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When the Winter Olympics were in Vancouver four years ago, Karen Magnussen was one of the fans sitting in the Pacific Coliseum taking in the figure skating.
With the Sochi Games approaching, she'll again be an avid and passionate fan, watching world champion Patrick Chan and the rest of Team Canada take on the world on TV.
But in the intervening four years, almost nothing else has stayed the same for Magnussen, the 1973 world champion women's singles figure skater.
Her world turned upside down on Nov. 28, 2011. It started as a typical Monday morning for Magnussen as she prepared to teach some young skaters at the North Shore Winter Club. Then, at about 5:45 a.m., she was hit by a blast of ammonia from the club's refrigeration unit.
The ammonia filled her lungs, searing them, along with her vocal cords.
"It's ruined my life," she said recently, sitting in the living room of her family home in North Vancouver's Upper Lonsdale neighbourhood.
Since that day, when she was taken to hospital after she made sure her students got out, she has not been able to work because of the damage to her lungs. WorkSafe B.C. has since classified her as permanently disabled.
"I'd never left skating from the time I was seven years old," said Magnussen, now 61.
"And I wasn't going to. It wasn't something I was going to leave at 65."
She points to the legendary Ellen Burka, who coached world champions Elvis Stojko, Toller Cranston and daughter Petra Burka. Ellen Burka is 92 and still coaching at Toronto's Granite Club.
"I could have still been coaching into my 80s and 90s," Magnussen said.
Magnussen's skating career began when she was seven, her mom driving her across town to Kerrisdale Arena, where the lessons took place on sheets of pebbly curling ice.
"The ice was anything but perfect, but I think that made you tough," she said. "You weren't like a hot-house plant. It gave you character."
The first pair of quality skates she ever wore are bronzed and on display in her house.
Magnussen won a bronze medal at the world championships in 1971. She went on to win silver medals at both the worlds and the Olympics in 1972 and then gold at the world championships in 1973.
The City of Vancouver used to allow her free early morning ice time at the Coliseum, before Canucks players would arrive for practice.
"The coach [Hal Laycoe] would tell his players, 'Look how perky this girl is!' " she recalled.
Magnussen retired after her world gold and skated professionally with ice shows for a few years before settling into her coaching career, first in Boston, where her husband of 36 years, Tony Cella, was based, then back on the North Shore.
Magnussen coached with the same steely sense of purpose that drove her to the top of the world in her sport.
Want to know what drives her crazy?
"When I hear an announcer say, 'They performed a personal best!'
"I hate that phrase. It just drives me nuts. I want to throw something at the TV when I hear that. That's not your aim, to do your personal best. No, your aim is to be in the top three. Every one of those athletes is there to win a gold, silver or bronze medal."
The elite athlete turned coach, who always had such determination to succeed, is now housebound except for trips to the hospital or, occasionally, to the mall with her husband.
She can't even walk her dogs, a Chihuahua named Frankie and a Pomeranian named Pacino, around the block due to the side effects of the drugs she's on.
According to B.C. Safety Authority, the ammonia leak that injured Magnussen was caused when a condenser pump control unit began to fail. Lack of proper training for employees who dealt with the refrigeration unit was also cited.
Magnussen started coughing violently after the accident, and the coughing continued day and night for eight months before she was put on prednisone, a powerful steroid that comes with a long list of side effects.
"It was 24/7," she said of her bone-rattling cough.
"I never slept that whole time while the doctors tried various things."
She has been taking prednisone for a year and a half. The potent drug's nasty side effects include weight gain and swelling of the face.
Magnussen, who has gained 60 pounds since she started on prednisone, declined to have her photo taken for this story mainly for those reasons.
After she appeared in a TV news story in December, some people "were very cruel, very hurtful" about her physical appearance, said her husband, Cella.
"Ammonia is a strong irritant," said Dr. Christopher Carlsten, a respiratory expert at the UBC school of medicine and one of the doctors treating Magnussen.
"The reason it was so powerful for Karen is she had a large exposure that penetrated very deeply into the mucous membrane of her lungs.
"Unfortunately, she's needed steroids. The pills are associated with side effects, especially when taken for months at a time like she has needed."
Prednisone, which can cause mental confusion, fatigue and weakness, is associated with the rheumatoid arthritis she now suffers from as her immune system attacks her joints. She has also developed temporal arteritis, a dangerous swelling of the blood vessels that supply the head and brain.
The ammonia exposure also triggered a condition known as central sensitivity syndrome, which affects how the brain and vocal cords interact, Carlsten said.
In Magnussen's case, he added, that means inhaling any vapour — such as diesel exhaust or perfume — could trigger a reaction similar to the one she had to the ammonia.
"This can go on for years," said Carlsten. "That's the worst part. It's hard to get rid of. It's a sad story. She's too young to be disabled for a lifetime. I try to get her to keep her chin up."
Magnussen, who was twice named Canada's female athlete of the year and is an Officer in the Order of Canada, thinks she knows now what all her hard work, all those early mornings training on the ice, was really for.
At the time, she thought all that discipline was about giving her a chance at a world championship or an Olympic medal.
"But as I look back, it really was all to prepare me to get through this," she said. "My whole life's work, everything I've worked for, when I think about it — and I've had a lot of time to sit and think — was to prepare me to be able to get through this and not curl up in a ball from it all.
"For me, in sports, you've got this incredible fight inside of you, this fire that no matter what you have to tackle later on in life, you're able to get through.
"It has ruined my life, that's one shame," she said. "The other shame is a lot of kids depended on me as a coach."
In addition to the figure skaters she coached, Magnussen taught hockey players about edges, power, balance and stops and starts on the ice.
Seventy-five players who have been drafted by the NHL have learned from her, she said, including former Canucks Cliff Ronning and Dave Babych, and their sons Ty Ronning (Vancouver Giants) and Cal Babych (Calgary Hitmen).
There were about 150 youngsters skating under Magnussen's tutelage when the tragedy struck, she said.
"I just loved it, as cold as it was and as crappy as the rinks were sometimes, the kids made it all worth it."
She and her family wish the North Shore Winter Club had reached out after the accident and had been more vigilant about maintenance prior to it.
Magnussen says she would take legal action against the North Shore Winter Club if the incident weren't a WorkSafe B.C. case.
"The [Workers' Compensation] Board was founded and based on a compromise in 1917," a WorkSafe spokeswoman said. "Workers gave up their right to sue and employers agreed to fund a no-fault insurance system.
"The benefit to workers is they receive timely health care and wage-loss support for work-related injuries or illnesses paid for by the Accident Fund. Previously, a worker's only option when injured was to sue their employer at their own expense."
Magnussen, who is considered an employee by WorkSafe even though she was an independent contractor working at the rink, wishes she had that option.
"Absolutely, I would have pursued that after what they put me through, after they took away my life," she said.
Winter Club general manager David Long said the club has no comment.
These days, Magnussen is battling WorkSafe to get the money she says she's owed.
She's buoyed by the emails, letters and phone calls of support she has received.
"Hopefully," said her husband, "things will work out in the future, that's all we can hope for.
"That she gets off the medicine and be able to walk around the block."


text:
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subset: commoncrawl


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Phone: 503-823-2375
fax: 503-823-2387
421 SW 6th Avenue, Suite 500, Portland, OR 97204
Phone: 503-823-2375
fax: 503-823-2387
421 SW 6th Avenue, Suite 500, Portland, OR 97204
The Portland Housing Bureau, with Commissioners Dan Saltzman and Nick Fish, celebrated the completion of the 11X13 Housing Preservation Campaign, which retained affordability for more than 700 homes in Portland.
Partners, including Northwest Housing Alternatives, REACH CDC, Guardian Management, Cedar Sinai Park, Winkler Development Corp. and Harsch Investment Properties, joined representatives from U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Network for Oregon Affordable Housing (NOAH) and Will White, former Portland Housing Bureau Director and current Senior Policy Adviser to U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley.
Among the honored guests were several residents of the 11 buildings where affordability was at risk of expiring by 2013. Because of the successful preservation of these buildings, through a regulatory agreement with the City, these buildings will remain affordable for the next 60 years.
Click here to view an exhibit on the residents, with an audio feature allowing them to tell their story in their own words.


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Sun exposure and lupus - uncovering the "why?"
While we know many lupus patients are sensitive to the sun, recent discoveries are making it possible to understand exactly why sunlight causes irritation. According to the Science Daily:
"The biological mechanism of sunburn -- the reddish, painful, protective immune response from ultraviolet (UV) radiation -- is a consequence of RNA damage to skin cells, report researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and elsewhere in the Advance Online Publication of Nature Medicine. The findings open the way to perhaps eventually blocking the inflammatory process, the scientists said, and have implications for a range of medical conditions and treatments."
Translated, this means that researches found that UV radiation can impact RNA (regulatory molecules within the cell), which is what triggers inflammation, which can contribute to a lupus flare. Per the article, "Some people have excess sensitivity to UV light, patients with lupus, for example. We are exploring if we can help them by blocking the pathway we discovered." Wouldn't that be fabulous?


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NRO Verified account @NatReconOfc 1m1 minute ago#NROL76 Mission Patch depicts Lewis & Clark heading into the great unknown to discover and explore the newly purchased Louisiana Territory.
Looks like somebody on Reddit leaked the unlisted webcast link. Note it currently says "Launch webcast" and not "hosted" or "technical".
#NROL76 will carry a classified payload designed, built and operated by @NatReconOfc. @SpaceX @45thSpaceWing
Launch day probability of violating launch weather constraints: 20% Primary concern(s): Liftoff Winds, Cumulus Cloud Rule Delay day probability of violating launch weather constraints: 30% Primary concern(s): Liftoff Winds, Thick Cloud Layer Rule
Stephen C. Smith @SpaceKSCBlog 4m4 minutes agoI spy with my @SpaceX eye ...
#Falcon9 caught vertical on #LC39A at @NASAKennedy today by #DEIMOS2! Good luck @SpaceX & @elonmusk for tomorrows launch with #NROL76!


