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In 2012, Many Tax Benefits Increase Due to Inflation Adjustments
IR-2011-104, Oct. 20, 2011
WASHINGTON — For tax year 2012, personal exemptions and standard deductions will rise and tax brackets will widen due to inflation, the Internal Revenue Service announced today.
By law, the dollar amounts for a variety of tax provisions, affecting virtually every taxpayer, must be revised each year to keep pace with inflation. New dollar amounts affecting 2012 returns, filed by most taxpayers in early 2013, include the following:
- The value of each personal and dependent exemption, available to most taxpayers, is $3,800, up $100 from 2011.
- The new standard deduction is $11,900 for married couples filing a joint return, up $300, $5,950 for singles and married individuals filing separately, up $150, and $8,700 for heads of household, up $200. Nearly two out of three taxpayers take the standard deduction, rather than itemizing deductions, such as mortgage interest, charitable contributions and state and local taxes.
- Tax-bracket thresholds increase for each filing status. For a married couple filing a joint return, for example, the taxable-income threshold separating the 15-percent bracket from the 25-percent bracket is $70,700, up from $69,000 in 2011.
Credits, deductions, and related phase outs.
- For tax year 2012, the maximum earned income tax credit (EITC) for low- and moderate- income workers and working families rises to $5,891, up from $5,751 in 2011. The maximum income limit for the EITC rises to $50,270, up from $49,078 in 2011.The credit varies by family size, filing status and other factors, with the maximum credit going to joint filers with three or more qualifying children.
- The foreign earned income deduction rises to $95,100, an increase of $2,200 from the maximum deduction for tax year 2011.
- The modified adjusted gross income threshold at which the lifetime learning credit begins to phase out is $104,000 for joint filers, up from $102,000, and $52,000 for singles and heads of household, up from $51,000.
- For 2012, annual deductible amounts for Medical Savings Accounts (MSAs) increased from the tax year 2011 amounts; please see the table below.
Medical Savings Accounts (MSAs) |
Self-only coverage |
Family coverage |
Minimum annual deductible |
$2,100 |
$4,200 |
Maximum annual deductible |
$3,150 |
$6,300 |
Maximum annual out-of-pocket expenses |
$4,200 |
$7,650 |
The $2,500 maximum deduction for interest paid on student loans begins to phase out for a married taxpayers filing a joint returns at $125,000 and phases out completely at $155,000, an increase of $5,000 from the phase out limits for tax year 2011. For single taxpayers, the phase out ranges remain at the 2011 levels.
Estate and Gift
For an estate of any decedent dying during calendar year 2012, the basic exclusion from estate tax amount is $5,120,000, up from $5,000,000 for calendar year 2011. Also, if the executor chooses to use the special use valuation method for qualified real property, the aggregate decrease in the value of the property resulting from the choice cannot exceed $1,040,000, up from $1,020,000 for 2011.
The annual exclusion for gifts remains at $13,000.
Other Items
- The monthly limit on the value of qualified transportation benefits exclusion for qualified parking provided by an employer to its employees for 2012 rises to $240, up $10 from the limit in 2011. However, the temporary increase in the monthly limit on the value of the qualified transportation benefits exclusion for transportation in a commuter highway vehicle and transit pass provided by an employer to its employees expires and reverts to $125 for 2012.
- Several tax benefits are unchanged in 2012. For example, the additional standard deduction for blind people and senior citizens remains $1,150 for married individuals and $1,450 for singles and heads of household.
Details on these inflation adjustments can be found in Revenue Procedure 2011-52, which will be published in Internal Revenue Bulletin 2011-45 on November 7, 2011.


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English from Zero classes are designed for beginning English learners. Each workshop has a specific target topic. See calendar for more information.
English from Zero classes
Ingles desde cero son talleres de vocabulario en inglés están diseñados para los estudiantes de inglés. Cada taller tiene un tema específico cual incluye vocabulario, estructura gramatica, e practicas del habla.
Busque más información en el calendario.
Any person requiring special accommodations to participate in any class or event due to a disability may arrange for accommodations by contacting the location at which the event is held at least seven days prior to the event.
LYNX Bus Link 107 South US 441 (South Orange Blossom Trail) / Kissimmee
LYNX Bus Link 8 W. Oak Ridge Rd. / International Dr.
LYNX Bus Link 40 Americana Blvd. / Universal Orlando
Located in the Orange Blossom Center, the South Trail Branch is an open, bright branch with lots of sunshine. The branch is located in a commercial center, adjacent to numerous multi-family housing units and is a popular spot for children and families.
The history of South Trail branch spans almost four decades. It began as the Ft. Gatlin branch at 105 Gatlin Avenue in 1965. The branch moved to the corner of Holden Avenue and South Orange Blossom Trail in 1981. The move across the street to the current site in the Orange Blossom Center took place in 1996.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Many children who wear glasses want to switch to contact lenses, especially older children who are concerned with their appearance. So, how do you know if and when contact lenses might be an option for your child?
Contact lenses may not only improve a child's confidence in their appearance but they can also be very convenient for active children who play sports or those who tend to lose or break their glasses.
Yet before you jump to schedule an appointment with the optometrist, it's important to know that while contact lenses are a great solution for many, they are still medical devices that require care and responsibility. Carelessness with contact lenses can lead to infections, irritation, scratched corneas, pain, and sometimes even vision loss. So if you want to know if contact lenses are a good choice for your child, read below and think about whether your child is mature and responsible enough to take proper care of his or her eyes.
At What Age Can a Child Start Wearing Contact Lenses?
The recommended age for kids to start considering contact lenses varies however it is generally accepted that sometime between 11 and 14 is ideal. Some doctors will recommend them even for children as young as 8 years old who have shown that they are responsible enough to use them. Contact lens use requires good hygiene and cleanliness so if your child shows those traits, she may be ready. Additionally, if he is highly motivated to wear contacts and if he has the support of his parents, this will help in ensuring that the daily regimen is a success.
What is the Process of Getting Fitted for Contacts?
The first step is to schedule an appointment for a contact lens exam with your optometrist. The eye doctor will perform a vision exam and go over the different options for contact lenses, depending on the prescription, the health of the eye and lifestyle and personal preferences. Contact lenses are designed with a number of options including the lens materials used (soft or rigid gas permeable), the replacement schedule (if disposable, how often you replace the pair – daily, weekly, biweekly or monthly) and the wear schedule (daily or extended overnight wear). Often doctors will recommend daily lenses for children because they are thrown away after each use so there is less care involved, less buildup and less risk for infection.
Then the doctor will give a training on inserting and removing the lenses as well as instructions for proper care. Your child will probably be given a schedule for wearing the lenses for the first week or so in order to allow their eyes to adapt. During this time you may have to be in touch with your eye doctor to assess the comfort and fit of the lenses and you may have to try out a couple of options in order to find the best fit.
Purchasing Contact Lenses
As a medical device, contact lenses require a prescription and should only be purchased from a licensed distributor such as an eye doctor. Unauthorized or unmonitored contact lenses can cause severe damage to your eyes that could result in blindness. This is true also for cosmetic lenses such as colored lenses or costume lenses. Any time you are putting a lens in your eye, you must have a proper prescription.
Following are some basic contact lens safety tips. If your child is responsible enough to follow these guidelines, he or she may be ready for contact lens use:
- Always follow the wearing schedule prescribed by your doctor.
- Always wash your hands with soap before applying or removing contact lenses.
- Never use any substance other than contact lens rinse or solution to clean contacts (even tap water is a no-no).
- Never reuse contact lens solution
- Follow the eye doctor's advice about Don't swimming or showering in your lenses
- Always remove your lenses if they are bothering you or causing irritation.
- Never sleep in your lenses unless they are extended wear.
- Never use any contact lenses that were not acquired with a prescription at an authorized source. Never purchase cosmetic lenses without a prescription!
Contact lens use is also an ongoing process. As a child grows, the lens fit may change as well, so it is important to have annual contact lens assessments. Plus, new technology is always being developed to improve comfort and quality of contact lenses.
Contact lenses are a wonderful invention but they must be used with proper care. Before you let your child take the plunge into contact lens use, make sure you review the dangers and safety guidelines.


text:
990nm Broadband Interference Bandpass Filter 25mmdia x 70nmBW
Diameter (mm) | 25 |
Thickness (mm) | 6.1 |
Avg. Blocking OD | 5 |
Avg. Blocking Range | 200nm to 1150nm |
Blocking Type | Silver |
CWL(nm) | 990 |
Mounted/Unmounted | Mounted |
Peak Transmission (%) | 70 |
Knight Optical's broadband and extra broadband range of interference band-pass filters are used to isolate and transmit a specified narrow wavelength and reflect all other incident wavelengths.
Our stock range of high quality visible and NIR filters is available from 400nm - 940nm in various bandwidths to meet most requirements from ANPR imaging to CCTV and high-end surveillance systems. Typically, our filters are 3-7 cavity and in most cases blocking is metal dielectric from 200nm to FIR (3000+nm) at OD4. This broadband range of interference bandpass filter has a standard 60-70% transmission.
