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About UsAll Mortgage Solutions was founded in 2002 by Mark Webb FPC CeMAP, having provided mortgage and financial advice for many years (through Abbey National, Liverpool Victoria, Lloyds TSB and Royal and Sun Alliance) he felt his clients would benefit most if he specialised in providing independent advice about property finance and the associated insurances. Since then All Mortgage Solutions has grown and evolved into the business it is today. Contact us about mortgages, secured loans or insurance protection, we'd be pleased to help.
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All Mortgage Solutions is directly authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority to advise on and arrange mortgages and non-investment insurance products. Reg.No.300850. Your home may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgage, or any loan secured against it.
Latest NewsTen tips for buy-to-let
For many buy-to-let looks an attractive income investment in a time of low rates and stock market volatility. Read our top ten buy-to-let tips

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Circle Theatre
9740 East Flower Street,
No one has favorited this theater yet
The Circle was built in 1940 around the corner from the more prominent Nubell (Holiday) Theatre. Carl Moeller was listed as its designer. Vintage Bellflower photos at the Los Angeles Public Library show a building with a similar arch roof and pre-1940 cars parked outside so it could be a rebuild of and older building. This may be so since county records list 1940 as the effective date of construction.
The original address, before the street numbering system was changed in the late 40s, was 840 East Flower Street.
The Circle was always listed as an independent and can be seen today in downtown Bellflower. City directories show that since about 1954 it has been used as a church.
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Message Board
Niall Williams Message Board
Talk about the novels, new and used books that Williams has written!
Author Williams's Book Reviews
The Fall Of Light
Warner, Mar 2002, 24.95, 305 pp. ISBN: 0446528404 Estate gardener Francis Foley becomes upset with his absentee employer. He sets fire to the manor house and steals a telescope from the estate where he worked. Taking his four sons ranging in age from twelve to nineteen, Francis flees across Ireland. However, fortune fails to shine on the five males as Francis is swept away by the current of a river they were crossing. His traveling compan...


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You are seeing this error because:
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Silver Creek Valley Real Estate, Silicon Valley Luxury Real Estate, Luxury Homes Bay Area Luxury Home Sales Luxury Portfolio San Jose Ofelia Ventura 1870 Saddle Park Place 4701 Mountaire Place 4642 Hill Top View Lane


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Join the Hamilton Support Group on December 8th, 2018
Where: St. Peter's Hospital, North Conference room, Lower Level, 88 Maplewood Ave. Hamilton. Take the "WEST ELEVATORS" near the cafeteria, & you will find us easily.
When: 10:30 AM- 12 PM.
Questions or to RSVP, contact the DMRF Canada at firstname.lastname@example.com or 1-800-361-8061


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Blue Forest Ketubah
Artist: Judith Joseph
A clearing in the forest. Majestic trees arch towards each other like lovers, forming a marriage canopy. In the center, celestial blue reminds us of the ultimate huppah of heaven. Stars peek through the upper branches: it is an enchanted evening and daylight, all in ...[more]
Dimensions: 1111
Medium: Giclée
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Judith Joseph has been making ketubot since the revival of the art form in the early 1970's. She has made over 450 original, hand-lettered and hand-painted, personalized ketubot. She has a degree in art from the University of Wisconsin and has twice been awarded Artists' Fellowship Awards from the Illinois Arts Council. She is a published illustrator and her work was written about in many books about Jewish art. She lives in the Chicago area, and teaches painting at the Botanic Garden. Her ketubah art has never before been available in print form, and she chose Ketubah.com for its debut.
A clearing in the forest. Majestic trees arch towards each other like lovers, forming a marriage canopy. In the center, celestial blue reminds us of the ultimate huppah of heaven. Stars peek through the upper branches: it is an enchanted evening and daylight, all in one.
Short on Time? Items marked with this icon are our fastest! They are ready to ship on short notice, even if you choose to personalize your Ketubah text. Choose between our personalized shipping options to accommodate even the most hurried schedule.
Items marked with this icon are our easiest. Choose your favorite design in the size that suits your home and budget. Then mix and match it with one of our many text options. You can even add your own special touch with options like "Your Own Text" or have us print your order on canvas to achieve the perfect look. With special features such as hi-rez zoom, and printer friendly text samples, there is no easier way to shop.
Items marked with this icon come in a wide range of texts. Regardless of your – and your wedding officiant's – Ketubah text requirements, these designs are sure to hit the mark.
With prices starting at $100, there's a Ketubah for every budget. Designs with a single $ are our most reasonably priced. Two $'s means moderate price. Looking for something really unique, check out our Premium Ketubahs ($$$).
Select a text option from above.
We highly recommend consulting with your wedding officiant before selecting a Ketubah text. Many rabbis, cantors and officiants prefer or require a certain type of text. If you are placing your order online, you can print up a copy of your Ketubah text from our website. Should you order with us by phone, we will fax or email you a copy of your Ketubah text. No matter how you order, we definitely suggest you forward the text to your wedding officiant. This small pre-wedding task will save you from any concern o...[more]
Please choose a text option and select a shipping method to proceed with your order.


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Tag Archives: race car drivers
The final lap
Well, we're on the final lap with our race car drivers. They're heading down the home stretch about to finish the first race of their lives! hehe This is their last week here, as they will all be going home … Continue reading
Posted in Cavapoos, eight weeks, Puppies Tagged aggressive, approaches, attention, basics, behavior, better, bowl, cavapoo puppies, cavapoos, clicker, continued, couch, crate, de-wormer, demeanor, dish, eating, eight weeks old, exam, exercises, eye, final, food, fresh air, good, growl, guard, hand, health certificate, holding, home stretch, individual, inside, lap, laps, last, learn, learns, life, litter box, litter boxes, lives, manding, marking, meals, micro-chips, nose, outside, pee, people, picture, play area, play pen, playtime, poop, possessive, potty, prevention, puppies, puppy, puppy obstacles, puppy's, race, race car drivers, rain, reach, react, reprimand, resource guarding, scenarios, separated, sessions, shot, sit, sleeping, snappy, sprinkled, standing, stiffen, sunshine, thing, tidbit, toys, training, treat, twelve weeks, vaccination, vet, walk, week Leave a comment


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Quality CareFind out why Mayo Clinic is the right place for your health care. Make an appointment.
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Our general interest e-newsletter keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics.
Insulin therapy is a critical part of treatment for people with type 1 diabetes and also for many with type 2 diabetes. The goal of insulin therapy is to maintain blood sugar levels within your target range.
Insulin is usually administered in the fat under your skin using a syringe, insulin pen or insulin pump. Which insulin regimen is best for you depends on factors such as the type of diabetes you have, how much your blood sugar fluctuates throughout the day and your lifestyle.
Each insulin type is characterized by:
Many types of insulin are available. Here's how they compare. Keep in mind that your doctor may prescribe a mixture of insulin types to use throughout the day and night.
Insulin aspart (NovoLog)
Insulin glulisine (Apidra)
Insulin lispro (Humalog)
Insulin regular (Humulin R, Novolin R)
Insulin NPH (Humulin N, Novolin N)
Insulin glargine (Lantus/ Toujeo)
Insulin detemir (Levemir)
In some cases, premixed insulin — a combination of specific proportions of intermediate-acting and short- or rapid-acting insulin in one bottle or insulin pen — may be an option.
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Duke vs. Clemson
November 3, 2012 (7:00 p.m.)
Wallace Wade Stadium (Durham, N.C.)
Blue Devil IMG Sports Network
• Duke plays game 10 of its 100th season of football by hosting No. 10 Clemson at Wallace Stadium Stadium on Saturday at 7 p.m. ... The game will be broadcast live by ESPN2 with Mark Jones (play-by-play), Brock Huard (analyst) & Jessica Mendoza (sideline) calling the action
• The Blue Devils stand at 6-3 overall and 3-2 in ACC play after falling, 48-7, at Florida State last weekend, while the Tigers are 7-1 overall and 4-1 in league play after winning at Wake Forest, 42-13, last Thursday night
• Saturday's game will mark the 53rd on the gridiron between the two schools, with Clemson holding a 35-16-1 all-time series advantage
• Duke's last win over Clemson came on November 13, 2004 when Matt Brooks booted a 53-yard field goal as time expired for a 16-13 win at Wallace Wade Stadium
• Kangaroo Express is the official game sponsor ... Also, Duke celebrates Youth Football Team Day with the Clemson tilt
• The Blue Devils are 5-0 at Wallace Wade Stadium this year, matching the school record for home victories in a season
• Duke WR Conner Vernon is the only player in ACC history to record four seaons with 50+ receptions & 700+ receiving yards
• At 3-2 in the ACC, Duke sits in a tie atop the Coastal Division with Miami & North Carolina ... At 4-1, Clemson is one-half game behind Florida State (5-1) in the Atlantic Division
• Duke holds an all-time record of 23-130-6 versus nationally-ranked foes (AP poll) — including a 10-55-4 mark against top-10 teams ... The Blue Devils' last win over a ranked foe was a 28-25 victory over No. 13 Virginia on Nov. 5, 1994 ... Duke's last triumph over a top-10 squad came in the form of a 21-17 decision over No. 7 Clemson on Sept. 30, 1989 in Durham
• Clemson and Duke are two of the ACC's three bowl-eligible teams, joined by Florida State
By the Numbers
5 — Touchdown receptions for WRs Jamison Crowder & Conner Vernon this year, becoming the fourth duo in Duke history to accomplish the feat: Clarkston Hines (10) & Keith Ewell (7), 1988; S. Montgomery (5) & Richmond Flowers (5), 1999; Eron Riley (9) & Jomar Wright (5), 2007; Jamison Crowder (5) & Conner Vernon (5), 2012
82 — Receiving yards needed by WR Conner Vernon to pass former Florida State standout Peter Warrick (3,517) as the ACC's career leader
92 — Graduation Success Rate (GSR) for Duke's football program released on October 25 ... Duke is one of nine FBS schools with a rate of 90 percent of higher.
1.11 — Sacks allowed per game average for the Blue Devils, a total that ranks second in the ACC ... Last Saturday, Duke allowed zero sacks while throwing 37 passes against Florida State, which posseses the top two individual sack artists in the ACC
4 — Rushing touchdowns for RB Jela Duncan, marking the fifth-highest single-season total by a Duke freshman ... The four TDs have come in the last five weeks ... Also, Duncan leads the team in rushing yards (385)
4 — Consecutive years Duke has hosted a top-10 opponent in Wallace Wade Stadium — No. 7 Georgia Tech (2009), No. 1 Alabama (2010) & No. 6 Stanford (2011) came to Durham prior to this week's foe, No. 10 Clemson