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ballengee, WV
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Not in the smallest degree as most affiliations in the business of case financing and genuine financing, lawsuitloanss.com does everything in-house and under one umbrella. From the minute a customer submits an acquisition to the time a check is issued everything is managed by us. We handle each request in a useful and earnest way. At Lawsuitloanss.com we get a handle on our customers needs in time of money recognized wretchedness and our agents take pride in giving acclaimed individual rule way, studied and cheerful organization.


text: Hi folks Digging out an old hack here, to see how it looks in the light of RDFa. I'd like someone to explain to me how current RDFa could be used to extract info from imagemap markup. I'll try to find out myself using the .js parser, but I'm not currently intimate with the subtle details of the spec. HTML has a somewhat neglected notation for describing regions of images, and associating them with links. Here's a picture of me markup up in this way, using YokMap, a Shareware MacOSX imagemap editor: http://danbri.org/2008/imagemap/real.html The markup is small enough I'll include it inline here: <map name="da8bb51_b" id="da8bb51_b"> <area shape="POLY" coords="463,662,450,633,441,604,433,573,429,561,431,542,431,531,439,503,446,487,465,460,476,435,486,407,500,382,511,363,528,348,543,315,549,301,581,288,629,279,652,275,668,275,681,263,693,257,710,250,706,248,700,240,697,221,696,204,691,198,688,186,691,173,693,167,693,158,697,146,699,135,706,128,702,123,709,113,710,104,722,101,723,93,742,93,756,92,766,86,767,93,778,85,803,82,803,88,813,89,813,95,826,104,842,113,853,123,864,145,871,160,879,172,875,176,881,184,879,190,882,199,879,213,877,222,869,229,866,234,859,256,853,267,866,282,875,284,923,283,936,284,941,290,948,295,962,301,969,310,977,328,986,338,990,350,1008,368,1015,373,1021,382,1012,526,1022,744,1007,741,982,721,962,732,949,731,947,767,517,767,520,759,488,720,475,697,466,681" href="http://danbri.org/" /> </map> <img src="2169955372_503da8bb51_b.jpg" width="1024" height="770" usemap="#da8bb51_b" /> A few years ago, both in the FOAF project and as part of the EU SWAD-Europe project some of us were experimenting with using this as metadata in RDF, and as something that can be transformed and visually presented with SVG. The core imagemap markup just gives us a slot for an href on the area; here I've put my homepage URI (also same as my OpenID URI). BTW I have no idea what the current XHTML 2 and WhatWG/HTML5 folks have planned for these elements. But I think this kind of markup has a lot of potential for making images on the Web more automation friendly. Here is a very basic XSLT by Max Froumentin that transforms the above markup into SVG, and shades out the background into pink: http://danbri.org/2008/imagemap/imagemap2svg.xslt SVG output is here: http://danbri.org/2008/imagemap/_output.svg Here's an old screengrab of a big jumble of similar image fragments, from RDF/SVG image annotation tools that Jim Ley. Also here's a screenshot of Jim's SVG annotator in action, showing that such metadata can be created easily in zero-install Web apps. http://rdfweb.org/images/foaf/faces-in-the-crowd.jpg http://rdfweb.org/images/foaf/codemo/sabrina-libby-nicole-codepiction.jpg Right now I'm not sure exactly what triples we should be aiming for. I'd like a way to say, "this area of the image depicts the person who is the primaryTopic of http://danbri.org/". There were some #swig collaborations around this vocab a while back (see links below), though I don't think the final vocab ever got uploaded to http://www.w3.org/2004/02/image-regions ... in a sense it doesn't matter here, since if RDFa can be used freely with this markup, we should be able to pick whichever RDF vocab is currently fashionable? Any help RDFa-ifying http://danbri.org/2008/imagemap/real.html would be much appreciated... Why am I digging this up? Partly because it's time to revisit the codepiction project, as a way of encouraging social-network-interop folk to consider "evidence-based" as well as claim-based models. But that's another story... cheers, Dan related links: http://esw.w3.org/mt/esw/archives/000038.html http://www.kanzaki.com/docs/sw/img-annotator.html http://jibbering.com/svg/AnnotateImage.html http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/Europe/reports/dev_workshop_report_1/ http://www.mindswap.org/2005/owl/digital-media http://www.bnowack.de/w3photo/ http://www.bnowack.de/w3photo/pages/image_vocabs http://www.w3.org/2005/Incubator/mmsem/XGR-vocabularies/ http://www.wasab.dk/morten/blog/archives/2007/12/09/authorization-by-codepiction


text:
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Our hope is that you will feel confident in our
ability to meet all of your expectations and know
that our customers are always our number one
We have gained the experience of being able to
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We are registered with the Texas Residential
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We are conveniently located in Glenn Heights, TX.
and serve the DFW and surrounding areas.
All Phase Remodeling & Restoration Co.


text:
at Poulton Library every week on Mondays and Fridays
Enjoy lively sing-along songs, gentle movements and rhymes with your baby, plus meet and chat with other parents and carers. Suitable for babies up to around 18 months of age.
You might also be interested in…
many of our libraries also hold regular Toddler Rhyme Time and Story Timesessions for slightly older children
This event is free, no ticket required.
For more information, please contact us


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Starting a farm business in a flat market
Small Business Guides
7 min read
Starting a farm business looks tough, you say? Try starting two. At the same time. In a bad market. Get lessons from someone who survived it.
Bad timing
Dairy commodity prices imploded by more than 50 percent during Simon Washer's first year on his farm in Hawera, New Zealand. It was a brutal introduction for the 27 year-old, who'd spent five years paying his dues as a sharemilker and farm manager.
But that's not all – Simon already had a farm feed startup in its infancy. We take a look at his experience starting two farm businesses at the same time.
Starting farm business number one
Simon was a sharemilker and farm manager when he started his first business, back in 2013. It kicked off after he ordered some cattle feed from a farm 15 kilometres away. The day it arrived, he discovered his next-door neighbour had just cut some feed for sale too.
After asking what they wanted for it, he found he could've saved $10,000 by buying from them. Unfortunately there was no way he could've known they had feed for sale because there wasn't a common marketplace. Farmers mostly found feed by searching newspaper ads or calling contractors.
Saw an opportunity
While some feed was sold online using Trade Me (a local alternative to ebay), buyers didn't really know what they were getting. None of the product was graded for dry matter, crude protein, or metabolisable energy. So Simon saw his opportunity.
By late 2013, he'd set up his own website: farmfeed.co.nz. When someone lists feed on the site, they're invited to submit a sample for grading. Farmfeed arranges sample pickup and testing, then posts the results with the listing. It allows sellers to charge a premium and gives buyers confidence.
It wasn't long before feed contractors started using the site and deals were being done, but it wasn't exactly a well-oiled machine. Simon hadn't figured out how to make money from the venture, and the site – built by a student for $1500 – was clunky and difficult to use.
Ready to walk away
Simon started asking site users what they thought of his marketplace and the conclusions were ugly. Pictures didn't load properly and the user experience was generally poor. He'd have to rebuild the site with a professional, but initial estimates put the cost at $18,000.
It was hard to imagine how Farmfeed would ever repay that sort of investment so Simon told his customers he planned to ditch the project. It didn't go down well.
They asked Simon how he'd feel if someone else picked up the idea and made a success of it. That's when his competitive streak kicked in. He hired some web developers and doubled down on the project.
When business is more work than you thought
Those early days of Farmfeed had also taught Simon that the business wouldn't be as hands-off as he'd hoped. His vision was for buyers and sellers to connect on the site then do a deal without any involvement from him. It wasn't happening that way.
A lot of customers would ring and ask Simon to create the listing, or organise transport for the feed. As such, Farmfeed was becoming a big, time-intensive service to deliver. If it grew as he hoped, it was going to chew through a lot of his time and energy.
I'd hate to be watching someone else do this and thinking 'bugger, I had that idea'.
Starting farm business number two
Soon after relaunching Farmfeed, Simon finished up a business plan to buy his own dairy farm. Milk solids were fetching around $8/kg at the time, so he budgeted for a relatively conservative $6/kgMS payout and took the plunge.
He'd spend 2014 getting the farm into peak working order, and hit the ground running with two strong businesses in 2015. That was the plan anyway. But starting a second business while the first was still just a baby would be a big ask.
Struggling to do it all
It was around this time that Simon met Marilyn Davies, a director at Busing Russell chartered accountants and chair of Chartered Accountants Australia & New Zealand's Regional Advisory Group.
"I told her I'm in the shit because I've got two businesses and I can't run them both," Simon remembers. Marilyn agreed, and helped Simon figure out how to handle it.
Simon would focus on starting the dairy farm, while Rachelle Hopkinson was brought in to manage Farmfeed. His instruction to his new staff member was simple – make enough sales to pay your salary. He didn't know anything about ecommerce or logistics, so there was no other advice to give.
Good news, bad news
Rachelle got it done. The new Farmfeed was self-sustaining by the end of her first year. Simon had also worked hard through 2014, priming the dairy farm for a big 2015. Everything was teed up for a successful 2015 – except milk payouts plummeted below $4/kgMS.
With one business just breaking even and another facing tough times, Simon went to see his bank manager. It wasn't a meeting he relished, but it ended up changing the trajectory of both businesses.
Changing priorities
Simon's bank manager suggested he switch focus back to Farmfeed while the dairy business rode out the downturn in milk solid prices. After discussing the advice with his accountant, she agreed to help out. Marilyn would step up her involvement on the dairy farm business, freeing Simon to jump back into Farmfeed.
With he and Rachelle both working hard on the business, Farmfeed revenues rose 400 percent in the next year. It was going so strong that it was providing extra cash into the dairy operation.
Never had a bad day
Having a second business did more than provide financial backup – it was a good distraction from the difficulties the dairy farm faced.
"Every time the dairy price went down, I'd jump on the calculator and see what the damage was to the farm business, but I didn't have to dwell on it," he says. "I'd just ask myself how we could make that money back through Farmfeed. Mentally, I never had a bad day when payments went down."
Farmfeed's success did have a downside, though. As it grew, so did the paperwork. And with things so tight on the farm, Simon didn't want to spend money on a new hire. As a result, he and Rachelle spent hours hunched over spreadsheets, trying to stay on top of finances.
The mountains of admin put a brake on the business. Instead of trying things to grow Farmfeed, Simon and Rachelle were stuck working on the books.
We were guinea pigs
When Simon shared their frustration with Marilyn, she switched them onto online accounting software. The intention was to automate a lot of the data-entry and bookkeeping tasks that they were doing manually, but there was cause for caution.
At the time, Busing Russell were just beginning to introduce the technology to some of their clients, so Simon's farm businesses would be guinea pigs. He didn't mind. The bookwork was such a distraction that they had to try something.
They took the leap and have never looked back. Although they went through some teething trouble getting legacy accounting data onto the new system, online accounting has saved them 12 hours a week. That means an awful lot to a small business with just a couple of employees.
You can't be scared
Simon now runs Farmfeed with his partner, Monica. It's still small and lean and incredibly busy but automation means none of that hard work is wasted on bookkeeping. Every ounce of effort is focused on improving the business. Rebounding milk prices mean prospects have lifted for the farm too.
It's been almost six years since Simon first dreamed up Farmfeed. One financial crisis and two businesses later, he's learned a lot. But he wouldn't change anything. Starting a farm business was rewarding – starting two has been a revelation.
"You can't be scared of it," he says. "We've thrown a lot of money, time and energy at it but I'm glad. I'd hate to be watching someone else do this and thinking 'bugger, I had that idea'."