All individual mounted interference filters are CNC scribed and hermetically sealed to form a stack in their rings, ensuring maximum long-term stability. Although our standard stock range is mounted, un-mounted types with aerospace paint blackened edges can be supplied at request.
Our filters are available on short lead times directly from stock, or as custom products designed to fit your specific application. For more information please contact our technical sales team with your requirements.
Diameter & Aperture (mm): Thickness (mm): Blocking: CWL Tolerance (nm): HBW Tolerance (nm): Optimum Operating temperature: Edge Treatment: Edge Marking Format: Surface Quality: Usable Temperature Limits: Design Type: Assembly: |
12.5mm ± 0.2 (8.5mm aperture) 25.0mm ± 0.2 (21mm aperture) 50.0mm ± 0.2 (46mm aperture) 6.1mm +/-0.2 <0.01% (OD4) @ 200nm to 1150nm (for filters with CWL less than 380nm) <0.001% (OD5) @ 200nm to 1150nm (for filters with CWL between 380nm and 1064) <0.001% (OD5) @ 200nm to 1850nm (for filters with CWL between 1080nm and 1640) ± 20% of FWHM ± 20% of FWHM 23°C Mounted in black anodized aluminium ring In most cases {Knight Optical Part#} - {KOLTD} - arrow in direction of light path 80/50 -50°C to +80°C Typical 3 cavity design All filters are scribed and hermetically sealed to ensure maximum long-term stability (Information sheet on scribed interference filters) |
Please telephone our technical sales or email with your specification.
Dielectrically blocked filters are available for increased performance.
Stock filters can be supplied in pre-mounted threaded rings.
Other bespoke sizes to your specification either mounted or un-mounted.
Unmounted interference filters available, sealed around edges with high quality aerospace paint.
Small one-off or small batch quantity for new projects at very competitive prices and normally delivered within 6 weeks.
Alternative imperial sizes are available at short notice, normally within 1-2 weeks.
12.7mm dia: 8.7mm dia aperture
25.4mm dia: 21.4mm dia aperture
50.8mm dia: 46.8mm dia aperture
Information sheet: Interference filter terminology
Information sheet: Scribed interference filters


text:
Why Haskell matters
What are functional programming languages?
Programming languages such as C/C++/Java/Python are called imperative programming languages because they consist of sequences of actions. The programmer quite explicitly tells the computer how to perform a task, step-by-step. Functional programming languages work differently. Rather than performing actions in a sequence, they evaluate expressions.
The level of abstraction
There are two areas that are fundamental to programming a computer - resource management and sequencing. Resource management (allocating registers and memory) has been the target of vast abstraction, most new languages (imperative as well as functional) have implemented garbage collection to remove resource management from the problem, and lets the programmer focus on the algorithm instead of the book-keeping task of allocating memory. Sequencing has also undergone some abstraction, although not nearly to the same extent. Imperative languages have done so by introducing new keywords and standard libraries. For example, most imperative languages have special syntax for constructing several slightly different loops, you no longer have to do all the tasks of managing these loops yourself. But imperative languages are based upon the notion of sequencing - they can never escape it completely. The only way to raise the level of abstraction in the sequencing area for an imperative language is to introduce more keywords or standard functions, thus cluttering up the language. This close relationship between imperative languages and the task of sequencing commands for the processor to execute means that imperative languages can never rise above the task of sequencing, and as such can never reach the same level of abstraction that functional programming languages can.
In Haskell, the sequencing task is removed. You only care what the program is to compute not how or when it is computed. This makes Haskell a more flexible and easy to use language. Haskell tends to be part of the solution for a problem, not a part of the problem itself.
Functions and side effects in functional languages
Functions play an important role in functional programming languages. Functions are considered to be values just like integers or strings. A function can return another function, it can take a function as a parameter, and it can even be constructed by composing functions. This offers a stronger "glue" to combine the modules of your program. A function that evaluates some expression can take part of the computation as an argument for instance, thus making the function more modular. You could also have a function construct another function. For instance, you could define a function "differentiate" that will differentiate a given function numerically. So if you then have a function "f" you could define "f' = differentiate f", and use it like you would normally in a mathematical context. These types of functions are called higher order functions.
Here is a short Haskell example of a function numOf that counts the number of elements in a list that satisfy a certain property.
numOf p xs = length (filter p xs)
We will discuss Haskell syntax later, but what this line says is just "To get the result, filter the list xs by the test p and compute the length of the result". Now p is a function that takes an element and returns True or False determining whether the element passes or fails the test. So numOf is a higher order function, some of the functionality is passed to it as an argument. Notice that filter is also a higher order function, it takes the "test function" as an argument. Let's play with this function and define some more specialized functions from it.
numOfEven xs = numOf even xs
Here we define the function numOfEven which counts the number of even elements in a list. Note that we do not need to explicitly declare xs as a parameter. We could just as well write numOfEven = numOf even. A very clear definition indeed. But we'll explicitly type out the parameters for now.
Let's define a function which counts the number of elements that are greater or equal to 5 :
numOfGE5 xs = numOf (>=5) xs
Here the test function is just ">=5" which is passed to numOf to give us the functionality we need.
Hopefully you should now see that the modularity of functional programming allows us to define generic functions where some of the functionality is passed as an argument, which we can later use to define shorthands for any specialized functions. This small example is somewhat trivial, it wouldn't be too hard to re-write the function definition for all the functions above, but for more complex functions this comes in handy. You can, for instance, write only one function for traversing an auto-balancing binary tree and have it take some of the functionality as a parameter (for instance the comparison function). This would allow you to traverse the tree for any data type by simply providing the relevant comparison function for your needs. Thus you can expend some effort in making sure the general function is correct, and then all the specialized functions will also be correct. Not to mention you wouldn't have to copy and paste code all over your project. This concept is possible in some imperative languages as well. In some object-oriented languages you often have to provide a "Comparator object" for trees and other standard data structures. The difference is that the Haskell way is a lot more intuitive and elegant (creating a separate type just for comparing two other types and then passing an object of this type is hardly an elegant way of doing it), so it's more likely to be used frequently (and not just in the standard libraries).
A central concept in functional languages is that the result of a function is determined by its input, and only by its input. There are no side-effects! This extends to variables as well - variables in Haskell do not vary. This may sound strange if you're used to imperative programming (where most of the code consists of changing the "contents" of a variable), but it's really quite natural. A variable in Haskell is a name that is bound to some value, rather than an abstraction of some low-level concept of a memory cell like in imperative languages. When variables are thought of as short-hands for values (just like they are in mathematics), it makes perfect sense that variable updates are not allowed. You wouldn't expect "4 = 5" to be a valid assignment in any language, so it's really quite strange that "x = 4; x = 5" is. This is often hard to grasp for programmers who are very used to imperative languages, but it isn't as strange as it first seems. So when you start thinking things like "This is too weird, I'm going back to C++!", try to force yourself to continue learning Haskell - you'll be glad you did.
Removing side-effects from the equation allows expressions to be evaluated in any order. A function will always return the same result if passed the same input - no exceptions. This determinism removes a whole class of bugs found in imperative programs. In fact, you could even argue that most bugs in large systems can be traced back to side-effects - if not directly caused by them, then caused by a flawed design that relies on side-effects. This means that functional programs tend to have far fewer bugs than imperative ones.
Because functional languages are more intuitive and offer more and easier ways to get the job done, functional programs tend to be shorter (usually between 2 to 10 times shorter). The semantics are most often a lot closer to the problem than an imperative version, which makes it easier to verify that a function is correct. Furthermore Haskell doesn't allow side-effects, which leads to fewer bugs. Thus Haskell programs are easier to write, more robust, and easier to maintain.
What can Haskell offer the programmer?
Haskell is a modern general-purpose language developed to incorporate the collective wisdom of the functional programming community into one elegant, powerful and general language.
Unlike some other functional programming languages Haskell is pure. It doesn't allow any side-effects. This is probably the most important feature of Haskell. We've already briefly discussed the benefits of pure, side-effect free, programming - and there's not much more we can say about that. You'll need to experience it yourself.
Another feature of Haskell is that it is lazy (technically speaking, it's "non-strict"). This means that nothing is evaluated until it has to be evaluated. You could, for instance, define an infinite list of primes without ending up in infinite recursion. Only the elements of this list that are actually used will be computed. This allows for some very elegant solutions to many problems. A typical pattern of solving a problem would be to define a list of all possible solutions and then filtering away the illegal ones. The remaining list will then only contain legal solutions. Lazy evaluation makes this operation very clean. If you only need one solution you can simply extract the first element of the resulting list - lazy evaluation will make sure that nothing is needlessly computed.
Strong typing
Furthermore Haskell is strongly typed, this means just what it sounds like. It's impossible to inadvertently convert a Double to an Int, or follow a null pointer. This also leads to fewer bugs. It might be a pain in the neck in the rare cases where you need to convert an Int to a Double explicitly before performing some operation, but in practice this doesn't happen often enough to become a nuisance. In fact, forcing each conversion to be explicit often helps to highlight problem code. In other languages where these conversions are invisible, problems often arise when the compiler treats a double like an integer or, even worse, an integer like a pointer.
