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If you're a trivia buff, here's a golden opportunity to parlay your love of obscure information into fabulous prizes.
Well, fairly fabulous, anyway, when the live monthly game show Quiz Quest gets underway April 29 at Wire in Berwyn. Maybe not a brand new car or a dream vacation to the Bahamas, but the best local businesses can do to provide a classic game show score.
"I want it to be as much like a classic game show as possible," said Forest Park's Kamau Jones, producer, director and host of Quiz Quest. "We've even come up with buzzers for the contestants.
"I don't know what it is about slapping those buzzers," he added with a laugh, "but...


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IUCN, Gland, Switzerland, 10 February 2005. Sarah Fowler , Co-Chair of the Shark Specialist Group of IUCN's Species Survival Commission has been awarded one of the world's most prestigious conservation prizes, a US$150,000 Pew Fellowship in Marine Conservation.
Sarah is one of five 2005 Pew Fellows, selected by an international committee for their potential to make significant contributions to protecting the world's oceans. The award will provide three years of funding for Sarah's work, bridging the divide between fisheries management and wildlife conservation. This gap is a major obstacle in improving the management of living marine resources.
The approximately 1,000 species of sharks, skates and rays are a particularly vulnerable group of fishes. Most species grow slowly, mature relatively late, produce a small number of young and have low natural mortality. These characteristics result in limited capacity to withstand – and recover from – over-fishing and other human impacts. Many species are now threatened with extinction, primarily as a result of fishing, which kills tens of millions of sharks every year.
The Shark Specialist Group is leading a global effort to review the threatened status of these fishes for the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Over one-fifth of the species assessed so far have been classified as threatened; of these, several are Critically Endangered and may disappear entirely unless urgent measures are taken.
In addition to her leadership of the Shark Specialist Group over the past decade, Sarah has been instrumental in the work of several other shark conservation institutions, including the Shark Trust and the European Elasmobranch Association. In her role as "shark conservation central," she has, over the past decade, driven an agenda for shark conservation and management that includes the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) International Plan of Action for the Conservation and Management of Sharks.
Sarah has been active in numerous arenas, including the FAO Committee on Fisheries (COFI) and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), and has also worked to facilitate shark management at local levels through the provision of technical information and advice in many forms.
Sarah is Director of Marine and Coastal Services for Naturebureau International, based in the UK. In 2004 she was appointed as Officer of the Order of the British Empire for services to marine conservation.
For further information contact:
The IUCN/SSC Shark Specialist Group
Dr Rachel Cavanagh, Programme Officer, IUCN Shark Specialist Group, c/o TRAFFIC International, 219a Huntingdon Road, Cambridge, CB3 0DL, UK
Tel: +44-1223-277427; Fax: +44-1223-277237
Email: rachel.cavanaghssc-uk.org
Andrew McMullin, IUCN Species Programme Communications Officer
Tel: +41 (0)22 999 0153
Email: mcmullinaiucn.org

subset: commoncrawl


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By Dr. Justin R. Garcia
One of my closest friends recently went back on the dating market. In his last relationship, he had been involved with someone for about one year, and then found out his partner was having an affair. She had committed infidelity. They lost too much trust in each other over that ordeal, and although they tried, they were unable to rekindle their flames.
A few days ago this friend and I were talking about some of the challenges of getting back into the dating game. He said one thing in particular that struck me as important to share: "There is nothing wrong with being single… despite my parents constantly inquiring about who I'm dating!" And, he is absolutely correct. At any given time, nearly one-third of the adult US population is single – there is a constant turnover of people going into and coming out of relationships at all times. This is a demographic with the power to shape American culture, swing a presidential election, and change the way we think and operate. Yet, we hold on to a historical legacy, often presuming that single adults should be married, and if they are single too long, we question why.
As a research scientist, I naturally turn to data. I told my buddy that in this year's Singles in America study conducted with Match.com, we actually had some interesting numbers showing that he, and other singles, were not alone.
Let's debunk the biggest myth first. There is absolutely nothing wrong with being single. Most singles are actually quite happy. Over 76% of single Americans are happy with their personal life. Being happy is important – but it also doesn't mean that one isn't still looking for something extra special in their life. Nearly 85% of singles either actively want or are open to being in a relationship. While most single Americans are quite happy, a vast majority are still interested in finding someone to share that happiness with. This is not surprising, as the drive for romantic love is deeply engrained in our biology.
It's also worth noting that most singles have experienced being in a relationship and being in love. 85% of singles have been in love before – no gender difference. Further, 84% of singles have been in a committed relationship in the past. Only 19% of men and 14% of women have never had a previous relationship. This is fascinating, as it demonstrates that most singles have either been in a relationship or want to get into one soon. Singles, like everyone else, are navigating the maze of life and love. When asked what the most challenging part about being single is, the most common response – by 44% of men and 30% of women – was not having someone to share my life with.
I want to leave with a final thought for my friend. In my friend's case, one of his biggest challenges was his fear that a future partner might stray, as his last did. In our study, nearly 1/3 of singles have been with someone who committed infidelity. He is not alone. Many of us have been with a partner who has strayed, but that shouldn't stop one from getting back into the throws of dating. But, he's also not alone in another way: 93% of singles say a partner who treats them with respect is a must have or very important in a potential relationship.
The desire to love is a remarkably consistent human experience, from cultures all around the globe. To find a special someone is a magical moment. Many of us have lived and loved, but when back on the dating market, it's good to remember you're not alone (even if your family also nags). Best of luck in your pursuits of love – a desire at the core of human nature.
About Dr. Justin Garcia
Dr. Justin R. Garcia is a CTRD Research Fellow with The Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction, at Indiana University. He is an expert on the biological foundations of human behavior, particularly romantic love, intimacy, and sexual behavior. Dr. Garcia earned his MS in biomedical anthropology and PhD in evolutionary biology from Binghamton University, where he holds an appointment as adjunct faculty. He is currently co-editing Evolution's Empress: Darwinian Perspectives on the Nature of Women (Oxford University Press), and co-authoring a book on evolution and human sexuality (Harvard University Press). Since 2010 he has also served as a scientific advisor to Match.com.


