. In other words, it functions like an EQ. There can be a choice of filters, where you will see abbreviations like: "LP," "HP," "BP," etc… You will also see words like "Hi" and "Low." If there isn't a drop down menu of some sort to change the filter, then the default filter will be a Low Pass filter.
A low pass filter removes high end from a sound. The cutoff knob will control where the high frequencies start getting removed. A visual representation of the sound would look like this EQ curve:
The resonance knob works interactively with the cutoff knob to create a "bump" in the EQ curve in order to make where the cutoff is happening sound more obvious. Adding resonance to our example above would look like this:
This type of filter is most common because it was a stock filter on Moog synthesizers, and also probably because most simple oscillator waves, like sawtooths, have very abrasive sounding high frequencies.
The next type of filter is a high pass filter, which removes low frequencies from the sound. I've found this filter is good for synth strings and high percussive types of sounds. An EQ curve example would look like this:
Again, adding resonance would create a bump in the EQ curve where the cutoff knob is set, like this:
Another popular choice for filter is the band pass filter, usually abbreviated BP. The band pass filter removes all the other frequencies EXCEPT for where the cutoff knob is set. The EQ curve would look like this:
A band reduction filter, or BR, leaves the other frequencies and removes the frequency where the cutoff know is set. In the engineering world, this is called a notch filter. The EQ curve would look similar to this:
Those are the main, and most common, types of filters. If you are a Massive user, you also have choices of Scream, Daft, Acid, and Comb. Scream, Daft, and Acid are all variations on the Low Pass filter, with some modifications like feedback loops. A comb filter delays the signal, then mixes it back in with the original signal to create phasing or flanging types of effects.
If you are an Absynth 5 user, you also have the choice of Supercomb and Cloud filters. The supercomb adds a feedback loop into the normal comb filter, which makes the filter effect more pronounced. A cloud filter breaks the sound into "grains" per second, then redistributes the sound in the stereo field, creating a type of surround sound, grandular effect. I definitely recommend playing around with the Cloud filter, as it creates some really interesting sounds, especially for pads.
One last thing to address is whether the is one filter, or more than one, and if they are in series or parallel.
If there's only one filter, it's easy to understand, the sound comes out of the oscillator and frequencies are removed by the filter. When there are two filters, the sound can be sent from the oscillator to one filter, then from one filter to the other. This setup is called series. The other choice would be to send the sound equally from the oscillator to both filters, then have the result come out of the two filters and mix together afterwards. This is called parallel.
To give an EQ illustration, in series, we will use the example of a low pass filter going into a high pass filter. So the sound comes out of the oscillator, then the low pass filter removes high frequencies, then the sound goes into the high pass filter, which removes the low frequencies. Depending on where you set the cutoff knobs, the result can look like this:
Using the same example in parallel, you would get two EQ curves that look like the standard low pass and high pass filters. So what you would have would be a sound with high frequencies removed, but it would retain its low end, and you would have a sound added to it that had it's low end removed, but retained its high end.
So how are these different? In the series method, you would get a sound similar to a band pass filter. In the parallel method, you might not hear anything if the cutoff knobs where set just right to compensate for each other. I've found that the parallel setup is great for very subtly changing the sound.
Have fun experimenting. Feel free to write to me with any questions. Next time we will cover modulation.
Production 101: Making your own sounds easilyPosted in electronic music, lessons, music, music production, sound design with tags AAX, Ableton, Absynth, Analog, AU, digital music, electronic music, ES2, ESM, how to program sounds, Live, Logic Pro, Massive, music, music production, Native Instruments, Operator, production, programming, recording, Sculpture, sound design, synthesis, VST on December 23, 2012 by finerethan
As I get more and more into the electronic music and DJ world, I find that sites like djtechtools.com write a lot about being a producer and making your own music. There are a huge amount of excellent software synthesizers out there, ranging from the free plugins in Logic and Ableton to paid ones like Massive and Absynth from Native Instruments. I've never been a big fan of presets, mostly because of not wanting to have sounds like anyone else; so I spent an obscene amount of hours learning the ins and outs of each soft synth that I had. What I found was, every synth basically follows the same principles in the way that they are designed and knowing how one works can lead you to figure out another one. So, I decided to simplify the learning process and teach you how to understand any soft synth and build your own sounds.