Unlike other strongly typed languages types in Haskell are automatically inferred. This means that you very rarely have to declare the types of your functions, except as a means of code documentation. Haskell will look at how you use the variables and figure out from there what type the variable should be - then it will all be type-checked to ensure there are no type-mismatches. Python has the notion of "duck typing", meaning "If it walks and talks like a duck, it's a duck!". You could argue that Haskell has a much better form of duck typing. If a value walks and talks like a duck, then it will be considered a duck through type inference, but unlike Python the compiler will also catch errors if later on it tries to bray like a donkey! So you get the benefits of strong typing (bugs are caught at compile-time, rather than run-time) without the hassle that comes with it in other languages. Furthermore Haskell will always infer the most general type on a variable. So if you write, say, a sorting function without a type declaration, Haskell will make sure the function will work for all values that can be sorted.
Compare how you would do this in certain object-oriented languages. To gain polymorphism you would have to use some base class, and then declare your variables as instances of subclasses to this base class. It all amounts to tons of extra work and ridiculously complex declarations just to proclaim the existence of a variable. Furthermore you would have to perform tons of type conversions via explicit casts - definitely not a particularly elegant solution. If you want to write a polymorphic function in these object-oriented languages you would probably declare the parameters as an object of a global base class (like "Object" in Java), which essentially allows the programmer to send anything into the function, even objects which can't logically be passed to the function. The end result is that most functions you write in these languages are not general, they only work on a single data type. You're also moving the error checking from compile-time to run-time. In large systems where some of the functionality is rarely used, these bugs might never be caught until they cause a fatal crash at the worst possible time.
Haskell provides an elegant, concise and safe way to write your programs. Programs will not crash unexpectedly, nor produce strangely garbled output.
Another property of Haskell that is very important to the programmer, even though it doesn't mean as much in terms of stability or performance, is the elegance of Haskell. To put it simply: stuff just works like you'd expect it to.
To highlight the elegance of Haskell we shall now take a look at a small example. We choose QuickSort-inspired filtering sort because it's a simple algorithm that is actually useful. We will look at two versions - one written in C++, an imperative language, and one written in Haskell. Both versions use only the functionality available to the programmer without importing any extra modules (otherwise we could just call "sort" in each language's standard library and be done with it!). Thus, we use the standard sequence primitives of each language (a "list" in Haskell and an "array" in C++). Both versions must also be polymorphic (which is done "automatically" in Haskell, and with templates in C++). Both versions must use the same recursive algorithm.
Please note that this is not intended as a definite comparison between the two languages. It's intended to show the elegance of Haskell, the C++ version is only included for comparison (and would be coded quite differently if you used the standard QuickSort algorithm or the Standard Template Libraries (STL), for example).
template <typename T> void qsort (T *result, T *list, int n) { if (n == 0) return; T *smallerList, *largerList; smallerList = new T[n]; largerList = new T[n]; T pivot = list[0]; int numSmaller=0, numLarger=0; for (int i = 1; i < n; i++) if (list[i] < pivot) smallerList[numSmaller++] = list[i]; else largerList[numLarger++] = list[i]; qsort(smallerList,smallerList,numSmaller); qsort(largerList,largerList,numLarger); int pos = 0; for ( int i = 0; i < numSmaller; i++) result[pos++] = smallerList[i]; result[pos++] = pivot; for ( int i = 0; i < numLarger; i++) result[pos++] = largerList[i]; delete [] smallerList; delete [] largerList; };
We will not explain this code further, just note how complex and difficult it is to understand at a glance, largely due to the programmer having to deal with low-level details which have nothing to do with the task at hand. Now, let's take a look at a Haskell version of FilterSort, which might look something like this.
qsort :: (Ord a) => [a] -> [a]
qsort [] = []
qsort (x:xs) = qsort less ++ [x] ++ qsort more
where less = filter (<x) xs
more = filter (>=x) xs
(This implementation has very poor runtime and space complexity, but that can be improved, at the expense of some of the elegance.)
Let's dissect this code in detail, since it uses quite a lot of Haskell syntax that you might not be familiar with.
The first line is a type signature. It declares "qsort" to be function that takes a list "[a]" as input and returns ("->") another list "[a]". "a" is a type variable (vaguely similar to a C++ template declaration), and "(Ord a)" is a constraint that means that only types that have an ordering are allowed. This function is a generic ("template") function, that can sort any list of pairwise-comparable objects. The phrase "(Ord a) => [a] -> [a]" means "if the type 'a' is ordered, than a list of 'a' can be passed in, and another list of 'a' will come out."
The function is called qsort and takes a list as a parameter. We define a function in Haskell like so: funcname a b c = expr, where funcname is the name of the function, a, b, and, c are the parameters and expr is the expression to be evaluated (most often using the parameters). Functions are called by simply putting the function name first and then the parameter(s). Haskell doesn't use parenthesis for function application. Functions simply bind more tightly than anything else, so "f 5 * 2", for instance, would apply f to 5 and then multiply by 2, if we wanted the multiplication to occur before the function application then we would use parenthesis like so "f (5*2)".
Let's get back to FilterSort. First we see that we have two definitions of the functions. This is called pattern matching and we can briefly say that it will test the argument passed to the function top-to-bottom and use the first one that matches. The first definition matches against [] which in Haskell is the empty list (a list of 1,2 and 3 is [1,2,3] so it makes sense that an empty list is just two brackets). So when we try to sort an empty list, the result will be an empty list. Sounds reasonable enough, doesn't it? The second definition pattern matches against a list with at least one element. It does this by using (x:xs) for its argument. The "cons" operator is (:) and it simply puts an element in front of a list, so that 0 : [1,2,3] returns [0,1,2,3]. Pattern matching against (x:xs) is a match against the list with the head x and the tail xs (which may or may not be the empty list). In other words, (x:xs) is a list of at least one element. So since we will need to use the head of the list later, we can actually extract this very elegantly by using pattern matching. You can think of it as naming the contents of the list. This can be done on any data construct, not just a list. It is possible to pattern match against an arbitrary variable name and then use the head function on that to retrieve the head of the list. Now if we have a non empty list, the sorted list is produced by sorting all elements that are smaller than x and putting that in front of x, then we sort all elements larger than x and put those at the end. We do this by using the list concatenation operator ++. Notice that x is not a list so the ++ operator won't work on it alone, which is why we make it a singleton-list by putting it inside brackets. So the function reads "To sort the list, sandwich the head between the sorted list of all elements smaller than the head, and the sorted list of all elements larger than the head". Which could very well be the original algorithm description. This is very common in Haskell. A function definition usually resembles the informal description of the function very closely. This is why I say that Haskell has a smaller semantic gap than other languages.
But wait, we're not done yet! How is the list less and more computed? Well, remember that we don't care about sequencing in Haskell, so we've defined them below the function using the where notation (which allows any definitions to use the parameters of the function to which they belong). We use the standard prelude function filter, I won't elaborate too much on this now, but the line less = filter (<x) xs will use filter (<x) xs to filter the list xs. You can see that we actually pass the function which will be used to filter the list to filter, an example of higher-order functions. The function (<x) should be read out "the function 'less than x'" and will return True if an element passed to it is less than x (notice how easy it was to construct a function on the fly, we put the expression "<x", "less than x", in parenthesis and sent it off to the function - functions really are just another value!). All elements that pass the test are output from the filter function and put inside less. In a same way (>=x) is used to filter the list for all elements larger than or equal to x.
Now that you've had the syntax explained to you, read the function definition again. Notice how little time it takes to get an understanding about what the function does. The function definitions in Haskell explain what it computes, not how.
If you've already forgotten the syntax outlined above, don't worry! We'll go through it more thoroughly and at a slower pace in the tutorials. The important thing to get from this code example is that Haskell code is elegant and intuitive.
Haskell and bugs
We have several times stated that various features of Haskell help fight the occurrence of bugs. Let's recap these.
Haskell programs have fewer bugs because Haskell is:
- Pure. There are no side effects.
- Strongly typed. There can be no dubious use of types. And No Core Dumps!
- Concise. Programs are shorter which make it easier to look at a function and "take it all in" at once, convincing yourself that it's correct.
- High level. Haskell programs most often reads out almost exactly like the algorithm description. Which makes it easier to verify that the function does what the algorithm states. By coding at a higher level of abstraction, leaving the details to the compiler, there is less room for bugs to sneak in.
- Memory managed. There's no worrying about dangling pointers, the Garbage Collector takes care of all that. The programmer can worry about implementing the algorithm, not book-keeping of the memory.
- Modular. Haskell offers stronger and more "glue" to compose your program from already developed modules. Thus Haskell programs can be more modular. Often used modular functions can thus be proven correct by induction. Combining two functions that are proven to be correct, will also give the correct result (assuming the combination is correct).
Furthermore most people agree that you just think differently when solving problems in a functional language. You subdivide the problem into smaller and smaller functions and then you write these small (and "almost-guaranteed-to-be-correct") functions, which are composed in various ways to the final result. There just isn't any room for bugs!