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Seed (UK - DVD R2)
Leigh Riding reviews the 2007 horror outing from the notorious Uwe Boll...
When notorious serial killer Max Seed (Will Sanderson) survives the electric chair, Seed's nemesis Detective Bishop (Michael Pare) persuades the prison warden to bury him alive to cover the incident up. Seed breaks free of his coffin and sets out to wage bloody retribution upon those responsible.
Good grief, these Uwe Boll films are coming around fast; Postal was only released three months ago. Much like that film, Seed was made back in 2007 and is only now deemed worthy of being taken off the shelf and dusted down. Now, I understand why the controversial Postal may have had trouble finding distribution, but I had trouble figuring out what could possibly hold back Seed. It would take three attempts at sitting through the film to find out why.
Given the director's reputation, one would assume that those three attempts were a result of a truly bad film. Far from it; in truth Boll has intentionally crafted one of the most nihilistic, oppressive and unpleasant horror films I have ever sat through. Despite Boll's roughshod and ham-fisted filmmaking skills, there are scenes and images in Seed that still stick in my mind. The edge in the film is certainly not in the filmic construction, as the script is poor, performances are scattershot, and there are some serous pacing problems. The sales pitch is all wrong as well; while Seed appears to be a cross between Hostel and 'boogeyman' horror in the style of Jason Voorhees and Freddy Krueger (Seed himself looks like a cross between Leatherface and a WWE wrestler), and a plot that blags directly from Wes Craven's Shocker. In truth, there are elements of heavier fare such as Nightmare in a Damaged Brain and Henry, Portrait of a Serial Killer.
Boll himself has said he didn't want to make a 'fun' horror, and indeed there is some depressing content in Seed. Much has been made of the PETA submitted footage used in the film, and the time lapse footage of decomposing animals trapped in Seed's dungeon does set a heavy tone for the film. There are some scenes that truly upset me in the film, such as the scene of a baby in the dungeon starving to death in time lapse, a scene that held for a good five minutes, with long, long takes of the cops watching the tape and their reactions towards it. Being a parent, this is quite possibly the hardest thing I've ever had to watch in a horror film.
Boll uses these long takes far too often in Seed and this kills the film's pace stone dead. The initial search for Seed runs for about twenty minutes, with no incident aside from the occasional torch beam in a dark room, which becomes very tedious. There are many sequences like this dotted throughout the film, and the whole enterprise ends up bogged down dreadfully.
There are positives, believe it or not; there is some superb production design, a couple of cool kills such as a prison guard's head being rammed though cell bars, and the notorious 'hammer' sequence. Filmed in a fixed single five minute take, it involves a woman tied to a chair, and Seed brandishing a hammer. At first, Seed strolls around the chair, lightly tapping the sobbing woman's head, and slowly hits harder and harder until the woman has nothing but a bloody lump for a head. It's a bravura sequence, let down by poor CGI transitions.
These very few promising segments are unfortunately drowned by the generally overbearing depression that the film offers, and the whole endeavour becomes a rather repugnant watch. The only truly positive comment I can make on the film is that it seems Uwe Boll appears to have finally created a consistent tone; unfortunately, it's one of abject misery.
The 1.78:1 anamorphic transfer offered here is acceptable, with some heavy grain in indoor scenes, but black levels are strong and the 70s style cinematography is well represented. The source material is really the only problem here, as opposed to a sloppy transfer
Metrodome offer both Dolby Digital 5.1 and 2.0 Surround tracks. Generally the 5.1 track is satisfactory, with strong dialogue and surrounds being well utilised, especially during the police siege on Seed's house. Unfortunately, the score tends to swamp the mix a little too much. The 2.0 option sounds far too muddy to my ears, and tends to exhibit a rather throbbing mix.
The extra content for Seed is thin on the ground compared to the region one disc. The 'Making of' feature is only really a B-roll, with nothing in the way of talking heads or narration. Also included is the theatrical trailer.
Seed must be perhaps the most depressing movie I have ever seen, and it really was a tough watch. While the tone is for once both intended and consistent for a Boll film, the end result is so bleak and nihilistic that any sense of entertainment is sucked out of the film completely. Seed is a repellent little film that is almost impossible to recommend. Avoid.
Review by Leigh Riding
Fabricio De Zuasnabar Member Join Date: July 2005 Location: United States Posts: 1,350
yeah, nice review... and yeah avoid this film at all costs!!! =)
Suitable only for persons of 18 years and over
Disc Details
Release Date: 24th November 2008
Discs: 1
Disc Type: Single side, dual layer
RCE: No
Video: PAL
Aspect: 1.78:1
Anamorphic: Yes
Colour: Yes
Audio: 5.1 Dolby Digital English. 2.0 Surround English
Subtitles: None
Extras: Behind The Scenes, Trailer
Easter Egg: No
Feature Details
Director: Uwe Boll
Cast: Michael Pare, Will Sanderson
Genre: Horror
Length: 86 minutes
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Fort Hood widow fears losing house due to delinquent taxes
OKLAHOMA CITY – The widow of a soldier killed in the Fort Hood shooting could get relief from a $6,000 tax bill under a measure Oklahoma legislators are considering that would grant some families benefits similar to those given after acts of terrorism.
Jennifer Hunt, 30, had been married just short of three months when her husband, Jason, was killed in the rampage at Fort Hood on Nov. 5, 2009, when a U.S. Army major fatally shot 13 people and injured more than 30 others.
"He joined the Army after high school and did a tour in Iraq and it was there that he re-enlisted for six more years on his 21st birthday so that he could continue to serve," President Barack Obama said of Hunt at a memorial shortly after the shooting.
Jason Hunt, 22, was preparing for a deployment to Iraq. He and Jennifer had recently purchased a house in Fort Hood, and Jennifer and their three children were preparing to move there.
Though some consider the shooting an act of terrorism, the Defense Department classified it as an act of workplace violence — which means family members are not entitled to the same federal benefits as survivors of an act of terrorism. Late last year, the U.S. Army began an investigation into whether it should indeed be classified as terrorism so victims would be eligible for benefits or to receive the Purple Heart.
Hunt said she was misinformed at the time of her husband's death and believed that she qualified for a property tax exemption granted to survivors of terrorism. But this year, she was notified that she was ineligible for the benefit and received a $6,000 bill for back taxes.
"I was ready to hand over my entire life savings," Hunt said. "When a military person dies, most people look at you and think you must be rolling in the cash now. My husband split the life insurance policy he had 50/50 between me and his parents, so I paid off our house and my college debt, and I don't have anything left after that. The $200 a month we get from the military will make us or break us."
Hunt went to the Cleveland County Treasurer's Office, where employees brought her situation to the attention of Treasurer Jim Reynolds, a former Oklahoma state senator. Reynolds contacted his brother, Rep. Mike Reynolds, R-Oklahoma City, who drafted legislation that would address Hunt's situation. Rep. Reynolds previously served in the U.S. Air Force and both brothers were raised in a military family.
"Any time we have a serviceman killed while serving our country, whether on foreign soil or especially if it's at a federal facility, I just feel strongly that we should be able to take care of him," Jim Reynolds said. "I think it's an oversight: Honestly, sometimes with laws we just haven't gotten there yet, and so I think it passing committee unanimously is a reflection that others feel the same way."
According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, 100 percent disabled veterans who are disabled while on active duty received a full property tax exemption in Oklahoma.
The new measure would extend that privilege to the surviving spouse of a person killed during an act of violence occurring within a federal military installation which could be classified as "terrorism" or "combat related." The law would become retroactively effective through 2009 on Nov. 1, 2015.
"I wasn't trying to solve it just for her, the real problem is that Barack Obama has refused to call this a terrorist attack, and she would have received all sorts of benefits," Rep. Mike Reynolds said.
The bill has passed the House of Representatives, had its first reading in the Senate and has been sent to the Senate's finance committee.
Other states with larger military populations already have similar provisions to provide for military families.
"I think it hasn't been that big of an issue here, and there's not many fallen soldier families in Oklahoma, so we're not really a priority," Hunt said. "I had thought about moving out of state because I felt neglected here, and my widow friends in other states have so many resources, so it's comforting knowing someone cares."


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A Fresh Coat of Paint: Farrow and Ball 2011 Colors
Whenever I finish a major declutter-athon, I celebrate by treating myself to a new can of fresh paint. This paint can be dabbed anywhere to my liking...on a side chair, on my mailbox or if I feeling very adventurous, across my bedroom walls.
While searching for new paint color inspiration, I happened upon a sneak peek of the Farrow and Ball 2011 Colours. With 9 new colors to choose from and dreamy catalog photos, I may have to treat myself to more than one can of paint!
Here is a look at the new color palette found via Home Shopping Spy. The palette is a sea of neutrals with a pop of orange thrown into the mix. I'm pondering Cabbage White and Mizzle for my bedroom and Charlotte's Locks for my desk chair. For detailed descriptions of each color check out Home Shopping Spy.
1. Charlotte's Locks
2. Cabbage White
3. Calluna
4. Brassica
5. Dove Tail
6. Oxford Stone
7. Plummett
8. Mizzle
9. Manor House Gray
The new colors and catalog will be available at Farrow and Ball on Februry 1st. You can also sign up to receive their "new colours" email. Happy painting!
1&4: Farrow and Ball via Hampton Hostess
2&5: Farrow and Ball via Home Shopping Spy
3: Farrow and Ball via Style at Home


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Best Kids' Parties: Travel
Name: Alexander (1)
Location: Stoneham, Massachusetts
Both my husband and I love traveling. In fact we met each other twelve years ago on a train while traveling in China. The first year my son Alexander's life was full of trips from as far as Puerto Rico to local destinations such as the White Mountains in NH and Cape Cod. So a travel themed first birthday party was almost a no brainer.
The decorations were fairly easy to put together. We brought out our collection of travel books, globes, travel souvenirs and a world map and borrowed a kids' atlas from our local library. I printed a lot of maps from the National Geographic website and DIYed the bunting and cupcake toppers. We ordered sushi, Chinese food, Russian sausages, pizza and salsa and chips to give the menu a global flavor.
For games, we did a Chinese ritual called Zhua Zhou (it's common to many Asian cultures) in which the birthday baby is presented a bunch of objects representing different professions, and is then urged by the parents to pick up one. This is used as a way to "forecast" the kid's future profession. It was such a fun and successful first birthday party.
Thanks Danielea! Readers, visit Daniela at Daniela's Lens.
(Images: Daniela)


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The military standards for ruggedness are just that — standard. Everyone uses them as a basis for comparison, whether they are seeking certification for their product or not. Usually, when a product gets certified, that is the limit of the company's guarantee. But not the people at ioSafe. They aren't happy until they make something they can run over with a tank.
The ioSafe Rugged Portable is a 500G hard disk drive that connects to any computer via a USB 3.0 or 2.0 port. It only weighs 1 pound, 4 ounces, which did cause us some concern: Would there be enough material to protect the drive? Turns out we shouldn't have been worried.
The ioSafe is crush-resistant for up to 2,500 pounds of pressure. Although they won't let us have a tank or a hydraulic press here in the lab (for some reason), we did set as heavy a set of objects as we could safely manage on it, and it operated just fine.
ioSafe Rugged Portable Drive
Pros: Extremely rugged; easy to set up.Cons: Transfer rates a bit lower than expected.Performance: B+Ease of Use: AFeatures: A-Value: APrice: $199
Related coverage:
A key drive the government can love
In the transit drop test, we did all of the drops up to 48 inches as specified by MIL-STD 810 G without incident. However, as ioSafe asserts that the drive will withstand a drop up to 10 feet under these conditions, we were obligated to at least approach this lofty height. We performed a full set of drops at 8 feet (96 inches), which is double the standard. After that, the drive casing began to show a tiny amount of wear on some of the corners, but of course the drive itself ran perfectly.
The ioSafe breezed through our Rainforest environment, which is a glass enclosure heated up to about 120 degrees Fahrenheit with 95 percent humidity. We gave it periodic disk activity, and it did not suffer any ill effects. To test its resistance to full immersion in water, we powered down the drive and tossed it in the tank for several hours. Once we retrieved it and made sure the USB port was good and dry, we reconnected it, and it worked just fine. ioSafe does promise that it will last up to three days in 10 feet of water, and given what we saw in our testing, we are inclined to believe them.
Oil submersible
The Rugged Portable is also supposed to last up to an hour in 12 inches of diesel fuel or oil. Unfortunately, we are not allowed to have large quantities of flammable liquids in the lab anymore. (Jeez, burn one set of eyebrows and suddenly you are branded as "dangerous"!)
The price of this drive also includes one year of ioSafe's Data Recovery Service. If, somehow, the drive fails under any of these conditions, or for practically any reason for that matter, ioSafe will do everything it can to get your data back, including spending up to $2,500 for third-party forensic recovery if necessary.
To test how fast the drive can transfer data, we got together a folder that amassed about 2G worth of files and timed how long it took to copy it to and from the drive. Even through a USB 3.0 port, we were only able to write to the drive at a rate of 68.7 megabytes/sec., which is a fair amount less than we expected. Transfers from the drive reached 121.2 megabytes/sec., again a bit less than expected.
The list price for the ioSafe Rugged Portable that we tested is $199. This is a great value for a military-grade rugged hard drive, especially one that can withstand so much more. Also, because it includes an entire year of blanket data recovery, this is a great bargain.
We can see this portable hard drive being needed and well-used by any personnel who need backup data storage in extremely harsh environments.
ioSafe, www.iosafe.com
About the Author
Greg Crowe is a former GCN staff writer who covered mobile technology.
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I'm geting paranoid. Asked to research drives for use in the patrol cars and you have this review. Was asked by a different person about encrypted jump drives. And a third asked about replacements for our older Panasonic Toughbooks, and since we are a Dell shop... The February issue solved all three problems. You monitoring my email to decide what to review???
Perfect storage for surveillance camera DVRs in remote locations where dropping it while retrieving it is a real possibility or in vehicles where "ride quality" is serverely lacking.
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San Diego Collection
J&L Collection
AGW Collection (PCGS Set Registry)
David Hall: The1935 Old Spanish Trail half dollar was designed by a collector, L.W. Hoffecker (later, 1939-1941, President of the American Numismatic Association) to be sold to collectors at the relatively high price of $2.00 per coin. It was somewhat of a contrived issue (as were quite a few other silver commems in the 1935-1939 era) and Hoffecker was involved in the distribution, and therefore the profit made, of the coins. Nonetheless, the Spanish Trail was quite popular with collectors at the time of issue and indeed for all of the years following to the present. It was a good design and the quality is generally quite high.
Th Spanish Trail is certainly not rare in an absolute sense. However, the 10,000 coin mintage is very low for a commemorative type issue. Commemoratives of the classic 1892 to 1954 era have always been collected two ways; there is the 50 piece one-of-each-type set and the 144 one-of-each-date-mint mark-and-variety set. For the 50 piece type set, the Spanish Trail has one of the lowest mintages and it has been highly sought after as a key to the series, especially in the days prior to the PCGS Population Reports (pre-1986) as PCGS grading shed light on which coins were saved and which were actually much harder to acquire in top condition than their original mintages might indicate.
The typical Spanish Trail grades MS64 to MS66, and MS67s are also fairly available. The surfaces are usually relatively mark-free as the "high" original price probably caused buyers to take care of their coins. Luster is of the satin type. This is an issue that generally comes very nice.
© 1999-2018 Collectors Universe NASDAQ: CLCT