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24X26 HI-D CLEAR LIGHT WGHT ROLLS 6 MIC (Sold Per Case)
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High-Density Sturdy Sax Can Liners, Coreless Rolls, Clear. Star seal bottom prevents vacuum at bottom of container that can restrict easy lifting. 100% recyclable; inks and colorants are heavy metal free10-Gallon Capacity. 24 x 24. 6 Mic. 1000 Bags per CaseManufacturer: FLEXSOL
Manufacturer: FLEXSOL


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London's famous Knightsbridge area sits on the west of the city, offering a plethora of high-end shops and department stores including both Harrods and Harvey Nicholls. A trip to Harrods is a must for any visitor to the capital, just to see the fascinating window displays if nothing else.
As well as the shopping on offer in Knightsbridge, it's also a fantastic place to eat with first rate restaurants and bars adorning the local area.
Radisson Blu Edwardian Vanderbilt Hotel
The Radisson Blu Edwardian Vanderbit Hotel sits in a sought after location on Gloucester Road in South Kensington. Just a short stroll past the Victoria and Albert Museum on Brompton Road will take you into the heart of Knightsbridge, with Harrods on your right and Hyde Park on your left.
Find out more about the Radisson Blu Edwardian Vanderbilt Hotel
The May Fair Hotel, Mayfair
To the East of Knightsbridge sits The May Fair Hotel, in London's prestigious Mayfair district. A walk along Picadilly through Hyde Park Corner will bring you into the centre of Knightsbridge towards the Royal Albert Hall if you take Kensington Road or towards Harrods if you take Brompton Road.
Find out more about the The May Fair Hotel, Quince at The May Fair or The May Fair Bar.
Read our Guide to Knightsbridge for ideas on what to do in the area during your stay.


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Dan Hesson came for the lacrosse, but he stayed for the pizza.
Hesson, who coaches the varsity boys lacrosse team for Cheyenne Central High School in Wyoming, drove 127 miles this past weekend to lead his team against a host of unknown competition in the third annual Mountain Lax Jam.
The Indians certainly got that, as 65 teams combined for more than 150 games in the two-day tournament that was held in Evergreen and Conifer.
If you currently subscribe or have subscribed in the past to the Canyon Courier, then simply find your account number on your mailing label and enter it below.
Click the question mark below to see where your account ID appears on your mailing label.
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2019 ALSC Election
View the 2019 election results
General Timeline
ALSC's elections occur at the same time as ALA's. More details about the ALA election process are available on the ALA Election Page. Each year, the ALSC membership elects a Vice-President/President-Elect, three Board members, eight Newbery Award Selection Committee members, eight Caldecott Award Selection Committee members, and five Sibert Award Selection Committee members. Every three years, a new-to-ALSC Director, Division Councilor and Fiscal Officer are also elected. More information about the roles and responsibilities of these positions are under the "Governance" section of the ALSC Handbook of Organization.
Nominations (including self-nominations) are welcomed and may be sent to the current chair of the Nominating Committee, per the timeline below. Additionally, per ALSC Bylaws Article X: Nominations and Elections, Sec. 4. A candidate may be nominated by a petition signed by twenty-five personal members of ALSC. The nominee shall be a member in good standing of the Association. The petition and the written consent of the nominee shall be filed with the ALSC Executive Director for at least four months before the annual meeting (February), and the names of the candidates so nominated shall be listed on the official ballot. Information about petition candidates, including how to start an e-petition, is found on the ALA election web page.
Fall/Midwinter Meeting
The ALSC Vice President/President-Elect appoints a Nominating Committee. Per the Committee's membership statement in the ALSC Handbook, the Past-President is invited to serve in the year immediately following the Past-Presidential year.
Nominations may be submitted to the Nominating Committee via an online form.
Please review information about the nominating process for ALSC board/governance positions.
The Nominating Committee drafts a list of potential candidates.
Annual Conference
Nominating Committee meets to draft slate of candidates at Annual Conference. It is possible that oral acceptance may be obtained from some candidates immediately following the conference.
ALSC office verifies membership of potential candidates.
Invitations are sent to potential candidates by the Nominating Committee. Candidates who consent notify the ALSC Office.
If candidates do not consent, Nominating Committee must find replacement candidates who can consent by 9/1.
September 1 is the deadline for office to receive all statements of consent.
Office will informally give slate to ALSC President so fall appointments can begin with these names in mind.
Office will send candidates instructions on completing the online biographical information form. Candidates can begin completing the online biographical forms.
Slate informally presented at ALSC Executive Committee Meeting, and may thereafter be made public.
December 10 is the deadline for candidates to submit information via the online biographical information form. Changes may still be made, if necessary, through the ALSC Office.
Slate appears in the winter issue of Children and Libraries.
Before December 31, the ALSC Office will follow up with any candidates whose memberships expire at year-end to make sure they renew and will therefore be able to vote.
Deadline for petition candidates to provide written consent to appear on the ballot, as well as petition with at least 25 names in support of candidacy, to the ALSC office
Deadline for ALA members to request paper ballots; election opens.
Election closes in late April.
Election results are announced. The office notifies both successful and unsuccessful candidates via phone calls/letters.
Board, Vice President/President-Elect, Fiscal Officer, and Division Councilor terms begin at the close of Annual Conference.
Award committee terms begin at the beginning of the Midwinter Meeting.


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SPRINGFIELD, MA—One school record fell and another Corsair placed as the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth's track and field team completed their second and final day of competition at the Eastern College Athletic Conference Championships at Springfield's Blake Track.
Sophomore Jake Texeira (Seekonk, MA/Seekonk HS) placed seventh in the 400 meter intermediate hurdles in 54.17 seconds. Senior Gerald Arneaud (Dorchester, MA/Newton South HS) finished ninth at 400 meters and broke his own school record, with a time of 48.99 seconds.
The 4 x 100 meter relay team of freshman Barbara Okafor (Hyde Park, MA/Boston Latin HS), senior Jillian Van Ness (Agawam, MA/Agawam HS), freshman Laquaysia Anderson-Jenkins (Brighton, MA/Brighton HS), and senior Morgan Cooper (Sunderland, MA/Frontier Regional HS) placed ninth in 48.94 seconds.
Anderson-Jenkins was 14th at 200 meters in 25.47 seconds, the second fastest time in school history and just two-hundredths of a second off Van Ness' school record. Van Ness was 17th in 25.55 and was 16th at 400 meters in 59.01 seconds. Cooper was 24th at 400 meters in 59.71 seconds. Junior Zach Switaj (Tamworth, NH/Kennett Regional HS) was 20th at 1500 meters in 3:59.93, while freshman Grunde Brandso (Dartmouth, MA/Dartmouth HS) fouled on his throws in the shot put and did not receive a mark.
"It was a good performance," said UMass Dartmouth Head Coach Steve Gardiner. "I was really glad to see Gerald break the 49 second mark in his last meet, that's something he always wanted to do. Jake Texeira has had a really consistent year. To be on either side of 54 seconds in every meet is something to be proud of."
Junior Krista Chauvin (Seekonk, MA/Seekonk HS/Stonehill), who has the top-ranked hammer throw in the nation, could be joined by one or two Corsairs at next week's NCAA Division III Championships. Junior Brett Croteau (Rehoboth, MA/Dighton-Rehoboth HS) is currently ranked 17th nationally in the javelin, while Texeira currently stands 25th in the 400 hurdles. The field will be released Monday, and the championships take place next Thursday through Saturday at the University of Wisconsin-Lacrosse.


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Complete with professionally choreographed stage fights, true love, bawdy humor and tragedy, the play has a little something for everyone. Page promises an eventful night out, saying, "the extremely talented cast is focusing on original staging practice, meaning the audience will be included and there is no 'fourth wall,' which is both thrilling and terrifying for the actors! So who knows what will happen!"
Both Page and ROH Executive Director Anthony Ejarque share a passion for Shakespeare and are thrilled to bring Romeo and Juliet to the Rochester Opera House stage. Ejarque, who trained at the prestigious National Shakespeare Conservatory in New York, believes, "Shakespeare's writing serves as the base of all modern literature. His stories are timeless and his characters are extraordinary." Page holds a Masters of Letters Degree in Shakespeare and Renaissance Literature from the American Shakespeare Center at Mary Baldwin College.
Reserve tickets ($14/$12) online at www.rochesteroperahouse.com or call/stop by the box office (603-335-1992) M/W/F from 10-5 and two hours before the show. Rochester Opera House has included this play in the Arts & Education Series (Tuesday-Friday, March 26-29 at 10 a.m.), which offers reduced ticketing to regional school systems. For more information and to reserve tickets, please contact the box office.
The Rochester Opera House is located in City Hall, 31 Wakefield St.The season continues with the Lottery Cocktail Party on May 12 and The Corvettes on May 20.


text: Unlock your HTC cellular mobile phone using our easy and fast Swiftunlock online unlocking system. Unlocking your HTC cellphone couldn't be easier. Simple codes to be entered via phone's keypad and you are done. Click on your model from the list or select from drop down menu list of HTC mobile device phones above to carry out our specialist remote unlock service. It's 100% SAFE and GUARANTEED!