Haskell vs OOP
The great benefit of Object-Oriented Programming is rarely that you group your data with the functions that act upon it together into an object - it's that it allows for great data encapsulation (separating the interface from implementation) and polymorphism (letting a whole set of data types behave the same way). However:
Data encapsulation and polymorphism are not exclusive to OOP!
Haskell has tools for abstracting data. We can't really get into it without first going through the module system and how abstract data types (ADT) work in Haskell, something which is well beyond the scope of this essay. We will therefore settle for a short description of how ADTs and polymorphism works in Haskell.
Data encapsulation is done in Haskell by declaring each data type in a separate module, from this module you only export the interface. Internally there might be a host of functions that touch the actual data, but the interface is all that's visible from outside of the module. Note that the data type and the functions that act upon the data type are not grouped into an "object", but they are (typically) grouped into the same module, so you can choose to only export certain functions (and not the constructors for the data type) thus making these functions the only way to manipulate the data type - "hiding" the implementation from the interface.
Polymorphism is done by using something called type classes. Now, if you come from a C++ or Java background you might associate classes with something resembling a template for how to construct an object, but that's not what they mean in Haskell. A type class in Haskell is really just what it sounds like. It's a set of rules for determining whether a type is an instance of that class. So Haskell separates the class instantiation and the construction of the data type. You might declare a type "Porsche", to be an instance of the "Car" type class, say. All functions that can be applied onto any other member of the Car type class can then be applied to a Porsche as well. A class that's included with Haskell is the Show type class, for which a type can be instantiated by providing a show function, which converts the data type to a String. Consequently almost all types in Haskell can be printed onto the screen by applying show on them to convert them to a String, and then using the relevant IO action (more on IO in the tutorials). Note how similar this is to the the object notion in OOP when it comes to the polymorphism aspect. The Haskell system is a more intuitive system for handling polymorphism. You won't have to worry about inheriting in the correct hierarchical order or to make sure that the inheritance is even sensible. A class is just a class, and types that are instances of this class really don't have to share some parent-child inheritance relationship. If your data type fulfills the requirements of a class, then it can be instantiated in that class. Simple, isn't it? Remember the QuickSort example? Remember that I said it was polymorphic? The secret behind the polymorphism in qsort is that it is defined to work on any type in the Ord type class (for "Ordered"). Ord has a set of functions defined, among them is "<" and ">=" which are sufficient for our needs because we only need to know whether an element is smaller than x or not. So if we were to define the Ord functions for our Porsche type (it's sufficient to implement, say, <= and ==, Haskell will figure out the rest from those) in an instantiation of the Ord type class, we could then use qsort to sort lists of Porsches (even though sorting Porsches might not make sense). Note that we never say anything about which classes the elements of the list must be defined for, Haskell will infer this automatically from just looking at which functions we have used (in the qsort example, only "<" and ">=" are relevant).
So to summarize: Haskell does include mechanisms for data encapsulation that match or surpass those of OOP languages. The only thing Haskell does not provide is a way to group functions and data together into a single "object" (aside from creating a data type which includes a function - remember, functions are data!). This is, however, a very minor problem. To apply a function to an object you would write "func obj a b c" instead of something like "obj.func a b c".
A central concept in computing is modularity. A popular analogy is this: say you wanted to construct a wooden chair. If you construct the parts of it separately, and then glue them together, the task is solved easily. But if you were to carve the whole thing out of a solid piece of wood, it would prove to be quite a bit harder. John Hughes had this to say on the topic in his paper Why Functional Programming Matters
"Languages which aim to improve productivity must support modular programming well. But new scope rules and mechanisms for separate compilation are not enough - modularity means more than modules. Our ability to decompose a problem into parts depends directly on our ability to glue solutions together. To assist modular programming, a language must provide good glue.
Functional programming languages provide two new kinds of glue - higher-order functions and lazy evaluation."
The speed of Haskell
Let me first state clearly that the following only applies to the general case in which speed isn't absolutely critical, where you can accept a few percent longer execution time for the benefit of reducing development time greatly. There are cases when speed is the primary concern, and then the following section will not apply to the same extent.
Now, some C++ programmers might claim that the C++ version of QuickSort above is probably a bit faster than the Haskell version. And this might be true. For most applications, though, the difference in speed is so small that it's utterly irrelevant. For instance, take a look at the Computer Language Benchmarks Game, where Haskell compares favorably to most of the so called "fast" languages. Now, these benchmarks don't prove all that much about real-world performance, but they do show that Haskell isn't as slow as some people think. At the time of writing it's in 4th position, only slightly behind C and C++.
Almost all programs in use today have a fairly even spread of processing time among its functions. The most notable exceptions are applications like MPEG encoders, and artificial benchmarks, which spend a large portion of their execution time within a small portion of the code. If you really need speed at all costs, consider using C instead of Haskell.
There's an old rule in computer programming called the "80/20 rule". It states that 80% of the time is spent in 20% of the code. The consequence of this is that any given function in your system will likely be of minimal importance when it comes to optimizations for speed. There may be only a handful of functions important enough to optimize. These important functions could be written in C (using the excellent foreign function interface in Haskell). The role of C could, and probably will, take over the role of assembler programming - you use it for the really time-critical bits of your system, but not for the whole system itself.
We should continue to move to higher levels of abstraction, just like we've done before. We should trade application speed for increased productivity, stability and maintainability. Programmer time is almost always more expensive than CPU time. We aren't writing applications in assembler anymore for the same reason we shouldn't be writing applications in C anymore.
Finally remember that algorithmic optimization can give much better results than code optimization. For theoretical examples when factors such as development times and stability doesn't matter, then sure, C is often faster than Haskell. But in the real world development times do matter, this isn't the case. If you can develop your Haskell application in one tenth the time it would take to develop it in C (from experience, this is not at all uncommon) you will have lots of time to profile and implement new algorithms. So in the "real world" where we don't have infinite amounts of time to program our applications, Haskell programs can often be much faster than C programs.
So if Haskell is so great, how come it isn't "mainstream"? Well, one reason is that the operating system is probably written in C or some other imperative language, so if your application mainly interacts with the internals of the OS, you may have an easier time using imperative languages. Another reason for the lack of Haskell, and other functional languages, in mainstream use is that programming languages are rarely thought of as tools (even though they are). To most people their favorite programming language is much more like religion - it just seems unlikely that any other language exists that can get the job done better and faster.
There is an essay by Paul Graham called Beating the Averages describing his experience using Common Lisp, another functional language, for an upstart company. In it he uses an analogy which he calls "The Blub Paradox".
It goes a little something like this: If a programmer's favorite language is Blub, which is positioned somewhere in the middle of the "power spectrum", he can most often only identify languages that are lower down in the spectrum. He can look at COBOL and say "How can anyone get anything done in that language, it doesn't have feature x", x being a feature in Blub.
However, this Blub programmer has a harder time looking the other way in the spectrum. If he examines languages that are higher up in the power spectrum, they will just seem "weird" because the Blub programmer is "thinking in Blub" and can not possibly see the uses for various features of more powerful languages. It goes without saying that this inductively leads to the conclusion that to be able to compare all languages you'll need to position yourself at the top of the power spectrum. It is my belief that functional languages, almost by definition, are closer to the top of the power spectrum than imperative ones. So languages can actually limit a programmers frame of thought. If all you've ever programmed is Blub, you may not see the limitations of Blub - you may only do that by switching to another level which is more powerful.
One of the reasons the mainstream doesn't use Haskell is because people feel that "their" language does "everything they need". And of course it does, because they are thinking in Blub! Languages aren't just technology, it's a way of thinking. And if you're not thinking in Haskell, it is very hard to see the use of Haskell - even if Haskell would allow you to write better applications in a shorter amount of time!
Hopefully this article has helped you break out of the Blub paradox. Even though you may not yet "think in Haskell", it is my hope that you are at least aware of any limitations in your frame of thought imposed by your current "favorite" language, and that you now have more motivation to expand it by learning something new.
If you are committed to learn a functional language, to get a better view of the power spectrum, then Haskell is an excellent candidate.


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Extracts from Email dated 20 Nov 2003 from Ms. Bani Christine, Nebraska, USA.
Extracts from EMail dated 06 March 2003 of Alan Wagner, Manager, International Resource Center, Queens Borough Public Library, addressed to their branch librarians.
Email dated 19 February 2003 from Dr. Surjit Singh, California, USA.
Email dated 15 February 2003 from Mr. Navin Pai, Michigan, USA after receiving the ordered book.
Email dated 23 August 2002 from Brendan Whyte, University of Melbourne, Australia.
Email dated 26 September 2000 from David Melling, UK.
Extracts from the text of an article published in June 1997 issue of APSIG Newsletter of Australian Library and Information Association contributed jointly by Erica Ryan of National Library of Australia and Royce Wiles, Librarian, Australian National University, after their visit to India as participants to nine-member delegation of Australian librarians.