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I suppose you could call these "half yeast roll and half savory muffin". But really, that doesn't quite convey their special magic: imagine the alluring taste of soft yeast rolls but the baking convenience of muffins, no rise time, no wait, no fussy roll formation.
"... they are good, aren't they?" ~ Carole
"These were a big hit, 15-year-old boys love them!" ~ The Sister
Moms and dads are known for magical powers. Just think of the owies and ouchies that vanish with a quick kiss and a warm hug, how a child's excitement flourishes with words of encouragement and praise.
But how do busy parents transform soups and salads from weeknight same-old to weeknight special?
It's no illusion. Straight from the oven, hot rolls are a magic of their own sort. But after work and errands, before homework and bedtime rituals, what busy parent has time to wave a wand for rolls?
You do, that's who.
These rolls require no kneading and no time to rise. Just mix the batter and bake, like muffins. The rolls' texture lands someplace between fluffy homemade rolls and hearty homemade muffins. Stir in some fresh herbs or add a honey-sweetened butter. Suddenly, supper is something special, magical even.
Extra Magic? Honey Butters! For a little something special, whip up a small batch of honey butter. The only trick is to use butter softened at room temperature, it really doesn't work to soften it in the microwave. But if you must, cut the butter into cubes and run the microwave just 5 or 10 seconds at a time.HONEY CINNAMON BUTTER Stir a tablespoon of honey and a pinch of cinnamon into a half stick of softened butter.
HONEY MUSTARD BUTTER Stir a tablespoon of honey and a tablespoon of good mustard into a half stick of softened butter.
Time to table: 40 minutes
Makes 12 or 18 rolls
- 1 package active dry yeast (2-1/4 teaspoons, 7g)
- 2 cups warm water
- 1 large egg
- 1/4 cup (50g) sugar
- 1/4 cup (50g) vegetable oil
- 4 cups bread flour, fluffed to aerate before measuring or 500g
- 2 tablespoons (yes, tablespoons) baking powder
- 2 teaspoons table salt
- Chopped fresh herbs such as chives, sage or rosemary, optional
Heat oven to 425F. Spray the cups of a muffin tray with standard-size cups.
YEAST In a bowl, stir together the yeast and water, set aside.
WET INGREDIENTS In a bowl large enough to become the main mixing bowl, whisk the egg, sugar and oil.
DRY INGREDIENTS Separately, stir together flour, baking powder and salt (see ALANNA's TIPS).
With a wooden spoon, stir dry ingredients a cup at a time into the wet ingredients, just until mixed, stirring in a third of the yeast-water mixture between additions. Stir in herbs, if using.
With two soup spoons, one to scoop and the other to scrape, fill the muffin tins. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden. Cool for 5 minutes.
Best served hot but keep well for two to three days.
Extra Magic? Honey Butters!
Weeknight-Easy Rolls are savory rolls, no sugar. So I pair them with easy-to-whip-up honey butters, just butter and honey plus another little something. My favorite is Honey Mustard Butter but Honey Cinnamon Butter is fabulous too. When I make these, I feel like my Auntie Gloria, who always had a "special little bit of something special" she could pull out of the fridge on a moment's notice. For easy bookmarking and searching, here are the recipes, above, Honey Butters.
More Favorite Homemade Breads (Leavened with Yeast)
More Favorite Homemade Breads (Leavened without Yeast)
© Copyright 2007 Kitchen Parade
Can't wait to try them with some garlic and herbs.
Post a Comment
Thank you for taking a moment to write! I read each and every comment, for each and every recipe. If you have a specific question, it's nearly always answered quick-quick. But I also love hearing your reactions, your curiosity, even your concerns! When you've made a recipe, I especially love to know how it turned out, what variations you made, what you'll do differently the next time. ~ Alanna


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Skyforce Shake Up
Through fourteen games of the NBA Development League season, the Sioux Falls Skyforce are vastly improved from the previous two years. Better is not good enough as two trades seek to bolster the Skyforce.
Gone from the 'Force is guard Andrew Goudelock who will now play for the Rio Grande Valley Vipers. Arriving soon will be two former Cleveland Cavaliers in guard Donald Sloan and forward Mychel Thompson via the Erie BayHawks. RGV will send forward Mike Singletary to Erie to complete the carousel. A separate trade sends 7-footer Hassan Whiteside to the Vipers in exchange for forward Damian Saunders. This trade means that Sioux Falls sends out two NBA caliber players and get three in return.
Goudelock is among the top scorers this season in the D-League after spending time with the Los Angeles Lakers last season. The College of Charleston guard was the first round choice of the Skyforce in the draft in November. Whiteside was a pickup as insurance for the eventual call-up of Jarvis Varnado after spending two seasons with the Sacramento Kings.
Sloan was part of the Pan-Am team along with former Skyforce big man Greg Stiemsma that won the bronze medal in 2011. Sloan was with Erie for a good portion of last season before playing his way on the rosters of Atlanta, New Orleans and Cleveland for 33 games. Sloan stuck with the Cavaliers at the end of last season but was cut on December 27. Sloan was still property of the BayHawks after his NBA release.
Mychel Thompson had just a 5-game audition with the Cavaliers last season, but has been a consistent double digit scorer in his D-League career. If the name sounds familiar, it is. Thompson is also the son of Mychal (note the spelling) Thompson the first pick in the NBA draft by Portland in 1978.
Damian Saunders hasn't officially played in the NBA, but was in the Houston Rockets in 2011 training camp and was eventually allocated to Rio Grande Valley. Saunders scored in double digits last year, but is down this year in all his stats.
With the two departures and three arrivals, this shows that the Skyforce organization is going to make bold moves in order to improve. It also means that the players are on notice that when you come to Sioux Falls, you will adhere to the precepts of what the organization wants to do.
There is also an element of a calculated bet on the part of the 'Force when it comes to their bigs. Varnado could be released by Boston before his contract is guaranteed on January 9 then return to Sioux Falls. Also the Skyforce have Arnett Moultrie and Dexter Pittman as NBA assignees for a little while yet. Saunders will have the luxury of a gradual transition at forward with established talent already in the stable.
As for the backcourt, Sloan is a candidate for a call-up, which would put Sioux Falls at the top of the list in the player pool selection process. If Sloan happens to stick around for a while, that could be exciting. Thompson can play guard or forward and defend as well. Regardless, the new members won't grace the Sioux Falls Arena floor for a while as the Skyforce play in Reno tonight and the L.A. D-Fenders Saturday night.


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Watch The ::God Is Imaginary Videos On YouTube ::
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How about spare the rod, spoil the child.
I think that circumcision without a medical reason is also wrong. What kind of a brain-dead idiot started this? Did someone wake up one day and say to themselves, "hey, let's welcome all our baby boys into the world by cutting off part of their genitals?" Its barbaric.
The issue has been something I've thought about recently as I find myself questioning whether or not there's a better way to 'parental model' is the model that best serves society and the individual in the long term. In my mind I have been tossing ideas around that do not involve the 'parental model' and i was wanting some thoughtful input.
... I often wondered how that originated. Where did they come up with that? Maybe some kid had some kind of infection & it (the look) caught on? I originally intended not to have my son circumcised but he was born with hypospadias so it ended up being medically necessary but I doubt they were doing that procedure way back then...
^^^WTF is it about christians and sex? That's some seriously neurotic behavior there.


