text:
Dec. 12, 2011 -- When and why children blink may provide researchers some important clues about how children with autism process and take in information.
Although it may not feel like it, blinking interrupts what we are watching. If a story or scene is engrossing, we can keep our eyes peeled. This is called blink inhibition. There are key differences between toddlers with and without autism spectrum disorder and when they blink their eyes.
The new finding appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The CDC states that one in 110 children in the U.S. has an autism spectrum disorder. This is a range of developmental disorders that affect the ability to communicate and relate to others.
In the new study, 2-year-olds with or without autism watched a video of a boy and girl playing. The video included physical movements as well as children interacting with each other. For the typical children, the rate of blinking decreased more when watching the emotional part than during physical movements. This pattern was reversed among children with autism.
Blinking Patterns Shed Light on Autism
"When we blink and when we don't can actually index how engaged people are with what we're looking at, and how important they perceive that thing to be," says Warren Jones, PhD. He is the director of research at the Marcus Autism Center at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta.
Children without autism seem to be able to anticipate what is coming next based on facial expressions and wordplay. This is not the case among children with autism. "Without understanding the social context in which actions happen, children with autism may often be reacting, after the fact, to physical events that have already happened," Jones says in an email.
The findings give "researchers a new tool for trying to understand how children with autism look at, engage with, and learn from what they see," he says. "This might give us more information about cues that are distracting to children with autism, and it might also give us information about cues that are naturally engaging to [these] children."
Study Findings May Help Diagnose, Treat Autism
Autism experts are excited about the implications of the study.
"This is a very well-done study that demonstrates the unique patterns of social attention in autism," says Thomas Frazier II, PhD. He is the director of research at the Cleveland Clinic Children's Hospital Center for Autism.
"In fact, if replicated, this information may become useful for developing earlier and more objective diagnostic tools," he says in an email.
Geraldine Dawson, PhD, is the chief science officer for Autism Speaks, an autism advocacy and science group. She says the findings may help researchers develop effective therapies. "This is the first study to my knowledge that has used blinking to assess how engaged a child is with what he or she is viewing," she says.
"These results suggest that therapy should focus on helping the child to become more emotionally engaged with the social world and to learn that people are important and rewarding," Dawson says in an email. "The hope is that, as a result of therapy, the young child with autism will show higher levels of attention."
What's more, blinking rate could provide a way to measure social engagement, she says. This "could be used in clinical trials that are testing treatments that aim to increase the child's interest and engagement with the social world."


text:
The captain of a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier facing a growing outbreak of the coronavirus on his ship was fired Thursday by Navy leaders who said he created a panic by sending his memo pleading for help to too many people.
Captain Relieved Of Command
Sponsored By
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Fourth Night Of Breonna Taylor Protests In SacramentoAt round 9:15 p.m., the group was made up of around 50-60 people. The protest remained largely peaceful as of then.
CBS13 PM News Update - 9/26/20Here is what's going on around the region.
Evening Forecast - 9/26/20Here is your extended 7-day forecast!
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Dog Stolen With Car in East Sacramento Is Back With OwnerMore on this story will come tonight at 10 p.m.
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BLM Group Gathers At Capitol For Breonna Taylor; Another Protest Planned For Saturday EveningA group of Black Lives Matter protesters from Manteca marched around the California State Capitol in downtown Sacramento on Saturday morning as a result of the Breonna Taylor grand jury decision., and separate demonstrations are planned for the evening.
Black Lives Matter Vigil Held In Nevada CityA large crowd has gathered for a Blacl Lives Matter vigil in Nevada City on Saturday.
Man Sets Fire Outside Citrus Heights Preschool After Denied A DrinkPreschoolers in Citrus Heights had a sudden and scary visitor Friday morning. Staff says a man jumped a fence at the Little Friends Learning Center off Woodmore Oaks Drive, knocked on a classroom door and asked for a soda.
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Protests Continue In Downtown Sacramento Friday NightProtesters have marched in the area of Tomato Alley, staying near Southside Park. Police officers in riot gear are closely following the demonstrators and blocking off roads as they march.
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Evening Forecast - Sept. 25, 2020It's heating up this weekend and there's a Red Flag Warning for the foothills.