Almost all soft synths have a uniform way of generating sound, known as subtractive synthesis. An oscillator makes a sound (or noise), a filter removes frequencies from that sound, then the result is modulated (changed over time) in some way.
For today, I will be focusing on recognizing the oscillator section of a soft synth. I have expanded the definition of oscillator to include anything that makes the sound. A synth using samples or physical modeling is not technically "oscillating," but it still generates a sound and then filters and modulates, so it's just easier to look at them all the same.
The first way to locate an oscillator is to look for wave shapes. In the example below, I've put an orange box around the three oscillators of this Logic synth.Notice the wave shapes that you can choose from by turning the dials. Sine waves, square waves, triangles, pulses, and sawtooth are very common. I would recommend trying them out to learn what they sound like. I can also make a video demonstrating the different sounds if anyone asks. While the layout can be quite different, the idea of having a thing generate the basic sound will always be there. Here is what Absynth 5 looks like if you go to the Patch tab.
Instead of turning a dial, you choose waves from a drop down menu in Absynth, but the idea is still basically the same.
Ableton went one step easier and actually included the word oscillator in Operator:
Armed with that information, see if you can locate the oscillator section of this synth:
And now try Massive:
My last example is a physical modeling synth from Logic, if you have trouble, try comparing this one to the Logic example above.
So the homework is to try out some different sounds and learn what the character of each wave is. Next time we will look at the different types of filters and how they modify the sound from the oscillators. If you would like me to cover a specific soft synth or subject, feel free to leave a comment or send me a message.
Back with a vengence!Posted in bass, jazz, lessons, music, rock, scales, soloing with tags fret hand technique, how to play, how to play bass, jazz, lessons, music, technique on May 24, 2011 by finerethan
Okay, now the long delay is over. I will be doing two video blogs a week, starting with some basic technique and working my way up! Here's lesson #1


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Earlier this week three missing Ohio women were found after one of them, Amanda Berry, managed to gain the attention of a neighbor from the home that had become their prison. Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus, and Michelle Knight were held for over a decade, and police are now unraveling how it happened, and why the captives weren't discovered sooner. In the midst of the media frenzy a variety of angles and personalities have emerged, including the involvement of infamous professional psychic Sylvia Browne. In 2004 Browne told Berry's mother, Louwanna Miller, on The Montel Williams show, that her child was dead.
"She's not alive, honey," Sylvia Browne told her matter-of-factly. "Your daughter's not the kind who wouldn't call."
Further, Browne said she saw a jacket with "DNA on it," implying that Berry was murdered. This is not the first time that Browne, who enjoys a mini-empire built around her psychic predictions and spiritual teachings, has given bad predictions to grieving parents. In 2007, CNN explored the issue, prompting a defensive statement from her publicist.
"She cannot possibly be 100 percent correct in each and every one of her predictions. She has, during a career of over 50 years, helped literally tens of thousands of people."
However, it's one thing to be wrong about a new job, or if you'll find true love this year, it's another thing entirely to destroy (or lift up) the hopes of desperate parents. Louwanna Miller died of a heart attack in 2007, those who knew her said she was never the same after Browne's prediction. She died never knowing the truth of what happened to Amanda. With this latest callous prediction proved wrong Greg Taylor at The Daily Grail lashed out at Browne, joining those who say the psychic must be stopped.
"I'm not an easy person to anger, but this list of cases gets my blood boiling, and here's why: the incorrect calls I could live with, if it was offered privately just as a "I've got a feeling, but I could well be wrong". But to go on TV, and tell these people outright the fate of their children in public – sometimes even rebuking them when they throw doubt on what you're saying – is just wrong on so many levels. Perhaps some readers of this blog are Browne fans; I can't apologise for my opinion. If there's one skill I have, it's being able to pick a person's character very quickly, and Browne has always sent a shiver up my spine (for all the wrong reasons). The growing list of cases where she hurt families with misinformation only confirms my gut feeling."
Browne is hardly alone in handing out these kind of predictions. Marc Klaas, whose daughter was abducted and murdered, said he was inundated with requests from psychics in the immediate aftermath.
"I was insulated from most of them by family and police, but there had to be at least a dozen I personally dealt with. They hope you'll pay them and they hope they'll get really, really lucky and make a guess so close to the truth, they can say they solved it."