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Blue Grama
Blue grama grass is a native perennial grass that grows over two feet (.6 m) tall. It can be recognized by its bunchgrass characteristic and curly leaves.
Blue grama is a warm-season species that is one of the most dominant shortgrass prairie grasses in North America from Southern Canada to central Mexico. It also occurs in the Great Basin and southern California. In Oklahoma, it is more common in the western two-thirds of the state. Blue grama occurs in more dry, open sites with shallow soils the further east it grows.
Blue grama can grow in a variety of soil types. It decreases with soil disturbance. Plants begin growth in early spring and flower in July. During hot, dry periods the plants are dormant.
Blue grama is adapted to fire and grazing. It is capable of withstanding heavy grazing by livestock and provides high quality forage when green. It is a preferred species for bison and small mammals, and is occasionally eaten by mule deer, white-tailed deer and pronghorn antelope. Songbirds, game birds and small mammals consume the caryopses*.
*Caryopses: in grasses, one-seeded fruit. Synonym is grain.


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Mountain Rescue in England and Wales is paid for entirely by public donations. Donate now.
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Serenity of Suffering design printed on a black cotton tee.
Everything on this site is 100% Officially licensed. We guarantee you'll love your items or you can send them back for a full refund. Buy with confidence.
See our return policies
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I doubted that even with a few extra days, I would be able to finish my challenge quilt, but lo and behold, I did it! It energized me to see each pieced border completed, and that helped spur me on to the finish line. My finished quilt, based on the Arabella pattern from Blended Wall Quilts (mine's larger than the pattern in the book) finishes at approximately 57" square.
Check in with Nicole, Perry and Cindy to see their finished quilts! Thanks for playing along! Ready for the next challenge, ladies?


text: i'm a new "GIS 's needer" and i have just Pleasantly surprised to find your community ( thanks google!!!! ) I need for my office's project a appication who permit web sharing(only reading)some gps point on the satellite's map of my country(like google maps) but also this solution will permit to manage users ...i want just say that there 'll be differents users to read gps map and i want lanage the level of authorization to see information of each point e.g :when administrator"i" update the map with GPS coordonate of "A" point with some information to represent a location where somebody do a business trip I would have wanted that my boss have permission to see all information of the business trip ,but that my office colleague hav just authorization to see the name of man who do business trip... please sorry for my english i live in french's country and i hope your advice to do my best for this project thank you !!!!


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Honor, bravery and love of country surely must be a few of the factors that lead our loved ones to serve as they left children and loved ones at home while they gave of their time for their country.
Katie Marie Coleman-Ashley held the rank of Specialist, her job was as an Automated Logistical Specialist. Maintaining and distributing the Army's large inventory of food, medicines, ammunition, spare parts and other supplies is an incredibly important job. The Automated Logistical Specialist is an integral member of the Army's supply and warehousing specialist team, responsible for supervising and performing management or warehouse functions in order to maintain equipment records and parts. Some of Katie's most important duties were making sure that the right supplies were delivered at the right time to help ensure the safety of Army troops in the field and on the front lines.
Katie Marie Coleman-Ashley served in HHC 9th Battalion of the 101st Airborne out of Fort Campbell, Kentucky. She was a proud member of the famed "Screaming Eagles". The distinguished history of the 101st goes back to WWII and has continued into today's world with service in Iraq and Afghanistan. When the division's second deployment began in 2005, Katie eventually was called to go abroad. She left her young son in the care of his Grandparents back in Nebraska as she deployed to Iraq for a year of service.
|Homecoming for Katie Marie with her son,Tyler, at Ft. Campbell
|Mom is home from Iraq!


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Scorched 'Earth' Spotted in Star System Next Door
Oct 26, 2012 5:00 AM PT
Astronomers have wondered for centuries about the possibility of Earth-like planets in the neighboring Alpha Centauri star system, but only just recently did their ongoing search bear fruit. Specifically, in an announcement made last week, European astronomers said they have discovered a planet with about the mass of Earth orbiting a star in Alpha Centauri.
Observations made over more than four years have revealed "a tiny, but real, signal from a planet orbiting Alpha Centauri B every 3.2 days," explained Xavier Dumusque, a researcher at Geneva Observatory and the Centro de Astrofisica da Universidade do Porto in Portugal. "It's an extraordinary discovery and it has pushed our technique to the limit!"
Dumusque was lead author on the paper that announced the results in the journal Nature.
'The Speed of a Baby Crawling'
Alpha Centauri, the stellar system closest to our own, is actually a triple-star system consisting of two stars similar to our sun -- Alpha Centauri A and B -- along with a more distant and faint red component known as "Proxima Centauri." Alpha Centauri is one of the brightest stars in the southern skies and lies only slightly more than four light-years away.
The astronomers detected the planet by using the HARPS (High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher) instrument on the 3.6-meter telescope at the European Southern Observatory's La Silla Observatory in Chile to observe the tiny wobbles in the motion of Alpha Centauri B created by the gravitational pull of the orbiting planet.
"The effect is minute," they explained. "It causes the star to move back and forth by no more than 51 centimeters per second (1.8 km/hour), about the speed of a baby crawling. This is the highest precision ever achieved using this method."
'Too Hot for Life as We Know It'
Alpha Centauri B is very similar to our Sun but smaller and not as bright. The newly discovered planet, which has a mass slightly greater than that of Earth, orbits about 6 million kilometers away from the star -- much closer than Mercury is to our Sun.
For that reason, it is not considered to be within the habitable zone" within which life could potentially exist.
"This is the first planet with a mass similar to Earth ever found around a star like the sun," said Stéphane Udry, also of Geneva Observatory and a co-author on the paper. "Its orbit is very close to its star, and it must be much too hot for life as we know it, but it may well be just one planet in a system of several."
'Possibility of a Habitable World'
The new discovery has generated widespread interest.
"There is not a more exciting result for an individual star, even with the long line of spectacular results from the last two decades," Debra Fischer, a professor of astronomy at Yale University, told TechNewsWorld. "The indication that our nearest neighbor has rocky planets is incredible."
Furthermore, statistical results from NASA's Kepler mission suggest that "where there is one, there are usually several rocky planets," Fischer noted. "This leaves open the possibility of a terrestrial planet in the habitable zone. In fact, I think this strengthens the speculative possibility of a habitable world in the alpha Cen system."
'We May Be Able to Send a Probe'
Similarly, "the discovery of a planet in the stellar system that is closest to our Sun is obviously very exciting," agreed Mario Livio, a senior astrophysicist with the Space Telescope Science Institute.
"Even though this particular planet is in an extremely tight orbit around its host star -- and therefore most probably cannot harbor life -- we know from many previous Kepler observations that where there is one planet, there is a high probability for the existence of a planetary system," Livio told TechNewsWorld. "Hence, it is not impossible that Alpha Cen B may even have a planet in the habitable zone."
The relative proximity of this system to our sun, meanwhile, "also raises the exciting possibility that in the not-too-distant future, we may even be able to send a probe" there, he pointed out. "This is something that would not have even crossed our minds two decades ago."
Next Up: January 2013
The Geneva team "has done something very difficult, but it's an approach that I've advocated for the past few years," Yale's Fischer noted. Specifically, "they are digging into their data to remove signals that arise from the surface of the star, leaving behind the whiff of a residual signal -- a mere 0.5 m/s -- induced by a prospective planet."
The team is "extremely careful," Fischer said. "No one wants to be wrong about such a high-profile result. I have no doubt that they have carried out every reasonable test of their data before making this announcement."
Nevertheless, "because these corrections essentially constitute a new approach, confirmation is critical," she concluded. "We are in an excellent position to follow up, but that will likely require an intensive search over the prospective orbital period of 3.24d when the star rises again in January 2013."
'Near the Detection Limit'
Confirmation is definitely in order, particularly "given that the signal is near the detection limit," agreed Scott Austin, an associate professor of astronomy and director of the astronomical facilities at the University of Central Arkansas.
"In the meantime, it should be called a possible detection or probable detection of an approximately Earth-mass exoplanet," he told TechNewsWorld.
In any case, "this result could provide motivation to improve or develop the necessary technology that would make it easier" to detect such exoplanets, Austin said.
As for the odds of there being a neighboring planet in the habitable zone, however, "the calculation of those odds is probably about the same as before the detection, given that it is now becoming safe to assume that a significant fraction of sun-like stars have exoplanets," he concluded.
'The Rule and Not the Exception'
Indeed, "the fact that this object is so close and so Earth-like in mass gives it a greater sense of immediacy, at least in the eyes of the general public," William Newman, a professor in UCLA's departments of earth and space sciences, physics and astronomy, and mathematics told TechNewsWorld.
At the same time, he said, "we are entering an era where the discovery of increasingly complex extrasolar planetary systems could become the rule and not the exception."


text:
Blueberry-Lemon Ricotta Pound Cake
This healthy pound cake recipe isn't just delicious--it also only requires one bowl to make. For the best cake texture, be sure to beat the sugar and butter together long enough in Step 2 to look creamy--the time it takes to get there varies according to the type of electric mixer you have. Serve with brunch or alongside a cup of coffee in the afternoon.