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Combining moments of brutal and nasty violence with well-paced character-driven drama, John Hillcoat's latest effort tries to balance art house respectability with the visceral thrills of genre exploitation fare. Though it finds a comfortable middle ground early on, "Lawless" lacks just enough focus and direction to make it work as well as it should have.
Actors being under-utilised and subplots that don't really go anywhere are the kind of flaws that only detract rather than cripple, which means it still remains a quite enjoyable and skilfully crafted piece of prestige pulp entertainment. Featuring a couple of solid performances and a convincing period atmosphere, Hillcoat embraces the mobster film cliches and turns them into benefits rather than limitations.
He's aided by Nick Cave's script which balances the tonal shifts with a quiet confidence. Benoit Delhomme's cinematography, the sound design, a strong score and gritty production values recreate the period whilst adding an energy and immediacy to it that other films set in said period seem to miss.
Set in Prohibition-era Virginia, the story follows a trio of hillbilly bootlegger brothers as they struggle to both stay in business and stay alive as law enforcement steps up its efforts to shut down their trade. When it keeps to that basic premise, the film clicks as Hillcoat plays up the myths surrounding the brothers along with showcasing to us the extreme lengths they and their enemies will go to. He's a filmmaker who loves to give us characters who claim they abhor violence and yet underneath seem to have little issue indulging in bloodletting to unnecessary lengths.
The film's most memorable creation along these lines is Guy Pearce's oily special deputy Charlie Rakes. An over-groomed dandy with an utterly sadistic cruel streak, it's a role designed to be a touch larger than life but not so much as to be cartoonish. Pearce finds that level perfectly, nailing it with a coldly mesmerising turn just this side of camp. It's a distinct improvement on flamboyant villain roles by him in the likes of "Prometheus" or "The Count of Monte Cristo".
The rest of the cast aren't far behind, even though some of the supporting roles get shortchanged. Arguably the best work after Pearce is yet another excellent turn by Dane DeHaan as the crippled hooch creation whiz Cricket, the young actor disappearing into the role and earning our affection. Tom Hardy's laconic and dominant brother is a deceptively unassuming performance, and the actor nails his few key character moments – sliding between darkly comic and chillingly serious, all delivered in an understated style.
Shia LaBeouf is a real surprise as the younger brother, properly flexing his acting muscles in what feels like the first time in many years. It's also a role – earnest, ambitious, a little bit arrogant and cowardly – that he seems perfect for. Despite being little more than cameos, both Gary Oldman as gangster Floyd Banner and Noah Taylor as his enforcer are fun turns.
On the flip side, Jason Clarke is decidedly underserved as a character while the rest of the male supporting cast leave little impression. Mia Wasikowska's preacher's daughter and her innocent flirting with LaBeouf's character is a sweet little subplot, but it's dwelled on for only a few scant minutes which makes it feel very perfunctory. Jessica Chastain's stripper turned legit gets a little bit more to do, but not much. In fact she seems to be there mainly to serve as Hardy's love interest, bare her breasts and participate in a very brief and oddly handled rape subplot.
In terms of deeper meaning the film isn't quite sure what it's trying to say. The story itself kind of meanders in a distracted way before quickly realising it has to come to an end and rushes to the finish. Clocking in at a little under two hours, one wonders how much was trimmed either in the writing stage or in the editing room. Certainly you get the feeling that the overly judicious and sometimes awkward editing was a bit severe and the film would've worked much better had it had a good half-hour extra to breathe.


text:
Christchurch capping ceremony to honour former All Blacks
Christchurch will host the fourth and last of this year's special capping ceremonies to honour former All Blacks, this Friday at the Christchurch Town Hall.
New Plymouth kicks off 2010 Capping Ceremonies
Forty years of All Blacks rugby involving 17 past players and a combined total of 111 test matches will be celebrated in New Plymouth this week in the first of four ceremonies being held in 2010 to cap former All Blacks.
Former All Blacks to be honoured in 2010
Up to 100 former All Blacks will be acknowledged at special capping ceremonies around the country this year, starting in New Plymouth where the All Blacks kick off the Steinlager Series and their 2010 domestic Test season.
Capping Ceremony to honour one of world rugby's biggest names
Sir Colin Meads among 29 players to receive first Test cap
Gisborne to play host to special capping ceremony
Poverty Bay Rugby Union, NZRU to honour local All Blacks


text:
Jason Pominville scores goal in regulation and shootout winner as Wild beat Hurricanes 3-2NHL.com @NHLdotcom
RALEIGH, N.C. - Jason Pominville scored a goal in regulation and the game-winner in the shootout to lift the Minnesota Wild over the Carolina Hurricanes 3-2 on Saturday night.
Justin Fontaine got the tying goal midway through the second period and Josh Harding made 27 saves for Minnesota, which won for the seventh time in nine games.
Jiri Tlusty and Ryan Murphy scored for the Hurricanes, who had won two straight. Justin Peters stopped 28 shots.
Carolina was 0 for 3 on the power play, while Minnesota finished 0 of 4.


text:
My professional goals:
-Be a consistent competitor (read: pep talks and new PR!)
-Have a successful Outdoor National Championships. (read: nationals recap)
-Perform well at the World Championships in Daegu. (read: the start of world championships)
Grade: D-
I must say that I didn't do so hot on my professional goals this year. Yes, I jumped far…further than I have ever jumped in my life and that is a total positive. But, I don't think I made consistency my middle name this past year and I definitely screwed up at Nationals which prevented me from even going to Worlds. That was a HUGE disappointment.
My spiritual goals:
-Complain less. (read: answered prayer)
-Give more. (read: high school track)
-Stay focused on what's important. (read: an offering)
Grade: B
I definitely think that this last year I have experienced a ton of spiritual growth and that has allowed me to really have a better perspective on a lot of things. I definitely have given more in time, talents, and treasures and I feel good about that. I'm headed in a good direction. I am not a perfect angel, but I can spot a faint halo in picture at times.
My relationship goals:
-Ask God to continue to work on the woman that I am, so that someone will want to catch a grenade for me. (read: coincidences)
-Be nicer to people. (read: encounters)
-Learn to love. (read: true love)
Grade: C+
Ok…so nobody has actually volunteered to catch that grenade yet, but I do think that God has worked on me this past year. More than anything He's made it clear to me the kind of relationship He wants for me and I'm content to wait for that. I also make everyone I go on a date with to take the love languages test so that I can be aware of their love language. :) Outside of my romantic relationships, I have become nicer. I hope.
Overall, I'm wouldn't say that I accomplished everything I wanted to this past year, but I like the idea that I can see quite clearly where I made improvements and where I need to work even harder. Most of these goals will probably be making a reappearance this coming year, and hopefully by this time next year I can give myself some better grades. :/


text:
By Paul Tooher
Carl Sandburg called Chicago "The city of broad shoulders." But today, Chicagoland can also be called the city of big brains.
According to Credit Donkey, the online site that covers credit card and lifestyle issues, Chicago ranks as the seventh-smartest city in the United States.
To create its ranking, the site looked at the percentage of the population with a bachelor's degree or higher, the number of Mensa chapters in the state, the number of library card holders per capita and the number of property crimes per capita. Mensa is an international organization for people who score in the top 2 percent of the general population on IQ tests.
According to Credit Donkey, 34.4 percent of Chicago's population has a bachelor's degree or higher, compared with 26 percent of people in the average metropolitan statistical area.
By that measure, Crystal Lake is even smarter, with 40 percent of its residents holding a bachelor's degree or higher, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. More than 92 percent of Crystal Lake residents have a high school diploma.
The site also noted that there are five Mensa chapters in Illinois, and that the Windy City boasts one of the largest municipal libraries in the nation.
Credit Donkey ranks San Jose, Calif., as the smartest city in the nation, with 45.7 percent of the population holding a bachelor's degree or higher. The site notes that, "With some of the world's most revolutionary technical change emanating from this town, San Jose attracts and retains some of this country's greatest brains."
With Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology next door in Cambridge, Mass., Boston ranks as the second-smartest city in the country, followed by San Diego, Calif.
Raleigh, N.C., in the heart of the Research Triangle, ranked fourth, just ahead of Los Angeles and Denver.
Rochester, N.Y., Philadelphia, and Richmond, Va., round out the site's top-10 list.
Chicago Among Smartest Cities in Nation
By Paul Tooher