So with the near-miraculous return of these three women, we should ask the question of what divination, mediumship, and other predictive arts are for. How should we use them? In our interconnected communities divination is everywhere, as are psychic predictions and other intuitive arts. Should we be having a larger conversation about incidents like this? What moral responsibility do we have if we tell someone something that turns out to be horribly wrong? What do we do if our predictions actually turn out to hurt people instead of help them? Do we simply hold out examples of correct predictions as if they somehow balance the incorrect ones?
Assuming for a moment that Browne is sincere in her beliefs, and not an elaborate con artist, what kind of individual potentially gives thousands of bad predictions with little to no remorse? Were I in Browne's position I would feel endlessly tormented over the people my predictions have hurt. I think incidents like this should call us collectively to examine how we practice, and in what contexts do we feel comfortable handing out predictions. I have no doubt that most Pagans engaging in psychic work are sincere, which calls me to ask how responsible they feel they are regarding life-or-death predictions, and what recourse do they engage in should a prediction turn tragic? Rather than become defensive, and work to distance ourselves from the hucksterisms of Browne, I think this is a call to introspection. How do we prevent ourselves from becoming the things that Browne now embodies to an outraged public?


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DOVER — Do you remember when your medicine and prescriptions from the corner drugstore were presented in a glass bottle? Or when the milkman delivered fresh milk at your doorstep a couple times a week in glass milk bottles, when Coca Cola came in little green bottles and you would look at the bottom to see what city it had come from? Do you remember Garrison Hill or Mission Beverage, Jic-Jac or Cliquote Club tonics, Great Elm Farm, French's Dairy, Sterling's Cottonwood Farm, Hayden Dairy, Strafford Farms or Middlebrook Farm offering fresh milk and eggs …
Or maybe you remember druggists like Varney, Charles Tufts, McGrail's, Vickery, Lothrop & Pinkham, Rackley, Newmans and Dover Drug, offering medicine in glass bottles embossed with the pharmacy name.
If you are younger than 50 years old, then you would not remember.
The Woodman offers a special trip down memory lane for those over fifty years old and an educational journey for those younger. "QUENCH YOUR THIRST … A History of Dover Bottlers" is a special exhibition now on display in the museum's Woodman House Foster Room Gallery. This is a rare opportunity to see in one exhibit examples of early milk bottles representing all of Dover's local dairies, early 1900s apothecary and pharmacy bottles representing all the locally owned drug stores, tonic and sodas bottled by Daniel Ford, Robinson Brothers, Cocheco Bottling and Dover Bottling companies, and the whisky bottlers like Rochester Bottling, M.R. Kennedy, Durkin, Mallen & Loughlin, Cassidy & Co., and of course advertising shot glasses promoting some of Dover's finest pubs of the day like the Kimball Hotel, Turf Exchange, Jos. Marcotte and Thos. Lamb, all on loan from the collections of Sam Allen and Thom Hindle, longtime local Dover Memorabilia collectors.
In addition a special educational exhibit shows different eras of New England bottle making from hand blown to machine made. Rare Stoddard glass and early hand blown blacking bottles (1850s) 18th century soapstone ink bottle, paraffin sewing machine oil bottle (1870s) early 1880s American ink bottles, apothecary vials (1770-1830), Dr. George Pierce's Indian Restorative Bitters bottle from Lowell, Massachusetts (1880), a shard of brandy bottle recovered from the Ipswich River marked "Leverett 1760", a dark amber shard marked N.H. is a mystery to most advanced collectors of New England glass, as it is an unrecorded bottle, but clearly from a New England glass house, and many other rare pieces from the private collection of bottle archaeologist Bram Hepburn are on display.Another cabinet displays a unique collection of food related bottles like a large 1820 Cathedral pickle bottle, several Cathedral style pepper sauce bottles from the 1870s, the 1890s "Don Carlo Brand" olive jar, several colored bitters bottles including a Tippecanoe along with early glass Saratoga Springs water bottles.
Do you know why poison bottles are three sided..?
And remember the little ink bottles that sat on the old school desk? See a sample of the large Carter's ink bottle used to fill those little ink wells. Unique shapes and colors are part of this display on loan from the David Landry bottle collection.
This special exhibit will be on display throughout the 2013 season along with additions to the mill, Civil War and garrison house exhibits.
The Woodman Institute Museum is a traditional 19th century natural science, local history and art museum located in historic Dover.
Open Wed- Sun 12:30-4:30. Group tours available by reservation. www.woodmaninstitutemuseum.org or call 603-742-1038 for additional information.