text:
Hell froze over: Harold Ramis on <I>The Ice Harvest
Writer/director/actor Harold Ramis' newest film, The Ice Harvest, is the blackest of black comedies. Though there are occasional echoes in the film of his earlier blockbusters– Animal House, Caddyshack, Analyze This– those films were all relatively light.
"The film's rough," is how Ramis, 60, describes The Ice Harvest, which screened October 29 at the Virginia Film Festival. "I live in the suburbs. And I keep telling my suburban neighbors 'Don't bring the kids.'"
"It won't be a big hit for children," agrees Festival moviegoer Marilyn Wright, "but it's a great Christmas movie for warped adults."
Set in Wichita on an exceptionally grim Christmas Eve, Ramis' film charts a mob lawyer's (John Cusack) descent into an ever-widening quagmire of inebriation, embezzlement, strip clubs, and murder.
With this latest work, Ramis has tapped into something bleak, grotesque, and restless in his own nature. "I have a dark soul," he says, sighing heavily. The film sprang from "The dark of side of me, the side that wrestles with ambiguity, and uncertainty, and suffering.
"I've always appreciated emotionally difficult films, and films that show a darker view of the world," he says. But in an industry where pigeon-holing is de rigueur, "No one had ever thought of me to do one," he says.
The film's title refers to Cusack's character's existential dilemma. "Metaphorically," Ramis explains, "it's cold out there when you're living in the existential void... And you harvest ice, literally."
The film's script was co-authored by Pulitzer Prize-winner Richard Russo (Empire Falls) and Academy Award-winning screenwriter Robert Benton. By the time it reached Ramis' desk, he was an avid reader of Russo's novels.
"It said a lot about character," Ramis beams. "It said a lot about the moral climate of America, in a way– at least parts of it, or individual people. And it seemed like it had really strong entertainment possibilities."
As will be very apparent to audiences, the script's humor is "ironically funny," Ramis says, "because it's so dark," not because of any "set-up gags."
To heighten The Ice Harvest's mood of moral disillusionment, Ramis drew on the "visual cues" and "pace" of Hollywood's great films noirs. This homage, of sorts, is most apparent in the visual treatment of the film's central femme fatale, played by Connie Nielsen.
To give the film its consistently scuzzy feel, Ramis and production designer Patrizia Von Brandenstein studied everything from '50s Italian movie posters, news photographer Weegee's bleak urban photography, and certain especially seedy films (including John Huston's Fat City)– searching in the last for what Ramis calls "really cool downbeat bar lighting."
A visual "ice" motif dominates the film, in everything from a trunk's steel frame, to interior décor, all the way down to a frigid white Christmas tree.
The cryptic phrase "As Wichita Falls, so falls Wichita Falls" dots the film. When it crops up, Ramis' somewhat somber mood dissolves into hearty amusement.
"I'll tell you who wrestled with that," Ramis says. "We showed it at the Deauville Festival in France, and the French translator said [in a French accent], 'Does this mean that events in Wichita, Kansas, have a profound effect on the city of Wichita Falls, Texas?'
"I said, 'I don't think it's that specific.'"
As to the phrase's actual meaning, Ramis explains, "Rhythmically, it reminds me of 'As Maine goes, so goes the nation.' The events in the film, or the events in Wichita, are representative of everywhere.
"But, more importantly, I take it to mean, in the Buddhist conception of cause and effect, that everything we do here has an effect somewhere else."
Though the film features almost no remotely virtuous characters, Ramis says that he wasn't bent on repudiating personal values, but reassessing them.
"In my own life," the director says, "I very strongly believe it does matter how you live your life. And in a world where meaning is not given to us, even if you believe in God, I don't think God's intention is clear here...
"So, it's clearly up to us to chart our own moral and ethical course in the world... To create our own values, and try to live by them."
Harold Ramis popped by Charlottesville for screenings of Groundhog Day and his new movie, The Ice Harvest, and parties down with Miss Virginia.


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I'm pretty new to CL and have been just playing around with it for a year or so. Originally tried the Emacs implementation but it was maddening trying to get used to the text editor and could never figure out how to save and open program files so pretty much everything I did ended up getting lost after I was done with a session; could never build on it. What I've been using for a while now is Allegro CL (v8.2; Free Express Edition by Franz) and it gets me by because it is pretty user friendly but it lacks the power of the full edition which would cost around $600. So, if I ever got past the newb stage, I don't know if I'd really want to drop that much coin on a commercial implementation for personal use.
I understand there are many users of Emacs who really think it is the best and also that there are many who either love it or hate it. I know it is a very powerful implementation. I'd be happy to give it a try again if someone could convince me that it is worth becoming proficient in and could point me to some good resources for getting it set up and up to speed in its use. I mostly use a machine with Windows 7 but also have a Linux box set up (running Ubuntu) that I could use.
Don't want to leave the other tools out so, are there strong feelings for VI, VIM, others?
Looking forward to the feedback!


text:
TeX Live FAQ
This FAQ contains answers to some TeXlive related questions that have appeared on the forums, as well as some other info that might be useful.
- 1 General questions: Where should I start? Resources?
- 2 Tricks with LaTeX
- 3 TeXlive directory structure and important files
- 4 Common problems with TeXlive
- 4.1 Q: I've just installed TeXlive and nothing works!
- 4.2 Q: I've just installed some .sty files, but tex doesn't seem to see them.
- 4.3 Q: Pdftex and/or dvips uses bitmap fonts instead of type1 postscript fonts (aka "when I zoom my pdf/ps file, fonts are really pixelated" aka "everytime I run tex, it takes a long time because it generates fonts with metafont" aka "at the end of my logfile generated by pdftex I see that it includes *.pk fonts instead of *.pfb)
- 5 Useful apps to use with (any TeX installation)
General questions: Where should I start? Resources?
For an introduction to LaTeX, I recommend "The not so Short Introduction to LaTeX" by Tobias Oetiker. Originally german, this document is translated to many languages, especially to the lingua franca of the Internet, english. Downloadable from CTAN here.
Q: How do can I access texlive documentation?
A: Provided that you installed appropriate texlive-*-doc packages,
texdoc <packagename>
can probably (i.e. in many cases) do the job. Unfortunately some package authors do not name their documentation equally to their package. So asking for documentation in Forums or mailing lists not always is silly.
Q: I want latex to do something special, and I'm pretty sure someone before me had to have the same problem.
A: There is an excellent TeX FAQ on the web. Typical latex problems (special headers, different page layout, tricks with tables, etc..) are all covered there. Searchable!
Q: I want to read more! More! I said more!
A: Andy Roberts (arooaroo) has a couple of tricks on his website Getting to grips with LaTeX, which has been used as a basis for LaTeX wikibook.
Tricks with LaTeX
Q: I need/want to use some funky bibliography/references format.
A: biblatex is then the thing you are looking for (it's in AUR). It has an enhancement biblatex-dw, also in AUR, which is especially valuable for the special issues in the Humanities.
TeXlive directory structure and important files
Q: What's up with all these dirs in /opt/texlive/*
A: TeX uses several "source trees"; they have the same internal structure, and can "overlap". This is to allow users to modify files provided system-wide without having to access files they're not supposed to access. Here's the portion of the main config file which lists all these dirs with some explanations ($SELFAUTODIR=/opt/texlive):
% The tree containing the runtime files closely related to the specific % program version used: TEXMFMAIN = $SELFAUTODIR/texmf % The main distribution tree: TEXMFDIST = $SELFAUTODIR/texmf-dist % A place for local additions to a "standard" texmf tree. % This tree is not used for local configuration maintained by % texconfig, it uses TEXMFCONFIG below. TEXMFLOCAL = $SELFAUTODIR/texmf-local % TEXMFSYSVAR, where texconfig-sys stores variable runtime data. TEXMFSYSVAR = $SELFAUTODIR/texmf-var % TEXMFSYSCONFIG, where texconfig-sys stores configuration data. TEXMFSYSCONFIG = $SELFAUTODIR/texmf-config % User texmf trees are allowed as follows. TEXMFHOME = $HOME/texmf % TEXMFVAR, where texconfig stores variable runtime data. TEXMFVAR = $HOME/.texmf-var % TEXMFCONFIG, where texconfig stores configuration data. TEXMFCONFIG = $HOME/.texmf-config
Note that they are searched in the reverse order that they are listed above (I think). So when some problems pops up, search the trees in the proper order ;)
One more remark: if you install something just for you, it should go to your home texmf tree. However, on desktops, you might not want to clutter your home dir; then it should go to texmf-local tree (which should be writable by the "tex" group).
Q: I want to have some configuration app!
A: Run
Careful! When you run this as a user, you modify settings for that user. If you want to modify system-wide settings, run
as root instead.
Q: I want to edit textfiles! Where are some configuration files?
A: Keeping in mind the above directory structure (<texmfroot> refers to one of the dirs above), here you go: The main config file:
List of formats generated:
Settings with which are e.g. bitmap fonts generated
Which and how type1 fonts are used instead of metafont generated bitmap ones?
Common problems with TeXlive
Q: I've just installed TeXlive and nothing works!
A: TeXlive installs to /opt, and so you need to log out and log back in (or start a new login shell) in order to update PATH variable.
Q: I've just installed some .sty files, but tex doesn't seem to see them.
A: TeXlive (and tetex) uses its own directory indexes (files named ls-R), and you need to refresh them after you copy something into one of the TeX trees. Magic command:
A command line program to search through these indexes is
Hence you can check that TeX can find a particular file by running
kpsewhich <filename>
The output should be full path to that file.
Q: Pdftex and/or dvips uses bitmap fonts instead of type1 postscript fonts (aka "when I zoom my pdf/ps file, fonts are really pixelated" aka "everytime I run tex, it takes a long time because it generates fonts with metafont" aka "at the end of my logfile generated by pdftex I see that it includes *.pk fonts instead of *.pfb)
A: This takes a bit of time to explain. Now it's important that you understand how does the system work, so that you know what you're doing.
- Files which tell pdftex/dvips which fonts are to be included as type1 fonts (instead of traditional bitmap fonts) have suffix .map and reside somewhere in <texmfroot>/fonts/map/{pdftex,dvips}/updmap/{pdftex.map,psfonts.map}.
- You don't want to edit these files manually; they're good for checking if your favorite type1 font which causes troubles is sitting there properly.
- These files are automatically generated, when you run
as user (or
as root for system-wide changes)
- What you need to do to have your favorite fonts (for instance kpfonts) properly used as type1 fonts in pdf and ps files is to locate the .map file that goes with the package (e.g. kpfonts.map; you don't need to actually *do* anything with the file, just know that it's there somewhere), edit updmap.cfg by running
updmap --edit
as user (or "updmap-sys --edit" as root) and add the line
Map kpfonts.map
or the line
MixedMap kpfonts.map
(MixedMap indicates that fonts are also available as bitmap fonts.), and exit the editor. At this point, you should see the messages which indicate that updmap is regenerating {pdftex,psfonts}.map files.
- This should be sufficient, and your next run of pdftex/dvips should be already including the type1 versions of fonts.
Useful apps to use with (any TeX installation)
Q: Editors?
A: Great for beginners (errr...) are kile (depends on kde though) or winefish.
For serious work, especially scientic papers, more especially in the humanities, I strongly recommend emacs with reftex and auctex. Reftex helps very much with references within big documents.
Also (g)vim with vim-latex (although I had some problems with it with vim-7.* versions) might be a good solution. If you are more WYSIWIG oriented, then perhaps lyx (just be aware that transitions "lyx <-> manual source editing" is not always seamless, and using your own macros is a bit awkward of course); or texmacs (with which I have no experience, and it seems a bit outdated).
Q: Pictures with LaTeX labels?
A: Apart from some latex in-source macros (which are a bit of a PITA to write), there are excellent "picture programming languages" metapost and its (more-less) successor asymptote. They are pretty powerful, but have similar approach as tex itself - you write down what you want to have and how are the things related, and compiler then produces the picture. The target format is postscript for metapost; and eps/pdf/png for asymptote.
Even closer incorporated to TeX itself - i.e. to Plain TeX, LaTeX or Context, there are layers for each of this formats - is the relatively new PGF package with its language named TIKZ.
The Python library PyX (named python-pyx in AUR) gives the possibillity to use Python to program pictures, and it uses TeX for the typesetting.
Last but not least: PSTricks, which gives an interface for direct inclusion of Postscript-code into TeX (ps2pdf). There are some hurdles to climb if you want to have pdf-output, because PSTricks is not compatible to pdftex.
Q: Pictures with LaTeX labels - I want GUI! - I want pictures fast!
A: The "grandfather" of vector editors - xfig is able to produce some output relevant to tex. I had relatively good experience with ipe recently (saves eps/pdf).


