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Particle swarm optimization
Marco Dorigo et al. (2008), Scholarpedia, 3(11):1486. | doi:10.4249/scholarpedia.1486 | revision #91633 [link to/cite this article] |
Particle swarm optimization (PSO) is a population-based stochastic approach for solving continuous and discrete optimization problems.
In particle swarm optimization, simple software agents, called particles, move in the search space of an optimization problem. The position of a particle represents a candidate solution to the optimization problem at hand. Each particle searches for better positions in the search space by changing its velocity according to rules originally inspired by behavioral models of bird flocking.
Particle swarm optimization belongs to the class of swarm intelligence techniques that are used to solve optimization problems.
Contents |
Particle swarm optimization was introduced by Kennedy and Eberhart (1995). It has roots in the simulation of social behaviors using tools and ideas taken from computer graphics and social psychology research.
Within the field of computer graphics, the first antecedents of particle swarm optimization can be traced back to the work of Reeves (1983), who proposed particle systems to model objects that are dynamic and cannot be easily represented by polygons or surfaces. Examples of such objects are fire, smoke, water and clouds. In these systems, particles are independent of each other and their movements are governed by a set of rules. Some years later, Reynolds (1987) used a particle system to simulate the collective behavior of a flock of birds. In a similar kind of simulation, Heppner and Grenander (1990) included a roost that was attractive to the simulated birds. Both models inspired the set of rules that were later used in the original particle swarm optimization algorithm.
Social psychology research, in particular the dynamic theory of social impact (Nowak, Szamrej & Latané, 1990), was another source of inspiration in the development of the first particle swarm optimization algorithm (Kennedy, 2006). The rules that govern the movement of the particles in a problem's search space can also be seen as a model of human social behavior in which individuals adjust their beliefs and attitudes to conform with those of their peers (Kennedy & Eberhart 1995).
Standard PSO algorithm
The problem of minimizing\(^1\) the function \(f: \Theta \to \mathbb{R}\) with \(\Theta \subseteq \mathbb{R}^n\) can be stated as finding the set
\(\Theta^* = \underset{\vec{\theta} \in \Theta}{\operatorname{arg\,min}} \, f(\vec{\theta}) = \{ \vec{\theta}^* \in \Theta \colon f(\vec{\theta}^*) \leq f(\vec{\theta}), \,\,\,\,\,\,\forall \vec{\theta} \in \Theta\}\,,\)
where \(\vec{\theta}\) is an \(n\)-dimensional vector that belongs to the set of feasible solutions \(\Theta\) (also called search space).
In PSO, the so-called swarm is composed of a set of particles \(\mathcal{P} = \{p_{1},p_{2},\ldots,p_{k}\}\ .\) The position of a particle corresponds to a candidate solution of the considered optimization problem, which is represented by an objective function \(f\ .\) At any time step \(t\ ,\) \(p_i\) has a position \(\vec{x}^{\,t}_i\) and a velocity \(\vec{v}^{\,t}_i\) associated to it. The best position that particle \(p_i\) (with respect to \(f\)) has ever visited until time step \(t\) is represented by vector \(\vec{b}^{\,t}_i\) (also known as a particle's personal best). Moreover, a particle \(p_i\) receives information from its neighborhood \(\mathcal{N}_i \subseteq \mathcal{P}\ .\) In the standard particle swarm optimization algorithm, the neighborhood relations between particles are commonly represented as a graph \(G=\{V,E\}\ ,\) where each vertex in \(V\) corresponds to a particle in the swarm and each edge in \(E\) establishes a neighbor relation between a pair of particles. The resulting graph is commonly referred to as the swarm's population topology (Figure 1).
The algorithm
The PSO algorithm starts by generating random positions for the particles, within an initialization region \(\Theta^\prime \subseteq \Theta\ .\) Velocities are usually initialized within \(\Theta^\prime\) but they can also be initialized to zero or to small random values to prevent particles from leaving the search space during the first iterations. During the main loop of the algorithm, the velocities and positions of the the particles are iteratively updated until a stopping criterion is met.
The update rules are\[\vec{v}^{\,t+1}_i = w\vec{v}^{\,t}_i + \varphi_1\vec{U}^{\,t}_1(\vec{b}^{\,t}_i - \vec{x}^{\,t}_i) + \varphi_2\vec{U}^{\,t}_2(\vec{l}^{\,t}_i - \vec{x}^{\,t}_i) \,,\]
\(\vec{x}^{\,t+1}_i = \vec{x}^{\,t}_i +\vec{v}^{\,t+1}_i \,,\)
where \(w\) is a parameter called inertia weight, \(\varphi_1\) and \(\varphi_2\) are two parameters called acceleration coefficients, \(\vec{U}^{\,t}_1\) and \(\vec{U}^{\,t}_2\) are two \(n \times n\) diagonal matrices in which the entries in the main diagonal are random numbers uniformly distributed in the interval \([0,1)\ .\) At each iteration, these matrices are regenerated. Usually, vector \(\vec{l}^{\,t}_i\ ,\) referred to as the neighborhood best, is the best position ever found by any particle in the neighborhood of particle \(p_i\ ,\) that is, \(f(\vec{l}^{\,t}_i) \leq f(\vec{b}^{\,t}_j) \,\,\, \forall p_j \in \mathcal{N}_i\ .\) If the values of \(w\ ,\) \(\varphi_1\) and \(\varphi_2\) are properly chosen, it is guaranteed that the particles' velocities do not grow to infinity (Clerc and Kennedy 2002).
The three terms in the velocity-update rule above characterize the local behaviors that particles follow. The first term, called the inertia or momentum serves as a memory of the previous flight direction, preventing the particle from drastically changing direction. The second term, called the cognitive component models the tendency of particles to return to previously found best positions. The third term, called the social component quantifies the performance of a particle relative to its neighbors. It represents a group norm or standard that should be attained.
In some cases, particles can be attracted to regions outside the feasible search space \(\Theta\ .\) For this reason, mechanisms for preserving solution feasibility and a proper swarm operation have been devised (Engelbrecht 2005). One of the least disruptive mechanisms for preserving feasibility is one in which particles going outside \(\Theta\) are not allowed to improve their personal best position so that they are attracted back to the feasible space in subsequent iterations.
A pseudocode version of the standard PSO algorithm is shown below:
:Inputs Objective function \(f:\Theta \to \mathbb{R}\ ,\) the initialization domain \(\Theta^\prime \subseteq \Theta\ ,\) the number of particles \(|\mathcal{P}| = k\ ,\) the parameters \(w\ ,\) \(\varphi_1\ ,\) and \(\varphi_2\ ,\) and the stopping criterion \(S\) :Output Best solution found // Initialization Set t := 0 for i := 1 to k do Initialize \(\mathcal{N}_i\) to a subset of \(\mathcal{P}\) according to the desired topology Initialize \(\vec{x}^{\,t}_i\) randomly within \(\Theta^\prime\) Initialize \(\vec{v}^{\,t}_i\) to zero or a small random value Set \(\vec{b}^{\,t}_i = \vec{x}^{\,t}_i\) end for // Main loop while \(S\) is not satisfied do // Velocity and position update loop for i := 1 to k do Set \(\vec{l}^{\,t}_i\ :\) = \(\underset{{\vec{b}^{\,t}}_j \in \Theta \,|\, p_j \in \mathcal{N}_i}{\operatorname{arg\,min}} \, f({\vec{b}^{\,t}}_j)\) Generate random matrices \(\vec{U}^{\,t}_1\) and \(\vec{U}^{\,t}_2\) Set \(\vec{v}^{\,t+1}_i\ :\) = \(w\vec{v}^{\,t}_i + \varphi_1\vec{U}^{\,t}_1(\vec{b}^{\,t}_i - \vec{x}^{\,t}_i) + \varphi_2\vec{U}^{\,t}_2(\vec{l}^{\,t}_i - \vec{x}^{\,t}_i)\) Set \(\vec{x}^{\,t+1}_i\ :\) = \(\vec{x}^{\,t}_i + \vec{v}^{\,t+1}_i\) end for // Solution update loop for i := 1 to k do if \(f(\vec{x}^{\,t}_i) < f(\vec{b}^{\,t}_i)\) Set \(\vec{b}^{\,t}_i\ :\) = \(\vec{x}^{\,t}_i\) end if end for Set t := t + 1 end while
The algorithm above implements synchronous updates of particle positions and best positions, where the best position found is updated only after all particle positions and personal best positions have been updated. In asynchronous update mode, the best position found is updated immediately after each particle's position update. Asynchronous updates lead to a faster propagation of the best solutions through the swarm.
Main PSO variants
The original particle swarm optimization algorithm has undergone a number of changes since it was first proposed. Most of these changes affect the way the velocity of a particle is updated. In the following subsections, we briefly describe some of the most important developments. For a more detailed description of many of the existing particle swarm optimization variants, see (Kennedy and Eberhart 2001, Engelbrecht 2005, Clerc 2006 and Poli et al. 2007).
Discrete PSO
Most particle swarm optimization algorithms are designed to search in continuous domains. However, there are a number of variants that operate in discrete spaces. The first variant proposed for discrete domains was the binary particle swarm optimization algorithm (Kennedy and Eberhart 1997). In this algorithm, a particle's position is discrete but its velocity is continuous. The \(j\)th component of a particle's velocity vector is used to compute the probability with which the \(j\)th component of the particle's position vector takes a value of 1. Velocities are updated as in the standard PSO algorithm, but positions are updated using the following rule\[ x^{t+1}_{ij} = \begin{cases} 1 & \mbox{if } r < sig(v^{t+1}_{ij}),\\ 0 & \mbox{otherwise,} \end{cases} \]
where \(x_{ij}\) is the \(j\)th component of the position vector of particle \(p_i\ ,\) \(r\) is a uniformly distributed random number in the interval \([0,1)\,\) and
\( sig(x) = \frac{1}{1+e^{-x}}\,. \)
Constriction Coefficient
The constriction coefficient was introduced as an outcome of a theoretical analysis of swarm dynamics (Clerc and Kennedy 2002). Velocities are constricted, with the following change in the velocity update\[\vec{v}^{\,t+1}_i = \chi^t[\vec{v}^{\,t}_i + \varphi_2\vec{U}^{\,t}_1(\vec{b}^{\,t}_i - \vec{x}^{\,t}_i) + \varphi_2\vec{U}^{\,t}_2(\vec{l}^{\,t}_i - \vec{x}^{\,t}_i)]\ ,\] where \(\chi^t\) is an \(n \times n\) diagonal matrix in which the entries in the main diagonal are calculated as
\(\chi^t_{jj}=\frac{2\kappa}{|2-\varphi^t_{jj}-\sqrt{\varphi^t_{jj} (\varphi^t_{jj}-2)}|}\) with \(\varphi^t_{jj}=\varphi_1U^t_{1,jj}+\varphi_2U^t_{2,jj}\ .\) Convergence is guaranteed under the conditions that \(\varphi^t_{jj}\ge 4\,\forall j\) and \(\kappa\in [0,1]\ .\)
Bare-bones PSO
The bare-bones particle swarm (Kennedy 2003) is a version of the particle swarm optimization algorithm in which the velocity- and position-update rules are substituted by a procedure that samples a parametric probability density function.
In the bare-bones particle swarm optimization algorithm, a particle's position update rule in the \(j\)th component is \( x^{t+1}_{ij} = N\left(\mu_{ij}^{t} ,\sigma_{ij}^{\,t}\right)\,, \) where \(N\) is a normal distribution with
\( \begin{array}{ccc} \mu_{ij}^{t} &=& \frac{b^{t}_{ij} + l^{t}_{ij}}{2} \,, \\ \sigma_{ij}^{t} & = & |b^{t}_{ij} - l^{t}_{ij}| \,. \end{array} \)
Fully informed PSO
In the standard particle swarm optimization algorithm, a particle is attracted toward its best neighbor. A variant in which a particle uses the information provided by all its neighbors in order to update its velocity is called the fully informed particle swarm (FIPS) (Mendes et al. 2004).
In FIPS, the velocity-update rule is
\( \vec{v}^{\,t+1}_i = w\vec{v}^{\,t}_i + \frac{\varphi}{|\mathcal{N}_i|}\sum_{p_j \in \mathcal{N}_i}\mathcal{W}(\vec{b}^{\,t}_j)\vec{U}^{\,t}_j(\vec{b}^{\,t}_j-\vec{x}^{\,t}_i) \,, \)
where \(\mathcal{W} \colon \Theta \to [0,1]\) is a function that weighs the contribution of a particle's personal best position to the movement of the target particle based on its relative quality.
Applications of PSO and Current Trends
The first practical application of PSO was in the field of neural network training and was reported together with the algorithm itself (Kennedy and Eberhart 1995). Many more areas of application have been explored ever since, including telecommunications, control, data mining, design, combinatorial optimization, power systems, signal processing, and many others. To date, there are hundreds of publications reporting applications of particle swarm optimization algorithms. For a review, see (Poli 2008). Although PSO has been used mainly to solve unconstrained, single-objective optimization problems, PSO algorithms have been developed to solve constrained problems, multi-objective optimization problems, problems with dynamically changing landscapes, and to find multiple solutions. For a review, see (Engelbrecht 2005).
A number of research directions are currently pursued, including:
- Theoretical aspects
- Matching algorithms (or algorithmic components) to problems
- Application to more and/or different class of problems (e.g., multiobjective)
- Parameter selection
- Comparisons between PSO variants and other algorithms
- New variants
\(^1\)Without loss of generality, the presentation considers only minimization problems.
- M. Clerc. Particle Swarm Optimization. ISTE, London, UK, 2006.
- M. Clerc and J. Kennedy. The particle swarm-explosion, stability and convergence in a multidimensional complex space. IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation, 6(1):58-73, 2002.
- A. P. Engelbrecht. Fundamentals of Computational Swarm Intelligence. John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, UK, 2005.
- F. Heppner and U. Grenander. A stochastic nonlinear model for coordinated bird flocks. The Ubiquity of Chaos. AAAS Publications, Washington, DC, 1990.
- J. Kennedy. Bare bones particle swarms. In Proceedings of the IEEE Swarm Intelligence Symposium, pages 80-87, IEEE Press, Piscataway, NJ, 2003.
- J. Kennedy. Swarm Intelligence. In Handbook of Nature-Inspired and Innovative Computing: Integrating Classical Models with Emerging Technologies. A. Y. Zomaya (Ed.) , pages 187-219, Springer US, Secaucus, NJ, 2006.
- J. Kennedy and R. Eberhart. Particle swarm optimization. In Proceedings of IEEE International Conference on Neural Networks, pages 1942-1948, IEEE Press, Piscataway, NJ, 1995.
- J. Kennedy and R. Eberhart. A discrete binary version of the particle swarm algorithm. In Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man and Cybernetics, pages 4104-4108, IEEE Press, Piscataway, NJ, 1997.
- J. Kennedy, and R. Eberhart. Swarm Intelligence. Morgan Kaufmann, San Francisco, CA, 2001.
- R. Mendes, J. Kennedy, and J. Neves. The fully informed particle swarm: simpler, maybe better. IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation, 8(3):204-210, 2004.
- A. Nowak, J. Szamrej, and B. Latane. From private attitude to public opinion: A dynamic theory of social impact. Psychological Review, 97(3):362-376, 1990.
- R. Poli. Analysis of the publications on the applications of particle swarm optimisation. Journal of Artificial Evolution and Applications, Article ID 685175, 10 pages, 2008.
- R. Poli, J. Kennedy, and T. Blackwell. Particle swarm optimization. An overview. Swarm Intelligence, 1(1):33-57, 2007.
- W. T. Reeves. Particle systems--A technique for modeling a class of fuzzy objects. ACM Transactions on Graphics, 2(2):91-108, 1983.
- C. W. Reynolds. Flocks, herds, and schools: A distributed behavioral model. ACM Computer Graphics, 21(4):25-34, 1987.
Internal references
- Marco Dorigo (2007) Ant colony optimization. Scholarpedia, 2(3):1461.
- Howard Eichenbaum (2008) Memory. Scholarpedia, 3(3):1747.
- Marco Dorigo and Mauro Birattari (2007) Swarm intelligence. Scholarpedia, 2(9):1462.
- Arkady Pikovsky and Michael Rosenblum (2007) Synchronization. Scholarpedia, 2(12):1459.
External Links
- Papers on PSO are published regularly in many journals and conferences:
- Swarm Intelligence (whose main objective is to archive the most important advancements in the swarm intelligence field) regularly publishes articles on PSO. Other journals also publish articles about PSO. These include the IEEE Transactions series, Applied Soft Computing, Natural Computing, Structural and Multidisciplinary Optimization, and others.
- ANTS - International Conference on Swarm Intelligence, started in 1998.
- The IEEE Swarm Intelligence Symposia, started in 2003.
- Special sessions or special tracks on PSO are organized in many conferences. Examples are the IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation (CEC) and the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation (GECCO) series of conferences.
- Papers on PSO are also published in the proceedings of many other conferences such as Parallel Problem Solving from Nature conferences, the European Workshops on the Applications of Evolutionary Computation and many others.
See also
Swarm Intelligence, Ant Colony Optimization, Optimization, Stochastic Optimization