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Rita Maas
This salsa would also be great on chicken or pork.
- Yield
- Makes 6 servings
- Active Time
- 30 minutes
- Total Time
- 45 minutes
- 1 1/2 cups finely chopped green tomatoes (1/2 lb)
- 1 1/2 cups finely chopped red watermelon
- 2/3 cup minced red onion
- 1 (2 1/2- to 3-inch) fresh red or green chile such as Thai or serrano, minced (including seeds)
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
- 1 teaspoon fresh lime juice
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 6 (6-oz) center-cut pieces striped bass fillet with skin or mahimahi (1 inch thick)
- 1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
- Prepare gas or charcoal grill for cooking. If using charcoal, open vents on bottom of grill, then light charcoal. Charcoal fire is medium-hot when you can hold your hand 5 inches above rack for 3 to 4 seconds. If using a gas grill, preheat burners on high, covered, 10 minutes, then reduce heat to moderately high.
- Toss together tomatoes, watermelon, onion, chile, cilantro, lime juice, and salt. (Do not make salsa more than 1 hour ahead or it will become watery.)
- Pat fish dry, then brush with oil and season with salt. Grill fish, starting with skin sides down, on lightly oiled grill rack, turning over once, until just cooked through, 8 to 9 minutes total.
- Serve fish topped with salsa.
Cooks' note:
·If you aren't able to grill outdoors, fish can be broiled 4 to 5 inches from heat, turning over once, 10 to 12 minutes total.
Related Video
Nutritional Info
- Calories226
- Carbohydrates7 g(2%)
- Fat8 g(12%)
- Protein31 g(62%)
- Saturated Fat1 g(7%)
- Sodium415 mg(17%)
- Polyunsaturated Fat2 g
- Fiber1 g(4%)
- Monounsaturated Fat4 g
- Cholesterol136 mg(45%)


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Teeny Tiny Spices Celebrate Culinary Culture with 12 Blends
Home cooks Thora and Ed Pomicter always had a passion for global cuisine, but were challenged by ethnic recipes that required so many different spices it was nearly impossible to keep their pantry adequately stocked. To resolve this, and help other home cooks add the flavor of various world cuisines to everyday meals with ease, they created Shelburne, Vt.-based Teeny Tiny Spice Co. of Vermont.
Teeny Tiny's spice blends (12 spice blends that celebrate the culinary culture of regions around the globe, such as South America, East Africa, Northwest and Southwest India, Montréal, Malaysia, Iran, North Africa and the Mediterranean) are sold in 2.8-oz reusable and recyclable tins, just enough spice for at least four to eight full recipes. To ensure the freshest spices and herbs, Teeny Tiny Spice blends are made in small batches that are freshly ground just before being packaged, and the ingredients are certified organic. The mixtures are offered in mild, medium or hot blends, and the "heat" ratings -- ranging from zero to five -- are indicated on the packaging.
Spice blends include: British Curry; Citrus Pepper; Chocolate Chili; Ethiopian Berberé; Garam Masala; Montréal Seasoning; Penang Curry; Perfection Spice Rub; Persian Adwiya; Ras el Hanout; Shepherd Herb Mix; and Vindaloo.
"We're glad to be solving a problem by offering a product line that allows home cooks to make exotic, flavorful meals in no time and with little work," says Thora.
"The heart and soul of our company comes from these core elements: a commitment to organic, healthy, delicious and exotic cuisine; bringing people together with food; bringing playfulness and joy to your cooking; and simplicity and ease of use." And she adds, "The beauty of our blends is how easy it is to use them in meals that you have already been cooking. You can turn a plain chicken and rice meal into a Persian feast or create a sumptuous Southeast Asian meal in no time -- all with just a pinch, dash, pile or splash of Teeny Tiny Spice."
Suggested retail price of each variety is $9.95.
If you're social media inclined, you can find them on both Facebook and Twitter.