text:
|View Poll Results: The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya - Rating
|Perfect 10
|9 out of 10 : Excellent
|8 out of 10 : Very Good
|7 out of 10 : Good
|6 out of 10 : Average
|5 out of 10 : Below Average
|4 out of 10 : Poor
|3 out of 10 : Bad
|2 out of 10 : Very Bad
|1 out of 10 : Painful
|Voters: 367. You may not vote on this poll
|Thread Tools
|2010-12-31, 10:22
|Link #541
Join Date: Aug 2004
Age: 33
Time is a piece of string. It's linear. Time travel is the ability to take threads from the string and bend them backwards and tape them to another part of the string. It is not a logical paradox for something in the future to affect the past. That's just the 4D shape of the world. Ontologically you can ask where the origin of the action is, and there is no answer, but purely mechanically it is consistent.
|2010-12-31, 10:57
|Link #542
Cross Game - I need more
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: I've moved around the American West. I've lived in Oregon, Washington, Utah, and Oklahoma
Age: 40
The theory of time travel in the Haruhi universe is pretty clear.
The idea is that if you already know the future, then you must act in the past so as to bring about the future, because time is no longer linear for you. But if you don't know the future, then time is linear, because you can only observe the present. It's an application of the Heisenberg Uncertainty principle. The act of observation causes a reality to become true. If it is not observed, then there are multiple contradictory realities in simultaneous existence. (It is likely that the Haruhi theory of spacetime is based primarily on the double slit experiment. Similar to this.) Basically, until it is observed which slit the proton passes through, the proton passes through both slits.
This is why Mikuru, an ignorant child who's brain has been swiss cheesed, is the time traveler representative. Her ignorance allows her some leeway in action. As opposed to Mikuru big, who is bound by her previous actions. It also explains why Mikuru big is Mikuru little's handler. Mikuru big must therefor act in a way so as to ensure her own future existence, thereby preventing a paradox: where Mikuru little acts in a way that precludes her own future existence. Furthermore it explains why Kyon is occasionally recruited to act in the past. Kyon, being from the present, lacks future knowledge, and so therefor Kyon can change the past (past for the time travelers that is, the present for Kyon), because for Kyon it's the present. However, when Kyon time travels to the past, he is no longer in Kyon-present time, and so he can no longer change facts about the past that he has already observed in the future (the future being Kyon-present time).
So rather then Kyon being unable to do anything in Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody he actually had to encourage Haruhi to go to North High. He had no choice because he had already done it.
This is because Kyon was from the future, and he already knew that Haruhi would go to North High. So he was bound to act in a manner that would cause Haruhi to go to North High. Similarly it wasn't until he learned that Haruhi had seen John Smith twice that he acted to ensure this happened as Haruhi remembered. An interesting question would be if the knowledge that Haruhi has seen John Smith only twice prevents him from ever appearing again before Haruhi in his John Smith persona in the past. Or does the fact that the Haruhi who told him this no longer exist mean that he isn't bound by her observation?
Similarly, since Kyon observed himself saving himself, that means that he observed it and so it has already happened in the past for Kyon-present. So Kyon-future must go to the past because he has already been observed in the past (past for Kyon-future that is) to do this. So it is already set. If Kyon-future doesn't go into the past to save his present self, then it will create a paradox that probably destroys space time in some end of the world fashion.
The paradox is not in the act of Kyon-future acting in a way in the past to save Kyon-present, thus ensuring Kyon-future exists. That is a stable time loop. Rather it means that there is a risk of paradox, because if Kyon-future never goes back in time to save himself then Kyon-future can not exist and the observation made by Kyon-present in the past becomes false. Yet that already happened. Which probably means that Kyon-present (and everything that he has ever observed since that point in time) becomes non-existent.
As for my comment on Kyon being self-existent, it was a facetious remark intended to be funny, while also poking at the theory that Kyon is the "god" instead of Haruhi. I was not being serious. I completely understand the difference between God and Kyon.
For one thing, God observes all things, which is why the universe exists as an objective reality instead of multiple subjective possibilities. (It even says so in Genesis).
|2010-12-31, 12:03
|Link #543
One PUNCH!
Join Date: Dec 2005
Okay, now that the time travel question has been answered again(!), let's return to discussion of the movie itself.
Any more off-topic discussion should be directed to one of the following threads:
The General Discussion of Haruhi Suzumiya
The Ontology of Haruhi Suzumiya
|2010-12-31, 12:12
|Link #544
Anime Cynic
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: USA
Age: 30
My response to Clarste's and Sackett's posts is here:
|2010-12-31, 12:20
|Link #545
Logician and Romantic
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Within my mind
Age: 38
What did you have breakfast today? Now, could you have ate some other breakfast? Yes, you could, but you didn't because the breakfast you ate was the choice you made.
You see, just because you are given a choice doesn't mean you can pick any choice. Instead, the choice you pick had to have been what YOU want. And what "you" want is not flexible. You make decisions every day, using what you know and what you want to happen to decide. And that's why future can be fixed.
Using myself as an example, I am not a vegetarian. Could I BE a Vegetarian if I wanted to? Sure. But I don't want to. And thus even though I have free choice, my decision is fixed until further notice. The same way that nothing physically stops me from picking up a kitchen knife and go on a killing spree right now. I don't want to be a mass murderer. So if someone from the future told me I could never have the freedom to become a mass murderer, so what? Why would I want freedom to do something I don't want to do?
If none of our predictions are predictable, that means none of us have personalities, likes, dislikes, opinions. To have an unpredictable future doesn't mean you are free to be whatever; you are only free to be whatever YOU want, and that's a very small sets of actions.
|2011-01-01, 03:49
|Link #546
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: A Swede in Tokyo
Whoa, Asakura's reappearance at the end really came out of the left field for me. I was just sitting there, going "What the hell just happened?!". Especially since my first reaction to her was "See, she's not a psycopathic knifenut all the time"...
Very fun to see alt!Haruhi turn into regular Haruhi just like that, and how protective alt!Tsuruya was of Mikuru.
|2011-01-01, 03:59
|Link #547
~Official Slacker~
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Xanadu
Age: 25
|2011-01-01, 11:07
|Link #548
Cross Game - I need more
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: I've moved around the American West. I've lived in Oregon, Washington, Utah, and Oklahoma
Age: 40
Time travel is a huge part of this movie's plot.
In fact it is the plot. And in the movie Kyon himself spends some time thinking about these implications.
So how is it off topic?
This is the intended plot topic of conversation. The creator expects us to talk about this stuff after watching the movie.
Excluding it from the conversation is like telling someone not to talk about the elephant in the living room.
Sure there are other topics too, like Asakura's amazing satiation of her blood lust. Is she the best villain in the Haruhi universe or what?
Or the character development of Yuki Nagato. What does it reveal about her that she choose to change the world so that she would be weak and in need of protection?
What about the fact that she preserved her memory of Kyon getting her a library card? That must be a very important memory for her.
But just because you find these kinds of topics more interesting doesn't mean that time travel discussions are off topic.
|2011-01-01, 14:17
|Link #550
My Lovely Bunny Chie
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Philippines
Age: 31
I watched. I became a fan. I watched again (Season 2). I ranted. I hate. I watched (The Movie). I became a fan again. And not just a fan. A loyal fan NOW.
Yes. This is my statement. That I will not falter as a fan of this franchise. This movie just changed my view to Suzumiya Haruhi series. I actually think this movie captures all of the aspect of the realism in the series, for me (Ironically).
Animation Quality: Impressive. No. Not that just impressive. It's an understatement actually. I haven't watched this kind of quality in animation in my whole life (Lies?~). Kyoto Animation. Kudos to them. I'm actually became a lost fan after they did the Endless Shit and [I]K-on[/I. ]No offense to K-on fans but I'm not really fond of it and I actually think Kyoani is better in making something like this than adapting 4-koma Moe characters. This is just an example of what they are capable of. And adapting serious story makes them the best. (remember Clannad After Story Episode 18~). Again, my opinion so don't flame me K-on fans. Rating: 10/10
Plot: I have read the Novel a long time ago (and forgot some details) and was spoiled of what happens. But. The plot itself made me watch it in the first place. Beautiful scenes. And beautiful storytelling. A perfect execution of storytelling. As a fan of it, I'm actually stunned and amazed how the story progresses even with knowing some of the details. The story is just that amazing. Rating: 10/10
Soundtrack: This what amazes me the most. This brings out more of the seriousness in the Suzumiya series. This what lacked in the Season 1 when they talked about serious things. This made the movie a story with a serious plot. The quiet parts made the scenes darker.
Spoiler for For caution:
Kyon ▬ What can I say. The protagonist. The point-of-view of our story. He had a major rollercoaster ride in this one. And had a major confrontation of his own self. And finally, finally appreciating his normal life.
Haruhi ▬ The story showed more of her Tsundereness and how important she is (Well duh, just watch Kyon's reaction in that emotional reunion scene). I'm not very fond of her in the last two seasons because of obvious bitchy attitude but her alternative self connect me and her somehow.. Her boring life and why she is bitchy like that. I like her now.
Mikuru ▬ The moe character. The mascot. But her role here is important. As her older self. And there's more of her secrets revealed. The fact that she is attracted to Kyon and the fact that she misses all her memories with him and the gang. And the meaning of her TPDD revealed.
Koizumi ▬ This movie made me feel a little better about him. Not only that his alternative self is attracted to Haruhi, but his original one, too. (Ok homo fans time to pack your things up.).
Yuki Nagato ▬ Just amazing. Absolutely adorable in her alternative self. But I felt more connected in her original emotionless one. The manifestations of her true feelings are very much presented. Her overflowing HNNNNNNGG in this movie is over 9000. And it is an understatement. This showed a lot of interesting things about her. How she is treated, how she is really a Sad Girl In Snow. As I watch her in the whole Suzumiya story, I feel more and more of her emotions. I don't think there is no fan in the series that will not want to hug Yuki in that last scene. Kyon don't just hold her hand. Hug her. Damn it.
Rating: over 9000
Overall: I enjoyed it a lot. And not just enjoyed, overwhelmed. I didn't think that this series will provide me this kind of seriousness. Watching this made me have a different look in story. How serious that the world is in Haruhi's hand, how serious Kyon's decisions are, how serious Koizumi's job really is, how serious Mikuru's time skills are, and how serious Yuki's emotions really are.
Rating: 10/10
Best movie of the year. This movie might revive the fandom of the franchise.
"The Disappearance of the Endless Ranting of Suzumiya Haruhi"
|2011-01-01, 20:39
|Link #551
One PUNCH!
Join Date: Dec 2005
AnimeSuki Forums Spoiler Policy
|2011-01-02, 01:29
|Link #552
Join Date: Oct 2010
Well, I watched the movie before, but it was definitely worth re-watching. Aside from the fact that it's simply amazing, I started noticing things I wouldn't have noticed without reading the novels.
OK, I only noticed one thing. Anyone else noticed who was on top of Kyon's cellphone contact list? I wonder if it's a sign or just the devs... I mean kyoani thinks of everything.
|2011-01-02, 20:11
|Link #553
He Without a Title
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: The land of tempura
I would even risk to say that there's no need to explain any further if Kyon went back in time to save himself cause it's implied by the movie that he eventually did, just not right away. It's actually easier to imply it in the movie than it would theoretically be in the novels since you can use the same voice actor when you would be forced to say it outright when using the written word (mind you I'm theorizing, not spoiling).
Now if you want to consider it a possible spoiler then I'll silently accept your decision and respect it but I won't agree (since that's my prerogative as a free human being ).
|2011-01-03, 02:21
|Link #555
Senior Member
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Inside of frog
As everybody says that this is one of the "Sekai kei" = "the world series". (though I know that this sound funny lol...) There are the various views about the definition of sekai kei.
But basically, Sekai kei is a novel, manga or anime that has the story that argue that 'real whole world' and 'internal world' are equivalent for a human. In a word, this is a philosophy.
I agree that the science fiction elements are important piece of this series. But I think the philosophy IS the main plot of this series.
Therefore I think that those SF elements are just prepared for a philosophical storyline, in a sense.
Last edited by revive4563; 2011-01-03 at 12:18.
|2011-01-03, 12:44
|Link #556
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Shitty old London. They must've been on drugs when they built this place, WTF were they smoking!!!
Age: 35
Something just came to mind. Throughout the series (including the novels before and after vol. 4), you learn that a good rule of thumb is "don't believe every single thing Koizumi says," but since in the the altered world he doesn't belong to any organisation or anything, do you guys think we got a glimpse of the REAL him?
|2011-01-03, 13:09
|Link #557
Kimi no na wa?!
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: Hong Kong
Then again, how common is the surname Sasaki anyways?
|2011-01-03, 15:03
|Link #558
~Official Slacker~
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Xanadu
Age: 25
Sasaki is a very common Japanese family name ever since the 14th century. So being carried on like that, it is pretty common.
|2011-01-04, 15:12
|Link #560
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: NSW, Australia
Age: 24
It's probably just me, but I found the opening to be...weirdly boring. I thought there'd be more in there, but it's probably because I've read the novels ^^;
And/or that was the decided effect they wanted for the opening, since the rest is kinda batshit crazy XD
|best movie ever, haruhi suzumiya
|Thread Tools