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General Mills must defend 'made with real fruit' claim for Fruit Roll-Ups, court rules
Consumer Annie Lam filed the complaint in a Californian district court and has sought class action status, alleging that the products' packaging misleads consumers into believing that the fruit-flavored snacks are healthful.
In particular, the packaging states that strawberry-flavored Fruit Roll-Ups are "made with real fruit", which Lam alleges "incorrectly describes the ingredients, which include partially hydrogenated oil, sugars in quantities amounting to approximately half of each serving, and 'pears from concentrate' rather than the fruit indicated by the name of the product."
According to court documents, General Mills argues that the statement "made with real fruit" is objectively true and that a reasonable consumer would not interpret it to mean that there are particular fruits or quantities of fruit in a product.
However, the court agreed with Lam that a reasonable consumer might indeed make this kind of assumption, based on this statement and others on-pack.
"Taken together, these statements might lead a reasonable consumer to believe that product is made with real strawberries, not pears from concentrate," the court document reads.
The court also notes that under FDA regulations, manufacturers may label a product as "natural strawberry flavored," even if that product contains no strawberries.
"While the regulation's logic is troubling, the Court is bound to apply it," the document says. "…So long as that product "contains natural flavor" which is "derived from" the "characterizing food ingredient," it will not run afoul of the regulation."
The case is just the latest in a rash of lawsuits claiming that food manufacturers have misled consumers into thinking that their products are more healthful than they are. Late last month, Ferrero settled a class action lawsuit over its advertising of Nutella for $3m, and agreed to change the product's labeling and advertising, while other companies have been targeted for "false and deceptive nutrient content claims."