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Farewell, Metrodome
When the team takes the field this Saturday against the Gophers in Minneapolis, it will be the first time since 1981 that the game won't be played at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome.
The Metrodome has had a bad reputation over the years. It's dark, it's blah, it's not the on campus stadium that makes college football feel so special. But as a Michigan fan, it's hard not to feel some kind of attachment to that building when your team has a perfect 12-0 record there. During those 12 wins, we've seen some notable moments:
*In 2003, we had the biggest comeback in school history after trailing 28-7 in the 4th quarter.
*In 1987, Jamie Morris broke the all time Michigan rushing record.
*In 1983, Steve Smith ran for a 75 yard touchdown, a school record run for a Michigan QB held until Denard Robinson arrived.
*In 2008, Nick Sheridan & company looked like a competent team.
*In 1991 and 2003, Michigan played their only 2 non-Saturday regular season games there (that I know of off the top of my head.)
*In 1989, Bo earned a share of his 13th Big Ten title there. We would get the outright title the following week beating the Buckeyes.
That dome may not have been much to look at but it certainly gave us plenty to smile about, unless your name is Tony Boles. So, with the exception of Tony's knee injury, I say to the Metrodome: Thanks for the memories. May we have as much success at Minnesota's new stadium that we had here.


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Unified Contact Center Enterprise
From DocWiki
Updates to this Page
The following is a list of significant updates to this page:
|October 1, 2010
|This page, UCCE on UCS Deployment Certification Requirements and Ordering Information, and UCS Network Configuration for UCCE updated to reflect support of UCS C-Series hardware on UCCE.
|September 28, 2010
|CVP added to list of supported components/deployments in Unified CCE 8.0(2) Support for Virtualization on the ESXi/UCS Platform.
|September 21, 2010
|IPIVR added to list of supported components/deployments in Unified CCE 8.0(2) Support for Virtualization on the ESXi/UCS Platform, and as an optional component in the sample deployment tables at Sample CCE Deployments.
|August 17, 2010
| Guidelines for deploying UCCE Applications on UCS B-Series Hardware with SAN are now posted at Notes for Deploying UCCE Applications on UCS B-Series Hardware with SAN.
Details of support for the Unified Communications Manager (UCM) Clustering Over the WAN deployment model with Unified CCE on UCS B-series hardware are now posted at Support for UCM Clustering Over the WAN with UCCE on UCS B-series Hardware.
|August 3, 2010
| The procedure for installing or migrating Unified CCE components on Virtual Machines is now listed at Steps for Installing/Migrating Unified CCE Components on Virtual Machines.
Sample CCE Deployments for UCS B-Series are now documented at Sample CCE Deployments for UCS B-Series.
|July 20, 2010
|Virtualization of Outbound Option with the SIP Dialer on UCS B Series hardware is now supported, under the conditions stated in Unified CCE 8.0(2) Support for Virtualization on the ESXi/UCS Platform.
Information for Partners about UCCE on UCS Deployment Certification and Ordering
It is important that partners who are planning to sell UCS products on Unified Contact Center Enterprise read the DocWiki page UCCE on UCS Deployment Certification Requirements and Ordering Information.
This page contains essential information for partners about the following:
- Partner Certification Requirements
- UCS Server Ordering Information
- Important Notes on Cisco UCS Service and Support
Unified CCE 8.0(2) Support for Virtualization on the ESXi/UCS Platform
Starting with Release 8.0(2), virtualization of the following deployments and Unified CCE components on Cisco Unified Computing Systems (UCS) B200 Series and C210 Series hardware is supported:
- Router
- Logger
- Agent PG
- Administration and Data Server with one of the following roles:
- Administration Server and Real-time Data Server (AW)
- Configuration-only Administration Server (AW-CONFIG)
- Administration Server and Real-time and Historical Data Server (AW-HDS)
- Administration Server, Real-time and Historical Data Server, and Detail Data Server (AW-HDS-DDS)
- Historical Data Server and Detail Data Server (HDS-DDS)
- Administration Client
- Outbound Option with SIP Dialer (collocate SIP Dialer and MR PG with Agent PG in the same VM guest. Generic PG can also be colocated with the Agent PG in the same VM guest. Published agent capacity formula with Outbound Option applies.)
- Support Tools
- Rogger (a Router and a Logger in the same VM)
- The Unified Communications Manager (UCM) Clustering Over the WAN deployment model with Unified CCE is supported; see the section Support for UCM Clustering Over the WAN with UCCE on UCS Hardware for important information.
- IPIVR is supported with CCE on UCS B-Series solution and on UCS C-Series Reference Configuration 2 (UCS-C210-VCD2) only. Please refer to the IPIVR product specific pages for detail.
- CVP is supported with CCE on UCS B-Series solution. Please refer to the Unified Customer Voice Portal wiki page for details.
- For UCS C210 M1, UCCE supports only Reference Configuration 2 (UCS-C210-VCD2) with a specific HDS Virtual Machine (VM) co-residence/population rule. See Sample CCE Deployments
The following deployments and Unified CCE components have not been qualified and are not supported in virtualization:
- Progger (a Router, a Logger, and a Peripheral Gateway); this all-in-one deployment configuration is not scalable in a virtualization environment. Instead, use the Rogger or Router/Logger VM deployment configuration.
- Unified CCH
- Unified ICME
- Unified ICMH
- Outbound Option with SCCP Dialer
- WebView Server
- Cisco Agent Desktop (CAD) Server/services
- Cisco Unified Intelligence Center (CUIC)
- Cisco E-mail Interaction Manager (EIM)/Web Interaction Manager (WIM)
- Contact Center Management Portal (CCMP)
- Expert Advisor
- Remote Silent Monitoring (RSM)
- Cisco Unified CRM Connector
NOTE: The hybrid (virtual and non-virtual server) deployment model is supported. Components that are not yet virtualized can continue to be on MCS in the UCCE on UCS deployment.
The following VMware features are not supported with Unified CCE:
- VMware Physical to Virtual migration
- VMware snapshots
- VMware Consolidated Backup
- VMware High Availability (HA)
- VMware Site Recovery Manager
- VMware vCenter Update Manager
- VMware vCenter Converter
ICM 8.0(2) contains a fix that modifies the following Windows Server 2003 registry key:
This setting resolves an issue in the Windows Server 2003 TCP/IP stack implementation of ARP that introduced unacceptable network latency.
UCS Hardware Requirements
Requirements for Cisco Unified Contact Center Enterprise systems using UCS B200 M1 hardware are located here.
Requirements for Cisco Unified Contact Center Enterprise systems using UCS C210 M1 hardware are located here.
VMware and Application Software Requirements
The following software requirements apply specifically to Unified Contact Center Enterprise:
- VMWare ESXi 4.0 only, minimum version 4.0U1. Versions of ESXi prior to 4.0U1 and all versions of ESX are unsupported.
- The Windows, SQL, and other third party software requirements for the Unified CCE applications in the ESXi/UCS platform are the same as in the physical server. For such information refer to the Hardware and Software Specification (Bill of Materials) for Cisco Unified ICM/Contact Center Enterprise & Hosted, Release 8.0(x).
Unified CCE Component Capacities and VM Configuration Requirements
This table shows the supported Unified CCE components, their capacities, and the VM computing resource requirements. You must use the OVA virtual machine templates to create the Unified CCE component VMs.
For instructions on how to obtain the OVA templates, see Downloading OVA Templates
UCS Network Configuration
- IMPORTANT: For instructions on performing the network configuration needed to deploy Cisco Unified Contact Center Enterprise (UCCE) on UCS servers, see UCS Network Configuration for UCCE.
- QoS should be enabled for the Router and PG configuration. For more information on QoS consideration, refer to Chapter 12, Cisco Unified Contact Center Enterprise Solution Reference Network Design (SRND).
- For information on best practices for Cisco VLAN trunking to VMware, refer to this website.
Support for UCM Clustering Over the WAN with UCCE on UCS Hardware
You can deploy the Unified Communications Manager (UCM) Clustering Over the WAN deployment model with Unified CCE on UCS hardware.
When you implement this deployment model, be sure to follow the best practices outlined in the section "IPT: Clustering Over the WAN" in the Cisco Unified Contact Center Enterprise Solution Reference Network Design (SRND).
In addition, note the following expectations for UCS hardware points of failure:
- For communication path single point of failure performed by Cisco on the UCCE UCS B-series High Availability (HA) deployment, system call handling was observed to be degraded for up to 45 seconds while the system recovered from the fault, depending upon the subsystem faulted. Single points of failure will not cause the built-in ICM software failover to occur. Single points of failure include, but are not limited to, a single fabric interconnect failure, a single fabric extender failure, and single link failures.
- Multiple points of failure on the UCCE UCS HA deployment can cause catastrophic failure, such as ICM software failovers and interruption of service. If multiple points of failure occur, replace the failed redundant components and links immediately.
B-Series Considerations
When deploying Clustering Over the WAN with B-Series hardware, use of the Cisco UCS M81KR Virtual Interface Card is mandatory.
New B-Series deployments using Clustering Over the WAN must use a Nexus 7000 Series / Nexus 5000 Series vPC infrastructure, or a Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series Virtual Switching Supervisor Engine 720-10G.
See the configuration guidelines in UCCE on UCS B-Series Network Configuration.
C-Series Considerations
If deploying Clustering Over the WAN with C-Series hardware, do not trunk public and private networks. You must use separate physical interfaces off of the C-Series servers to create the public and private connections. See the configuration guidelines in Network Requirements for C-210 M1 Servers.
Notes for Deploying UCCE Applications on UCS B-Series Hardware with SAN
In Storage Area Network (SAN) architecture, storage consists of a series of arrays of Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAIDs). A Logical Unit Number (LUN) that represents a device identifier can be created on a RAID array. A LUN can occupy all or part of a single RAID array, or span multiple RAID arrays.
In a virtualized environment, datastores are created on LUNs. Virtual Machines (VMs) are installed on the SAN datastore.
Keep the following considerations in mind when deploying UCCE applications on UCS B-series hardware with SAN.
- This deployment must comply with the conditions listed in Section 3.1.6 of the Hardware & System Software Specification (Bill of Materials) for Cisco Unified Contact Center Enterprise, Release 8.0(1). In particular, SAN disk arrays must be configured as RAID 5 or RAID 10.
- Ensure that the storage products in your SAN deployment are interoperable with the UCS systems. See the Cisco Unified Computing System at Work website for interoperability information. Note that only FC connection/transport from UCS to SAN is supported. NAS, FCoE and iSCSI are currently not supported.
- Each Historical Data Server (HDS) requires a dedicated LUN and a datastore with a 2 MB block size. No other application can reside on the same datastore as the HDS. The HDS requires a 2 MB block size to accommodate the 500 GB OVA disk size, which exceeds the 256 GB file size supported by the default 1 MB block size for datastores. The HDS block size is configured in VMware at datastore creation.
- To help keep your system running most efficiently, schedule automatic database purging to run when your system is least busy.
- The SAN must be designed in accordance with the UCS High Availability guidelines documented at http://www.cisco.com/en/US/solutions/collateral/ns340/ns517/ns224/ns944/white_paper_c11-553711.html.
- The ESXi boot from SAN feature is not supported; it must be installed to internal storage.
- For UCS B-series, Virtual Machines must be stored on and booted from the SAN.
- The SAN design and configuration must meet the UCCE disk IOPS requirements described in: http://docwiki.cisco.com/wiki/Unified_Contact_Center_Enterprise#Performance_Requirements.
- The SAN design and configuration must meet the following VMware ESXi disk performance guidelines:
- Disk Command Latency – It should be 15 mSec or less. 15mSec latencies or greater indicates a possible over-utilized, misbehaving, or mis-configured disk array.
- Kernel Disk Command Latency – It should be very small in comparison to the Physical Device Command Latency, and it should be close to zero. A high Kernel Command Latency indicates there is a lot of queuing in the ESXi kernel.
- The SAN design and configuration must meet the following Windows performance counters on UCCE VMs:
- AverageDiskQueueLength must remain less than (1.5 ∗ (the total number of disks in the array)).
- %Disktime must remain less than 60%.
- The total size of all Virtual Machines on a disk (total size = VM disk + RAM copy) must not exceed 90% of the capacity of a datastore.
- Any given SAN array must be designed to have an IOPS capacity exceeding the sum of the IOPS required for all resident UC applications. Unified CCE applications should be designed for the 95th percentile IOPS values published in this wiki. For other UC applications, please follow their respective IOPS requirements & guidelines.
- IOPS utilization should be monitored for each application to ensure that the aggregate IOPS is not exceeding the capacity of the array. Prolonged buffering of IOPS against an array may result in degraded system performance and delayed reporting data availability.
- Unified CCE requires application storage to be on VMFS, Raw Device Mapping (RDM) is not supported.
See below for an example of SAN configuration for Rogger 2000 agent deployment. This example corresponds to the 2000 agent Sample CCE Deployment for UCS B-Series described in: http://docwiki.cisco.com/wiki/Unified_Contact_Center_Enterprise#Unified_CCE_Component_Co-Residency_and_Sample_Deployments.
Example of SAN Configuration for UCCE ROGGER Deployment up to 2000 Agents
The following SAN configuration was a tested design, though generalized here for illustration. It is not the only possible way in which to provision SAN arrays, LUNs, and datastores to UC applications. However, you must adhere to the guidance given earlier in this section (above).
Rogger Side A
Rogger Side B