subset: commoncrawl


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Look at the screenshot.
I gave 100 gems in the guild but i spent 500 for XP boost and now it displays "-400 gems".
Look at the screenshot.
I gave 100 gems in the guild but i spent 500 for XP boost and now it displays "-400 gems".
Yes, this menu shows net contribution, totaling amounts deposited and spent. If you tap on your name it shows a detailed history of your transactions.
So if I give 400 gems now, my donation will be at 0.
30 days later, history will be cleaned, and everyone will think I never spend any gems, but in fact, I gave 500 ...
That's a problem...
Also, since the bonus bought in the shop is for the whole team, there is no reason why the 500 gems are removed from my line... the boost is not only for me -_-
OK, so now the history has been cleand (since it is more than 30 days), my contributions with gems is -370...
What is the solution??
So, how can you fix that?
The transaction history can be too large to send if we maintain it longer than the current 30 days. Perhaps the best solution is to explain to any concerned Alliance members that you are an original alliance member and that you deposited the gems that you spent. I realize this may not be ideal, but the current 30 day history is in place so you can track if those who have not deposited any currency are spending too much of it. Your spending was quite legitimate and the chat systems allow you to explain this.


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When you book a job, it's the best feeling in the world. All that hard work, all that practice, all that blood, sweat, and tears paid off. We want to yell from the rooftops, "I did it, Ma! I did it!" So what do we do? We call up a couple of actor friends, and we go get hammered. Or, maybe even worse, we think it's a fluke and we don't do anything. We simply sit back and think, "I better not say anything to anyone. This could all be a dream or a joke, and the phone will ring at any moment and they will say, 'There has been a mistake. We got your first and last name inverted. We meant to hire Tracey Thomas, not Thomas Tracey. Oops! Sorry!' "
There are a variety of possible reactions to booking a job and how you handle it could determine how fast your career moves from that point forward, or if it moves at all. Despite the ideal that merit should determine our lot in life, most of us despise but also realize that the extent to which we succeed has a lot to do with who we know and what they know about us. So if you have some really good and relevant news, you need to hit the pavement and tell people about it. This is not a time for introversion, shyness, or humility – or even worse – postcards! It's a time to "start spreading the news"! After all, news is only news if people hear about it. People love good news so be the bearer of it when you have it.
Case in point. One of my clients recently was informed he had been chosen as a musical contestant on the X-Factor. He has already had a 30-minute discussion with Simon Cowell to talk about his future, which might include touring with One Direction. That is some pretty big news. Well, this person is also an actor, but he is not known at all for that yet, so I suggested he pop in on some people he would like to meet and tell them his big news and let them know how this news could be good for them too. He should tell the story of how having him on their show would increase the profile of their show since his name and face are about to be on millions of TV sets around the world and that teenagers everywhere were going to be following him. So if that same name and face were on their humble program, those same teenagers might watch it.
In the space of 24 hours, several casting directors and agents are now preparing to take meetings with him and guess what? They aren't doing him any favors. He did them a favor. He is helping them do their job. They wouldn't even know he was an actor and would never have called him in for a meeting if he not only didn't share his story with them but if he didn't explain how it would benefit them. The other benefit to this approach is that he will be forever in their minds in a very positive light. They will always remember him as "the guy who was on 'the X-Factor.' "
So, if you have some good news like a booking or an appearance that can benefit those you seek to impress, let them know. Your window might be very small, so act on it as soon as you can because reality can never live up to the hype. So once you are on "X-Factor" and you make one slip up or get voted off, the magic is gone. People's imaginations are far more powerful than reality so let their imaginations work in your favor and tell people your news before they get to actually see it.
Please only take this advice if you are able to deliver on what you are asking for. Opportunities are like prison sentences if they are mishandled. The food stinks and you'll be forever looking over your shoulder.
David Patrick Green is a professional actor and the founder of Hackhollywood.com, a membership-based website dedicated to empowering and educating actors around the globe on how to become a professional actor. His simple, five-step approach inspires actors to be ruthlessly creative in their approach to the art and business of acting and life in general. Mr. Green has an MBA from the University of Southern California and was an international management consultant before realizing Platinum frequent-flyer status had few rewards other than boredom, bedbugs, and beer. His earlier reincarnations include working as an advertising account executive in Warsaw, Poland and he is still kicking himself for leaving the French Alps where, among other things, he taught skiing to European royalty and often simultaneously) tasted fine French wines. He has lived and worked as an actor in Los Angeles, Vancouver, and Toronto and coaches/consults to actors and businesses who want to get on the short path to success while maintaining a sense of humor. He can be reached at email@example.com.