subset: commoncrawl


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It didn't take long for the attacks in Benghazi and Cairo to become part of the presidential campaign. Mitt Romney jumped in first. In a statement last night before Ambassador Stevens' death had been announced, Romney accused President Obama of sympathizing with those who waged the assault. The Obama campaign responded, saying it was shocked that Romney would launch a, quote, "political attack" at this moment. And the politics have continued today as NPR's Mara Liasson reports.
MARA LIASSON, BYLINE: President Obama came to the Rose Garden to call the killing of the U.S. Ambassador to Libya and three other Americans outrageous and shocking.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: And make no mistake, we will work with the Libyan government to bring to justice the killers who attacked our people.
LIASSON: The president acknowledged that the attacks in Libya and similar protests in Cairo were apparently caused by anger over an amateur film made in America that some Muslims felt insulted the Prophet Mohammed.
OBAMA: We reject all efforts to denigrate the religious beliefs of others. But there is absolutely no justification to this type of senseless violence. None.
LIASSON: At the State Department, Hillary Clinton expressed the confusion that many Americans felt.
SECRETARY HILLARY CLINTON: How could this happen? How could this happen in a country we helped liberate, in a city we helped save from destruction? This question reflects just how complicated and, at times, how confounding the world can be.
LIASSON: But the secretary said this was not a case of an Arab Spring government turning on the United States.
CLINTON: This was an attack by a small and savage group, not the people or government of Libya.
LIASSON: But the Romney campaign saw an opening. Rich Williamson, a Romney spokesman, said last night that President Obama's failure to assert leadership throughout the Arab Spring set the stage for Tuesday's assault. Romney himself said the Obama administration had issued a, quote, "disgraceful statement" apologizing for American values.
MITT ROMNEY: The administration was wrong to stand by a statement sympathizing with those who had breached our embassy in Egypt instead of condemning their actions.
LIASSON: In fact, the embassy in Cairo put out a statement before the embassy there, or in Libya, had been attacked. It condemned the efforts by, quote, "misguided" individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims. After the attacks, the embassy did put out a tweet, which might be what Romney is referring to, saying, quote, "sorry, but neither breaches of our compound or angry messages will dissuade us from defending freedom of speech and criticizing bigotry." Romney did not back off his criticism and he denied he jumped the gun before he knew all the facts.
ROMNEY: We express immediately when we feel that the president and his administration have done something which is inconsistent with the principles of America.
LIASSON: Some in Romney's own party suggested he took a risk by inserting himself into a fast-moving story in an area - national security - where President Obama has much higher poll numbers. Here's top Romney advisor and former White House chief of staff John Sununu on MSNBC.
LIASSON: President Obama certainly agreed with that, telling CBS News Romney spoke too quickly.
LIASSON: And a leading conservative, Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol, said that while Romney was right to bring home the weakness of the Obama administration, he needs to think through the meaning of these events and prepare serious presidential level responses. Mara Liasson, NPR News, the White House. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.


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TV Choice: Stylised visuals reveal a dark period in Snowfall
Los Angeles, 1983: a storm is coming and its name is cocaine.
Following an ensemble cast of characters, Snowfall explores the infancy of the crack cocaine epidemic and the major impact it had on American society and culture.
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdIn episode one, we meet Franklin Saint (played by British actor Damson Idris in his first major role) a young, South Central street entrepreneur as he takes a leap into the cocaine game.
Meanwhile, Teddy McDonald (Carter Hudson), a disgruntled CIA operative, allies with a Contra soldier to begin an off-book operation to fund the Nicaraguan Contras.
Young star Damson told us: "The most challenging aspect for me was to forget that I was British.
"So there were things I did to convince myself that I was American. I stayed in the accent 24/7, I insisted on living away from somewhere that was beautiful like West Hollywood – I wanted to stay downtown, close to an area called Skid Row, where I would see many of the people who had been affected by this time that Snowfall is set."
Why should people watch Snowfall?
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide Ad"Because its telling an important story that speaks volumes and has affected many people throughout the world. It's a story that not only speaks to the older generation who might have lived it at the time, but it also speaks to a new generation, like myself, who may not know why they are in these situations."


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Georgia Nuggets
This recipe has not been reviewed. Be the first to rate this recipe!
From the kitchen of Patricia Johnson
This recipe has been on northpole.com from the beginning… since 1996! We hope you enjoy this classic North Pole recipe. Let us know your opinion by submitting a review!
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Recipe Details
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Tags: | Contains nuts, Gluten‑free, Good for parties/potlucks, Travels well |
3 cups light brown sugar
1 cup evaporated milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla flavoring
2 cups chopped pecans
1 tablespoon butter
Stir sugar and milk together in a medium saucepan, until sugar is dissolved.
Bring to a rolling boil and cook until it reaches 232 degrees.
Remove from heat add vanilla flavoring and stir.
Add butter and chopped pecans.
Beat until creamy.
Drop by the spoonful onto wax paper.
Let cool and store into air tight container.
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During the onset of the pandemic when hygiene products were scarce, a number of distilleries across the US stepped up by producing hand sanitizer in lieu of producing beverages.
These distilleries did so as a way to help the nation battle the coronavirus.
Then in recent days, reports rolled in that distilleries were facing fees imposed by the federal government. CNN reported that these fees were $15,000 that drug makers have to pay. The price came as a surprise to many small businesses that were hoping to help their communities.
The US Department of Health and Human Services acknowledged this was a mistake on Thursday.
"Small businesses who stepped up to fight COVID-19 should be applauded by their government, not taxed for doing so," said HHS chief of staff Brian Harrison. "I'm pleased to announce we have directed FDA to cease enforcement of these arbitrary, surprise user fees. Happy New Year, distilleries, and cheers to you for helping keep us safe!"