Steps for Installing/Migrating Unified CCE Components on Virtual Machines
Follow the steps and references below to install or migrate the Unified CCE components on Virtual Machines.
- Install, setup, and configure the UCS Hardware.
- Configure the UCS Network. See reference at UCS Network Configuration.
- Install and Boot VMWare ESXi. See the Cisco UCS B-Series Blade Servers VMware Installation Guide or the Cisco UCS C-Series Servers VMware Installation Guide. On C-Series servers, you also need to configure the ESXi datastore block size for the Administration & Data Server. See Configuring the ESXi Data Store Block Size for Administration and Data Server for instructions.
- Create the Unified CCE Virtual Machines from the OVA template. See reference at Creating Virtual Machines from OVA VM Templates.
- Install Windows OS and SQL Server (for Logger and HDS components) on the created Virtual Machines. (Note: Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition and Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Standard Edition should be used for virtual machine guests. See related information in the links below.)
- Install or migrate the Unified CCE Software components on the configured Virtual Machines. See install reference at Installing Unified CCE Components on Virtual Machines. See migration reference at Migrating Unified CCE Components to Virtual Machines.
Unified CCE Component Co-Residency and Sample Deployments
You can have one or more Unified CCE VMs co-resident on the same ESXi server. However, you must follow the rules described below:
- You can have any number of Unified CCE virtual machines and combination of co-residency of Unified CCE virtual machines on an ESXi server as long as the sum of all the virtual machine CPU and memory resource allocation is not over committed on the available ESXi server computing resources.
- You must not have CPU overcommit on the ESXi server that is running Unified CCE realtime application components. The total number of vCPUs among all the virtual machines on an ESXi host must not greater than the total number of CPUs available on the ESXi server. In the case of the Cisco UCS B-200 M1 and C-210 M1, the total number of CPUs available is 8.
- You must not have memory overcommit on the ESXi host that running UC realtime applications. You must allocate minimum 2GB of memory for the ESXi kernel. For example, if an ESXi server on B-200 M1 hardware has 36GB of memory, after you allocate 2GB for the ESXi kernel, you have 34GB available for the virtual machines. The total memory allocated for all the virtual machines on an ESXi server must not be greater than 34GB in this case.
- VM co-residency with Unified Communications and third party applications not covered in following examples is not supported.
- On a C-Series server, the HDS cannot co-reside with a Router, Logger, or a PG.
Sample CCE Deployments
|Grey denotes solution "optional", meaning that not all customers may choose that option in their deployment.
The ESXi Servers listed in these tables can be deployed on either a B-Series or C-Series hardware platform.
Although the sample deployments in these tables reflect the C-Series restriction that the HDS cannot co-reside with a Router, Logger, or a PG, this restriction is not present on a B-Series hardware platform.
For deployments where Historical Data Servers (HDSs) are co-resident, two RAID 5 groups (one for each HDS) are recommended.
ROGGER (up to 2000 Agents)
ROGGER (up to 4000 Agents)
Router/Logger (up to 8000 Agents)
Creating Virtual Machines from OVA VM Templates
Open Virtualization Format (OVF) is an open standard for packaging and distributing virtual appliances. Files in this format have an extension of .ova. The naming convention for the template is PRODUCT_COMPONENT_USER COUNT_VERSION_VMVER.ova
Click here to download the OVA templates from cisco.com to a local datastore that vSphere Client can access.
Downloading OVA Templates
- Proceed to the Release 8.0(2) Cisco download page.
- To download a single OVA file, click the Download File button next to that file. To download multiple OVA files, click the Add to Cart button next to each file that you want to download, then click on the Download Cart link. A Download Cart page appears.
- Click the Proceed with Download button on this page. A Software License Agreement page appears.
- Read the Software License Agreement, then click the Agree button
- On the next page, click on either the Download Manager link (requires Java) or the Non Java Download Option link. A new browser window appears.
- If you selected Download Manager, a Select Location dialog box appears. Specify the location where you want to save the file, and click Open to save the file to your local machine.
- If you selected Non Java Download Option, click the Download link on the new browser window. Specify the location and save the file to your local machine.
Creating Virtual Machines by Deploying the OVA Templates
In the vSphere client, perform the following steps to deploy the Virtual machines.
- Highlight the host or cluster to which you wish the VM to be deployed.
- Select File > Deploy OVF Template.
- Click the Deploy from File radio button and specify the name and location of the file you downloaded in the previous section OR click the Deploy from URL radio button and specify the complete URL in the field, then click Next.
- Verify the details of the template, and click Next.
- Give the VM you are about to create a name, and choose an inventory location on your host, then click Next.
- Choose the datastore on which you would like the VM to reside - be sure there is sufficient free space to accommodate the new VM, then click Next.
- Choose a virtual network for the VM, then click Next.
- Verify the deployment settings, then click Finish.
- VM CPU affinity is not supported. You don't need to set CPU affinity for the VMs that are running Unified CCE applications on the VMware ESXi on UCS platform.
- VM resource Reservation - VM resource reservation is not supported for the VMs that are running Unified CCE applications on the VMware ESXi on UCS platform. The VM computing resources should have a default reservation setting, which is no resource reservations.
- You cannot change the computing resource configuration of your VM at any time.
- You can never go below the minimum VM computing resource requirements as defined in the OVA templates.
- ESXi Server hyperthread is enabled by default.
Remote Control of the Virtual Machines
For administrative tasks, you can use either Windows Remote Desktop or the VMware Infrastructure Client for remote control. The contact center supervisor can access the ClientAW VM using Windows Remote Desktop.
Installing VMware Tools
The VMware Tools must be installed on each of the VMs and all of the VMware Tools default settings should be used. Please refer to VMware documentation for instructions on installing or upgrading VMware Tools on the VM with Windows operating system.
Installing Unified CCE Components on Virtual Machines
You can install the Unified CCE components after the configuration of the VMs. Installation of these Unified CCE components on a VM is the same as the installation of these components on physical hardware.
Refer to the Unified CCE documentation for the steps to install Unified CCE components. You can install the supported Virus Scan software, the Cisco Security Agent(CSA), or any other software in the same way as on physical hardware.
Migrating Unified CCE Components to Virtual Machines
You can migrate the Unified CCE components from physical hardware or another virtual machine after the configuration of the VMs. Migration of these Unified CCE software components to a VM is the same as the migration of these components to new physical hardware and follows existing policies. It requires a Tech Refresh as described in the Upgrade Guide for Cisco Unified ICM/Contact Center Enterprise & Hosted Release 8.0(1).
Configuring the ESXi Data Store Block Size for Administration and Data Server
This section is applicable to storing Virtual Machines on C-210 M1 local storage. The C-210 Server comes with a default local storage configured with two sets of RAID groups. Disk 1-2 is RAID 1, while the remaining disks (3-10) are RAID 5.
The creation of the virtual machine for the UCCE Administration and Data Server requires a large virtual disk size. You must follow the steps described below to configure the ESXi data store block size to 2MB for it to handle the UCCE Administration and Data Server virtual disk size requirement before you deploy the OVAs for the following UCCE components:
Steps to configure the ESXi data store block size to 2MB:
- After you install ESXi 4.0 on the first disk array group (RAID 1 with disk 1 and disk 2), boot ESXi 4.0 and use VMware vSphere Client to connect to the ESXi host.
- On the Configuration tab for the host, select Storage in the box labeled Hardware. Select the second disk array group with RAID-5 configuration, and you will see in the formatting of "Datastore Details" that the block size is by default 1MB.
- Right-click on this data store and delete it. We will add the data store back in the following steps.
- Click on the "Add Storage…" and select the Disk/LUN.
- The data store that was just deleted will now be available to add, select it.
- In the configuration for this data store you will now be able to select the block size, select 2MB, and finish the adding of the storage to the ESXi host. This storage is now available for deployment of the virtual machines that requires large disk size, such as the Administration and Data Servers.
Performance Requirements
- CPU usage (average) should not exceed 60% for the ESXi Server and for each of the individual processors, and for each VM.
- Memory usage (average) should not exceed 80% for the ESXi Server and for each of the VMs.
- VM snapshots are not supported in production since they have significant impact on system performance.
- The SAN must be able to handle the following Unified CCE application disk I/O characteristics.
- Enable hyperthreading on all ESXi servers.
Timekeeping Best Practices for Windows
You should follow the best practices outlined in the VMware Knowledge Base article VMware KB: Timekeeping best practices for Windows.
- ESXi hosts and domain controllers should synchronize the time from the same NTP source.
- When Unified CCE virtual machines join the domain, they synchronize the time with the domain controller automatically using w32time.
- Be sure that Time synchronization between the virtual machine and the host operating system in the VMware Tools tool box GUI of the Windows Server 2003 guest operating system remains deselected; this checkbox is deselected by default.
System Performance Monitoring Using ESXi Counters
- Make sure that you follow VMware's ESXi best practices and SAN vendor's best practices for optimal system performance.
- VMware provides a set of system monitoring tools for the ESXi platform and the VMs. These tools are accessible through the VMware Infrastructure Client or through VirtualCenter.
- You can use Windows Performance Monitor to monitor the performance of the VMs. Be aware that the CPU counters may not reflect the physical CPU usage since the Windows Operating System has no direct access to the physical CPU.
- You can use Unified CCE Serviceability Tools and Unified CCE reports to monitor the operation and performance of the Unified CCE system.
- The ESXi Server and the virtual machines must operate within the limit of the following ESXi performance counters.
You can use the following ESXi counters as performance indicators.
|Performance Indication and Threshold
|CPU Usage (Average)
| CPU Usage Average in percentage for:
|Less than 60%.
|CPU Usage 0 - 7 (Average)
| CPU Usage Average for:
|Less than 60%
|CPU Ready
|The time a virtual machine or other process waits in the queue in a ready-to-run state before it can be scheduled on a CPU.
|Less than 150 mSec. If it is greater than 150 mSec doing system failure, you should investigate and understand why the machine is so busy.
|Memory Usage (Average)
|Memory Usage = Active/ Granted * 100
|Less than 80%
|Memory Active (Average)
|Memory that is actively used or being referenced by the guest OS and its applications. When it exceeds the amound of memory on the host, the server starts swap.
|Less than 80% of the Granted memory
|Memory Balloon (Average)
|ESXi use balloon driver to recover memory from less memory-intensive VMs so it can be used by those with larger active sets of memory.
|Since we do not over commit the memory, this should be 0 or very low. Note: ESXi performs memory ballooning before memory swap.
|Memory Swap used (Average)
|ESXi Server swap usage. Use the disk for RAM swap
|Since we do not over commit the memory, this should be 0 or very low
|Disk Usage (Average)
|Disk Usage = Disk Read rate + Disk Write rate
|Ensure that your SAN is configured to handle this amount of disk I/O.
|Disk Usage Read rate
|Rate of reading data from the disk
|Ensure that your SAN is configured to handle this amount of disk I/O
|Disk Usage Write rate
|Rate of writing data to the disk
|Ensure that your SAN is configured to handle this amount of disk I/O
|Disk Commands Issued
|Number of disk commands issued on this disk in the period.
|Ensure that your SAN is configured to handle this amount of disk I/O
|Disk Command Aborts
| Number of disk commands aborted on this disk in the period. Disk command aborts when the disk array is taking too long to respond to the command. (Command timeout)
This counter should be zero. A non-zero value indicates storage performance issue.
|Disk Command Latency
|The average amount of time taken for a command from the perspective of a Gust OS. Disk Command Latency = Kernel Command Latency + Physical Device Command Latency.
|15ms latencies or greater indicates a possible over-utilized, misbehaving, or mis-configured disk array.
|Kernel Disk Command Latency
|The average time spent in ESXi Server VMKernel per command
|Kernel Command Latency should be very small in comparison to the Physical Device Command Latency, and it should be close to zero. Kernel Command Latency can be high, or even higher than the Physical Device Command Latency if there is a lot of queuing in the ESXi kernel.
|Network Usage (Average)
|Network Usage = Data receive rate + Data transmit rate
|Less than 30% of the available network bandwidth. For example, it should be less than 300Mps for 1G network.
|Network Data Receive Rate
|Less than 30% of the available network bandwidth. For example, it should be less than 300Mps for 1G network.
|Network Data Transmit Rate
|The average rate at which data is transmitted on this Ethernet port
|Less than 30% of the available network bandwidth. For example, it should be less than 300Mps for 1G network.
System Performance Monitoring Using Windows Perfmon Counters
You must comply with the best practices described in the ICM 8.0(x) SRND section System Performance Monitoring, and in Chapter 8 Performance Counters in the Serviceability Best Practices Guide for Unified ICM/Contact Center Enterprise.