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DETROIT – Utilities in Michigan say roughly 50,000 homes and businesses are without electrical service as a storm that hit the nation's midsection moves through the state.
Detroit-based DTE Energy Co. says about 40,000 of its customers are without power Wednesday morning after the storm that hit Michigan starting Tuesday knocked down power lines and tree branches.
DTE says Washtenaw County was the hardest hit, with about 26,000 outages reported. About 6,000 DTE customers lost power in Oakland County. The rest of the outages were scattered.
Consumers Energy reports nearly 9,500 of its customers are without power Wednesday morning. The subsidiary of Jackson-based CMS Energy Corp. says those outages include more than 4,000 customers in Jackson County and 1,700 in the Muskegon area.
The utilities say crews will work around the clock to restore power.
CHECK: DTE Outage Map


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I'm working on a post for you about how I almost killed and/or ate my waiter at Chili's this afternoon. But first I have questions about multiple pregnancies.
First, some updates.
I had my 12 week appointment and NT scan a few weeks ago, and everything looked good.
Most importantly, my identical twins are monochorionic diamniotic - they are inside the same chorionic sac but have their own amniotic sacs. I'm not going to get into the details, but here is an excellent blog post I found explaining the different twin scenarios in kindergarten terms. There are major risks for identical twin pregnancies when twins aren't separated by a membrane and do not have their own amniotic sac.
But they were able to see a membrane, so we're good there.
Here's my main question: Do I need to see a maternal-fetal specialist? Or...just my regular OB?
I asked my OB, and he said that they don't work with a MFM unless there is a complication. Which...OK.
But. I had gestational diabetes, and preeclampsia(ish). So I kind of feel like I'm a total pain in the ass when it comes to the whole gestation thing.
Next: I'm reading this book about multiple pregnancies. Ummmm...it all sounds good in theory, but mostly I think this lady has lost her fucking mind. I'm supposed to gain 50 pounds! and eat like 5 bazillion grams of protein a day! and eat healthy (HEALTHY!!!) but consume 3500 calories a day! What's that you say...you don't feel good? Well, shovel it in when you feel good! Easy peasy!
I mean, I'm all for fattening these baybees up and being healthy and you know...etc. But I just don't really feel like it's realistic. I'm supposed to have gained like 25 pounds by now and I've gained 6 so obviously I'm on the right track and everything.
So, tell me: how much weight did you gain - not because I don't want to gain a lot of weight, but because I'm worried about my ability to eat enough to gain 50 pounds - and how did you eat and just generally, give me your assvice but don't be an asshole.
I've had my fill of assholes, particularly the ones who tell me that I look YOUGE even being pregnant with twins *insert sideways judgemental glance here*
Finally, what else? What random advice do you have for me?
One Year Ago: Six Months, Holy Crap!
Two Years Ago: Excuse Me Willis, Could You Please Repeat That?


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No right-thinking person would shed tears over the death of Gaddafi, the Libyan dictator, but any well-informed analyst with his feet firmly on the ground would be nervous over the likely sequel to his elimination.
2.Gaddafi suppressed his people. He used brutal force against them. He funded, trained and armed many of the West Asian terrorist organisations, that claimed to be fighting for the Palestinian cause against Israel and the West. He funded and armed the Irish Republican Army to make the British bleed. Under him, the Libyan intelligence became a brutal sponsor of terrorism against the West ---particularly after the alleged death of his daughter in a US air strike in 1986 when Ronald Reagan was the US President.
3. His intelligence blew up a French civilian plane in Africa and a Pan-Am Aircraft of the US near Lockerbie in Scotland in December 1988. He partly funded Pakistan's Islamic bomb along with Saudi Arabia and Iran. He was a menace who deserved to be eliminated.
4. Post-9/11, he gave signs of a new friendly Gaddafi on the horizon. He handed over his intelligence officers to the West for trial. He paid huge compensations to the relatives of those who died in the two explosions aboard a French and US aircraft. He kept away from Osama bin Laden and his Al Qaeda. After the US found out about his nuclear acquisitions with the help of Pakistan's A.Q.Khan, he made a clean breast of his nuclear acquisitions and destroyed them to the satisfaction of the West. This merited a "Thank you" visit to Libya by the then British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
5. Gaddafi fondly hoped that these mitigating actions by him would spare him a brutal fate. They didn't. The ideal thing would have been for the West to ensure that like Iraq's Saddam Hussain, Gadaffi too died in the gallows after a due process of law. Instead, it let him be killed in an uncivilised manner by his enraged captors, who will be the new rulers of Libya.