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Oklahoma's Baker Mayfield named AP's top player
Published 12:46 am Friday, December 8, 2017
By Ralph D. Russo
AP College Football Writer
NEW YORK (AP) — Baker Mayfield is The Associated Press college football Player of the Year, becoming the fourth Oklahoma quarterback to win the award since it was established in 1998.
Mayfield easily outpointed Stanford running back Bryce Love, who came in second. Louisville quarterback Lamar Jackson, the other finalist and last year's Heisman Trophy winner, was third in the award announced Thursday.
Mayfield received 51 first-place votes from the 56 AP college football poll voters who submitted player of the year ballots, and a total of 157 points. Love (83 points) and Jackson (39 points) each received two first-place votes and Penn State running Saquon Barkley received a first-place vote and came in fourth.
Mayfield, Love and Jackson are also the finalists for the Heisman, which will be handed out Saturday night in New York.
Mayfield is a former walk-on who has led the No. 2 Sooners to the College Football Playoff, where they will play No. 3 Georgia in the Rose Bowl on Jan. 1. Mayfield leads the nation in passer efficiency rating and has thrown for 4,340 yards and 41 touchdowns.
He joins Josh Heupel (2000), Jason White (2003) and Sam Bradford (2008) as previous winners from Oklahoma. No other school has had more than two players win AP Player of the Year.
"I'm on this awards trip right now with a lot of great players from OU and other schools, and every one of them deserves to be recognized. To receive this award is an honor and it's something just a few years ago I never thought would happen," Mayfield said. "Obviously, I'm very happy and thankful that I'm being recognized with this."
Mayfield played high school football in Austin, Texas, but did not receive a scholarship offer from the Longhorns. He was at Texas Tech, and played as a freshman, but ended up transferring to Oklahoma. With the Sooners, he has become a three-year starter and one of the most productive passers in college football history.
He has 129 career touchdown passes and 14,320 yards.
Mayfield also won the Walter Camp and Maxwell Award as player of the year as well as the Davey O'Brien Award as the top quarterback. Those three awards were presented to him Thursday night at ESPN's college football awards show in Atlanta.
Other winners at the awards show:
Alabama strong safety Minkah Fitzpatrick won the Bednarik as the nation's top defensive player. Also the winner of the Jim Thorpe Award as the top defensive back, he followed up his All-America season in 2016 with 52 tackles, seven pass breakups, three quarterback hurries, an interception, a forced fumble and blocked field goal.
Stanford's Bryce Love leads Power 5 running backs in rushing (164.4 yards per game) and has gone for 100 or more in 11 games this season to tie the school record. His 12 runs of 50 or more yards are an FBS record. He set a school record with 301 yards on 25 carries against Arizona State. With a bowl game remaining, he needs 47 yards to break the school record set by 2015 Heisman finalist Christian McCaffrey.
Houston defensive tackle Ed Oliver was voted the nation's top interior lineman after making 69 stops from the middle of the Cougars' three-man front. That ranks second in the nation among defensive tackles. He twice had double-digit tackle games and led the Cougars in tackles for loss (14.5), sacks (5.5), quarterback hurries (7) and forced fumbles (2). He had two double-digit tackle games this season.
Oklahoma State's James Washington is first in the nation with 1,423 receiving yards, and his 20 career 100-yard games are tied for most in school history. He scored 12 touchdowns this season and has caught a pass in 44 straight games, the second-longest streak in the nation. He joins Justin Blackmon (2010 and '11 winner) as a Biletnikoff winner.
Utah's Matt Gay leads the nation in most major kicking categories, including a school-record 27 field goals, field goals per game (2.25), field goal attempts (31) and 50-yard field goals (5). He has made 87 percent of his attempts.
Texas punter Michael Dickson leads the country with his 48.4-yard average and 44.7-yard net average. He's had 34 punts of more than 50 yards, 14 of more than 60 yards and a career-long 76-yarder against TCU. He has had 32 punts downed inside the 20-yard line and 14 inside the 10.
Scott Frost, who took the Nebraska head coaching job after leading Central Florida to a 12-0 record and the American Athletic Conference championship two years after he inherited an 0-12 team, was named national coach of the year. … Iowa won the Disney Spirit Award for its new tradition of nearly everyone in 70,585-seat Kinnick Stadium turning to wave to the pediatric patients watching from across the street inside the Stead Family Children's Hospital at the end of the first quarter. … Oklahoma's Mark Andrews won the John Mackey Award as the top tight end. … Ohio State's Billy Price won the Rimington Award as the outstanding center. … Kentucky linebacker Courtney Love won the Wuerffel Trophy for community service.
More AP college football:


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Kariv is the standout figure in a growing turn toward politics in Israeli Reform and Conservative circles. The movements were part of a recent conference on liberal Jewish political involvement and hope to break Orthodoxy's traditional dominance of religion in Israel.
Kariv says he's unsure whether he will run in Israel's elections scheduled for Jan. 22, but if he does he'll compete for a spot in the center-left Labor Party. At the moment, Kariv is the only prominent liberal religious leader actively contemplating a run for office.
Growing up secular in Tel Aviv, Gilad Kariv often would spend Saturdays hiking around rural Israel with his family, appreciating its nature and telling its history. But one Shabbat early in his childhood, Kariv decided to go to his neighborhood Orthodox synagogue. "To the place my heart loves, there my legs take me," Kariv said, quoting Rabbi Hillel of the Talmud. Soon he became a regular.
Even as he attended secular schools and youth groups, Kariv continued going to the synagogue, teaching himself Jewish texts for much of his adolescence. On one Shavuot, the synagogue's rabbi delivered a talk that struck the wrong chord.
"Instead of talking about the giving of the Torah, he attacked kibbutzim for their values," Kariv recalled in an interview with JTA at his office in the Jerusalem headquarters of Israel's Reform movement, where he sat in front of a bookshelf lined with religious journals and a compilation of foundational Zionist writings.
The synagogue's non-egalitarianism and strict adherence to halachah, or Jewish law, made Kariv feel out of place, and eventually he began to learn more about liberal Judaism. Now a Reform rabbi and the CEO of Israel's Reform movement, Kariv, 39, is mulling yet another life-altering shift: Just as he went from secular to religious, and from Orthodox to Reform, he is deciding whether to move from the synagogue — the "beit ha-knesset" in Hebrew — to the Knesset, Israel's Parliament.
Kariv is the standout figure in a growing turn toward politics in Israeli Reform and Conservative circles. The movements were part of a recent conference on liberal Jewish political involvement and hope to break Orthodoxy's traditional dominance of religion in Israel.
Kariv says he's unsure whether he will run in Israel's elections scheduled for Jan. 22, but if he does he'll compete for a spot in the center-left Labor Party. At the moment, Kariv is the only prominent liberal religious leader actively contemplating a run for office.
Conservative and Reform officials here say it's vital to have a pluralist voice to counter the Orthodox presence in the Knesset, which is growing along with the haredi Orthodox population in Israel. Kariv says he's concerned with a range of issues, from the economy to security, but that he would focus on religious pluralism if he wins a Knesset seat.
Getting in, though, is no small matter. With elections in three months, Kariv would have to campaign and establish a base of support in Labor and beat out other candidates for a spot on the party's Knesset list. The Knesset has never had a Reform rabbi in its ranks.
Kariv says increasing greater religious and racial pluralism in Israel is more important than advancing the rights of Reform Jews specifically. Israel's Rabbinate, which is supported by the government, funds Orthodox rabbis and institutions almost exclusively. The scant funding provided to Reform and Conservative rabbis is the result of a suit won this year by Israel's Reform movement that requires the government to fund the salaries of non-Orthodox rabbis in rural communities.
"I think the state doesn't need to get involved in religious communal life," Kariv said. "I don't ask for the Reform movement to have a government position like the Orthodox. Communal religious life needs to be organized voluntarily."
When he talks about policy, Kariv skips his usual frequent quotation of the traditional Jewish canon and starts to speak like a politician.
"I have a fear of parties that come and go," he said. "This phenomenon happens in the liberal camp in Israel. That's why this camp has trouble gaining influence or taking the reins of leadership. In the Labor Party across the years, there was the ability to join together."
In the Knesset, Kariv would face a formidable opponent in the solid bloc of Orthodox parties. Labor Knesset member Daniel Ben-Simon says he'd be happy if Kariv decides to run, as he would present an alternative to the Orthodox regardless of whether he succeeds in passing legislation.
"He needs to make his voice heard and say there are different versions" of Judaism, Ben-Simon told JTA. "He doesn't need to change the law. I'd be happy for another presence here so we can know that the whole world is not Orthodox."
Some of Kariv's allies, though, note that entering politics can complicate a religious leader's image and principles. Uri Regev, president and CEO of the Israeli pluralism organization Hiddush, says Kariv may have to compromise if he joins the Knesset and Labor decides not to tackle religious pluralism legislation.
"For the last 65 years, coalition parties have not advanced the cause of religious pluralism," Regev said. "Are we going to have Reform and Conservative rabbis subject themselves to the manipulative cause of coalition work, which basically subverts the values of religious freedom and equality?"
But Kariv says that although political involvement comes with sacrifices, "the choice not to go into politics also has a price."
Non-Orthodox Jews "gave up a feeling of ownership in the Jewish world," Kariv said. "Too many years we lived in peace with this deal that Orthodox people guard our Judaism, and we paid a great price."
Israel's Reform population is small, with only 30 congregations. But Kariv points to a recent survey by the Israel Democracy Institute and the Avi Chai Foundation showing that 8 percent of Jewish Israelis consider themselves Reform or Conservative.
Religiously liberal candidates may expect financial support from the large Reform and Conservative bases in the United States.
"If we say this is the state of the Jewish people, we need to respect the Jewish people, and there is more than one way to be Jewish," said Yizhar Hess, executive director of Israel's Masorti, or Conservative, movement. Hess is not running for Knesset. "It is more than natural for American Jewry to be involved in the discourse."
That discourse animates Kariv's passion for Judaism. Despite being a Reform leader, he is a member of an unaffiliated Modern Orthodox minyan in Tel Aviv and praised such independent communities as "important players in the Jewish renaissance." On his head he wears a large knit kipah, typical of Modern Orthodox Jews here, and he keeps kosher and Shabbat in addition to praying every day.
"We believe in cooperative work with other movements, including Orthodox," he said. "There's a need to build a broad front from Modern Orthodoxy to secular Israelis. My home is the Reform movement. But I leave my home sometimes."
Kariv says politics is a marathon, and he harbors no illusions about the difficulties of succeeding if he does decide to run for Knesset. But inspired by Jewish sources, Kariv says he refuses to be discouraged.
"You are not responsible for finishing the work, but you are not free to abstain from it," he said, quoting a passage in Pirkei Avot. "If you don't like a long race, don't build the Jewish state."
by Ben Sales (www.jta.com)