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Featured News - Current News - Archived News - News Categories
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and mtvU, MTV's 24-hour college network, have announced the six winners of the "Oscar Experience College Search" for aspiring filmmakers. The winners will appear live on stage to deliver Oscar statuettes to ceremony presenters at the Academy Awards on "Oscar Sunday," Feb. 24.
The winners are:
The winners were individually notified by show producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron.
"We created this contest when we came on board to produce this year's Oscars," Zadan and Meron said. "We felt that every person on the Oscar stage should have a passion for film and its future, and there is no better way to inspire young filmmakers than to make them part of film's most important night."
The contest was open to college students across the country and required them to submit a video responding to the question "How will you contribute to the future of movies?" The winners' videos can be viewed at http://bit.ly/OscarExp13
United Airlines, the official airline sponsor of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and of the 2013 Academy Awards telecast, will roll out the red carpet to fly the winners to Los Angeles for their Oscar experience.
In addition to their appearance on the Oscar stage, the students will be treated to film industry experiences, including a visit to The Academy Library to see its renowned memorabilia collections; studio tours; and a meet-and-greet with this year's Academy Award nominees in the Short Film category.
Samsung Galaxy, sponsor of the Oscars, will be providing each winner with a Samsung Galaxy Note II to document their experience. The behind-the-scenes stories of the college presenters will be seen on Oscar.com and Samsung social sites.
Oscars for outstanding film achievements of 2012 will be presented on "Oscar Sunday," Feb. 24, at the Dolby Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center, and will be hosted by Seth MacFarlane.