6. One might blame his captors for their uncivilised behaviour, but many in the Islamic world would convince themselves that this uncivilised behaviour could have been prevented if the West had wanted to. The West wanted his death to be a grim warning to others of Gaddafi's ilk who stood in the way of Western interests. He died in a horrible manner, but his death could haunt the West for some years to come.
7. Other nuclear aspirants like the rulers of Iran and North Korea would conclude, rightly or wrongly, that it was unwise on the part of Gaddafi to have voluntarily given by his nuclear card. The West would find Iran and North Korea even more recalcitrant on the nuclear issue.
8. There was no Al Qaeda in Iraq before the US intervention in 2003. AQ, Iraq, was born as a result of the US intervention. Its founding father Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed some years ago, but there are other trained cadres who have been keeping Iraq bleeding.
9. Gaddafi kept AQ many fathoms away from Libya,but he could not prevent angry individual Libyans from gravitating to the Af-Pak region to join AQ. Abu Faraj al-Libi, now in Guantanamao Bay, is one such example. There are other Libyan recruits in the AQ.A new AQ, Libya, to avenge the US-sponsored or at least blessed intervention in Libya will be on the cards.
10. There is an ominous aspect about Libya which was not there in Iraq. In return for the Libyan funding of Pakistan's Islamic bomb, A.Q.Khan had trained many Libyan nuclear scientists in Pakistan's nuclear establishments to run Libya's nuclear infrastructure. To please the US and the UK, Gaddafi dismantled his nuclear infrastructure to their satisfaction, but the Pakistan-trained nuclear scientists are still around.AQ will look for them. ( 22-10-11)
( The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai, and Associate of the Chennai Centre For China Studies. E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com Twitter : @SORBONNE75 )
Friday, October 21, 2011
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- This event has passed.
Sunday Meditation Session- Central Madison
June 4, 2017 @ 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm
An event every week that begins at 6:00 pm on Sunday, repeating until March 13, 2020
1st, 3rd, 5th Sundays: 45 minutes sitting followed by discussion period. The discussion is led by volunteers from within our our group who offer to lead on a topic of interest to them.
2nd and 4th Sundays: 45 minutes sitting followed by 20 minutes walking meditation followed by 45 minutes sitting.
An introduction to meditation is offered on the 2nd Sunday of each month.
We meet every week of the year except for one week in July or August when the facility is closed for annual maintenance.
Bring your own meditation cushion or bench if you have one. We usually have a few meditation cushions (zafus) for use if you do not own one. Chairs are available.


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Joe Buck and Troy Aikman might have underplayed how close the 49ers-Packers game was to giving us extra football. Phil Dawson's game-winning kick went through Davon House's arms before it went through the uprights—though House
may have been was offsides—as San Francisco won in Lambeau Field, 23-20.
Maybe it was due to the cold, but both teams' offenses focused on the run. It wasn't a surprising strategy for San Francisco, but Green Bay really stuck to Eddie Lacy, running him 21 times for 81 yards. Aaron Rodgers also had his moments, like spinning away from an almost-assured sack to convert a fourth down to Randall Cobb. (There was blatant holding on the play that went uncalled, though it was still a fantastic effort at keeping the play alive by Rodgers.)
But San Francisco's quarterback had a better day. Colin Kaepernick worked well as a dual threat, throwing for 227 yards and a touchdown while also rushing for 98 yards. Frank Gore added 66 yards and a score, and Michael Crabtree took apart the Packers secondary with eight catches for 125 yards.
The Packers kept it close, as was assumed with Rodgers, but the 49ers' defense held up well, and now, we'll watch Colin Kaepernick and Cam Newton scramble around frequently (hopefully) and do crazy things in a much warmer place.


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Hazelden Country Club is nestled between Lafayette and Merrillville in Brook, Indiana just minutes from Rensselaer and Kentland. We are two miles east of Brook on State Route 16 between US 41 and US 231.
Golf was first played at Hazelden in 1910. The scenic Iroquois River runs through our historic, par 70, eighteen-hole golf course. Gentle on the beginner yet still challenging for the proficient golfer, Hazelden Country Club is enjoyable for all skill levels.