text:
Bushfires NT has sent two fire units from Darwin to Alice Springs to help firefighters during the bushfire season in Central Australia.
Senior Fire Control Officer Geoff Kenna says the units have the capacity to use both water and foam to suppress wildfire outbreaks.
He says the additional resources will be an important back-up for fire crews on the front line.
"They'll be manned by either Bushfires staff or Bushfires volunteers," he said.
"What will happen is that they just make it so much easier having more resources on a fire ground to round a fire up much more easily and quicker, which obviously can assist in preventing spread to areas that may be threatened by that fire."
Related Stories
More on:
Emergency Links
Stay safe and informed with ABC's checklists & survival kits.Plan for BushfiresPlan for a Heatwave


text:
This is my take on the Red Hot Stampers Sketch Challenge for this week
and this is what we had to work with...
stamp set for one of my classes, and I kept it long enough to make this
Christmas card for Sarah. (sorry for spoiling your surprise Sarah)
It was inspired by a card I saw by Jan Tink
It was inspired by a card I saw by Jan Tink
but fit perfectly with our Sketch Challenge for this week.
Now pop on over to the Red Hot blog to see what the other gals
came up with for this sketch challenge.
Thanks For Stopping By!
Have a Blessed Day!!
ChristiPin It Now!


text:
Seeds of Empathy
Seeds of Empathy is designed for early childhood settings to foster social and emotional competence and early literacy skills and attitudes in children three to five years old while providing professional development for their educators. (On this website, we refer to early childhood settings as "centres".)
We teach a series of themes, each on a three-week cycle. During the first and second weeks of each cycle, Literacy Coaches (specially-trained staff members from the centre) read and discuss books with small groups of children. In the third week, a Family Guide (another specially-trained staff member) hosts a Family Visit, where a baby (two to four months old at the beginning of the course) and his/her parent(s) visit the children in the centre for half an hour. The Family Guide encourages the children to observe the baby's development, to label the baby's feelings, and to talk about their own feelings and those of others.
Family Visit
At the heart of the program are a neighbourhood infant and parent who visit the centre every three weeks over the program year. A trained Family Guide coaches children to observe the baby's development and to label the baby's feelings. In this experiential learning, the baby is the "Teacher" and a lever, which the Family Guide uses to help children identify and reflect on their own feelings and the feelings of others. This "emotional literacy" taught in the program lays the foundation for safer and more caring centres, where children are the "Changers". They are more competent in understanding their own feelings and the feelings of others (empathy), and are therefore less likely to physically, psychologically and emotionally hurt each other through bullying and other unkind acts.
Literacy Circles
In Seeds of Empathy, we use stories to help children explore their own feelings and take the perspective of others. Attitudes to reading are formed early through trusting relationships, which is what makes early childhood educators powerful role models. In Seeds of Empathy, at least two trained Literacy Coaches facilitate these Literacy Circles, which are supported by curriculum and two books per theme. Through the curriculum the books and Family Visits are connected by theme.
Professional Development
In addition to the initial three days of training, Seeds of Empathy offers a series of professional development workshops for centre staff. These workshops start the year after the staff have taken the Seeds of Empathy initial training.
Building on the power of the relationship the early childhood educator has with the children enriches the understanding of how to use this vehicle for learning in a joyful way while expanding their knowledge base and repertoire of skills.
Our team
Seeds of Empathy family
The chief criterion that identifies a Seeds of Empathy Family is that they have a baby who will be two-to-four months old at the beginning of the program. Families commit to visiting the centre once every three weeks during the program year. They should be reliable, so they don't let the children down.
We seek families who live in the community, so that they reflect the cultural, racial and linguistic tone of the neighbourhood. This helps create a bond between the children in the centre and the Seeds of Empathy Family, which is reinforced when the children see the parent(s) and baby in the street and rush over to ask how 'their baby' is doing.
It's important that the adult in the Seeds of Empathy Family be a parent. Mothers and/or fathers are equally welcome to participate, since we focus on the secure attachment relationship of the baby to the parent. Around the lavender blanket the children are able to watch a loving relationship between the parent and the baby, where the parent is attuned to the baby's feelings, needs and intentions. Other adults (caregivers, grandparents, elders etc.) may not substitute for the parent but are welcome to observe a Family Visit.
Literacy coaches
Seeds of Empathy trains at least two staff who work with three-to-five-year-olds to become Literacy Coaches. Literacy Coaches read to the children during Literacy Circles and attend Family Visits. Literacy Coaches in Seeds of Empathy are powerful models of literacy for the children, and help them develop positive attitudes toward and competencies in early literacy. This role is supported by a curriculum manual with selected children's literature, and lesson plans for each Literacy Circle.
Family guides
The Family Guide coaches the children to observe, comment on, and draw conclusions about the baby's development during a Family Visit. The Family Guide also gives the children a vocabulary for labelling the baby's feelings. This vocabulary helps them to understand and talk about their own feelings and the feelings of others, thus giving pre-schoolers a basis for developing a "literacy of feelings". This role is supported by a curriculum manual with lesson plans for each Family Visit.
The Administrator is the liaison between the Seeds of Empathy Program Manager and the centre. She or he is responsible for ensuring that the schedule of Literacy Circles and Family Visits is maintained and that the Literacy Coaches and Family Guides fulfill their roles. The Administrator attends the Family Visits and participates as a Literacy Coach when possible.
For more information please contact Brenda McCormack, email@example.com