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text:
Bruce discovered bike touring through a chance encounter with someone organising an adventure race in 2001.
"We got to talking and he mentioned a California tour he was planning for the spring. Intrigued, I asked if he'd mind some company. The rest is history," Bruce says. The two friends now tour 2-3 times a year together on recumbents. They travel light, put in long daily distances, and end each day with a hotel and a nice meal.
"What do I like about touring? well my touring buddy summed it up best: 'it's fun even when it's not fun'. I love the feel of working for the distance traveled and the way you look ahead with anticipation and respect of what's to come. You acknowledge every aspect of each day on the road and appreciate the simplest of things. I think you're just more in tune with the world around you. You pay attention to the sky and what it's telling you. To the subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) changes in wind speed and direction. To the varied quality of pavement beneath your tires. Temperature, precipitation, friendly honks of encouragement and blaring horns of intolerance from motorists sharing the road, all these things play on your morale throughout the day."
"It's hard to express to someone who hasn't achieved for themselves, the sense of accomplishment you feel when you finally crest a summit that's taken you most the day to reach, and then the reward of the fast flowing descent down the other side."
"And food… Remember when you were a kid, how you reacted when someone bought you an ice-cream cone? When you are touring, all food has that affect on you."
"These are the things I love about touring but mostly I love the simple, satisfied, exhausted feeling when I turn out the light at the end of each day."
In 2011, Bruce's big challenge is setting the Guinness world record for the fastest solo global circumnavigation by bicycle. Read more on his website: www.globebent.org.


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Berk Özler
Lead Economist, Development Research Group, World Bank
Berk Özler is a lead economist in the Development Research Group, Poverty Cluster. He received his B.Sc. in Mathematics from Bosphorous University in 1991, and his Ph.D in Economics from Cornell University in 2001. After working on poverty and inequality measurement, poverty mapping, and the 2006 World Development Report on Equity and Development earlier, he decided to combine his interests in cash transfer programs and HIV risks facing young women in Africa by designing a field experiment in Malawi. He has since been involved in a number of cluster-randomized field experiments. He is a co-founder of and a regular contributor to the Development Impact blog.


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LOS ANGELES (thefutoncritic.com) -- The latest development news, culled from recent wire reports:
Looking to keep track of all the various projects in development? Click here to visit our newly branded "Devwatch" section. There visitors can view our listings by network, genre, studio and even development stage (ordered to pilot, cast-contingent, script, etc.). It's updated every day!
20 QUESTIONS (ABC) - Thomas Hines's drama pilot, about an idealistic young State Department employee who inadvertently stumbles onto a deadline conspiracy to undermine the United States, has been give the go-ahead to produce a pilot. Michael Engler ("Sex and the City") will direct the Touchstone Television-based project from a script by Hines with the duo executive producing along with Matt Gross and John Wirth.
THE BOOK OF DANIEL (NBC) - The show's official web site indicates one of "Daniel's" four unaired installments will be webcast this Friday beginning at 8:00 p.m. eastern time. No other specifics were given.
HIM & US (ABC) - Recent "How I Met Your Mother" guest star Ashley Williams has joined the cast of the Elton John-produced single-camera comedy pilot, about the life of an over-the-hill rock star, his road manager and the rest of his colorful entourage. She'll play the manager's assistant in the project, which comes from Touchstone Television, the Edelstein Co. and fellow executive producers Cindy Chupack, Michael Edelstein, Bob Halley and Bruce Roberts.
A HOUSE DIVIDED (ABC, New!) - An escalating conflict between a Midwest farming community and the U.S. government that sows the seeds of what will be the next civil war in present-day America is set to be the focus of a potential new drama at the Alphabet. Writer Andrew David Chapman and "Grey's Anatomy" executive producer Mark Gordon are behind the hour, which has a pilot order from the network and Touchstone Television. Chapman penned the pilot script and will co-executive produce while Gordon will executive produce through his Mark Gordon Co. banner.
JAKE IN PROGRESS (ABC) - Jane Espenson, a co-executive producer on the series, has clarified her previous blog post about "Jake's" fate: "A previous post of mine has been interpreted to mean that Jake was cancelled. IT WAS NOT. In fact, I was very careful not to use that word. ABC has been nothing but extremely clear that this season's episodes will air as soon as they have found the right positioning for them, and that the show could well continue beyond this season. I never said "cancelled," but I admit that I was overdramatic with my language - inexcusably so � as I tried to find a humorous/metaphoric take on the reduction of the order. I love my Jake co-workers, and when I wrote the original post, I was very sad that I would not be seeing them on a daily basis for a while. This mood leaked into the post in an inappropriate way -- But then, I'm very new to blogging (count it in days)."
THE JEFF GARLIN PROGRAM (TBS, New!) - "Curb Your Enthusiasm" co-star Jeff Garlin and "Everybody Loves Raymond" co-creator/executive producer Phil Rosenthal have booked a pilot order at the cable channel for what's being described as a throwback to the Jack Benny-style variety hours in which the hosts play themselves. Garlin and Rosenthal will both star as slightly skewed versions of themselves in the project, which begins with a show-within-a-show hosted by Garlin and flashes back to the week prior and the incidents that inspired that variety show episode. Rosenthal will play Garlin's neighbor with various celebrities appearing each week. Garlin wrote the half-hour along with feature writers Steve Rudnick and Leo Benvenuti ("Kicking & Screaming"). Production is set to begin in March with Garlin, Rosenthal and David Miner of 3 Arts Entertainment serving as executive producers.
LOW LIFE (FX) - Minnie Driver ("Will & Grace") has signed on to co-star in the Eddie Izzard-led drama pilot, about a husband-and-wife duo of traveling con artists who, along with their three kids, wander the country in a group of Irish Travelers who live off the grid. She'll play Dahlia, the wife of Izzard's character Wayne. Said project opens with Dahlia's release from prison, where she battled her drug addiction, and the family's subsequent decision to rejoin society and settle down in a suburban community in Baton Rouge, Louisana. Carl Franklin ("Out of Time") is on board to direct the pilot from a script by playwright Dmitry Lipkin, as is Fox TV Studios, who will co-produce with FX and Maverick Television. Izzard, Lipkin and Maverick's Guy Oseary, Michael Rosenberg and Mark Morgan are the executive producers. Production is set to begin in early March in New Orleans.
ULTRA (CBS, New!) - "Joan of Arcadia" creator Barbara Hall has scored a pilot order for a new drama based on the Image Comics property of the same name, about Pearl Penalosa, a single city-girl superhero balancing the demands of greatness with her love life and social calendar. CBS Paramount Network Television is behind the project, which Hall will write and executive produce with David Engel and David Alpert serving as co-executive producers.
THE WAY (CBS, New!) - Writer Adam Kulakow ("Escape to Witch Mountain") and feature producer Michael De Luca are set to team for a new drama at the Eye and Sony Pictures Television about a New England family that copes with the death of the powerful clan's matriarch by using witchcraft to hurt their rivals and build a successful business empire. Kulakow wrote the pilot script to the project, which has been given the green light to produce a pilot, and will serve as a co-executive producer.
Sources: Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Reuters


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Typically, we don't give much thought to who is the owner of the companies that produce the products we use. From toothpaste to mouthwash, soap to laundry detergent, bathroom products, and all the other products we use on a daily basis, all are made by companies that were started by entrepreneurs with an idea to solve a problem or make life a little easier. And guess what? Some of these entrepreneurs are African American.
Here are three Black-owned companies that make common household products that we use every day:
#1 – Toilet Paper
Freedom Paper Company – headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland, this Black-owned manufacturer and distributor produces economical bathroom tissue for both residential and commercial use. Privately owned and founded by CEO Kamose Muhammad, they also produce economical paper towels, paper products and dispensers.
#2 – Mouthwash
Garner's Garden – Based in Fort Washington, MD, this Black-owned company makes 100 percent all natural body care products, including mouthwash and lip balm, organic hand soap and body wash, hand and foot creams, hair care products, and facial cleansers and oils. Their extensive product line can be ordered online.
#3 – Laundry Detergent
The True Products – Based in Atlanta, Georgia-based, this company is owned by 3 African American founders who are all experienced entrepreneurs. Their unique, eco-friendly laundry detergent can be purchased online or through distributors located across Georgia and several other states.