Hazelden Country Club is open to the public 7 days a week. Tee times are not necessary. For more information about course conditions, please call our Pro Shop at 219-275-7771.
Click Here to Join our Email Specials Club


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Prophetic Messages
"Self-reliance is a product of our work and undergirds all other welfare practices. It is an essential element in our spiritual as well as our temporal well-being."
—Thomas S. Monson, "Guiding Principles of Personal and Family Welfare"
Topics: Self-Reliance, Prophetic Messages
"Many more people could ride out the storm-tossed waves in their economic lives if they had their year's supply of food and clothing and were debt-free."
—Thomas S. Monson, "Closing Remarks"
Topics: Preparedness, Prophetic Messages
"Devoted men and women help to operate this vast and inspired welfare program. In reality, the plan would never succeed on effort alone, for this program operates through faith after the way of the Lord."
—Thomas S. Monson, "The Way of the Lord"
Topics: Welfare, Prophetic Messages
"No member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who has canned peas, topped beets, hauled hay, shoveled coal, or helped in any way to serve others ever forgets or regrets the experience of helping provide for those in need."
—Thomas S. Monson, "The Way of the Lord"
Topics: Service, Prophetic Messages
"We each can learn much from our early pioneer ancestors, whose struggles and heartaches were met with resolute courage and an abiding faith in a living God."
—Thomas S. Monson, "Teaching Our Children"
Topics: Prophetic Messages, Family History
"Now is the time for members and missionaries to come together, to work together, to labor in the Lord's vineyard to bring souls unto Him. He has prepared the means for us to share the gospel in a multitude of ways, and He will assist us in our labors if we will act in faith to fulfill His work."
—Thomas S. Monson, "Welcome to Conference"
Topics: Work of Salvation, Prophetic Messages
"It isn't enough simply to listen if we don't learn."
—Thomas S. Monson, "Four Words to Guide You"
Topics: Prophetic Messages
"Home teaching is more than a mechanical visit once per month. Ours is the responsibility to teach, to inspire, to motivate, and where we visit those who are not active, to bring to activity and to eventual exaltation the sons and daughters of God."
—Thomas S. Monson, "True Shepherds"
Topics: Priesthood, Prophetic Messages, Home Teaching
"It's not enough to wish, it's not enough to dream, it's not enough to promise. We must do."
—Thomas S. Monson, "Four Words to Guide You"
Topics: Work of Salvation, Prophetic Messages
"May we show increased kindness toward one another, and may we ever be found doing the work of the Lord."
—Thomas S. Monson, "Till We Meet Again"
Topics: Ministering, Service, Prophetic Messages


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Beat the Streak Report: Tuesday, Sept. 15
Today's recommended picks
Matt Kemp, OF, Dodgers
.556 AVG (5-for-9) lifetime vs. Pirates starter Zach Duke
Andre Ethier, OF, Dodgers
.455 AVG (5-for-11) lifetime vs. Pirates starter Zach Duke
Jason Kubel, OF, Twins
.385 AVG (10-for-26) lifetime vs. Indians starter Fausto Carmona
BTS all-time leader: Michael Karatzia, 49
MLB all-time leader: Joe DiMaggio, 56
Yesterday's results
The end of the regular season isn't far off, but that hasn't stopped BTS contestants from attempting to string together the longest streaks they possibly can.
Top dog enronshorttrader is up to 37 games following a 1-for-4 performance from Hanley Ramirez. He's trailed by GBaby, who went with the batting leader in the other league, Joe Mauer, and received a 3-for-3 day to move up to 34 games.
beashane and mcdonald6 both selected Ramirez to remain in a tie for third, at 32 games, and ch2fancbs held steady at 30 games as his pick, Alfonso Soriano, is out with injury.
Yesterday's Top 5 most selected players
1. Derrek Lee (CHC): 11.3%, 2-for-3
2. Albert Pujols (STL): 8.5%, 2-for-2
3. Miguel Cabrera (DET): 7.9%, 0-for-5
4. Robinson Cano (NYY): 6.5%, 2-for-4
5. Matt Holliday (STL): 5.6%, 2-for-5
5 Comments
Tuesday 9/15……….
Blog is updated – Hail to "The King!"
Guys – I've got a sinking feeling about Carmona v. Mauer/Kubel.
I'm going with Ichirio v. Fredy Garcia WSOX
Alfonso Soriano is having knee surgery and has been removed as a choice from Cubs team. The king does read the blog!