Email dated 28 May 1997 of Prof. Frances Pritchett, Dept. of Middle East languages and cultures, Columbia University, New York, USA, in response to a query raised on Indology (a listserv)about experiences with D.K. Agencies
Extracts from letter dated 28 February 1995 from Marilena Gahman, Head, International Language Collections, Detroit Public Library, Detroit, MI, USA.
Extracts from letter dated October 18, 1994 from Rev. Hayes, Library Director, Christ the King Seminary, East Aurora, NY, USA.
Extracts from letter dated November 10, 1993 of Mr Michael A. Keller, Ida M. Green Director, Stanford University Libraries, Stanford, CA, USA, addressed to Mr. William Kaufman.
Extracts from the text of a paper presented to the IFLA Section of Art Libraries at New Delhi, 1992 by Jan van der Wateren, Chief Librarian, National Art Library, Victoria & Albert Museum, London,UK, and published in Art Libraries Journal, 1993, 18/2, pages 20-25.
Extracts from letter dated 13 May 1980 from Ms. Suzanne K. Metzger, Assistant Head, Acquisitions Department, University of California Library, San Diego, CA, USA.
Extracts from letter No. AZ.:XS-75; Orient. Abt. 79/76. dated 13.8.76 from Dr. George Baumann, Universitaetsbibliothek Tuebingen, Germany.
Extracts from letter no. OMPB/TM/DJ dated 28 July 1976, from Department of Oriental Manuscripts and Printed Books, The British Library, London.
The Hindustan Times - Leading daily newspaper from New Delhi, Friday, August 14, 1998
The Economic Times (a leading daily from New Delhi), March(16, 1998)
Dr. R.G. Prasher, Professor of Library Science and Information Science, University of Sagar (M.P.), in his book "Developing Library Collection", 1993.
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The STEM-C (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, including Computing) Partnerships program is a major research and development effort of two NSF Directorates, the Directorate for Education and Human Resources (EHR) and the Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE), which supports innovative partnerships to improve teaching and learning in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines. STEM-C Partnerships combines and advances the efforts of both the former Math and Science Partnership (MSP) and the former Computing Education for the 21st Century (CE21) programs. It is critical that our nation maintain a competent, competitive and creative STEM workforce, including teachers. Therefore, NSF aims to inspire and motivate the next generation of that workforce, while ensuring that it has the skills, competencies, and preparation to be successful. As we transition to a global, knowledge-based economy that is often driven by information technology and innovation, it is increasingly important that STEM workforce preparation includes a strong foundation in computing. Thus, the STEM-C Partnerships program addresses both the need for advances in K-12 STEM education generally, as well as the need to elevate the inclusion of computer science education.
From MSP, STEM-C Partnerships embraces any of the STEM disciplines—within the natural sciences, mathematics, engineering, or computer science—and maintains its commitment to institutional partnerships and opportunities for funding of Targeted proposals in one of four focal areas: Community Enterprise for STEM Teaching and Learning, Current Issues Related to STEM Content, Identifying and Cultivating Exceptional Talent, and K-12 STEM Teacher Preparation. From CE21, STEM-C Partnerships adds a discipline-specific focal area on the teaching and learning of computing and computational thinking, a strong commitment to broadening participation in computing, an emphasis on in-service teacher professional development, and support for the implementation of computer science courses at the high school level. It is expected that the merging of the MSP and CE21 programs will strengthen both and serve as a model for future incorporation of discipline-specific concerns into programs focused more broadly on STEM.
The STEM-C Partnerships program supports Partnerships that promote effective K-12 STEM education, building knowledge of teaching and learning in ways that deepen understanding and stimulate further exploration of STEM education in both in- and out-of-school settings. The Partnerships' cross-disciplinary teams call upon the expertise and research perspectives of learning scientists, including cognitive scientists, educational, developmental and social psychologists, social scientists and education researchers, as well as STEM, discipline-specific teachers, faculty, researchers, and scientists. The Partnerships provide the context and environment for the effective preparation, professional development, and ongoing support of K-12 teachers. Changes at the undergraduate level related to the preparation of K-12 STEM teachers are an implicit expectation of the work; in this way, the STEM-C Partnerships is a K-16 endeavor. Projects are encouraged to look at scalable models of effective learning and professional development mediated, perhaps, by evolving computational devices and advances in cyberinfrastructure, as well as ongoing developments in models, resources, tools, and their applications to learning, content, delivery, and pedagogy. The program supports transformative research and its use by varied research, development, and implementation communities. The needs of a particular Partnership related to advancing the teaching and learning of any of the STEM disciplines at the K-12 level should drive the focus of the Partnership's work. The inclusion of computer science, computational thinking, computational science or computing in K-12 STEM instruction is welcome, but not required.
All STEM-C Partnerships projects serve as models that have a sufficiently strong evidence/research base to improve STEM education outcomes for all students. The STEM-C Partnerships program requires institutional commitment to evidence-based teaching and learning which improves the achievement of all students studying STEM, with particular attention to educational practices that are effective for groups underrepresented in STEM—women, minorities (African-Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans, Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islander territories), and students with disabilities.
Through this STEM-CP: CE21 solicitation, NSF seeks to support three types of awards. Broadening Participation and Education in Computing (BPEC) awards aim to build a rich knowledge base on the effective teaching and learning of computing skills and concepts, with particular attention to educational practices that are effective for students from underrepresented groups. CS 10K awards aim to develop the knowledge and evidence-based foundation needed to support the teaching of introductory rigorous, academic computing courses in high schools. STEM-C Partnerships Computer Science Education Expansion (CSE-Expansion) awards aim to expand the work of previously funded NSF MSP Partnerships to increase the number of qualified computer science teachers and the number of high schools with rigorous computer science courses.
Program contacts
Janice Cuny Program Director, CISE Directorate
firstname.lastname@example.com | (703) 292-8900 | |
Jeff Forbes Program Director, CISE Directorate
firstname.lastname@example.com | (703) 292-4291 | CISE/CNS |
Kathleen Bergin Program Director, EHR Directorate
firstname.lastname@example.com | (703) 292-5171 | |
Arlene de Strulle Program Director, EHR Directorate
firstname.lastname@example.com | (703) 292-8620 | EDU/DRL |


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In May, the investment firm KKR acquired a majority stake in Seattle-based Agiloft. After nearly four years as CEO of the legal technology company, Eric Laughlin says he is focused on...
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text:
1If a man divorces his wifea
and she leaves him
and then becomes the wife of another,
Can she return to the first?*
Would not this land be wholly defiled?
But you have played the prostitute with many lovers,
and yet you would return to me!—oracle of the LORD.
2Raise your eyes to the heights, and look,
where have men not lain with you?
Along the roadways you waited for them
like an Arabian* in the wilderness.
You defiled the land
by your wicked prostitution.b
3Therefore the showers were withheld,
the spring rain did not fall.
But because you have a prostitute's brow,
you refused to be ashamed.c
4Even now do you not call me, "My father,
you are the bridegroom of my youth?
5Will he keep his wrath forever,
will he hold his grudge to the end?"
This is what you say; yet you do
all the evil you can.
Judah and Israel. 6The LORD said to me in the days of King Josiah: Do you see what rebellious Israel has done? She has gone up every high mountain, and under every green tree she has played the prostitute.d 7And I thought: After she has done all this, she will return to me. But she did not return. Then, even though that traitor her sister Judah, saw 8that, in response to all the adulteries rebel Israel had committed, I sent her away and gave her a bill of divorce, nevertheless Judah, the traitor, her sister, was not frightened; she too went off and played the prostitute.e 9With her casual prostitution, she polluted the land, committing adultery with stone and wood.f 10In spite of all this, Judah, the traitor, her sister, did not return to me wholeheartedly, but insincerely—oracle of the LORD.
Restoration of Israel. 11Then the LORD said to me: Rebel Israel is more just than traitor Judah.g 12Go, proclaim these words toward the north, and say:
Return, rebel Israel—oracle of the LORD—
I will not remain angry with you;
For I am merciful, oracle of the LORD,
I will not keep my anger forever.h
13Only admit your guilt:
how you have rebelled against the LORD, your God,
How you ran here and there to strangers
under every green tree
and would not listen to my voice—oracle of the LORD.i
14Return, rebellious children—oracle of the LORD—*
for I am your master;
I will take you, one from a city, two from a clan,
and bring you to Zion.j
15I will appoint for you shepherds after my own heart,
who will shepherd you wisely and prudently.k
16When you increase in number and are fruitful in the land—
oracle of the LORD—
They will in those days no longer say,
"The ark of the covenant of the LORD!"
They will no longer think of it, or remember it,
or miss it, or make another one.
17At that time they will call Jerusalem "the LORD's throne." All nations will gather together there to honor the name of the LORD at Jerusalem, and they will no longer stubbornly follow their wicked heart.l 18In those days the house of Judah will walk alongside the house of Israel; together they will come from the land of the north to the land which I gave your ancestors as a heritage.m
Conditions for Forgiveness
19I thought:
How I would like to make you my children!
So I gave you a pleasant land,
the most beautiful heritage among the nations!