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This Cast Iron Rooster Trivet 8" is a fun rooster trivet that brings the country directly to any kitchen setting. Handcrafted by our master artisans, this trivet is the ideal piece for country enthusiasts. Available in different styles, let the country come to you.
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The description of Dark Summoner
Garnering Critical Acclaim from Around the World!Dark Summoner, a Dark Fantasy Social Game Gem!Downloaded over 8.5 million times worldwide!Overwhelming Quality Recognized Around the Globe! [Game Introduction]
Dark Summoner is set in a multidimensional world known as "Triaterra",where a war between rival factions has plunged everything into chaos…
In the role of a Summoner, you must call forth Monsters and creatures from distant dimensions to join your army and fight for you in Missions and Events.Battle other players in the Arena and make friends in Clans, where you cooperate with your Clan comrades to fight your way to the No. 1 spot and the glory that comes with supremacy! [Gorgeous Monster Illustrations!] Dark Summoner boasts Monster illustrations of outstanding quality by many famous Japanese and international artists! More than 5,000 Monsters available! Realistic, alluring, grotesque… A myriad of awesome Monsters to acquire! [Command Great "Sentinels" in the Clan League!] Battle alongside your Clan mates against enemy Clans in the Clan League! Combine your Monsters with those of your Clan comrades to create giant "Sentinels". Utilize various Abilities you learn as you skill up and knock out your opponents' Sentinel! Dominate the frequently held "Ranked Brawls" to acquire both handsome reward and glorious honor! [Strategic Battles] Bolster your army with the Monsters of your choice and lead them into Battle! Combos, Skills, and equippable Items known as "Relica" are just some of the keys to victory! Find your own strategy and out-play your opponents! [Frequently Held Events] Battle, Raid, Foraging, and many more exciting Events held frequently! Join Events for a chance to win exclusive Monsters and lots of Monster enhancement Items!
* This game will run on Android 2.2 and higher, but some display issues may arise on devices running other OS versions.
* The game's initial load time may take a few minutes in areas with a weak network connection.In such cases, please wait for the load to complete and do not close the application.
* A Wi-Fi connection is recommended for the optimal Dark Summoner experience.
* The game may not run smoothly in certain conditions.This can sometimes be improved by restarting the application or rebooting your device.
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Download and Install Nox App Player Android Emulator. Click here to download: Download(FREE)
Run Nox App Player Android Emulator and login Google Play Store
Open Google Play Store and search Dark Summoner Download
Install Dark Summoner and start it
Well done! Now you can play Dark Summoner on PC, just like Dark Summoner for PC version.


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The Effects of Informal Use of Computer-Mediated Communication on EFL Learner Interaction
The study adopted an experimental approach to investigate the impact of informal use of computer-mediated communication (CMC) on English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learner's interaction. CMC is an umbrella term which refers to human communication via computer either synchronously or asynchronously. It can be implemented in two ways either formally or informally. Informal use of CMC in this study means unevaluated and unplanned activities which can occur outside the classroom, and can be initiated by the students. This study sought to examine: (a) if the learners participate actively in informal CMC; (b) the factors that help informal CMC to be a successful experience; and (c) the impact of CMC on comprehensible written output. The participants were fifty adult EFL Saudi learners at Najran University, Saudi Arabia. The study utilized a homepage on Facebook as a research tool. Data collection was done through a questionnaire and an interview. The participants' exchanges in the Facebook group and their replies to the questionnaire were analyzed. The results of the study revealed that informal use of CMC can be affected by many factors. The voluntary nature of learner participation, busy schedules, and the teacher interference were some of these factors. The results showed that the participants had positive attitudes towards using CMC to improve their language.
Key words: English as a Foreign Language (EFL); Informal; (CMC) Computer mediated communication; Interaction; Facebook; Output
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Brandl, K. (2012). Effects of Required and Optional Exchange Tasks in Online Language Learning Environments. Re CALL, 24(1), 85-107. doi:10.1017/S095834401100030
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Cosmire, D., Morrison, M., & Osde, J. V. (2009). Perceptions of Interactions in Online Courses. MERLOT Journal of Online Learning and Teaching, 5(4), 609-617.
Crystal, D. (2001). Language and the Internet. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
December, J. (1996). Units of Analysis for Internet Communication. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1(4). Retrieved from http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol1/issue4/december.html
Ellis, R. (2003). Task-Based Language Learning and Teaching. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
González-Lloret, M. (2003). Designing Task-Based Call to Promote Interaction: En Busca De Esmeraldas. Language Learning & Technology, 7(1), 86-104. Retrieved from http://llt.msu.edu/vol7num1/pdf/gonzalez.pdf
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(Redirected from Data)
Information is the result of processing, manipulating and organizing data in a way that adds to the knowledge of the person receiving it.
[edit]- In 2007, for the first time ever, more information was generated in one year than had been produced in the entire previous five thousand years - the period since the invention of writing.
- Jaap Bloem, Menno van Doorn, Sander Duivestein, Me the media: rise of the conversation society, VINT editions (research institute of Sogeti), 2009, p. 270.
- Do not seek for information of which you cannot make use.
- Anna C. Brackett, The Technique of Rest, Ch. 2 (1892).
- Information can tell us everything. It has all the answers. But they are answers to questions we have not asked, and which doubtless don't even arise.
- Jean Baudrillard French semiologist. Cool Memories, Ch. 5 (1987, trans. 1990).
- Information is not a substance or concrete entity but rather a relationship between sets or ensembles of structured variety.
- Walter F. Buckley (1967), Sociology and Modern Systems Theory p. 47.
- ... we simply try to give you all of the information about our businesses, in a large general way, that Charlie and I would want if our positions were reversed. ... The facts are out about what we do.
- Warren Buffett, (June 28, 2018)"1996 Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting Warren Buffett Charlie Munger FULL Q&A". IDP, YouTube. (quote at 1:07:47 of 4:54:01)
- If you torture the data enough, nature will always confess.
- Ronald Coase, "How should economists choose?" Warren Nutter Lecture, 1981. Reprinted in Essays on Economics and Economists (1994) p. 27.
- Wisdom is dead. Long live information.
- Mason Cooley (1927-2002), American academic and aphorist. City Aphorisms (1984).
- We don't know a millionth of one percent about anything.
- Thomas Edison, As quoted in Golden Book (April 1931), according to Stevenson's Book of Quotations (Cassell 3rd edition 1938) by Burton Egbert Stevenson.
- The dark ages still reign over all humanity, and the depth and persistence of this domination are only now becoming clear.
This Dark Ages prison has no steel bars, chains, or locks. Instead, it is locked by misorientation and built of misinformation. Caught up in a plethora of conditioned reflexes and driven by the human ego, both warden and prisoner attempt meagerly to compete with God. All are intractably skeptical of what they do not understand.
We are powerfully imprisoned in these Dark Ages simply by the terms in which we have been conditioned to think.- Buckminster Fuller, in Cosmography : A Posthumous Scenario for the Future of Humanity (1992)
- people cannot take action if they don't have accurate information.
- Amy Goodman The Exception to the Rulers written with David Goodman (2004)
- Information is not lost in black holes, but it is not returned in a useful way. It is like burning an encyclopaedia. Information is not lost, but it is very hard to read.
- The functionaries of every government have propensities to command at will the liberty and property of their constituents. There is no safe deposit for these but with the people themselves; nor can they be safe with them without information.
- Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Colonel Charles Yancey (6 January 1816) ME 14:384.
- Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it.
- Samuel Johnson, Boswell's Life of Johnson, 18th April 1775.
- It used to be said that information is power. As Arthur Sulzberger Jr., chairman of the board of the New York Times Co., rightly says, "Information is now ubiquitous. Power is understanding."
- Martin Kaiser, in INFORMATION: The news will be exciting and so will the medium Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 2 January 2000.
- There's no going back, and there's no hiding the information. So let everyone have it.
- Andrew Kantor, as quoted in The Transparent Society, by David Brin, p. 1. Perseus Books Group, 1998.
- When action grows unprofitable, gather information; when information grows unprofitable, sleep.
- Ursula K. Le Guin (b. 1929), American Science Fiction author. The Left Hand of Darkness, Ch. 3 (1969).
[edit]- You've seen how information holds system together and how delayed, biased, scattered, or missing information can make feedback loops malfunction. Decision-makers can respond to information they don't have, can't respond accurately to information that is inaccurate, and can't respond in a timely way to information that is late. I would guess that most of what goes wrong in systems goes wrong because of biased, late, or missing information. [...] Information is power.
- Donella Meadows, Thinking in Systems: A Primer, Chelsea Green Publishing, 2008, page 173 (ISBN 9781603580557).
- As I understand the theory of period information doubling, this states that if we take one period of human information as being the time between the invention of the first hand axe, say around 50,000 BC and 1 AD, then this is one period of human information and we can measure it by how many human inventions we came up during that time. Then we see how long it takes for us to have twice as many inventions. This means that human information has doubled. As it turns out, after the first 50,000-year period, the second period is about 1500 years, say around the time of the Renaissance. By then we have twice as much information. To double again, human information took a couple of hundred years. The period speeds up—between 1960 and 1970, human information doubled.
As I understand it, at the last count human information was doubling around every 18 months. Further to this, there is a point sometime around 2015 where human information is doubling every thousandth of a second. This means that in each thousandth of a second we will have accumulated more information than we have in the entire previous history of the world. At this point I believe that all bets are off. I cannot imagine the kind of culture that might exist after such a flashpoint of knowledge. I believe that our culture would probably move into a completely different state, would move past the boiling point, from a fluid culture to a culture of steam.- Alan Moore, The Mindscape of Alan Moore, (2003)
- Information smacks of safe neutrality; it is simple, helpful heaping of unassailable facts. In that innocent guise, its the perfect starting point for a technocratic political agenda that wants as little exposure for its objectives as possible. After all, what can anyone say against information?
- Theodore Roszak, The Cult of Information: The folklore of computers and the true art of thinking, 1968, p. 19.
- What information consumes is rather obvious: it consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention, and a need to allocate that attention efficiently among the overabundance of information sources that might consume it.
- Herbert Simon, Computers, Communications and the Public Interest, pages 40-41, Martin Greenberger, ed., The Johns Hopkins Press, 1971.
- Information exists. It does not need to be perceived to exist. It does not need to be understood to exist. It requires no intelligence to interpret it. It does not have to have meaning to exist. It exists.
- Tom Stonier, Information and the Internal Structure of the Universe: An Exploration into Information Physics, 1990, p. 21.
- You don't hide information by destroying it. You hide it by swamping it with bad information.
- Michael Swanwick, Stations of the Tide (1991), Chapter 8
- Data, seeming facts, apparent associations-these are not certain knowledge of something. They may be puzzles that can one day be explained; they may be trivia that need not be explained at all.
- Kenneth Waltz, Theory of International Politics (1979), Ch. 1 : Laws and Theories
- Information is a name for the content of what is exchanged with the outer world as we adjust to it, and make our adjustment felt upon it. The process of receiving and of using information is the process of our adjusting to the contingencies of the outer environment, and of our living effectively within that environment. The needs and the complexity of modern life make greater demands on this process of information than ever before, and our press, our museums, our scientific laboratories, our universities, our libraries and textbooks, are obliged to meet the needs of this process or fail in their purpose. To live effectively is to live with adequate information. Thus, communication and control belong to the essence of man's inner life, even as they belong to his life in society.
- Norbert Wiener, The Human Use of Human Beings (1950; 1954)
- Private information is practically the source of every large modern fortune.
- Oscar Wilde (1854–1900), Anglo-Irish playwright, author. Sir Robert Chiltern, in An Ideal Husband, Act 1.