Good Luck today to all!
Soriano being removed has nothing to do with the blog. He was finally put on the DL today by the Cubs. I guess there is no reason for the teams to hurry anymore with the expanded roster.
I actually have a bigger sinking feeling with Ichie today. Have you looked at Garcia's #s against lefties? Those are pretty good #s. And Ichie's performance over last week leaves me wondering.
I also thought about Mauer too but how many more terrible starts can Carmona make? He was a Cy Young winner not while back.
Still searching but its getting tougher to pick everyday now. It was so much easier like a month ago. I guess its all over anyway.
Garcia is .167 v. Lefties this year!
Back to the drawing board!
He is also a wild card as this is his 3rd start this year and is looking to impress WSOX as his goal is the 5th spot in the rotation in 2010.
Got lucky today with Victorino's infield single in the 7th!
Who looks good on Wed. — Game closes early tomorrow.
Wed 9/16
Derrek Lee CUBS remains hot, he just crushed a double as I'm watching on TV. 2 -2 with a walk so far on Tues Nite.
Derek Jeter hitting .410 v. Lefties v. Tallet TOR gives up hits and ERA in Sept 6.86
Ichirio v. Floyd of WSOX – Ichirio .353 v. Righties but Floyd .232 v. lefties
Any other suggestions?


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Demi Moore has sparked speculation she is enjoying a new romance after she was snapped cuddling a mystery man during a festive vacation.
The actress, who finalized her divorce from Ashton Kutcher in November, was spotted embracing a younger man in Mexico last Sunday.
Moore, who was enjoying a sun-soaked break with her daughter Rumer, separated from Kutcher in 2011 after six years of marriage and filed for divorce in December 2012.


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Posted by Editoress on 10/26/04
Litespeed Bikes 'Wins' Peta's Annual Litterbox Award For Ad Disrespecting Wildlife
Courtesy PETA
Annual Award Given to Bicycle Manufacturer for Commercial That Stinks
Chattanooga, Tenn. - Local bicyclemaker Litespeed hasn't won any customers among animal protectionists with its ad showing a dead opossum who has been run over by a bike. The ad went over like a flat tire with sympathetic cyclists like Richard Marks, who was so outraged that he set up an online poll to demonstrate that most bike enthusiasts weren't impressed. For attempting to increase its sales with commercials that truly stink for animals, Litespeed has won PETA's annual "Litterbox Award."
Joining Litespeed were three more losers: Five Star Ranges' ad showing headless turkey corpses dancing toward an oven, Nike's commercial glorifying cruel and illegal dogfighting, and Ford's online ad depicting a car killing a pigeon trying to land on its hood.
PETA is calling on its members worldwide to write to Litespeed and explain that it can win more customers' hearts with ads that have a heart for animals.
For those companies that promote compassion and respect for animals in their commercials, PETA has "Glitterbox Awards."
Credit-card giant MasterCard made a clean sweep of this year's Glitterbox Awards for three heartwarming ads. The top winner urged companies to forgo the usual dead turkey and give employees a MasterCard gift card for the holidays instead. The second ad featured a man on a fishing trip who hooks a huge fish but decides to set the animal free after seeing how much the fish suffers. The final winner was a three-part mini-saga showing how the kindness of strangers is vital to saving a stray's life when a dog named Badger who has been separated from his family triumphs over all obstacles to make his way home.
"Litespeed's ad campaign needs to switch gears," says PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk. "Until the company stops making light of cruelty to animals, reaching today's compassionate consumers is going to be an uphill battle."
The recipients in both categories are featured in the latest issue of PETA's magazine Animal Times and on its Web site PETA.org
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- Product Details
DetailsComfortable and casual, our Tab top comes in unisex and ladies fit tees and hoodies. These items tend to run a bit small, with the exception of the hoodies.
- Unisex Crew Fabrication: 100% combed and ring-spun cotton. Heather colors are 52% combed and ring-spun cotton/48% polyester.
- Ladies Crew Fabrication: 100% combed ring-spun cotton. Heather colors are 90% combed and ring-spun cotton/10% polyester.
- Unisex Hoodie Fabrication: 52% airlume combed and ring-spun cotton, 48% poly fleece.
- Care: Machine washable
- Origin: Printed in USA
Order by 12/13 10:00am EST to deliver by 12/24
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