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Going down memory lane, I remember about 1972, I had been fishing in Arrowhead Bay off Lake Mohawksin in the back of our house on Pleasant Ave. Among the pan fish, and mostly weeds, wrapped around my bobber was this " skinny black thing". It was about 15" long or so, very thin like buttonhole thread, no head nor tail (now to be determined to be female I believe)
I ran into the house, and my mother thought I was playing a joke tried and to cut it in half with her butcher knife. Before I could stop her, and after she hacked it, it curled in a tiny ball, she flipped back on her chair, screamed, and from that point on believed me it was no joke. She never did cut through it, but did leave a white scar as it grew.
The Tomahawk Leader ran a short write up about it, the DNR had never seen such a creature, and classified it as some sort of "thread Eel" a little girl discovered, and sent it off to the University of WI never to be heard or seen from again.
During that summer, I obtained 2 more in the same area, and we kept them together in a mason jar. They would both curl together in a tiny black ball at night almost as a knot, and in the day swim quite freely around their jar and entwine in the seaweed. These next 2 were caught wrapped in seaweed, so we assumed that's what they ate. They stayed alive a good 3 months until one morning we woke up and were dead. At that time we determined must had been some larvae or something in the pond water that must have killed them. Now I realize they must have needed a host, or they just ran out their parasitic lifecycle in the jar.
Through the years, I never did find anymore, and I did search for them until we moved from there. I grew to find them fascinating, but have always been a mystery, and thought I discovered a new life form.
Thanks to google, I thought I would now try and find these little living threads could be. Well, NOT Thread Eels, but a parasite that lives in crickets! Yikes! They are extremely rare, and not supposed to be found in WI at all. In fact, from what I have been finding, it is rare to find in the wild at all by people, so I guess I had been fortunate to discover these.
The ones I found had neither head nor tail, no head, mouth, pinchers, nothing and were black. Could not tell the front from the back, and looked like black, buttonhole thread that moved. I believe these to be females, as the pictures show the males with a mouth. Maybe they were same or a variation of them? Has anyone else ever found these?
Here are some links to the closet thing I could find, but mine were dark black, and no head or mouth, skinny.
Lake Mohawksin Monster 40 yrs later has a name
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I intend for this post to serve as one place to get ideas (the vast majority of which are quite unoriginal with me). Naturally, no one solution method can possibly work for every problem. I would argue that such a solution method does not exist. However, the ideas that so many people have culled together over time may be of use to you, and so I present a few of them here.
Firstly, the Basic Problem-Solving Strategy is a great way to organize your work. It might even work well for more advanced problems. Naturally, not every step will necessarily apply to every problem. This strategy is modified a bit from the problem-solving strategy found in Young and Freedman's University Physics with Modern Physics.
Secondly, there is the famous George Polya book How to Solve It: A New Aspect of Mathematical Method. This is a classic work that every mathematician, scientist, and engineer should read.
Thirdly, I would also highly recommend Michalewicz and Fogel's How to Solve It: Modern Heuristics. This book attempts to pick up where Polya left off; it has some delightful passages.
Finally, I would recommend looking into the 40 TRIZ Inventive Principles. I think there are some great ideas there. Once you've read the link in the previous sentence, you might also want to check out the TRIZ Matrix, where each principle is matched up with the contradictions it might be able to solve.


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During my recent trip to Switzerland I went back to Vaumarcus, as it is the birthplace of many of my ancestors it is a must see. I have been there many times, but I really started to feel a direct link to the past at Vaumarcus after it was purchased in the 1980s by M. Claude Thalmann. I worked at the Château one summer not long after he purchased it doing odd jobs and helping the conservator.
At first blush it is easy to lament that such a beautiful place is no longer in family hands, or to blame Henri de Büren for selling it in 1888. That would be too easy. After doing a great deal of research on Henri de Büren for my Grand Tour project, I have come to understand that family stories are always much more nuanced that we realize. I am very statisfied to have such a good relationship with the Thalmann family and feel closer to Vaumarcus in ways that my ancestors perhaps never did.
Vaumarcus – End of the 17th Century
Vaumarcus – 17th Century
Vaumarcus – Beginning of the 17th Century
Side View of the Oldest Part of the Castle.
Front view of the Château
Coat of Arms of previous owners of the Château (de Vaumarcus, de Neuchâtel, de Bonstetten, de Büren and Pernod)
The palais built by Charles de Büren for his Dutch wife.


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Watch the latest video at video.foxnews.com
Gov. Rick Perry likes to invoke God and talk about politics, and he got to do both on Fox News Thursday.
Asked about his support for Mitt Romney, whom he roundly criticized during his own presidential run, Perry cited his endorsement of the former Massachusetts governor and said, "I'm a heck of a lot more comfortable with him than I am Barack Obama, and that's going to be our choice.
"Mitt Romney will be our nominee. He will be 10 times better than Barack Obama, particularly when it comes to the economy," Perry said. "And God help us if he doesn't win."