You would call me, "My Father," I thought,
and you would never turn away from me.n
20But like a woman faithless to her lover,
thus have you been faithless to me,
house of Israel—oracle of the LORD.o
21A cry is heard on the heights!
the plaintive weeping of Israel's children,
Because they have perverted their way,
they have forgotten the LORD, their God.
22Return, rebellious children!
I will heal your rebellions.
"Here we are! We belong to you,
for you are the LORD, our God.p
23Deceptive indeed are the hills,
the mountains, clamorous;
Only in the LORD our God
is Israel's salvation.q
24The shameful thing* has devoured
our ancestors' worth from our youth,
Their sheep and cattle,
their sons and daughters.
25Let us lie down in our shame,
let our disgrace cover us,
for we have sinned against the LORD, our God,
We and our ancestors, from our youth to this day;
we did not listen to the voice of the LORD, our God."r
* [3:1] Can she return to the first?: i.e., her first husband. Here the Hebrew is emended in light of the Septuagint and Dt 24:1–4, which forbids a man to take back a woman once he has divorced her. The prophet uses this analogy to illustrate the presumption of Judah, the unfaithful wife, who assumes she can easily return to the Lord after worshiping other gods.
* [3:2] An Arabian: here depicted as a marauder lying in wait for caravans.
* [3:14–18] A remnant of Israel (v. 14) will reunite with Judah (v. 18). The former Israelite community, represented by the ark of the covenant, will be replaced by a universal alliance, symbolized by Jerusalem, the Lord's throne, to which all nations will be gathered (v. 17).
* [3:24] The shameful thing: Heb. bosheth ("shame"), a term often substituted for the name of Baal, a Canaanite god worshiped at local shrines.
e. [3:8] 2 Kgs 17:6, 18–23; Ez 23:11.
i. [3:13] Jer 2:20, 25; Lv 26:40.
j. [3:14] Jer 23:3; Is 10:21–22.
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The massive manhunt for former police officer Christopher Jordan Dorner ended Tuesday in a hail of bullets and a wall of flame, as the mountain cabin he'd taken refuge in caught fire after being besieged by police. On Thursday, authorities confirmed that the body recovered from the wreckage was Dorner's. "The charred human remains located in the burned out cabin in Seven Oaks have been positively identified to be that of Christopher Dorner," the San Bernardino County Sheriff-Coroner's Office said in a written statement, according to ABC News. "During the autopsy, positive identification was made through dental examination."
(MORE: Burned Remains ID'ed as Fugitive Ex-Cop Christopher Dorner)
Dorner is suspected of killing a total of four people, including a Riverside, Calif., police officer, a San Bernardino sheriff's deputy and the daughter of a former police captain, all part of a one-man war against the Los Angeles Police Department over what he called the force's "lying, racism" and "cover-ups." But while Dorner's rampage is over, his actions could continue to have repercussions — particularly for the LAPD, as his vendetta has stirred up old animosities between the department and the community it serves.
The claims made by Dorner were bold, to say the least: in a rambling, 6,000-word manifesto published on his Facebook page, the former officer complained that he had been discriminated against and effectively driven out of the department after accusing a fellow officer of kicking a suspect in the face. Issues of race and police brutality are particularly sensitive ones in Los Angeles. After all, this is the city where the videotaped police beating of black motorist Rodney King — and the subsequent acquittal of the officers involved — sparked race riots in 1992. The department was also embroiled in a rash of corruption charges and civil rights violations known as the Rampart scandal in the late 1990s and early 2000s; eventually an independent monitor was set up by the LAPD and the federal government to guide and enforce reforms. "The department has not changed since the Rampart and Rodney King days," Dorner claimed in his manifesto. "It has gotten worse."
(MORE: Repeated Gaffes Ultimately Halted Ex-Cop's Rampage)
Those words, and the actions that followed, poured salt into wounds that hadn't completely healed in the black community in L.A., and they have already caused damage to the department's reputation in the past week, says Connie Rice, a civil rights attorney who has sued the LAPD for misconduct and racial discrimination on behalf of minority officers. The force has a long history of mistreating black officers, Rice claims; it wasn't until the early 1960s, she says, that it ended the forced segregation of squad cars. Now the Dorner accusations have "revived the ghosts" of the LAPD's past, she says, adding, "This is on such a massive scale in terms of its impact, I'm quite sure there's been damage."
Callers on talk radio popular in the African-American community in Los Angeles have been calling Dorner a hero, even proclaiming he was seeking vengeance for slavery, Rice says. A Facebook page called We Stand With Christopher Dorner has attracted more than 22,000 followers.
Dorner's supporters seem to have interpreted his manifesto not as the rants of a lunatic but as the plea of a man legitimately upset about racial injustice. "The way he responded to discrimination is not the correct way," says Donald Tibbs, a law professor at Drexel University who studies race and civil rights. "At the same time, his accusations seem to take us back and remind us of the days of old — maybe they're not so old."
(MORE: Career Woes, Perceived Racism Fueled Ex-Cop's Anger)
In an apparent bid to counter this resentment, LAPD chief Charlie Beck announced on Feb. 9 that he had reopened the department's investigation into Dorner's dismissal. "As hard as it has been to change the culture of the Los Angeles Police Department, it has been even more difficult to win and maintain the support of the public," Beck said. "Therefore, I feel we need to also publicly address Dorner's allegations." He took this step not "to appease a murderer," he added, but "to reassure the public that their police department is transparent and fair in all the things we do." And even though Dorner has been confirmed dead, the department says it will continue to pursue the investigation.
The inquest is being taken as a signal that despite Dorner's claims, the department is trying to put its bad old days behind it. Even Rice agrees that the institutional racism that once plagued the LAPD is largely a thing of the past. "The old culture, in which the top command, from the chief all the way down to the lowest officer, condoned and approved of open racism — that LAPD is gone," she says. Los Angeles now has a "majority of color" police force, Rice notes, that "seeks the trust of the poor black and poor Latino communities." Ron Ryan, a retired veteran LAPD sergeant who was active during the King era, agrees that the force has come a long way. "They've improved in an all-around sense," he says.
(MORE: Suspected L.A. Gunman Called Murder Spree His 'Last Resort')
And while the police manhunt for Dorner wasn't entirely smooth — two innocent bystanders were shot and injured by police after being mistaken for the fugitive ex-cop — at least it was successful. The huge task force assembled was effective in coordinating a multitude of agencies, some of which aren't usually involved in such operations, says Lieutenant Patrick Foy, spokesman for the Department of Fish and Wildlife. "All these resources we're putting in help everybody work better together," says Foy, whose fellow wardens chased Dorner and dodged his gunfire on Tuesday.
The LAPD itself, mired in the Dorner investigation, wasn't eager to answer questions about the possibility of a tarnished image and didn't respond to TIME's queries as of this writing. But in the end, even those who may have sympathized with Dorner's message likely have little love for his methods. His explicit threats against the families and children of his former colleagues may ultimately garner the LAPD more friends than enemies, says William Deverell, a history professor at the University of Southern California. "The notion of targeting the family members of officers, that's just so heinous," Deverell says. "I can't imagine it wouldn't help spark some support for officers and families of the institution."


text:
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From the Cliffs of Moher to the Hill of Tara what better way to celebrate Irishness than with the beauty of Ireland
From the windswept Cliffs of Moher to the rain-soaked Aran Islands, there are a number of sites that no trip to Ireland is complete without. If ancient history is your thing, Ireland has plenty of it: try Newgrange or the Hill of Tara in County Meath. For sheer unadulterated, natural, beauty try the Giant's Causeway or the entire county of Kerry. But there is more to Ireland than countryside and rocks, as any number of attractions in Dublin, such as Trinity College and theGuinness Storehouse in Dublin, suggests.
To narrow this list down to 10 is quite a challenge. But it nevertheless reflects an array of tourist attractions from all corners of Ireland, that will have something for every one.
We compiled this list ourselves but we're open to change! What's your favorite place in Ireland?
1. Boyne Valley
Brú na Bóinne (the Boyne Palace) in County Meath contains some of the most important historic sites and monuments in Ireland, and is a designated World Heritage Site.
It features the massive megalithic ancient passage tombs - which are graves dating back to ancient times - of Newgrange, Knowth and Dowth. These tombs are older than both Stonehenge in England and the Pyramids of Giza inEgypt.
Newgrange, which was built about 5,000 years ago, is Ireland's most famous prehistoric site.
It's especially famous for a spectacular event on Dec. 21, also known as the Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year. The tomb was built in such a way so that on this day, it is illuminated by a narrow beam of sunlight which shines through a specially designed roof box. Those who have seen this say its an unforgettable experience.
Nobody knows why the tomb was built in the way it was, or indeed how the stones were even transported to the site. But it does seem fairly certain that Newgrange was built before the invention of the wheel.
The tomb itself was almost lost to history itself. It was sunk into the ground for over 4,000 years, only rediscovered in 1699 when workers carried away building stones for the landowner. As they removed the stones they discovered the entrance. But they left it undisturbed as they thought it was a cave. Then, in 1962, archaeologists began to investigate the sinking mound. Newgrange was then excavated and restored to its former glory.