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Native PL/SQL compilation is achieved by translating the PL/SQL source code into C source code that is then compiled on the same host machine running the Oracle server. The compiling and linking of the generated C source code is done by tools external to Oracle that are set up by the DBA and/or system administrator.
Enabling native PL/SQL compilation in Oracle Database 10g can be accomplished in as few as three steps:
- Get a supported C compiler.
- Set up directory(ies) in the filesystem that will hold the natively compiled files.
- Check $ORACLE_HOME/plsql/spnc_commands.
Step 1: Get a Supported C Compiler
If you don't already have your platform vendor's usual C compiler, you'll have to get one from somewhere. Fortunately, this does not always require a huge investment; if you happen to be running Oracle Database 10g Release 2, you can use the freely downloadable GNU C compiler. Table 20-1 shows just a few of the combinations of compiler, version, and platform that Oracle supports. For the complete list, go to Oracle's Metalink site and search for the "Certified Compilers" document (doc ID 43208.1).
|Oracle Database
|Supported C compiler(s)
|Sun Sparc Solaris
|Sun Forte Workshop 6.2 (with particular patches from Sun); spnc_command.mk includes gcc-specific comments, but GCC doesn't appear to be officially supported
|Sun ONE Studio 8, C/C++ 5.5
|Same as above, plus GCC 3.4
|Microsoft Windows
|Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0
|Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0; Microsoft Visual C++ .NET 2002; Microsoft Visual C++ .NET 2003
|Same as above, plus MinGW GCC 3.2.3a
|Linux Intel 32bit
|Red Hat Linux 2.1: GNU GCC 18.104.22.168
|Red Hat Linux 3: GNU GCC 3.2.3-2
|UnitedLinux 1.0: GNU GCC 3.2.2-38
|Vendor-independent: Intel C++ 184.108.40.206
|Red Hat: GCC 3.2.3-34
|Suse: GCC 3.3.3-43
|Vendor-independent: Intel C++ Compiler v22.214.171.124
a Obtained by installing MinGW-3.1.0-1.exe from http://www.mingw.org
With the right combination of luck and spare time, you may be able to get an unsupported compiler to work for native compilation; if you have trouble, though, all Oracle will do is tell you to get a certified compiler. I know that some sites have been able to use GCC on Sun Sparc Solaris with Oracle9i Database, but others had trouble until they got Sun's compiler. And I have never heard of anyone getting GCC working with Oracle Database 10g Release 1.
By the way, you cannot reuse the generated object files on another machine, even if it's the exact same version of the OS and Oracle; you can't even copy the object files to a different database on the same machine. The object files contain database-specific information and must be generated on the exact same database and machine that will ultimately run the files. Besides, you might have a DDL event that triggers some automatic recompiles. You will, therefore, need a C compiler on every machine on which you want to use this feature. And, if you happen to be running an Oracle Real Application Cluster (RAC), you'll need to install your C compiler on each node.
Step 2: Set Up the Directories
When Oracle translates your PL/SQL into C and runs it through the host compiler, the resulting object files have to go somewhere on the server filesystem. Curiously, there is no default for this location; the DBA must create the directories and set one or two initialization parameters. Here is a simple case:
# While logged in as oracle (to get the correct ownership) :
$ mkdir
/u01/app/oracle/oracle/product/10.2.0/ db_1/dbs/ncomps
$ sqlplus "/ as sysdba"
SQL> ALTER SYSTEM SET plsql_native_library_dir =
2 '/u01/app/oracle/oracle/product/ 10.2.0/db_1/dbs/ncomps';
Some filesystems start to choke on a few thousand files in a single directory; to support that many modules, you can get Oracle to spread the object files across many subdirectories. To use 1,000 subdirectories, specify:
SQL> ALTER SYSTEM SET plsql_native_library_subdir_count = 1000;
You will also need to precreate the subdirectories, which in this case must be named d0, d1, d2…d999. Do this to generate a directory-creating script (using a variation on Oracle's suggested method):
SPOOL makedirs.sh
FOR dirno IN 0..999
DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE('mkdir d' || dirno || ' && echo ' || dirno);
Then, edit out the cruft at the top and bottom of the script, and at the operating sys tem prompt, do something like this:
$ cd /u01/app/oracle/oracle/product/ 10.2.0/db_1/dbs/ncomps
$ sh makedirs.sh
Starting with Oracle Database 10g Release 1, the master copy of the object files is really BLOB data in a table named ncomp_dll$; the on-disk copy exists so it can be dynamically loaded by the operating system. With this capability, Oracle can regenerate the on-disk copies without recompiling the source, but you still don't want to delete any of the generated files unless your database is shut down.
Step 3: Check $ORACLE_HOME/plsql/spnc_commands
Oracle Database 10g invokes the C compiler by calling a script named spnc_commands (spnc stands for "stored procedure native compilation," presumably). This file differs by platform, and in some cases includes inline comments indicating how to use different compilers. You'll want to inspect this file to see if the path to the compiler executable is correct for your installation.
If you're running Oracle9i Database, there is a file named spnc_makefile.mk that you will need to inspect instead; that version has a more complicated setup for native compilation (see the sidebar "Native Compilation Prior to Oracle Database 10g").
Native Compilation Prior to Oracle Database 10g
With native compilation in Oracle9i Database, the setup is slightly different, and there are several limitations that you'll want to keep in mind:
- In addition to getting a supported C compiler, setting the directory parameters, and inspecting the spnc_makefile.mk as discussed above, there are extra parameters required at the system or session level: PLSQL_NATIVE_MAKE_UTILITY (typically make) and PLSQL_NATIVE_MAKE_FILE_NAME (the fully qualified path to spnc_makefile.mk).
- While a CREATE or REPLACE of a module replaces the existing DLL, a DROP of a module does not delete the DLL from the filesystem. You will need to remove these files manually.
- There is no storage of the content of the object file in the data dictionary as in Oracle Database 10g. You definitely want to adjust your system-level backup to include the native file directories.
- Package specifications and package bodies must match in compilation style (both interpreted, or both native). In Oracle Database 10g, they don't have to match.
Native compilation does take longer than interpreted mode compilation; our tests have shown an increase of a factor of about two. That's because native compilation involves several extra steps: generating C code from the initial output of the PL/SQL compilation, writing this to the filesystem, invoking and running the C compiler, and linking the resulting object code into Oracle.
{mospagebreak title=Interpreted Versus Native Compilation Mode}
After your administrator sets everything up, you are ready to go native. The first thing to do is set the compiler parameter. A user may set it as described here.
In Oracle9i Database, specify:
SET plsql_compiler_flags = 'NATIVE'; /* vs. 'INTERPRETED' */
Starting with Oracle Database 10g Release 1, the PLSQL_COMPILER_FLAGS parameter is deprecated, so you should use this instead:
SET plsql_code_type = 'NATIVE'; /* vs. 'INTERPRETED' */
The compilation mode will then be set for subsequently compiled PL/SQL library units during that session, as long as they are compiled by one of the following:
- A script or explicit CREATE [OR REPLACE] command
- An ALTER… COMPILE statement
- The DBMS_UTILITY.COMPILE_SCHEMA packaged procedure
In addition, the DBA can change the mode on a system-wide basis using ALTER SYSTEM.
Oracle stores the compilation mode with the library unit's metadata so that if the program is implicitly recompiled as a consequence of dependency checking, the last mode used will be used again. Note that this "stickiness" applies only to automatic recompilations; other rebuilds or recompiles will use the session's current setting. You can determine the saved compilation mode for your stored programs by
query ing the data dictionary using the statement shown here (for Oracle Database 10g):
SELECT name, type, plsql_code_type
ORDER BY name;
The result will show something like this:
——- ———— ———————
In Oracle9i Database, the WHERE clause would instead look for PLSQL_COMPILER_FLAGS, and you would get additional information about whether the unit has been compiled with debug mode.
Incidentally, PL/SQL debuggers will not work with natively compiled programs. This is one of the only downsides to native compilation, but in most cases you could work around it by using interpreted mode during development, and native mode in test ing and production.
Oracle recommends that all of the PL/SQL library units called from a given top-level unit be compiled in the same mode (see the sidebar "Converting an Entire Database to Native (or Interpreted)"). That's because there is a cost for the context switch when a library unit compiled in one mode invokes one compiled in the other mode. Significantly, this recommendation includes the Oracle-supplied library units. These are always shipped compiled in interpreted mode because they may need to get recompiled during subsequent upgrades, and Oracle cannot assume that you have installed a supported C compiler.
Our conclusion? If your application contains a significant amount of compute-intensive logic, consider switching your entire database—including Oracle's supplied library units—to use native compilation. Making such a change is likely to offer the most dramatic performance improvements for applications that are unable to take advantage of the optimizing compiler introduced in Oracle Database 10g.
Converting an Entire Database to Native (or Interpreted)
The simplest way to follow Oracle's recommendation that all PL/SQL library units called from a given top-level unit be compiled in the same mode is to convert the whole database so that all PL/SQL library units are compiled native, and to set the system-wide parameter PLSQL_COMPILER_FLAGS (Oracle9i Database) or PLSQL_CODE_TYPE (Oracle Database 10g) to NATIVE.
While this is not technically difficult to do, it can be very time-consuming if you have a large number of modules. There are a number of nonobvious steps to the process; we suggest following Oracle's explicit instructions closely.
- For Oracle9i Database: http://otn.oracle.com/tech/pl_sql/htdocs/README_ 2188517.htm
- For Oracle Database 10g: http://www.oracle.com/technology/tech/pl_sql/ htdocs/ncomp_faq.html#ncomping_db
The latter link is actually part of a larger FAQ that contains a wealth of useful information on native compilation.
{mospagebreak title=Using the Optimizing Compiler and Compile-Time Warnings}
You don't have to make any changes to your code to take advantage of two of the most important enhancements to Oracle Database 10g PL/SQL: the optimizing compiler and compile-time warnings.
The Optimizing Compiler
PL/SQL's optimizing compiler can improve runtime performance dramatically, with a relatively slight cost at compile time. The benefits of optimization apply to both interpreted and natively compiled PL/SQL because optimizations are applied by analyzing patterns in source code.
The optimizing compiler is enabled by default. However, you may want to alter its behavior, either by lowering its aggressiveness or by disabling it entirely. For example, if, in the course of normal operations, your system must perform recompilation of many lines of code, or if an application generates many lines of dynamically executed PL/SQL, the overhead of optimization may be unacceptable. Keep in mind, though, that Oracle's tests show that the optimizer doubles the runtime performance of computationally intensive PL/SQL.
In some cases, the optimizer may even alter program behavior. One such case might occur in code written for Oracle9i Database that depends on the relative timing of initialization sections in multiple packages. If your testing demonstrates such a problem, yet you wish to enjoy the performance benefits of the optimizer, you may want to rewrite the offending code or to introduce an initialization routine that ensures the desired order of execution.
The optimizer settings are defined through the PLSQL_OPTIMIZE_LEVEL initialization parameter (and related ALTER DDL statements), which can be set to 0, 1, or 2. The higher the number, the more aggressive is the optimization, meaning that the compiler will make a greater effort, and possibly restructure more of your code to optimize performance.
Set your optimization level according to the best fit for your application or program, as follows:
Zero essentially turns off optimization. The PL/SQL compiler maintains the original evaluation order of statement processing of Oracle9i Database and earlier releases. Your code will still run faster than in earlier versions, but the difference will not be so dramatic.
The compiler will apply many optimizations to your code, such as eliminating unnecessary computations and exceptions. It will not, in general, change the order of your original source code.
This is the default value and the most aggressive setting. It will apply many modern optimization techniques beyond level 1, and some of those changes may result in moving source code relatively far from its original location. Level 2 optimization offers the greatest boost in performance. It may, however, cause the compilation time in some of your programs to increase substantially. If you encounter this situation (or, alternatively, if you are developing your code and want to minimize compile time, knowing that when you move to production, you will apply the highest optimization level), try cutting back the optimization level to 1.
You can set the optimization level for the instance as a whole, but then override the default for a session or for a particular program. Here are some examples:
Oracle retains optimizer settings on a module-by-module basis. When you recompile a particular module with nondefault settings, the settings will "stick," allowing you to recompile later using REUSE SETTINGS. For example:
ALTER PROCEDURE bigproc COMPILE PLSQL_OPTIMIZE_LEVEL = 0;
and then:
ALTER PROCEDURE bigproc COMPILE REUSE SETTINGS;
To view all the compiler settings for your modules, including optimizer level, interpreted versus native, and compiler warning levels, query the
USER_PLSQL_OBJECT_SETTINGS view.
For lots more information on the optimizing compiler, see Chapter 23 and visit:
http://www.oracle.com/technology/tech/pl_sql/htdocs/ new_in_10gr1.htm#faster
Compile-Time Warnings
Compile-time warnings can greatly improve the maintainability of your code and reduce the chance that bugs will creep into it. Compile-time warnings differ from compile-time errors; with warnings, your program will still compile and run. You may, however, encounter unexpected behavior or reduced performance as a result of running code that is flagged with warnings.
This section explores how compile-time warnings work and which issues are currently detected. Let's start with a quick example of applying compile-time warnings in your session.
A quick example
A very useful compile-time warning is PLW-06002: Unreachable code. Consider the following program (available in the cantgothere.sql file on the book's web site). Because I have initialized the salary variable to 10,000, the conditional statement will always send me to line 9. Line 7 will never be executed.
/* File on web: cantgothere.sql * /
1 CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE cant_go_there
3 l_salary NUMBER := 10000;
5 IF l_salary > 20000
7 DBMS_OUTPUT.put_line ('Executive');
9 DBMS_OUTPUT.put_line ('Rest of Us');
11 * END cant_go_there;
If I compile this code in any release prior to Oracle Database 10g Release 1, I am sim ply told "Procedure created." If, however, I have enabled compile-time warnings in my session on the new release and then try to compile the procedure, I get this response from the compiler:
SP2-0804: Procedure created with compilation warnings
SQL> sho err
Errors for PROCEDURE CANT_GO_THERE:
——– ———————————
7/7 PLW-06002: Unreachable code
Given this warning, I can now go back to that line of code, determine why it is unreachable, and make the appropriate corrections.
If you see a "no message file" message
If you are running 10.1.0.2.0 on Windows, and try to reproduce what I showed in the previous section, you will see this message:
7/7 PLW-06002: Message 6002 not found;
No message file for
product=plsql, facility=PLW
The problem is that Oracle didn't ship the message file, plwus.msb, with the Ora cle Database 10g software until 10.1.0.3.0, and the download available on OTN is 10.1.0.2.0. If you encounter this problem, you will need to contact Oracle Support to obtain this file (reference Bug 3680132) and place it in the plsqlmesg subdirectory. You will then be able to see the actual warning message.
Verify your SQL*Plus version
If you are running a pre-Oracle Database 10g version of SQL*Plus, it will not be able to display warnings; because Oracle9i Database did not support compile-time warnings, commands like SHOW ERRORS don't even try to obtain warning information.
Specifically, the ALL_ERRORS family of data dictionary views has two new columns in Oracle Database 10g: ATTRIBUTE and MESSAGE_NUMBER. The earlier SQL*Plus versions don't know how to interpret these columns.
To determine if you are using a pre-Oracle Database 10g version of SQL*Plus, execute these commands in SQL*Plus:
CREATE TABLE t (n BINARY_FLOAT )
DESCRIBE t
In such versions of SQL*Plus, you will see that "n" is characterized as "UNDE FINED." Starting with Oracle Database 10g Release 1, SQL*Plus will properly show the type of this column to be "BINARY_FLOAT."
{mospagebreak title=How to turn on compile-time warnings}
Oracle allows you to turn compile-time warnings on and off, and also to specify the type of warnings that interest you. There are three categories of warnings:
Conditions that could cause unexpected behavior or
actual wrong results, such as aliasing problems with
Conditions that could cause performance problems,
such as passing a VARCHAR2 value to a NUMBER
column in an UPDATE statement
Conditions that do not affect performance or
correctness, but that you might want to change to
make the code more maintainable
Oracle lets you enable/disable compile-time warnings for a specific category, for all categories, and even for specific, individual warnings. You can do this with either the ALTER DDL command or the DBMS_WARNING built-in package.
To turn on compile-time warnings in your system as a whole, issue this command:
ALTER SYSTEM SET PLSQL_WARNINGS='string'
The following command, for example, turns on compile-time warnings in your system for all categories:
This is a useful setting to have in place during development because it will catch the largest number of potential issues in your code.
To turn on compile-time warnings in your session for severe problems only, issue this command:
And if you want to alter compile-time warnings settings for a particular, already-compiled program, you can issue a command like this:
ALTER PROCEDURE hello COMPILE PLSQL_WARNINGS='ENABLE:ALL' REUSE SETTINGS;
Make sure to include REUSE SETTINGS to make sure that all other settings (such as the optimization level) are not affected by the ALTER command.
You can tweak your settings with a very high level of granularity by combining different options. For example, suppose that I want to see all performance-related issues, that I will not concern myself with server issues for the moment, and that I would like the compiler to treat PLW-05005: function exited without a RETURN as a compile error. I would then issue this command:
I especially like this "treat as error" option. Consider the PLW-05005: function returns without value warning. If I leave PLW-05005 simply as a warning, then when I compile my no_return function, shown below, the program does compile, and I can use it in my application.
SQL> CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION no_return
6 'Here I am, here I stay');
7 END no_return;
8 /
SP2-0806: Function created with compilation warnings
SQL> sho err
Errors for FUNCTION NO_RETURN:
——– ———————————
1/1 PLW-05005: function NO_RETURN
returns without value at line 7
If I now alter the treatment of that error with the ALTER SESSION command shown above and then recompile no_return, the compiler stops me in my tracks:
Warning: Procedure altered with compilation errors
By the way, I could also change the settings for that particular program only, to flag this warning as a "hard" error with a command like this:
ALTER PROCEDURE no_return COMPILE PLSQL_WARNINGS = 'error:6002' REUSE SETTINGS
This ability to treat a warning as an error did not work in 10.1.0.2; this program was fixed in Oracle Database 10g Release 2 and is reported to be back-ported to 10.1.0.3.
You can, in each of these variations of the ALTER command, also specify ALL as a quick and easy way to refer to all compile-time warnings categories, as in:
Oracle also provides the DBMS_WARNING package, which provides the same capabilities to set and change compile-time warning settings through a PL/SQL API. DBMS_WARNING also goes beyond the ALTER command, allowing you to make changes to those warning controls that you care about while leaving all the others intact. You can also easily restore the original settings when you're done.
DBMS_WARNING was designed to be used in install scripts in which you might need to disable a certain warning, or treat a warning as an error, for individual pro gram units being compiled. You might not have any control over the scripts surrounding those for which you are responsible. Each script's author should be able to set the warning settings he wants, while inheriting a broader set of settings from a more global scope.
Please check back next week for the continuation of this article.