text: Changelog:- Remove imv_set_early (removed from API).- Use imv_* instead of immediate_*.Signed-off-by: Mathieu Desnoyers <email@example.com>CC: Rusty Russell <firstname.lastname@example.com>CC: Adrian Bunk <firstname.lastname@example.com>CC: Andi Kleen <firstname.lastname@example.com>CC: Alexey Dobriyan <firstname.lastname@example.com>CC: Christoph Hellwig <firstname.lastname@example.com>CC: email@example.com: email@example.com--- Documentation/immediate.txt | 221 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 221 insertions(+)Index: linux-2.6-lttng/Documentation/immediate.txt===================================================================--- /dev/null 1970-01-01 00:00:00.000000000 +0000+++ linux-2.6-lttng/Documentation/immediate.txt 2008-02-01 07:42:01.000000000 -0500@@ -0,0 +1,221 @@+ Using the Immediate Values++ Mathieu Desnoyers+++This document introduces Immediate Values and their use.+++* Purpose of immediate values++An immediate value is used to compile into the kernel variables that sit within+the instruction stream. They are meant to be rarely updated but read often.+Using immediate values for these variables will save cache lines.++This infrastructure is specialized in supporting dynamic patching of the values+in the instruction stream when multiple CPUs are running without disturbing the+normal system behavior.++Compiling code meant to be rarely enabled at runtime can be done using+if (unlikely(imv_read(var))) as condition surrounding the code. The+smallest data type required for the test (an 8 bits char) is preferred, since+some architectures, such as powerpc, only allow up to 16 bits immediate values.+++* Usage++In order to use the "immediate" macros, you should include linux/immediate.h.++#include <linux/immediate.h>++DEFINE_IMV(char, this_immediate);+EXPORT_IMV_SYMBOL(this_immediate);+++And use, in the body of a function:++Use imv_set(this_immediate) to set the immediate value.++Use imv_read(this_immediate) to read the immediate value.++The immediate mechanism supports inserting multiple instances of the same+immediate. Immediate values can be put in inline functions, inlined static+functions, and unrolled loops.++If you have to read the immediate values from a function declared as __init or+__exit, you should explicitly use _imv_read(), which will fall back on a+global variable read. Failing to do so will leave a reference to the __init+section after it is freed (it would generate a modpost warning).++You can choose to set an initial static value to the immediate by using, for+instance:++DEFINE_IMV(long, myptr) = 10;+++* Optimization for a given architecture++One can implement optimized immediate values for a given architecture by+replacing asm-$ARCH/immediate.h.+++* Performance improvement+++ * Memory hit for a data-based branch++Here are the results on a 3GHz Pentium 4:++number of tests: 100+number of branches per test: 100000+memory hit cycles per iteration (mean): 636.611+L1 cache hit cycles per iteration (mean): 89.6413+instruction stream based test, cycles per iteration (mean): 85.3438+Just getting the pointer from a modulo on a pseudo-random value, doing+ nothing with it, cycles per iteration (mean): 77.5044++So:+Base case: 77.50 cycles+instruction stream based test: +7.8394 cycles+L1 cache hit based test: +12.1369 cycles+Memory load based test: +559.1066 cycles++So let's say we have a ping flood coming at+(14014 packets transmitted, 14014 received, 0% packet loss, time 1826ms)+7674 packets per second. If we put 2 markers for irq entry/exit, it+brings us to 15348 markers sites executed per second.++(15348 exec/s) * (559 cycles/exec) / (3G cycles/s) = 0.0029+We therefore have a 0.29% slowdown just on this case.++Compared to this, the instruction stream based test will cause a+slowdown of:++(15348 exec/s) * (7.84 cycles/exec) / (3G cycles/s) = 0.00004+For a 0.004% slowdown.++If we plan to use this for memory allocation, spinlock, and all sorts of+very high event rate tracing, we can assume it will execute 10 to 100+times more sites per second, which brings us to 0.4% slowdown with the+instruction stream based test compared to 29% slowdown with the memory+load based test on a system with high memory pressure.++++ * Markers impact under heavy memory load++Running a kernel with my LTTng instrumentation set, in a test that+generates memory pressure (from userspace) by trashing L1 and L2 caches+between calls to getppid() (note: syscall_trace is active and calls+a marker upon syscall entry and syscall exit; markers are disarmed).+This test is done in user-space, so there are some delays due to IRQs+coming and to the scheduler. (UP 2.6.22-rc6-mm1 kernel, task with -20+nice level)++My first set of results: Linear cache trashing, turned out not to be+very interesting, because it seems like the linearity of the memset on a+full array is somehow detected and it does not "really" trash the+caches.++Now the most interesting result: Random walk L1 and L2 trashing+surrounding a getppid() call.++- Markers compiled out (but syscall_trace execution forced)+number of tests: 10000+No memory pressure+Reading timestamps takes 108.033 cycles+getppid: 1681.4 cycles+With memory pressure+Reading timestamps takes 102.938 cycles+getppid: 15691.6 cycles+++- With the immediate values based markers:+number of tests: 10000+No memory pressure+Reading timestamps takes 108.006 cycles+getppid: 1681.84 cycles+With memory pressure+Reading timestamps takes 100.291 cycles+getppid: 11793 cycles+++- With global variables based markers:+number of tests: 10000+No memory pressure+Reading timestamps takes 107.999 cycles+getppid: 1669.06 cycles+With memory pressure+Reading timestamps takes 102.839 cycles+getppid: 12535 cycles++The result is quite interesting in that the kernel is slower without+markers than with markers. I explain it by the fact that the data+accessed is not laid out in the same manner in the cache lines when the+markers are compiled in or out. It seems that it aligns the function's+data better to compile-in the markers in this case.++But since the interesting comparison is between the immediate values and+global variables based markers, and because they share the same memory+layout, except for the movl being replaced by a movz, we see that the+global variable based markers (2 markers) adds 742 cycles to each system+call (syscall entry and exit are traced and memory locations for both+global variables lie on the same cache line).+++- Test redone with less iterations, but with error estimates++10 runs of 100 iterations each: Tests done on a 3GHz P4. Here I run getppid with+syscall trace inactive, comparing the case with memory pressure and without+memory pressure. (sorry, my system is not setup to execute syscall_trace this+time, but it will make the point anyway).++No memory pressure+Reading timestamps: 150.92 cycles, std dev. 1.01 cycles+getppid: 1462.09 cycles, std dev. 18.87 cycles++With memory pressure+Reading timestamps: 578.22 cycles, std dev. 269.51 cycles+getppid: 17113.33 cycles, std dev. 1655.92 cycles+++Now for memory read timing: (10 runs, branches per test: 100000)+Memory read based branch:+ 644.09 cycles, std dev. 11.39 cycles+L1 cache hit based branch:+ 88.16 cycles, std dev. 1.35 cycles+++So, now that we have the raw results, let's calculate:++Memory read:+644.09±11.39 - 88.16±1.35 = 555.93±11.46 cycles++Getppid without memory pressure:+1462.09±18.87 - 150.92±1.01 = 1311.17±18.90 cycles++Getppid with memory pressure:+17113.33±1655.92 - 578.22±269.51 = 16535.11±1677.71 cycles++Therefore, if we add 2 markers not based on immediate values to the getppid+code, which would add 2 memory reads, we would add+2 * 555.93±12.74 = 1111.86±25.48 cycles++Therefore,++1111.86±25.48 / 16535.11±1677.71 = 0.0672+ relative error: sqrt(((25.48/1111.86)^2)+((1677.71/16535.11)^2))+ = 0.1040+ absolute error: 0.1040 * 0.0672 = 0.0070++Therefore: 0.0672±0.0070 * 100% = 6.72±0.70 %++We can therefore affirm that adding 2 markers to getppid, on a system with high+memory pressure, would have a performance hit of at least 6.0% on the system+call time, all within the uncertainty limits of these tests. The same applies to+other kernel code paths. The smaller those code paths are, the highest the+impact ratio will be.++Therefore, not only is it interesting to use the immediate values to dynamically+activate dormant code such as the markers, but I think it should also be+considered as a replacement for many of the "read-mostly" static variables.-- Mathieu DesnoyersComputer Engineering Ph.D. Student, Ecole Polytechnique de MontrealOpenPGP key fingerprint: 8CD5 52C3 8E3C 4140 715F BA06 3F25 A8FE 3BAE 9A68--To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" inthe body of a message to email@example.com majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.htmlPlease read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/


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President To Pardon Turkeys
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama throws his support behind Liberty...
< WA Gov. Candidates To Debate Oct. 11
Sep 27, 2012 06:19
Category: General News
Category: General News
Putting The Flavor Back Into Chips & Chocolate
NEW YORK (AP) — Some snack brands like Hershey's Chocolate and Lay's potato chips are trying to put the flavor back without some of the calories for diet-conscious munchers. They're beginning to roll out so-called mid-calorie goodies that have more fat and calories than the flavorless snacks of earlier diet crazes but less than the original versions.


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text: BtoB's Leading Edge to feature SiriusDecisions' Jaros Published on June 18, 2013. New York—BtoB will present its annual online trade show, Leading Edge, on Thursday. The virtual event, accessible via desktop or tablet devices, will feature keynote addresses from notable marketers and marketing consultants, as well as several breakout sessions. "Leading Edge is not only a significant learning opportunity for b-to-b marketers but also is a completely virtual conference and expo—a great example of leading-edge marketing personified," said Bob Felsenthal, VP-publisher of BtoB. "Leading Edge this year will focus on lead generation, and in particular how content marketing can make for lead-gen success." This year's half-day Leading Edge virtual event—free to attendees—is dubbed "Driving Demand in the Digital Age." The agenda features video keynote addresses by Tony Jaros, senior VP-research at marketing consultancy SiriusDecisions, and Mark Wilson, CMO at business communications company Avaya Inc. Between these two featured events will be several breakout sessions, including "Creating Content That Converts: Content Marketing for Lead Generation," "Give 'Em What They Want: Customer-oriented Demand Generation" and "Creating a Social Content Marketing Strategy to Enable Sales." Featured breakout presenters will include Dayna Rothman, content marketing manager at Marketo Inc.; Jeff Perkins, VP-global online marketing at Premiere Global Services; and Jeffrey Linton, senior marketing manager at Act-On. Attendees will be able to visit a virtual exposition hall and interact with vendors in virtual booths. Exhibitors include Bizo Inc., Demandbase Inc., DemandCon, Integrate, Intercall, ON24, Pardot and ZoomInfo. "Marketers will have the opportunity to experience several great presentations about marketing best practices, interact with attendees and vendors on our virtual expo floor, and experience firsthand how content can be delivered in a dynamic, interactive way," Felsenthal said. Leading Edge: Driving Demand in the Digital Age begins at 11:30 a.m. ET, June 20, with the opening of the exhibit hall. The opening keynote begins at 12:00 p.m. ET, with the event concluding at 5:30 p.m. ET. For more information and to register, click here. Most Popular In this article: BtoB