Today, access to Newgrange, Knowth and Dowth begins at a visitor center, from where you can take a guided tour of the site.
The Hill of Tara is also in Co. Meath. An archeological complex, it consists of a number of ancient monuments, including the Stone of Destiny, the Fort of the Kings and the Mound of the Hostages. Located on the River Boyne, it is said to be the actual seat of the High Kings of Ireland.
Nearby is the site of the Battle of The Boyne, one of the key dates in Irish history, in which protestant William of Orange defeated Catholic James II in 1690.
2. Ring of Kerry
For many people around the world, the Ring of Kerry drive encapsulates their image of Ireland: ancient monuments, romantic castles, spectacular gardens and colorful towns and villages. The spectacular scenery, dramatic coastline, colorful towns and villages and ancient archaeological treasures have been featured in postcards, film, poetry and song.
Here, the idealized pictorial of Ireland as a land of rural greenery and stunning natural beauty springs to reality. Tourists come to Kerry to experience this rare dip into a lifestyle foreign not just in language and nationality, but in pace, philosophy and spirit. Each twist and turn on a drive around the Ring of Kerry reveals new sights - windswept cliffs, breathtaking scenery, spectacular lakes, rich flora and fauna, green and yellow checkered hills and unspoilt beaches.
There is evidence of the region's unique heritage and culture everywhere, in the place names, the standing stones and the many archaeological sites. The 6th century beehive huts on Skellig Michael are a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Also worth checking out are the stone forts at Caherciveen and Castlecove, the Neolithic stone circle in Kenmare, the 15th century Ballycarberry Castle, the magnificent O'Connell Memorial Church, Derrynane House and Gardens or the pretty 19th century Heritage town, Kenmare.
The Ring of Kerry is also highly regarded for it culinary delights, such as the local cheeses, seafood and shellfish, lamb and homemade breads. The town of Kenmare, in particular, has a number of very highly regarded restaurants. (It is thought to be the only town in Ireland that has more restaurants than pubs.)
The area is a favorite among artists, writers and sculptors, and there are a number of craft shops and galleries such as Cill Rialaig showcasing their best works. It's also ideal for activity holidays, such as walking and cycling routes, diving and angling and adventures sports, to its array of championship golf courses - Waterville (An Coireán), Dooks, Kenmare and Killorglin.
The coastal roads provide an ever-changing landscape around the Iveragh Peninsula, with snapshots of the famous offshore islands popping in and out of view around every corner.
3. The Cliffs of Moher
The most famous and breathtaking parts of Ireland's craggy west coastline are the Cliffs of Moher, which feature some of the most breathtaking views on the entire island.
The Cliffs stretch for almost 5 miles and rise up to 702 feet over the waters of the Atlantic ocean. The amazing view from the Cliffs includes the Aran Islands,Galway Bay, The Twelve Pins and the Maum Turk Mountains. The landscape and seascape of the Cliffs of Moher have, for centuries, welcomed a multitude of visitors; close to 1 million people per year now travel to this iconic location.
But don't get the wrong impression – just because many people flock to the site, this in no way spoils the experience of being there; it's easy to forget your surroundings and lose yourself in nature as you stand near the edge of the majestic Cliffs.
4. Giant's Causeway
The Giant's Causeway, a coastal area of about 40,000 basalt columns near the town of Bushmills in County Antrim, is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Northern Ireland.
Folklore tells us that an Irish giant named Finn MacCool once lived in the area, and from across the sea he could see a Scottish giant, Benandonner, his rival, whom he had never met.
Finn challenged Benandonner to come to Ireland to fight. Because no boat was big enough to carry the giant, Finn built a causeway of stones in the water so that Benandonner would be able to make it across.
When Finn realized the Scottish giant was far bigger than he had expected, he fled to the hills where his wife disguised him as a baby. This move foxed Bennadonner because he thought that if the child was that big, the father would be even bigger. Benandonner fled back to the Scotland, ripping up the causeway behind him, so that Finn wouldn't be able to follow him.
In truth, Giant's Causeway was created by a volcanic eruption 60 million years ago – an interesting fact, but the Finn MacCool myth is a bit more fun to believe.
No matter how it came to be, the Causeway is one of the best places to walk through in the North.
5. Aran Islands
A trip to Galway would be incomplete without a visit to the Aran Islands, the collective name for the small islands, Inishmór, Inishmaan and Inisheer. The mystical, frozen-in-time islands are famous for their preservation of a rural existence largely unchanged, at least culturally, over the centuries. There may be some electricity there these days, but the ways of the past are carefully preserved among locals who make their living much the same way their ancestors did.
The residents of the islands are happy to accommodate guests, whether by raising a pint in friendship or unraveling the folklore of the enchanted isles.
Elizabeth Zellinger, a Swiss citizen, moved to Inishmór, the largest island of the three, in 1974 and grew to love it so much that in 1996 she founded Celtic Spirit (www.irish-culture.ch), an organization that runs cultural vacation experiences on the island every summer. Groups of eight to 14 people shuttle back and forth to classes and workshops held at the Creig-an-Chéirín Centerin Inishmór, overlooking the sea and the mountains of Connemara. The program is a great way to explore and learn about this fascinating island group.
If you'd rather explore Inishmór on your own, rent a bike and make a loop around the entire island. On your one-day cycling tour, you'll encounter ancient ruins, lots of livestock and even miniature houses for leprechauns (or is it for the tourists?).
6. Guinness Storehouse
A trip to Dublin's most popular tourist attraction is pretty much compulsory for any self-respecting tourist in Ireland's capital. Or, at the very least, it should be.
The Guinness Storehouse tells the story of how Guinness is made and how this famous drink came to be one of Ireland's best-known exports.
It is in an awesome building: its core is in the shape of a giant pint glass, and consists of seven floors. After walking around for about 45 minutes and being constantly told how wonderful Guinness is, pretty soon, the subliminal messages start to kick in.
Before you know it, you find yourself craving a pint of the black, delicious stuff, like your life depended on it, even if you were previously not a fan. (It is, after all, an acquired taste.)
The top floor, which has the Gravity Bar, is the most fun. There you get a complimentary pint of Guinness. You also get the most spectacular view of Dublin, which is worth the admission price alone.
7. Trinity College Dublin
Trinity College is Ireland's most prestigious college- and although its rivals atUniversity College Dublin might dispute this, it's probably the best university in Ireland.
But one thing not up for argument is the magnificent setting of Trinity: many of its majestic buildings are hundreds of years old. (The college was founded by England's Queen Elizabeth 1 in 1592.) Architecturally at least, Trinity is way above its nearest rivals.
Although the college is best known for the Book of Kells, it's also worth going there to check out the Long Room, the room that holds the Book of Kells. (Apparently, this room was the inspiration for a room called the Jedi Archives, in the movie, "Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones.")
It is also worth taking one of the guided tours around the college as nearly every building seems to have an interesting story. Many of the tour guides appear to be Trinity College drama school graduates: They always seem to add a little dramatic flair to their tours.
The best time of the year to visit this university is around the end of May, just after the students' exams are over. Then the whole college comes to life.
A popular activity among its students is to sit out outside the Pavilion Bar (known as "The Pav"), while watching a game of cricket. Join them and bring a few beers, if you get the chance.
8. The Burren
The Burren, which is formed by limestone karst plates that have been thrust to the earth's surface - in other words, it's a great big rocky mass - is one of Ireland's most famous natural attractions.
The limestone terrain holds a special fascination for geologists and botanists for its Mediterranean and alpine plants.
Described as a botanist's paradise, the Burren has one of the most diverse and beautiful floras in Ireland: 635 different plant species (including 22 of Ireland's 27 native orchids) have been recorded here.
The region also has a number of more rare and elusive species such as the carnivorous pine marten, the snake-like slow worm and the rare lesser horseshoe bat, as well as over 100 breeding birds and almost all of Ireland's native butterfly species.
The diversity of species is due to a happy coincidence of natural and cultural factors. As well as the unique growing environment provided by the thick limestone and thins soil, low impact traditional farming practices such as the ancient practice of winter grazing contribute to the presence of this rich flora. The European Union has designated most of the Burren as a Special Area of Conservation, a title reserved for the finest natural environments in Europe.
9. St. Patrick's Cathedral
St. Patrick's Cathedral, Ireland's largest church, is also one of the biggest tourist attractions in Dublin.
In a well close to the cathedral, St Patrick was believed to have baptized converts from paganism to Christianity. To commemorate his visit, a small wooden church was built on the site. Later, in 1191, the present building was constructed, and St. Patrick's was raised to the status of a cathedral.
St Patrick's is also notable for being the first place where Handel's "Messiah" was performed, in 1742. Another interesting fact: Jonathan Swift, the author of "Gulliver's Travels," who was the dean of the cathedral from 1713-45, is buried here.
While this cathedral is replete with history, St. Patrick's is not, however, a museum. It's still very much a living building with services held every day of the year. There are also sung services six days a week. The choir sings two services every day during school terms - the only cathedral in Ireland or Britain to do so.