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Shop with your Membership Rewards Points at www.spicejet.com
4 Membership Rewards Points = INR 1
1. Select your American Express Card as mode of payment at our below given partners
2. Enter the 'One Time Password' (OTP) and choose 'Membership Rewards' on the Safekey screen. Click on 'Continue'
3. Confirm the 'Points to Redeem' and then click on 'Redeem my Points'
1. All American Express Cards issued in India which are enrolled in the Membership Rewards Programme and earn Membership Rewards Points are eligible to redeem points with Safekey, provided that:
a) Cardmember is making a purchase online at participating merchants that are enrolled with American Express Safekey and Use points with Safekey. Merchants enrolled with "Use points with Safekey" are subject to change at any time.
b) Cardmember at all times means the Primary/Basic Cardmember only. (Supplementary Cardmembers are not eligible for this programme/ facility.)
c) Card Account is in good standing / current status (not overdue or in collection).
d) Cardmember has minimum 1 Membership Rewards Point in Card Account
2. Subject to these Terms and Conditions, the redemption of Points will be awarded to Cardmembers in the form of a credit to the Card Account to which the transaction was originally charged and that Card Account must be associated with or linked to the Membership Rewards Account from which the Points are redeemed. If you redeem Points through Safekey, a credit will appear on your statement identified as 'Safekey – Merchant Name'.
3. Cardmember must redeem a minimum of 1 Point at one time for each redemption process.
4. American Express Banking Corp. may require that any credit to Cardmember's Card Account does not exceed the amount of the transaction against which the Points are being redeemed.
5. Cardmember must not withhold any payment due on Cardmember's Card Account based upon the expectation of receiving a future credit to such Card Account.
6. If Cardmember has an American Express Banking Corp. issued Card in which Cardmember earns points, a credit to Cardmember's Card Account as a result of using this redemption reward does not constitute a payment to such Card Account and does not satisfy the requirement to pay the minimum payment due and/ or the total amount due as per the Cardmember's choice. Cardmember must still make a separate payment of at least the minimum payment due and/ or the total amount due in accordance with the Cardmember Agreement and Card Account statement.
7.It can take up to five working days for the statement credit to appear on Cardmember's Card Account. In case of a credit card, Cardmember may be charged interest (if applicable) if any interest free period expires before the transfer of Points (and issue of the "Use Points with Safekey" credit) to Account. If possible, Cardmember should allow sufficient time to redeem Points before the payment date of card statement.
8. Both the full original charge from the merchant and INR value of Points redeemed will appear on your Statement of Account. The Points value of the credit will be deducted from Cardmember's Membership Rewards Account.
9. American Express may suspend usage of the "Use Points with Safekey" tool where the Card Account is not in good standing (overdue or in collection).
10. If Cardmember subsequently returns the purchase to the merchant for a refund, the Membership Rewards Points that the Cardmember redeemed through Safekey for that purchase will not be credited back to the Membership Rewards Account. Cardmember will however receive the refund from the merchant as credit in Card Account as usual.
11. The value of Points redeemed through Safekey may vary from other redemption channels. Please visit www.americanexpress.co.in/rewards to view our online catalogue and explore other options for redeeming your Points.
12. Please visit 'The Programme' section to view the full Membership Rewards Terms and Conditions


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NES Remix Trailer: It's Time for the Reeeeeemix
Old NES games are boring, so Nintendo decided to spice things up by injecting new challenges into some of its classics in NES Remix.
Available starting today on the Nintendo eShop for $14.99, NES Remix brings together 16 classic 8-bit titles that have been completely re-imagined. Ever wanted to know what it was like to play Donkey Kong as Link? NES Remix lets you do it. Tired of always running to the right in Super Mario Bros.? NES Remix makes you run to the left. Just when you think it's safe to zig, NES Remix zags.
There are stamps to collect, and you can interact with friends on Miiverse, too. You can learn more about the games and challenges awaiting your in the trailer above.


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This week marks the beginning of me not being a complete lump on a log. I have started doing civilian workouts, at a civilian gym no less. This of course presents a problem because I do have an aversion at these types of establishments. People talk too darn much and I see them peeking out of the corner of their eye either wondering what it is I do or chuckling why I'm breathing so hard after jogging for 10 minutes. Whatever the case, it's the one spot I do not like attention. I wear pants and I never take off my shirt under any circumstances. But the other day I did catch someone copying my abs workout. They tried to be inconspicuous but I'm pretty sure there are few people in this world who would just happen to do the same exercises I do. So much for blending in…
This weekend was the time for BBQ's and anybody who knows me knows that I like to eat. I especially like to eat meat cooked on a grill. So why did someone have the audacity to throw a BBQ and not grill any meat?! We show up to some chips and dip, a few chicken wings, and beverages. Who wants a BBQ with no meat? The whole point is to be a reckless carnivore. Needless to say, we didn't stick around long.
We have a phenomena here in the U.S. that says what you pay for a meal will be inversely proportionate to the size of that meal. Last week I was at cheesecake factory and listened amusingly as two girls from England about fell out of their chairs by the size of their meals. Both ordered an appetizer a piece AND entrees. Everyone knows you can feed at least 3 people with one entrée from Cheesecake. Then, on Friday a friend and I were treated to an extra special dinner at a fine dining establishment prepared especially just for us by the chef. Luckily it included numerous courses because each one on their own would be about enough to feed a rabbit. I think they also like to literally include a bit of rabbit food on top of each dish…just random green stuff thrown on top for no apparent reason. Does anybody actually eat that stuff?! As good as the presentation was, and considering how delicious it tasted, I still will never understand how they get away with charging so much and giving you so little.
I had an appointment today at the Apple Store because my computer power source decided to suddenly stop working. Obviously this a catastrophe of immense proportions and I was forced to find the first available appointment in southern California. Unfortunately for me I arrived late and then proceeded to park as far away as possible from my destination. It literally took me almost 20 minutes to walk to where I was trying to go. So…I was late and they had cancelled my appointment. I was then informed that there were no more spots available that day and I would have to reschedule. Of course this was not an option. This is where the damsel in distress kicks in. Unfortunately, this is not something that will work unless you are a damsel so I'm not exactly sure what men do in these situations. Any time you need something to be done and could use a little extra assistance from anyone with an XY chromosome, it is beneficial that you know the power you possess as a woman. This works best when you pretend like you are unaware that you yield such power of course. Needless to say, I was reinstated on the list and seen by the next available genius. Wait time = 30 seconds.