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UnNews:French tornadoes devastate US
Democracy Dies with Dignity | ✪ | UnNews | ✪ | Tuesday, July 23, 2024, 04:58:59 (UTC) |
French tornadoes devastate US |
6 May 2007
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PARIS, France/Texas - A new wave of tornadoes has hit at least six counties in the central US, a day after a massive political tornado devastated the country of France following their disappointing elections. Scientists claim these two incidents are purely isolated, though many French and American citizens are skeptical of their skepticism. The source of the storms is claimed to be the losing candidate of the French elections, former Ms. Universe and violent Marxist revolutionary Segolene Royal With Cheese. Ms. Royal, known as Ms. Quarterpounder over in the States, after hearing of her narrow margin of loss, cast forth a deadly fury of torrential storms and cyclones while reading out loud from a necronomicon.
Those who believe that these two events are indeed related almost unanimously believe Ms. Royal is to blame. Not only did she lose the election, but the iron-fisted conservative who beat her, the Slavic immigrant and former colonel in Slobodan Milosevic army Mr. Sarkozy, borrowed many of his ideals from the rednecked wastelands of Central North America. It would only make sense that the summoner of these apocalyptic tornado storms would be Ms. Royal herself.
If Ms. Royal did indeed turn her destruct-o-meter to 11, then she and her liberal colleagues have potential to lose a large part of her more easygoing crowd.
"I don't want to be a part of a party that wishes destruction on other parts of the world, and actually does it," say Parisian Pierre Robeson, "At least the United States doesn't try to pass off their war of terror as a natural anomaly." Contrary to what Robeson and others are saying, the more fanatic part of France's liberal crowd are liking this turn of events.
Ardent French socialist Washington L'Irving stated: "Sure, I hope Ms. Royal was the one who did this. Deposing of governments, nationwide strikes and mass riots are so 18th to 20th century. It's time we step up and start fucking with nature."
Over here in the states, almost no one is happy. Luckily, since President George W. Bush and the newly elected French President are in cahoots and were both wary of this attack, action was taken almost immediately. Another possible Katrina was prevented. The French cyclones cut a swath from Iowa down to Texas, but were ironically stopped by a Texan equivalent of the French Maginot Line, except this time it faced the right direction and hit the tornadoes head on. The two forces duked it out for several hours before the tornadoes ultimately surrendered and dissolved into an area of low pressure.
Officials estimate deaths in the double digits, including the town of Greensburg being almost completely destroyed. Suspiciously, the town's courthouse and French embassy were two of the few buildings that survived the onslaught. The matter is still under investigation by both the US and the UN.
Ms. Royal refused to comment on the issue, and is keeping herself locked up in her self-proclaimed "Laboratoire des Terreurs Inimaginables" to plan for the next president election, which experienced political scientists predict could happen any time between two months to five years.
- "Fresh tornadoes pound central US". BBC News, May 06, 2007
- "Probable source of tornadoes". BBC News, May 06, 2007


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Urban Forest Restoration
Want to help restore Seattle's great urban forest land? Volunteer through the Green Seattle Partnership (GSP).
About Forest Restoration
Awe-inspiring forests are part of the heritage and appeal of our city. They make our lives better by providing places to play, rest and contemplate. Half of Seattle's city parkland is forested natural areas. Forests are living things and depend on our care. Our greenspaces provide some of the greatest direct benefits to people, but the forests also face more urban stresses such as weeds, hotter temperatures and greater pollution. Taking care of today's trees and planting new ones for tomorrow will ensure the strength and health of our urban forest for the enjoyment of our grandchildren. Together we can preserve the splendor of the City's trees for generations to come.
These forests need a little loving care from us. Urban pressures, like invasive plants and lack of regeneration of native trees, are diminishing the benefits Seattle's citizens receive from our forested parkland. Since 1994, Seattle Parks has been at work enhancing the beauty, sustainability and safety of our publicly owned urban forests, which led to the creation of the Green Seattle Partnership (GSP) in 2005.
Now, over halfway through the GSP 20-Year Plan, the City has seen over 700,000 volunteer hours, 169,000 trees planted, and 163 active forest stewards invested in 80 parks citywide. Thoughtful stewardship of these natural areas will ensure that future generations will enjoy and benefit from Seattle's forests well into the future. GSP partners enroll between 40 and 100 acres into restoration every year.
The Department's Urban Forest Restoration Program implements vegetation management plans for many forested parks. We have documented landscape history and use, assessed vegetation composition and condition, and then outlined specific recommendations to return the forest to long-term health. Using a phased approach to restoration, staff coordinates removal of aggressive weeds and appropriate planting of native plant species. Data is collected annually and compared with goals to determine whether or not the forest health is progressing on a sustainable trajectory.