10. Croke Park
Croke Park is the stadium where Ireland's two national sports, hurling and Gaelic football, are played. It is also the headquarters of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA), the sporting body responsible for these national games.
It is hard to belive that Croke Park is primarily designed for amateur sports - with a capacity of aroound 80,000, it is the fouth largest stadium in Europe.
But it's much more than merely a stadium: it has been described as the spiritual home of Irish cultural nationalism. Hurlers and Gaelic footballers - and indeed their fans - speak of Croke Park as if it were sacred ground.
"Croker" is something of a hidden secret for tourists. If you can get a tickets, the chances are that you will be one of the few tourists there. The best time to get tickets is usually around May at the start of the season. To go and see a game of either hurling or football at Croke Park is to sample a unique slice of Irish life.
While you're there, visit the GAA museum and for a tour of the grand stadium.


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The team of searchers and scientists who were hoping to find pieces of aviator Amelia Earhart's plane off an island in the mid-Pacific "disappointed that we did not make a dramatic and conclusive discovery."
But Ric Gillespie and his comrades from the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR) add that while "we saw no objects that we recognized as aircraft debris ... we have volumes of sonar data and many hours of high-definition video to review before we'll know the results of this expedition definitively."
They're hoping to have more to say on a Discovery Channel special set for Aug. 19.
Back in March, we posted about TIGHAR's expedition and the big sendoff it got from Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. She called Earhart a "heroine for a nation down on its luck" because of her high-profile exploits during the Great Depression.
Earhart — the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean (in 1932) — disappeared in the mid-Pacific in July 1937, when she and navigator Fred Noonan were attempting to fly around the world. Gillespie's team thought an old photo might have been a clue. An object in it might have been a bit of wreckage off the shore of an island they went to inspect.
By the way, it's Earhart's 115th birthday. Google is .
Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


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Playground Safety for Little Kids
Playground Safety for Little Kids
The playground is a great escape for kids and adults (we recommend a big game of monster tag). This is also the age where kids can really start to enjoy most of the equipment. While not all playgrounds are designed with toddlers in mind, there is always something you can do to keep your little kid safe.
Top Safety Tips
- Actively supervise children on playgrounds. It won't be hard – they'll probably be calling for you to watch them climb, jump and swing.
- Teach children that pushing, shoving or crowding while on the playground can be dangerous. Be tough now and you won't have to worry about it later (easier said than done, we know).
- Check playgrounds where your children play. Look for age-appropriate equipment and hazards, such as rusted or broken equipment and dangerous surfaces. Report any hazards to the school or appropriate local office.
- Little kids can play differently than big kids. It is important to have a separate play area for children under 5.
- Dress appropriately for the playground. Remove necklaces, purses, scarves or clothing with drawstrings that can get caught on equipment and pose a strangulation hazard. Even helmets can be dangerous on a playground, so save those for bikes.


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DTS Therapy
DTS Therapy is an Alternative to Surgery
You don't have to live in debilitating pain. Whether you have lower back pain, a pinched nerve, sciatica, neck pain, or a variety of symptoms related to damaged or degenerative discs, as well as syndromes of the lumbar and cervical spine, DTS Therapy may be for you.
This gentle, non-surgical therapy can provide lower back pain relief, sciatica pain relief, and is a state-of-the-art therapy for neck pain relief, bulging or degenerative disc disease, and lumbar pain.
The gentle distractive forces of the DTS therapy create a decompression of the spine with unloading due to distraction and proper positioning, to improve blood flow and nutrient exchange to the injured area. You'll experience several cycles of stretch and relaxation, which graduates to a peak over a period of several minutes.
Therapy sessions typically last less than 20 minutes, 3 times a week for 1 month, transitioning from passive to active treatments as you respond, with most patients feeling pain relief with as few as 6-10 treatments. Most patients are released from treatment after 8 weeks.
A complete program targeting the function of the stabilization muscles is a vital part of DTS Therapy. Exercise and adjunctive therapies such as heat, muscle stimulation, ultrasound, and cold therapy can assist in rehabilitation of these structures. Our goal is to not only help heal the disc, but to also enhance muscular control and support of the back and neck.
Regular home exercise and periodic visits to our office will help in maintaining your spinal health and reduce the probability of reoccurrence. Clinical results of this type of therapy have been effective in over 75% of the patients treated and most patients find long-term relief or effective management of their pain when they complete the entire program of treatments utilizing the DTS Spinal Decompression Therapy.


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Walking is an ideal exercise for many people—it doesn't require any special equipment, can be done any time, any place, and it is generally safe. Also, many studies – including the Nurses' Health Study, (1, 2) Health Professionals Follow-up Study, (3) Women's Health Study, (4)Harvard Alumni Health Study, (5) National Health Interview Survey, (6) Women's Health Initiative, (7) Honolulu Heart Program, (8) Black Women's Health Study, (9) and others (10, 11) – have demonstrated that this simple form of exercise substantially reduces the chances of developing heart disease, stroke, and diabetes in different populations.
- Though walking has health benefits at any pace, brisk walking (at least 3 miles per hour) is more beneficial than slow walking for weight control. (12-14)
- A report from the Nurses' Health Study II suggests that bicycling offers similar benefits to brisk walking: (14) Researchers followed more than 18,000 women for 16 years to study the relationship between changes in physical activity and weight. On average, women gained about 20 pounds over the course of the study. Women who increased their physical activity by 30 minutes per day gained less weight than women whose activity levels stayed steady. But the type of activity made a difference: Women who added bicycling or brisk walking to their activity regimens were able to curb their weight gain, but women who added slow walking were not.
If you don't like brisk walking or bicycling, any activity that makes your heart work harder will help you meet the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, as long as you do it often enough. Walking and biking are also green ways to commute to work—good for the environment, and good for you.
1. Manson, J.E., et al., A prospective study of walking as compared with vigorous exercise in the prevention of coronary heart disease in women. N Engl J Med, 1999. 341(9): p. 650-8.
2. Hu, F.B., et al., Walking compared with vigorous physical activity and risk of type 2 diabetes in women: a prospective study. JAMA, 1999. 282(15): p. 1433-9.
3. Tanasescu, M., et al., Exercise type and intensity in relation to coronary heart disease in men. JAMA, 2002. 288(16): p. 1994-2000.
4. Lee, I.M., et al., Physical activity and coronary heart disease in women: is "no pain, no gain" passe? JAMA, 2001. 285(11): p. 1447-54.
5. Sesso, H.D., R.S. Paffenbarger, Jr., and I.M. Lee, Physical activity and coronary heart disease in men: The Harvard Alumni Health Study. Circulation, 2000. 102(9): p. 975-80.
6. Gregg, E.W., et al., Relationship of walking to mortality among US adults with diabetes. Arch Intern Med, 2003. 163(12): p. 1440-7.
7. Manson, J.E., et al., Walking compared with vigorous exercise for the prevention of cardiovascular events in women. N Engl J Med, 2002. 347(10): p. 716-25.
8. Hakim, A.A., et al., Effects of walking on coronary heart disease in elderly men: the Honolulu Heart Program. Circulation, 1999. 100(1): p. 9-13.
9. Krishnan, S., L. Rosenberg, and J.R. Palmer, Physical activity and television watching in relation to risk of type 2 diabetes: the Black Women's Health Study. Am J Epidemiol, 2009. 169(4): p. 428-34.
10. Oguma, Y. and T. Shinoda-Tagawa, Physical activity decreases cardiovascular disease risk in women: review and meta-analysis. Am J Prev Med, 2004. 26(5): p. 407-18.
11. Jeon, C.Y., et al., Physical activity of moderate intensity and risk of type 2 diabetes: a systematic review. Diabetes Care, 2007. 30(3): p. 744-52.
12. Mekary, R.A., et al., Physical activity patterns and prevention of weight gain in premenopausal women. Int J Obes (Lond), 2009. 33(9): p. 1039-47.
13. Mekary, R.A., et al., Physical activity in relation to long-term weight maintenance after intentional weight loss in premenopausal women. Obesity (Silver Spring), 2010. 18(1): p. 167-74.
14. Lusk, A.C., et al., Bicycle riding, walking, and weight gain in premenopausal women. Arch Intern Med, 2010. 170(12): p. 1050-6.


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Can and Bottle Coolers: Our coolers are made from high quality thick Neoprene material.
When designing your custom coaster or cooler it is recommended to use large text. It is also recommended to keep your artwork slightly away from the edges to ensure that the design doesn't interfere with the seems of the product. When designing on a zipper bottle cooler, please keep in mind that the front of the cooler does have a zipper. Any design that overlaps the zipper area will be cut off and may not give the results you anticipate.
* Orders with more than 500 pieces may take longer. Contact us for RUSH orders.


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This unisex tank top boasts a nice drape, which is ideal for layering or dealing with the summer heat. In true American Apparel style, the tank top is extremely smooth and soft, and has reinforced smooth arm and head holes, guaranteeing that this is the comfiest tank top you'll ever own.
• 100% fine jersey (heather colors contain 10% polyester)
• Banded arm and head holes
• Made in the USA, sweatshop free


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