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Premier League: Tottenham edge out 10-man West Brom at The Hawthorns
Gareth Bale netted another spectacular strike for Tottenham as they overcame 10-man West Brom 1-0 at The Hawthorns.
Last Updated: 03/02/13 7:34pm
A close encounter swung in Spurs' favour three minutes into the second half when Baggies full-back Goran Popov was shown a straight red card for spitting at Kyle Walker.
Andre Villas-Boas' side were able to make their numerical advantage count on 67 minutes, with Bale shifting the ball onto his left foot and firing a 20-yard thunderbolt past a helpless Ben Foster.
The first half chance fell to Albion after Romelu Lukaku's flick-header found the recalled Shane Long in space and with only Hugo Lloris to beat. But his first touch was heavy and forced him out wide and he eventually overran the ball which went harmlessly out of play.
Lukaku was causing plenty of problems and the on-loan Chelsea striker forced a low save out of Lloris after good play by Baggies skipper Chris Brunt.
West Brom goalkeeper Ben Foster came quickly off his line to hack the ball away from Jermain Defoe after he had anticipated a through pass from Bale.
Lloris pulled off a fine save to prevent the home side going ahead after 20 minutes. Graham Dorrans threaded a pass through the Tottenham rearguard to Long who took the ball in his stride and raced into the box. But Lloris was equal to the situation and blocked the resulting shot from the Republic of Ireland international.
Defoe, in front of England head coach Roy Hodgson, needed touchline treatment after landing awkwardly on his left ankle when avoiding a challenge from Long. He was unable to continue and was helped down the tunnel by two Spurs physios and replaced by transfer window signing Lewis Holtby - leaving Andre Villas-Boas desperately short on striking options.
Lukaku shot over from a narrow angle and in first-half injury time Foster tipped a dipping effort from Bale over the bar.
Albion were reduced to 10 men after only three minutes of the second half. Replays showed that Popov spat in the direction of Spurs defender Kyle Walker after the two had squared up to each other. Referee Marc Clattenburg instantly brandished a red card at the on-loan Dynamo Kiev left-back.
It was one-way traffic towards the Albion goal from that point on and Foster turned aside a low drive from Holtby. The former England international was also alert in blocking a close-range attempt from Bale.
But after 67 minutes a stunning strike from Bale put Tottenham in front. The winger, playing in a more central role, received a pass from Walker, brushed off the challenge of Brunt and his 20 yard shot flew past the despairing dive of Foster into the top corner of the net.
Foster did well to block Clint Dempsey's shot as Spurs searched for a second goal, but one was enough to consolidate their top-four standing and take them to within a point of third-placed Chelsea.


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Calories in, calories out—in theory, losing weight should be that simple. But we're going to venture a guess that the reason two-thirds of Americans are classified as overweight or obese isn't because they can't do basic math. Age, genetics, hormones and the big one—a lack of will power—better explain the disconnect between wanting to lose weight and actually doing it.
In fact, while 84 percent of people claim they're trying to take better care of their health today than just a few years ago, 59 percent of people reported they don't have the will power to change their habits, according to a recent survey by The Futures Co. Lack of will power is the No. 1 barrier preventing Americans from living healthier lifestyles, ranking higher than money, time, desire and a perceived lack of need, according to the survey.
So what's the secret to propelling yourself from an "aha" moment to reaching a healthy weight? It's all about the day-to-day. Focusing on lifestyle changes, heeding the right how-to advice and finding support from a group of like-minded peers will help you stay on track better than focusing on the impetus (a scary obesity poster in the subway) or the end result (fitting into your skinny jeans again).
Here, we sift through motivation research and enlist the help of Andy Core, an exercise physiologist and motivational speaker, to muddle through three motivation misconceptions—and provide the help you need to stay on track.
Myth 1: The end result is what matters.
Reality: Enjoying the path to success is what helps you reach it.
You know the Chinese proverb "The journey is the reward," but you've probably never thought of it in terms of losing weight. The reward typically associated with a diet and exercise plan is watching your goal weight calibrate on the bathroom scale. But according to Core, thinking ahead to that magical day isn't enough to motivate you to get there. "Starting with the end in mind is the fast track to failure in a health-improvement program," he says. "You want to have goals, but your daily focus should be on gaining gratification from checking the box."
"Checking the box" could mean finishing a workout, drinking eight glasses of water in a given day, or dedicating 10 minutes in the evening to laying out your gym clothes and making a healthy lunch for the next day, says Core. The important thing is that it becomes a positive experience that you want to repeat, he says, adding that setting up healthy lifestyle patterns helps you build the momentum necessary to reach a weight loss goal.
Myth 2: I am my own biggest motivator.
Reality: Social support is essential to reaching a weight loss goal.
You could have all the gumption in the world, but it won't get you far if you're going at weight loss alone—or from inside a circle of friends who make unhealthy decisions, says Core.
Research suggests that having obese friends can make you gain weight too—and that your peers can help you lose weight or maintain weight loss. The trick to using social support to your advantage is surrounding yourself with the right company. "Ask yourself, 'Are my family and friends encouragers, or are they part of the problem?'" Core suggests.
And don't forget about your online support structure. In a study published in the International Journal of Medical Informatics, researchers at the University of Texas Medical School at Houston surveyed 193 members of the SparkPeople online weight loss community and found that 88 percent of respondents used the site for encouragement and motivation, while 59 percent used it as a source of information and 43 percent as an outlet for sharing experiences.
Myth 3: Failure is a sign of weakness.
Reality: Failure results from a lack of preparation or poor behavior patterns.
If you hit a weight loss plateau or derail your diet over a holiday weekend, it's not a reflection on your character and you shouldn't beat yourself up over it, says Core, explaining that core values don't drive motivation.
"Most people at some point in their lives have felt motivated to live healthy," says Core. "Those same people have also felt unmotivated," he adds, explaining that the two sometimes happen just days apart. "In a period of days, your core values, your metabolism, the way you were raised, and your life experiences haven't changed."
What did change: your habits. Perhaps you stopped tracking calories or skipped a series of workouts and feel as though you've completely killed your diet. The best way to power past a slip-up: "Think execution versus outcome," suggests Core. "Re-energize and refocus on checking the box. Don't focus on what good things happen if you do, or bad things happen if you don't." And to make weight loss goals—and mistakes—more manageable from a success/failure standpoint, don't get too far ahead of yourself. "You don't have to change your life; you only have to change your day," says Core.
Distributed by Tribune Media Services
Calories in, calories out—in theory, losing weight should be that simple. But we're going to venture a guess that the reason two-thirds of Americans are classified as overweight or obese isn't because they can't do basic math. Age, genetics, hormones and the big one—a lack of will power—better explain the disconnect between wanting to lose weight and actually doing it.


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Today, Oliver and Jacob heard about monorails. I showed them a wikipedia article about monorails, and it had a picture of a monorail in Germany.
Oliver, age 4: I have been on that monorail!
Me: Sorry, Oliver, but that monorail is in Germany. You have never been to Germany.
Oliver: But I HAVE been to Germany!
Me: No, you have never been to Germany.
Oliver: Dad, I HAVE been to Germany. I love Germany!
Jacob, taking an interest: Dad, can we go to Germany sometime?
Me: Yes, we probably could sometime.
Jacob: Great! Then we could ride a Deutsche Bahn train!
At this point, we had a brief discussion about the fact that we can't take a train from the United States to Germany, but we can fly there and then take trains.
Oliver: Dad, we should go the the airport and tell them to take us to Germany right now!