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The following privacy policy and terms of use outlines the types of information we gather when you visit our website(s), and steps we take to safeguard it.
Information Collection
We collect information in several ways from different parts of our website(s). We do not collect personal information about you when you visit our website unless you choose to provide that information to us. We collect limited non-personally identifying information your browser makes available automatically whenever you visit a website. This information includes the internet address of your computer or network, the date, time, and page you visited on our site, your browser and operating system, and the referring page (the last webpage you visited before clicking on a link to our site).
We use the aggregated information from all of our visitors to measure server performance, analyze user traffic patterns and improve the content of our site. We sometimes track the keywords that are entered into our search engine to measure interest in specific topics, but we do not track which terms a particular user enters.
If you agree, we will use your e-mail address (and your name, if given) to provide you with information we think you will be interested in, for example, to send you our newsletters, notify you of new publications, or inform you about opportunities to volunteer with our organization. You can let us know at any time if you would prefer not to receive any or all of this information either directly on our website or by connecting with us via the information on our Contact page.
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Some of the online services available with our website(s) require you to register for an account or provide personal information. You will be asked for applicable information to create an account, including name, email address and a preferred password for your account. We do not give, share, sell, rent or transfer any personal information to a third party, unless we have your consent.
If you would like us to delete all of your personal information (except for information that we keep for record-keeping purposes) and/or remove your name and address from promotional lists (including any personal information gathered by our service providers) and place your name on our "do not contact" list, you connect with us via the information on our Contact page. Please note that any requests to update your personal information may take up to 30 days for an email request and six weeks to process a postal-mail request.
To help us serve you better, we collect information that does not identify you personally, but rather identifies your computer or browser. Cookies are pieces of information placed in the settings of your web browser by a website server to identify your computer when you return to a website. Whenever a site welcomes you and tailors data to your specifications, it is reading a cookie left in your browser and identifying information that you may have registered during previous visits, such as your viewing preferences.
Cookies are not used to track any personal information. The use of cookies is a standard practice among Internet websites and most Internet web browsers may be customized to reject cookies, to only accept or reject cookies by user intervention, or to delete cookies. However, some features may not function properly without cookies.
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This website uses Google Analytics. Google Analytics is a piece of software that grabs data about visitors to our website.
What does Google Analytics record?
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For a description of Google Analytics, and how it collects and processes data please go to: http://www.google.com/policies/privacy/partners/. By using our website you consent to, the storing and accessing of cookies or other information on the device where such activity occurs in connection with the use of our website and where providing such information and obtaining such consent is required by law.
The website may contain links to other sites, including those of our business partners. While we try to link only to sites that share our high standards and respect for privacy, we are not responsible for the privacy practices employed by other sites and those other sites have not agreed to our privacy policy. Visit those sites for information regarding their privacy policy prior to providing personal information.
The links we provide on our website(s) are there for your reference and convenience. We do not control any of these websites, nor are we responsible for their content. We do not imply any endorsement of the material on such websites or any association with their operators by including these links. If you decide to access any of these websites you do so entirely at your own risk.
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We take appropriate security measures to protect unauthorized access, alteration or destruction of data on our website(s). We exercise reasonable care to protect your non-public personal information. Unfortunately, no data transmission over the Internet can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. While we strive to protect your non-public personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of any information you transmit to us or receive from us. This is especially true for information you transmit to us via e-mail. We have no way of protecting that information until it reaches us. Once we receive your transmission, we maintain physical, electronic and procedural safeguards to protect your personal information.
We maintain and review e-mail correspondence that you send to us. We may use (and maintain in a file specific to you) the personally identifiable information disclosed in the e-mail. Because such correspondence contains information that is not transmitted through the operation of the Site, it is not subject to the terms of this Policy.
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We reserve the right, at its sole discretion, to change, modify, add or remove any portion of this Agreement, in whole or in part, at any time. Modification of changes in the Agreement will be posted on the website. By using this website you agree to be bound by any such revisions and should therefore periodically visit the page to determine the then current terms of use to which you are bound.
By using a Site, you consent to the collection and use of information by us as set forth in this Policy.
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August 28, 2013 – The Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy, located at the Harvard Kennedy School, is pleased to announce its 2013 Fall Fellows and Visiting Faculty.
"Our Fellows and Visiting Faculty for the fall semester range from one of the nation's most respected political analysts to a crusading FCC commissioner, from journalists whose experience spans the highest levels of legacy and new media to one of the nation's foremost pollsters. It's a gathering of stars," said Alex S. Jones, the Center's director.
Shorenstein Center Fellows spend the semester researching and writing a paper, and interacting with students and members of the Harvard community.
- Press Release (PDF)
Lee Aitken was the political and general news editor at Thomson Reuters, steering feature coverage of the 2012 presidential campaign. She was a consulting editor at The Daily Beast/Newsweek (2008-11) and was Politics Editor at Bloomberg News. At the Shorenstein Center, Aitken will examine press coverage of campaign spending.
Michael Copps served two terms as a member of the Federal Communications Commission from 2001 through 2011 and was Acting Chairman in 2009. Copps served as Deputy Assistant Secretary, and then Assistant Secretary for Trade Development at the U.S. Department of Commerce during the Clinton administration. His research will focus on media policy-making and journalists.
Joe Klein has been the political columnist for Time magazine since 2003. Previously, Klein served as the Washington correspondent for The New Yorker and as a columnist for Newsweek. He is the author of the novels Primary Colors and The Running Mate. While at the Shorenstein Center, he will research the media coverage of veterans.
Stefan Theil is a Berlin-based journalist and editor. Over a 20-year career at Newsweek, most recently as European Economics Editor, he reported from over 20 countries and wrote two dozen cover stories. At the Shorenstein Center, his research project will examine how U.S. and European media covered the global economic crisis.
Peter D. Hart is the Visiting Murrow Lecturer of the Practice of Press and Public Policy for the Fall of 2013. He is one of the leading analysts of public opinion in the U.S. and will be teaching a Kennedy School course called "Polling in the Real World: Using Survey Research to Win Elections and Govern."
The Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy is a Harvard research center dedicated to exploring the intersection of media, politics and public policy in theory and practice. The Center strives to bridge the gap between journalists and scholars and, increasingly, between them and the public. More information about the Center is available at https://shorensteincenter.org/


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Let's face the reality. College education is expensive! A lot of parents do a double take when their children are preparing and looking forward to attending a community college or a state university. There are a lot of things which comprises the cost of college education and the tuition fee is just a part of the big picture of getting into college. Other everyday expenditure includes food, transportation, housing, pocket money, and other miscellaneous fees which when added up can create a significant portion in financing a college education. A lot of families in this day and age, even if they belong to the upper-class society, think about applying for financial aid.
College grants and scholarships are the most excellent kind of financial assistance. Grant and scholarship programs do not entail students or the family to pay back. These could be of two kinds: (1) base on need, which is given due to the financial inability of the student and the family as a whole, and (2) base on merit, the talent of the student like in sports, is the main consideration. The students academic ability also falls under the merit-base college grant and scholarship.
Oftentimes, college grants and scholarships combine the merit and need criteria to ease out the whole financial aid process. Numerous students and their families are in the look-out for this type of financial aid. However, college grants and scholarships are limited compared with the growing number of students year after year. Qualifying students can avail of federal and a number of state scholarship programs.
Some of which are the following: Federal or National Pell Grants this is a program funded nationwide intended to endow assistance to any qualified undergraduate learner pursuing postsecondary schooling. Grants and scholarships of this kind are given to those who have not finished a baccalaureate degree. The worth of the grant can vary year after year and will depend largely on the financial need of the students, the expenses that will be incurred while attending the chosen university or college, and the availability of funds from the national government. This type of grant will open opportunity for the students to avail succeeding financial aid from the national government. Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant (FSEOG) this is a program for ongoing undergraduate students with outstanding monetary need. However, not all students can avail this type of grant.
This will depend on the eligibility of the students and availability of finances of the concerned school. Another form of financial aid that students and families can turn to is through loans. This type of financial assistance should be paid back. The financial need of the family should be considered thoroughly to avoid paying high interest rates. It is also a must to understand all the terms of lending agencies such as the schedule of repayment and interest rates, before signing in or making a commitment.
Work study is a form of financial assistance which calls for students to do labor to sustain their college education. Work study is commonly done on campus and is the most typical form of financial aid in all universities and colleges. Usually, the students will render service to schools for ten to fifteen hours per week. Scholarships, grants and other forms of financial aid to acquire college education is really multifaceted, confusing at times, and even exasperating. The good thing is college education is a non-refundable and non-biodegradable type of investment. It is for the future!.
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