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LU FRAILI, Sardinia — April was lovely, as always, in Sardinia. The summer tourists had not yet arrived; the island was covered with wildflowers and the wild asparagus was pushing up among the cork trees. This spring felt especially healing after the death and destruction wrought by cyclone Cleopatra last November. The storm had damaged my 84-year-old father's house, and I had come to deal with the repairs.
Sardinia is a special autonomous region of Italy, with greater local control of legislation, administration and finance than in other Italian regions. It is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean after Sicily, with which it shares representation in the European Parliament. A hardscrabble life, shaped by the island's unique language, environment and history, has given Sardinians a strong sense of identity, which they struggle to defend against the forces of cultural and economic integration with Italy, Europe, and the rest of the world.
My Sardinian friends organized a special dinner for me featuring a traditional suckling pig roasted on myrtle branches, as well as Sardinian wines, including Cannonau. Eventually, the conversation veered into the contentious realm of Italian politics and the upcoming European parliamentary elections.
The men on either side of me locked into a debate in rapid-fire Italian that I, the lone American, strained to follow. One guest was a convert to the populist Five Star Movement of comedian-turned-political-activist Beppe Grillo. Both of Italy's main political parties, he argued, were beholden to the same powerful business and Mafia interests. Only the Five Star party had the courage to chart a path out of Italy's political quagmire and its enslavement to a European Union co-opted by international business interests.
The other guest argued just as passionately that Mr. Grillo was a dangerous populist and that Italy's best hope lay with the center-left Democratic Party, Italy's new prime minister, the 39-year-old go-getter, Matteo Renzi, and Renato Soru, Sardinia's own Internet billionaire and the Democratic Party's candidate to represent Sardinia and Sicily in the European Parliament. One of the other guests chimed in to say the real danger was Silvio Berlusconi and his conservative Forza Italia party, along with the extreme-right Northern League.
Sardinia has a rich history of invasion and exploitation by outsiders. Now the lack of jobs forces many of the island's sons and daughters to leave to seek employment on the Italian mainland and beyond. Per capita income in Sardinia is nearly 25 percent lower than the Italian average, and unemployment tops 18 percent. The traditional handicrafts industry has been eviscerated. Middle-class tourism has nose-dived.
At the same time, the superrich continue to flock to Sardinia's Costa Smeralda where Mr. Berlusconi owns a multimillion-dollar estate and Qatar Holding has announced plans to build new ultraluxury hotels and an aquatic amusement park. But a tourism-dependent economy has compounded the estrangement many Sardinians feel toward their homeland and culture. Some still dream of seceding from Italy entirely, and the recent vote, largely symbolic, by Venetians to do just that has inspired them.
Beyond Italy, many see global economic integration as the greatest threat Sardinian culture has ever faced. While the European Union's money is welcomed — Sardinia benefits from union designation as a region targeted for economic improvement — the additional layer of European rules imposed on the island's small business owners and agriculturalists is resented.
The United States is now lobbying hard in the proposed trans-Atlantic trade deal to crack European resistance to American agribusiness products, generally characterized by European news media as hormone-laden beef, bleach-rinsed chicken and genetically modified foods. This does not go over well in Italy, and many Sardinians fear the agreement, if approved, would create a supragovernmental set of rules dictated by powerful multinational corporations that would threaten a central part of Sardinian culture: local food. Similar fears are driving the rise of euro-skepticism and secession talk elsewhere in Europe in advance of the European parliamentary elections next week.
At the end of the evening, I asked one of my Sardinian friends about the movement to have the island adopted by Switzerland. "Too much Cannonau can make everything seem possible," he said with a laugh.


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Michael A. Simons
Michael A. Simons joined the St. John's faculty in 1998 and was appointed Dean of the School of Law in 2009.
Dean Simons teaches in the areas of criminal law and evidence, and he has been a frequent lecturer to the bench and bar on both topics. He was selected by the students as "Professor of the Year" in 2000 and 2011. From 2005 through 2008, he served as Associate Dean for Faculty Scholarship. His own scholarship has focused on sentencing, prosecutorial decision-making, and punishment theory. His articles have appeared in the New York University Law Review, the Vanderbilt Law Review, the George Mason Law Review, the Villanova Law Review, the St. John's Law Review, The Catholic Lawyer, the Journal of Catholic Legal Studies, the Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Development, and the Temple Political and Civil Rights Law Review.
Since 2001, he has been a Fellow with the Vincentian Center for Church and Society. During 2005 and 2006, he was a member of the New York City Mayor's Advisory Committee on the Judiciary. He has also been involved with St. John's efforts to increase the diversity of the legal profession, including by organizing and hosting the annual Catholic Middle Schools Mock Trial Program, by teaching in the Ronald H. Brown Center's Summer Prep Program, and by lecturing for Legal Outreach.
Dean Simons graduated magna cum laude from the College of the Holy Cross in 1986 and magna cum laude from the Harvard Law School in 1989, where he was an editor of the Harvard Law Review. After law school, Dean Simons clerked for the Honorable Louis F. Oberdorfer of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia (1989-90). He later served as a staff attorney for The Washington Post (1990-91), as an associate at Stillman, Friedman & Shaw (1991-95), and as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York (1995-98).
A graduate of Chaminade High School in Mineola, New York, Dean Simons resides on Long Island with his wife Karen and their five children.


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Reviewed By Stephen W (MOUNT VERNON, OH) Reviewed for a 2004 Ford F-150 —10/22/2017 8:15 AM
Installation was easy and the end result was beautiful
There are no customer reviews for this product
Reviewed By Kelly C (CLINTON, IA) Reviewed for a 2004 Ford F-150 —5/23/2015 8:41 AM
The LEDs are bright, clear, and distinct. The Anzo Tailgate Spoiler, mounted at the top of the tailgate as opposed to the bottom / just above the bumper, provides greater visibility, especially when towing many types of trailers. The fit and finish are excellent. Note that the Anzo Tailgate Spoiler sits about a quarter of an inch taller than the original spoiler on my 2004 F-150 newbody. Take that into consideration if you are presently using a topper or fitted cover.


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Vice President of Research & Collections and Chief
Curator, Denver Museum of Nature & Science
Johnson joined the Museum in 1991 after earning his doctorate
in geology and paleobotany from Yale University. He studies fossil
plants, terrestrial stratigraphy, geochronology, and dinosaur
extinction and has published many popular and scientific books and
articles. He is best known for his research on fossil plants, which
is widely accepted as some of the most convincing support for the
theory that an asteroid impact caused the extinction of the
dinosaurs. His research has taken him to Alaska's Bering Sea, the
Brazilian Amazon, the Canadian High Arctic, the rainforests of New
Zealand, the Gobi desert, India, China, Patagonia, and the American
West. His book, "Cruisin' the Fossil Freeway," won the Colorado
Humanities award for best nonfiction book in 2007.
Chair, Department of Earth Sciences, Curator of
Paleontology, Denver Museum of Nature & Science
Dr. Miller
received his PhD in geology and geophysics from Yale University in
2007. Dr. Miller studies fossil plants, paleoclimate, paleoecology,
and tectonics. Dr. Miller's current research projects include the
uplift history of the Colorado Front Range; the displacement of
geologic terranes on the west coast of North America;
Cretaceous-Tertiary plant diversity in the Denver Basin; the
taxonomy of Late Jurassic through Eocene floras in the American
West; and the fossil plants of the Grand Staircase Escalante
National Monument.
Curator of Archaeology, Denver Museum of Nature &
Dr. Holen
joined the Museum in 2001 after completing his doctorate in
anthropology at the University of Kansas. Dr. Holen has more than
30 years of experience in Great Plains archaeology and extensive
experience with public education in a museum setting.
His research has focused on the Clovis people-the earliest
well-known North American human culture at 13,000 years old. He has
studied Clovis use and long-distance movement of stone tools in the
central Great Plains of North America. He has also excavated
several pre-Clovis mammoth sites that date between 16,000 and
20,000 years old. These sites are significant because they reveal
evidence that humans were in North America long before the Clovis
people. This is one of the most hotly debated topics in North
American archaeology.
President & CEO, Denver Museum of Nature &
George Sparks,
President & CEO since November 2004, received a master's
degree in aeronautics and astronautics from MIT, and a bachelor's
degree in aeronautical engineering from the United States Air Force
Academy. Sparks served as an Air Force pilot and was an assistant
professor of aeronautics at the United States Air Force Academy.
From 1979 to 1999, he worked for Hewlett-Packard. From 1999 to
2003, he was a vice president for Agilent Technologies. Sparks has
worked closely with Denver Public Schools and has served as a board
member for many Colorado organizations, including the University of
Colorado President's Leadership Class, Colorado MESA, Colorado
Forum, the Public Education and Business Coalition, Colorado Bright
Beginnings, and the Colorado Advisory Council of the Trust for
Public Lands. He also serves on Mayor John Hickenlooper's Early
Childhood Education Leadership Team.
Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Claude
W. Hibbard Collegiate Professor of Paleontology, University of
Dr. Fisher completed his PhD in Geological Sciences at Harvard
University in 1975. In 1979, he moved to the University of
Michigan. Shortly after arriving in Ann Arbor, Fisher was called to
several local sites where remains of mastodons had turned up during
excavation of farm ponds. He is widely recognized as one of the
world's leading mastodon experts. He has recently expanded his
research to include woolly mammoths in northern Siberia. Dr. Fisher
is the guest curator for a large, traveling exhibit called
"Mammoths and Mastodons: Titans of the Ice Age," which opened March
5, 2010 at The Field Museum in Chicago.
About the Denver Museum of Nature & Science The Denver
Museum of Nature & Science is the Rocky Mountain Region's
leading resource for informal science education. A variety of
engaging exhibits, discussions and activities help Museum visitors
celebrate and understand the natural wonders of Colorado, Earth and
the universe. The Museum is located at 2001 Colorado Blvd., Denver,
CO, 80205. To learn more about the Museum, check
www.dmns.org, or call 303-370-6000.
Many of the Museum's educational programs and exhibits are
made possible in part by generous funding from the citizens of
the seven-county metro area through the Scientific & Cultural
Facilities District.