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Brighton Future of News Group has an election theme for the second meeting on Monday, March 22.
Web developer Richard Pope will be talking about his work with Democracy Club, The Straight Choice and My Society.
I am an election geek living in a constituency where a three-horse race is developing between Nancy Platts (Labour), Caroline Lucas (Green) and Charlotte Vere (Conservative).
Sorry Bernadette Millam (Liberal Democrat) and Nigel Carter (UKIP), but it's true.
All three have been campaigning. As a resident I've been aware of Nancy Platts beavering away in the background for a year or so now. Charlotte Vere seems to have taken up a Saturday morning residency in London Road and Caroline Lucas has also been spotted.
One of the ideas suggested at the first Brighton Future of News Group was a candidate tracking Google map. Jo Wadsworth, web editor of the Brighton Argus had the Brighton Pavilion map up within a few days.
This is the sort of innovative idea that can come out of an event where journalists, bloggers and technical wizards can get together.
Personally, I'm very interested in The Straight Choice, and have started collecting up the few election leaflets my partner hasn't thrown straight into the recycling.
Once this election is over it will be interesting to see the stories arising from the literature targeting our votes.
Join in the discussion at The Skiff at 7.30pm for a prompt start.
Your hosts are Judith Townend from Journalism.co.uk and me.
Brighton Future of News Group is open to all with an interest in news and journalism, from broadcasters to bloggers, PRs to podcasters, programmers, students, writers, journalists and all media folk.


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Cosworth 20005455 High Performance Head Gaskets Honda K20/24
Cosworth High Performance Head Gaskets are engineered to seal in power under the most demanding conditions. Constructed from stainless steel with a folded stopper layer, each application features superior sealing compared to conventional multi layer steel gaskets. Additionally, Cosworth High Performance Head Gaskets are manufactured from pre-coated die cut stainless steel resulting in uniform coating distribution and consistent shape.
Note: For use with PRB, PNC, and PPA cylinder heads so it has more water passages,(picture is not accurate) but fits all K20 Variants.


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Thank goodness it's only cigarette smoking
Video discusses how parents who write off their children's use of nicotine containing products as a minor problem are sending a message that put their children's long-term health and lives at risk. On top of that, by minimizing the dangers of taking up nicotine, they are increasing the risk of their children taking up other drugs that the parents are often more worried about.
Thank goodness it's only cigarette smoking
"It's only cigarette smoking, at least he is not using drugs." Many modern parents would feel a strong sense of agreement with the sentiment expressed above. But parents who feel safe and secure in this belief are overlooking some very obvious and some, not so obvious flaws in their understanding of smoking, and drug addiction in general.
In 1989, the Surgeon General's Report on the Health Consequences of Smoking concentrated on one area only, smoking as an addiction. This landmark report established two facts about smoking in respect to nicotine's addictive properties. First and foremost, nicotine is the addictive chemical reinforcing the smoking behavior, a behavior which is responsible for more deaths than all other drug addictions, including alcoholism, combined.
This was a reconfirmation of a concept which many knew already. So the feeling that at least smoking is not as bad as using drugs is a twisted sense of logic. The child is actually using a very addictive drug, although it is accurate to say at least it is a drug that he won't end up in major troubles with the law over.
The second finding, though, would shatter the sense of relief felt by any parent with the idea that at least the child is not using an illegal controlled substance. Findings from various areas of the report went as follows:
Persons who use dependence-producing drugs are often cigarette smokers and cigarette smoking precedes and may be predictive of illicit drug use. The National Household Survey on Drug Abuse (1985) reported a 32 fold increase in incidence of cocaine use in 12-17 year olds who smoked cigarettes daily compared to those who never smoked. Even more impressively, there was a 113 fold increase in use of marijuana.
Kandel found that virtually all persons who ever used illicit drugs such as marijuana and cocaine had previously used licit drugs such as cigarettes and alcohol.
"Although some use of alcohol may precede tobacco use, it is prior use of tobacco and not alcohol that emerges ... as the stronger predictor of illicit drug use."
Dr Ginzel of the University of Arkansas described the "pivotal role of tobacco as an integral part of the addictive process" and said that:
"In looking at tobacco as a gateway to the use of other addictive substances, we must not forget that smoking has caused the deaths of more people than have fallen victim to all of the other drugs and alcohol combined."
"The general public's continuing lack of understanding of the sheer magnitude of the toll tobacco inflicts is unfortunate, but the lack of understanding and appropriate action on the part of those who pretend to take charge of the nation's drug problem is intolerable and inexcusable."
The significance of these statements is inescapable. Giving the stamp of approval to smoking as an acceptable alternative to drug usage may very well lead to experimentation and possibly addiction to the substances the parent fears most.
Strong efforts should be taken by parents and the educational community at large to prevent the early use of cigarettes in an effort to reduce the long-term health consequences of smoking as well as minimizing the risks of illegal and life threatening usage of other controlled substances.
If you have children or grandchildren in schools, or if you yourself are a faculty member, please consider encouraging implementation of these smoking prevention programs for your school district.
If you have children who know you are or ever have been a smoker, you should never draw a distinction between smoking and other drugs of dependency while trying to rationalize the legitimacy of cigarette smoking over the other substances. Children will recognize and feed on the hypocrisy that it is all right for you but not for them.
Rather, tell the truth about the lack of understanding and ignorance that caused you to originally experiment with smoking and led you into the grips of an addiction_an addiction you desperately wish to break and stay free from for the rest of your life. Nicotine is an addiction which will once again control you and will probably cost you your life if you give it the opportunity.
Try to develop a sense of understanding in your children of how easy it is to lose control over an addictive substance, whether it be cigarettes, alcohol, heroin or crack cocaine. And for your sake, as well as your children, set a positive exemplary role by remembering to - NEVER TAKE ANOTHER PUFF!
Related resources:


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Welcome to Western Michigan University and Kalamazoo, Michigan!
CELCIS is happy you have chosen WMU's intensive English program to improve your English language skills. New students must attend orientation and the first day of class. If you have an emergency and cannot arrive in Kalamazoo on time, please email CELCIS. Students who arrive late may not be able to begin a program of study.


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FRAMED is a game where you aren't just playing, you're directing the story itself. It's broken up into, well, frames, as though you're reading a comic or sitting in an editing suite.
You can move these frames around, changing the way the story unfolds. Sort of like Lemmings-meets-Choose-Your-Own-Adventure. It's been playable at various shows, if you've been lucky enough, but for everyone else it'll be out next year on PC and iOS.
Framed[Official Site]


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Covered by The Telegraph yesterday, a research team at the Ghent University Centre of Microsystems Technology in Belgium have developed a new type of contact lens that uses the entire surface of the lens to display letters and symbols. Prior to this point, researchers have only been able to create a LED lens that displays a single pixel. However, the technology behind this new development offers the ability to display a large range of pixel sizes as well as a significant volume of pixels on a LCD display. To show off the technology, the prototype shows a large dollar sign across the entire curved surface of the lens.
Conceptually, an image could be displayed on the lens in order to see scrolling text messages or emails that have been sent to a smartphone. Even more interesting, GPS driving directions could actually appear in the field of vision while someone is operating a vehicle.
In the medical field, these lenses could be used to limit the amount of light a person can see after they experience a form of trauma to one of their eyes. That could also be programmed to naturally allow more light into the damaged eye as the healing process progresses.
Researchers also indicated that the technology could create adaptive contact lenses that lighten or darken depending on the sunlight in the immediate area. Similar to eyeglasses that are coated with a light-transitioning material, the contact lens would provide the same function as a pair of sunglasses when outside. In addition, people could utilize the lenses to cosmetically change the color of their eyes and select different colors at any time using a mobile application.
Regarding the timeline for application development, head researcher Professor Herbert De Smet stated "Now that we have established the basic technology, we can start working towards real applications, possibly available in only a few years." When asked about the development process by The Inquisitor, De Smet said "Normally, flexible displays using liquid crystal cells are not designed to be formed into a new shape, especially not a spherical one. By using new kinds of conductive polymers and integrating them into a smooth spherical cell, we were able to fabricate a new LCD-based contact lens display."