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Overview of Content Experiments
Multi-armed bandit experiments
This article describes the statistical engine behind Analytics Content Experiments. Analytics uses a multi-armed bandit approach to managing online experiments. A multi-armed bandit is a type of experiment where:
- The goal is to find the best or most profitable action
- The randomization distribution can be updated as the experiment progresses
The name "multi-armed bandit" describes a hypothetical experiment where you face several slot machines ("one-armed bandits") with potentially different expected payouts. You want to find the slot machine with the best payout rate, but you also want to maximize your winnings. The fundamental tension is between "exploiting" arms that have performed well in the past and "exploring" new or seemingly inferior arms in case they might perform even better. There are highly developed mathematical models for managing the bandit problem, which we use in Analytics content experiments.
This document starts with some general background on the use of multi-armed bandits in Analytics. Then it presents two examples of simulated experiments run using our multi-armed bandit algorithm. It then address some frequently asked questions, and concludes with an appendix describing technical computational and theoretical details.
How bandits work
Twice per day, we take a fresh look at your experiment to see how each of the variations has performed, and we adjust the fraction of traffic that each variation will receive going forward. A variation that appears to be doing well gets more traffic, and a variation that is clearly underperforming gets less. The adjustments we make are based on a statistical formula (see the appendix if you want details) that considers sample size and performance metrics together, so we can be confident that we're adjusting for real performance differences and not just random chance. As the experiment progresses, we learn more and more about the relative payoffs, and so do a better job in choosing good variations.
Experiments based on multi-armed bandits are typically much more efficient than "classical" A-B experiments based on statistical-hypothesis testing. They're just as statistically valid, and in many circumstances they can produce answers far more quickly. They're more efficient because they move traffic towards winning variations gradually, instead of forcing you to wait for a "final answer" at the end of an experiment. They're faster because samples that would have gone to obviously inferior variations can be assigned to potential winners. The extra data collected on the high-performing variations can help separate the "good" arms from the "best" ones more quickly.
Basically, bandits make experiments more efficient, so you can try more of them. You can also allocate a larger fraction of your traffic to your experiments, because traffic will be automatically steered to better performing pages.
A simple A/B test
Suppose you've got a conversion rate of 4% on your site. You experiment with a new version of the site that actually generates conversions 5% of the time. You don't know the true conversion rates of course, which is why you're experimenting, but let's suppose you'd like your experiment to be able to detect a 5% conversion rate as statistically significant with 95% probability. A standard power calculation1 tells you that you need 22,330 observations (11,165 in each arm) to have a 95% chance of detecting a .04 to .05 shift in conversion rates. Suppose you get 100 sessions per day to the experiment, so the experiment will take 223 days to complete. In a standard experiment you wait 223 days, run the hypothesis test, and get your answer.
Now let's manage the 100 sessions each day through the multi-armed bandit. On the first day about 50 sessions are assigned to each arm, and we look at the results. We use Bayes' theorem to compute the probability that the variation is better than the original2. One minus this number is the probability that the original is better. Let's suppose the original got really lucky on the first day, and it appears to have a 70% chance of being superior. Then we assign it 70% of the traffic on the second day, and the variation gets 30%. At the end of the second day we accumulate all the traffic we've seen so far (over both days), and recompute the probability that each arm is best. That gives us the serving weights for day 3. We repeat this process until a set of stopping rules has been satisfied (we'll say more about stopping rules below).
Figure 1 shows a simulation of what can happen with this setup. In it, you can see the serving weights for the original (the black line) and the variation (the red dotted line), essentially alternating back and forth until the variation eventually crosses the line of 95% confidence. (The two percentages must add to 100%, so when one goes up the other goes down). The experiment finished in 66 days, so it saved you 157 days of testing.
Of course this is just one example. We re-ran the simulation 500 times to see how well the bandit fares in repeated sampling. The distribution of results is shown in Figure 2. On average the test ended 175 days sooner than the classical test based on the power calculation. The average savings was 97.5 conversions.
But what about statistical validity? If we're using less data, doesn't that mean we're increasing the error rate? Not really. Out of the 500 experiments shown above, the bandit found the correct arm in 482 of them. That's 96.4%, which is about the same error rate as the classical test. There were a few experiments where the bandit actually took longer than the power analysis suggested, but only in about 1% of the cases (5 out of 500).
We also ran the opposite experiment, where the original had a 5% success rate and the the variation had 4%. The results were essentially symmetric. Again the bandit found the correct arm 482 times out of 500. The average time saved relative to the classical experiment was 171.8 days, and the average number of conversions saved was 98.7.
Stopping the experiment
By default, we force the bandit to run for at least two weeks. After that, we keep track of two metrics.
The first is the probability that each variation beats the original. If we're 95% sure that a variation beats the original then Analytics declares that a winner has been found. Both the two-week minimum duration and the 95% confidence level can be adjusted by the user.
The second metric that we monitor is is the "potential value remaining in the experiment", which is particularly useful when there are multiple arms. At any point in the experiment there is a "champion" arm believed to be the best. If the experiment ended "now", the champion is the arm you would choose. The "value remaining" in an experiment is the amount of increased conversion rate you could get by switching away from the champion. The whole point of experimenting is to search for this value. If you're 100% sure that the champion is the best arm, then there is no value remaining in the experiment, and thus no point in experimenting. But if you're only 70% sure that an arm is optimal, then there is a 30% chance that another arm is better, and we can use Bayes' rule to work out the distribution of how much better it is. (See the appendix for computational details).
Analytics ends the experiment when there's at least a 95% probability that the value remaining in the experiment is less than 1% of the champion's conversion rate. That's a 1% improvement, not a one percentage point improvement. So if the best arm has a conversion rate of 4%, then we end the experiment if the value remaining in the experiment is less than .04 percentage points of CvR.
Ending an experiment based on the potential value remaining is nice because it handles ties well. For example, in an experiment with many arms, it can happen that two or more arms perform about the same, so it does not matter which is chosen. You wouldn't want to run the experiment until you found the optimal arm (because there are two optimal arms). You just want to run the experiment until you're sure that switching arms won't help you very much.
More complex experiments
The multi-armed bandit's edge over classical experiments increases as the experiments get more complicated. You probably have more than one idea for how to improve your web page, so you probably have more than one variation that you'd like to test. Let's assume you have 5 variations plus the original. You're going to do a calculation where you compare the original to the largest variation, so we need to do some sort of adjustment to account for multiple comparisons. The Bonferroni correction is an easy (if somewhat conservative) adjustment, which can be implemented by dividing the significance level of the hypothesis test by the number of arms. Thus we do the standard power calculation with a significance level of .05 / (6 - 1), and find that we need 15,307 observations in each arm of the experiment. With 6 arms that's a total of 91,842 observations. At 100 sessions per day the experiment would have to run for 919 days (over two and a half years). In real life it usually wouldn't make sense to run an experiment for that long, but we can still do the thought experiment as a simulation.
Now let's run the 6-arm experiment through the bandit simulator. Again, we will assume an original arm with a 4% conversion rate, and an optimal arm with a 5% conversion rate. The other 4 arms include one suboptimal arm that beats the original with conversion rate of 4.5%, and three inferior arms with rates of 3%, 2%, and 3.5%. Figure 3 shows the distribution of results. The average experiment duration is 88 days (vs. 919 days for the classical experiment), and the average number of saved conversions is 1,173. There is a long tail to the distribution of experiment durations (they don't always end quickly), but even in the worst cases, running the experiment as a bandit saved over 800 conversions relative to the classical experiment.
The cost savings are partially attributable to ending the experiment more quickly, and partly attributable to the experiment being less wasteful while it is running. Figure 4 shows the history of the serving weights for all the arms in the first of our 500 simulation runs. There is some early confusion as the bandit sorts out which arms perform well and which do not, but the very poorly performing arms are heavily downweighted very quickly. In this case, the original arm has a "lucky run" to begin the experiment, so it survives longer than some other competing arms. But after about 50 days, things have settled down into a two-horse race between the original and the ultimate winner. Once the other arms are effectively eliminated, the original and the ultimate winner split the 100 observations per day between them. Notice how the bandit is allocating observations efficiently from an economic standpoint (they're flowing to the arms most likely to give a good return), as well as from a statistical standpoint (they're flowing to the arms that we most want to learn about).
Figure 5 shows the daily cost of running the multi-armed bandit relative to an "oracle" strategy of always playing arm 2, the optimal arm. (Of course this is unfair because in real life we don't know which arm is optimal, but it is a useful baseline.) On average, each observation allocated to the original costs us .01 of a conversion, because the conversion rate for the original is .01 less than arm 2. Likewise, each observation allocated to arm 5 (for example) costs us .03 conversions because its conversion rate is .03 less than arm 2. If we multiply the number of observations assigned to each arm by the arm's cost, and then sum across arms, we get the cost of running the experiment for that day. In the classical experiment, each arm is allocated 100 / 6 sessions per day (on average, depending on how partial observations are allocated). It works out that the classical experiment costs us 1.333 conversions each day it is run. The red line in Figure 5 shows the cost to run the bandit each day. As time moves on, the experiment becomes less wasteful and less wasteful as inferior arms are given less weight.
1The R function power.prop.test performed all the power calculations in this article.
2See the appendix if you really want the details of the calculation. You can skip them if you don't.


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The Office of Housing & Residence Life provides a living, learning environment that promotes an academic and personal experience for residents. All three residence halls are centrally located on campus. Barringer, Orlowitz and Martin are safe, attractive, and comfortable facilities in an atmosphere that contributes to students' academic success. Living on campus will enhance your Jefferson experience – on campus residents have the opportunity to meet students outside of their academic programs and benefit from the close proximity to classes and the hospital.
In addition to being close to the university and hospital, the residence halls are also located within a short walking distance of many restaurants, stores, transportation centers and other city landmarks. We look forward to having you on-campus!


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Details provided by agencies stated that Pakistani surface vessels and submarines had recently docked in the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas, ahead of manoeuvres in eastern parts of the narrow strait which separates Iran from Oman's Musandam Peninsula. The exercise's aim is to promote military cooperation between the two countries.
"The most important activity of the Pakistani fleet during its stay in Bandar Abbas is to conduct joint manoeuvres with selected units of Iran's navy in eastern waters of the Strait of Hormuz," said Rear Admiral Shahram Irani, quoted by Iran's state news agency.
Last week an oil tanker was fired upon by suspected pirates while transiting the Strait of Hormuz, amid further reports of suspicious activity by small craft approaching shipping vessels elsewhere in the strait and Sea of Oman.


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|203 E. 14th St. (between Davis Senior High School and the Davis Branch Library)
|For reservations call: (530)757-5626
|February 24th, 1974
The Veterans Memorial Theatre is a 325 seat house and is perfect for meetings, conferences, dance recitals, live theatre and music. The theatre has a box office, concessions area, green room and the trained staff to ensure you will have a successful event. For more information on equipment or theatre specifications go to http://cityofdavis.org/cs/facility/details.cfm?id=D1C19180-BEB0-4FF9-A8DF1CB828A6343F&type=Theatre
For information on upcoming shows go to http://cityofdavis.org/cs/shows/
Adjacent to the theatre, the Veterans Memorial Center contains a 60 foot x 80 foot multi-purpose room which seats 425, a 40 foot x 40 foot club room (seating 120), a large kitchen with commercial food preparation facilities, and a 28 foot x 32 foot game room (seating 75). It is used for the annual Holiday Meal and recently for Davis is Burning. For more information go to http://cityofdavis.org/cs/facility/pdfs/brochure-vmc-2010.pdf
The Veterans Memorial Center is internationally renowned for its Yoga and Pilates classes as well as church services, community meetings, and various multi-cultural weddings. There is a marker stone out front.
For reservations, contact the Community Services Department.
Out front there is the Aileen Johnson Bench and the Chiles Memorial Rose Garden.
Also check out the Davis Veterans of Foreign Wars website: https://sites.google.com/site/vfwpost6949/
Events Hosted
- Cardozorama - the annual law school talent show, usually in mid-April.
- Davis Double Century - start and end point of the ride, the third Saturday in May.
- Acme Theatre Co.'s numerous productions.
- Davis Children's Nutcracker - Annual production, 3rd week of December


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There are positives and negatives about online communication. The absence of voice tones and body language means that subtleties are often missed. I suspect ( perhaps wrongly ) that you assumed that Rev Master Jiyu was an old Japanese guy..in fact she was an English woman from a posh background who was the first woman to be recognised as a Soto teacher.uan wrote:Thanks Jikan. The way it read it sounded very recent with lingering wounds.Jikan wrote:The Dharma Rain split from OBC? 1986-87.uan wrote:So did that whole episode happen 20 years ago or something?
She was loud and very authoritarian in the way that educated Englishwomen of that era often were. She had a strong and slightly scary physical presence.
In her twenties she considered the prospect of being a Christian nun.
Her break with Christianity was in part because at that time Anglicans ( Episcopalians ) could not be ordained into the priesthood. Now of course they can.
I think its worth knowing all of this because of the light it sheds on the debate.