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FARMINGDALE, N.Y. – With more storms bearing down on Bethpage Black, Lucas Glover returned looking quite comfortable leading the U.S. Open.
Not bad, considering he's never before made the cut in the season's second major championship.
Glover finished a six-birdie, no-bogey second round of 6-under 64 Saturday morning, putting him in a tie for the lead at that point with Mike Weir and former U.S. Amateur champion Ricky Barnes. Weir, the first-round leader, and Barnes both had four holes left to play.
Glover came to the ninth hole, his final one of the round, needing a birdie to become the fifth person to shoot 63 in U.S. Open history. He settled for par and likely did so happily, since he had played in the U.S. Open three times before and never stuck around for the weekend.
"The key to making birdies at the U.S. Open is hitting it in the fairway," Glover said Friday night. "I've been doing that, for the most part."
Just like Weir did on Friday during his opening round on his way to shooting 64, Glover found a way to go low on Bethpage's soft fairways and super-receptive greens.
Phil Mickelson rode waves of emotional support throughout his 9 1/2-hour, 29-hole marathon Friday from fans who adored him seven years ago at Bethpage and seem even more attracted to him now. It's been less than a month since Amy Mickelson revealed that she has breast cancer, and she sent her husband to New York with one request: Bring home a trophy.
"I just love playing golf here," Mickelson said. "I love coming up to this area. I think all sports teams love playing in front of these people here. They are some of the best sports fans in the country."
Few of them had arrived when play restarted Saturday. Perhaps he needed more out there.
Mickelson took a drop on the way to making bogey at the par-5 13th hole for the second straight day, falling seven shots off the lead.
"It's not going to get any easier," Mickelson surmised Friday night, "than it is right now."
He's likely right.
A course that only Tiger Woods could tame when the U.S. Open first visited in 2002 was giving up birdies with alarming regularity once the weather improved Friday, barely even resembling the nearly flooded track that hardly anyone found any success on the day before.
Woods was one of them.
The defending champion was 11 shots behind while he worked on the driving range Saturday morning. He gave four shots back in his final four holes Friday morning on the way to his worst start at a major in three years.
Woods was to start his second round at 10:06 a.m., and if the forecasts are correct, he might be on the wrong side of bad weather once again.
More rain was predicted to start falling sometime around midday Saturday, with up to 1 inch possible according to the National Weather Service. Much work has been done at Bethpage to get rid of the water that turned the park into a pool on Thursday, but any significant new rainfall would likely make the Black unplayable once again.
"Our side definitely had a big advantage," Weir said Friday, after spending much of his day basking in sunshine.


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An efficient one-pot synthesis of N-heteroaryl iodonium triflates from the corresponding N-heteroaryl iodide and arene has been developed. The reaction conditions resemble our previous one-pot syntheses, with suitable modifications to allow N-heteroaryl groups. The reaction time is only 30min, and no anion exchange is required. The obtained iodonium salts were isolated in a protonated form, these salts can either be employed directly in applications or be deprotonated prior to use. The aryl groups were chosen to induce chemoselective transfer of the heteroaryl moiety to various nucleophiles. The reactivity and chemoselectivity of these iodonium salts were demonstrated by selectively introducing a pyridyl moiety onto both oxygen and carbon nucleophiles in good yields.
A structurally diverse range of chiral diaryliodonium salts have been synthesised which have potential application in metal-free stereoselective arylation reactions.
A simple and efficient method to prepare synthetically useful 2-arylindoles is presented, using a heterogeneous Pd catalyst and diaryliodonium salts in water under mild conditions. A remarkably low leaching of metal catalyst was observed under the applied conditions. The developed protocol is highly C-2 selective and tolerates structural variations both in the indole and in the diaryliodonium salt. Arylations of both NH indoles and N-protected indoles with ortho-substituted, electron-rich, electron-deficient, or halogenated diaryliodonium salts were achieved to give the desired products in high to excellent isolated yields within 6 to 15 h at room temperature or 40 °C.
Phenols, anilines, and malonates have been arylated under metal-free conditions with twelve aryl(phenyl)iodonium salts in a systematic chemoselectivity study. A new "anti-ortho effect" has been identified in the arylation of malonates. Several "dummy groups" have been found that give complete chemoselectivity in the transfer of the phenyl moiety, irrespective of the nucleophile. An aryl exchange in the diaryliodonium salts has been observed under certain arylation conditions. DFT calculations have been performed to investigate the reaction mechanism and to elucidate the origins of the observed selectivities. These results are expected to facilitate the design of chiral diaryliodonium salts and the development of catalytic arylation reactions that are based on these sustainable and metal-free reagents.


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A global analysis of extinction risk for the world's plants, conducted by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew together with the Natural History Museum, London and IUCN, has revealed that the world's plants are as threatened as mammals, with one in five of the world's plant species threatened with extinction.
The study is a major baseline for plant conservation and is the first time that the true extent of the threat to the world's estimated 380,000 plant species has been known. The study has been announced as governments prepare to meet in Nagoya, Japan in mid-October 2010 to set new targets to reduce the loss of biodiversity at the tenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity.
"This study confirms what we already suspected, that plants are under threat and the main cause is human induced habitat loss. For the first time we have a clear global picture of extinction risk to the world's known plants", says Professor Stephen Hopper, Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. "In order to answer crucial questions like how fast are we losing species and why, and what we can do about it, we need to establish a baseline so that we have something against which to measure change. The Sampled Red List Index for Plants does exactly that by assessing a large sample of plant species that are collectively representative of all the world's plants."
The full story can be read here


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Fresh into the tip line we have some good information about the upcoming Kindle app for BlackBerry. From the looks of it, the app will have plenty of features to keep both Kindle owners and new adopters happy. You'll be able to access Kindle books even without your Kindle on hand, and automatically synchronize your last page read and annotations between devices. The Kindle app for BlackBerry won't support newspapers, magazines or blogs, but you will be able to search for and purchase all the books from the Kindle library, as well as check out free book samples. Still no word on just when the app will hit or for what devices, but you can head over to this page and sign up to be notified when the app becomes available. Hit the jump for a few screenshots. Thanks to Jessica for sending this in!
Kindle Home
Kindle Store
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Bungee View is a visualization prototype developed at Carnegie Mellon University to support casual users gaining an understanding of an image collection as a whole, and in finding patterns in such collections. As a research experiment with the University of Pittsburgh, you can explore many of the Historic Pittsburgh image collections hosted by the University Library System's Digital Research Library.
For a brief tour, watch this two minute video or just read its transcript.
Traditional web search is like finding trees in a forest. Data mining is like finding Tags describing patterns of trees. Tag Clouds are one way to visualize such patterns in text collections.
Traditionally, data mining has used structured data, like that found in library card catalogs, rather than raw text. Bungee View uses structured data, and shows the tags and the trees. Rather than Tag Clouds, it uses two other overview visualizations, Top Tags and Tag Walls:
Tag Cloud
Top Tags
Tag Wall
make table scrollable
Quick summary of a set of documents
More quantitative summary
Richer summary
There is no meta-data that "20th Century" is a single concept, which lessens the potential to support search
Supports search
Supports search
Tag importance is shown by font size and color
Tag importance is shown by order, and numerically
Tag importance is shown by rectangle size and shape
Up to ~30 characteristic tags (uncharacteristic tags could be shown using color)
Up to ~14 characteristic and uncharacteristic tags
Up to ~300 characteristic and uncharacteristic tags (and even more when you zoom or filter)
Summarizes Collection: rectangle width shows that more than half of the works in the collection are from the 20th Century
Compares Subset to Whole: rectangle height upward and green color shows that the current results include an even higher percentage of 20th Century works than the collection as a whole
Organizes tags by category, like Date and Format
Systematic and consistent tag layout creates stable "maps" of the collection
With hundreds of organized and sorted tags to filter on, you may not even need the text search box. This is important in image collections with little text, since the keywords you have in mind may not occur at all.
Web search engines are widely used for information retrieval from unstructured text. The amount of structured and semi-structured information available on the Web is also huge, and is more amenable to data mining. Yet there has been no similar explosion of interest in this kind of data. Finding patterns in databases of political contributions, environmental data, or hospital and school performance would surely interest many citizens. The main research question for this project is how to support such exploration for those with little or no training in statistics or programming. In contrast to other data-mining systems, Bungee View focuses on learnability, responsiveness, and providing a satisfying experience. It has so far been used on image collections because the "trees" are easy to visualize compactly, while text-based systems have little to work with.
Let me help you make it available through Bungee View! The project site contains the source code and documentation for Bungee View Administrators and Developers.
Since this is a research project, your usage will be recorded to help improve Bungee View. We will use your IP address to track your repeat visits, but will not attempt to identify you as a person.
I appreciate feedback.


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Obama Inaugurated (by AIDS Activists)!
AIDS Activists Hold Faux Swearing-in to Remind Obama of His Promises
November 21, 2008
More than 1,000 AIDS activists from all over the East Coast attended the "inauguration" of President-elect Barack Obama on Thursday. It wasn't the real inauguration, of course, but a mock-performance where four activists posing as Obama got inaugurated by placing their hands not on the Bible, but on a National AIDS Strategy.
"Yes, we can!" and "Yes, we will!" the crowd screamed as Housing Works' Johnny Guaylupo, New York City AIDS Housing Network's Wayne Starks, American Medical Students' Association Mary Carol Jennings and ACT UP Philadelphia's Waheedah Shabazz-El played Obama, as fellow-activist Walt Senterfitt swore them in. The ralliers called on Obama to begin to implement real changes to AIDS policy in the first 100 days of his administration.
For the full demands go to 100daystofightaids.org.
Both domestic and global AIDS activists, are thrilled by Obama's AIDS platform, which seeks to lift the ban on syringe exchange, and supports comprehensive sex education.
"We are in total agreement with Obama's platform," Shabazz-El said. "We were in Washington because people living with AIDS want to share in this American dream."
Starks agreed. "President Bush all but ignored the AIDS crisis in the United States, even while the epidemic continued to grow, especially in marginalized communities," he said.
After the faux-inauguration, the group marched to the White House, and then to the Obama transition office. The chanting outside the office was part of a day-long advocacy push, including a phone zap targeting the office. Zappers stated, "I want to let my new president and his transition team know that I fully support the visionary commitments he laid out during his campaign, including guaranteeing universal access to HIV treatment in the US and around the world and reforming U.S. prevention policies at home and abroad."
This article was provided by Housing Works. It is a part of the publication Housing Works AIDS Issues Update. Visit Housing Works' website to find out more about their activities, publications and services.
Add Your Comment:
(Please note: Your name and comment will be public, and may even show up in
Internet search results. Be careful when providing personal information! Before
adding your comment, please read TheBody.com's Comment Policy.)


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