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How did this binge or nothing retirement strategy take hold? New study aims for answers.
When it comes to retirees and their nest egg, there's no strategy regarding how much they spend a year. It's either a big chunk or nothing, according to a study by a financial research firm.
That investor behavior instead of taking a steady stream of 4 percent that financial advisors recommend on a yearly basis is becoming part of the norm according to a report from Hearts & Wallets, which has analyzed data of more than 30,000 households over the last five years.
The strategy is about doing what people want to use their savings for by spending in chunks, but many people feel ashamed for their behavior, says Laura Varas, a partner and co-founder of Hearts & Wallets.
Their study shows that 28 percent of older Americans took no retirement income from their personal assets – that includes IRAs, 401(k)s, bank accounts and brokerage accounts. Another one-quarter took 8 percent or more, Varas says. The breakdown shows that in 2014 some 12 percent took more than 9 percent.
Overall, there are 52 million households of those 55 and older who control $29 trillion in investable assets, Varas says.
"What we do know is that there doesn't seem to be a lot people that are in this 4 to 5 percent range. Most people are concentrated in the zero or in this chunk-taking range," Varas says. "We have been stymied by this behavior. We have not seen any increase in this magical withdrawal rate of 4 to 5 percent. Maybe this isn't happening because people don't want to do it. Maybe, people want to spend in this pattern of frugality and taking chunks."
What was discovered in focus groups is how there's a lot of shame and condemnation of people who spend chunks of money but those without pensions still wanted to do that, Varas says. They preferred alternative periods of frugality with splurging.
"We're not advocating spending irresponsibly," Varas says. "We're not making any value judgements or giving anyone any financial advice. What we're seeing is that this is a behavior pattern that is a bit more natural than converting to this 4 percent income stream or some income annuity. On the second hand, there are people that are spending zero that maybe could be enjoying life a little bit more."
Varas says they asked focus groups why people are spending like this and got many answers. Some say it's for one-time expenses and how in retirement everything changes in a year. There may be grandkids getting married where they want to buy something, she says.
"We have had people say my friends who retired can't spend it fast enough. They say they give money to their children and grandchildren, and they don't need that much money. They are traveling and buying a new car," Varas says. "The point is financial analysts like to model things in smooth percentage ranges over time, but life doesn't happen that way."
Some focus group members say another reason people spend in chunks is a grim one. The person is sick and may die soon or has a chronic illness, she says.
The other reason they dip into their retirement savings in chunks is because they lost their jobs, and they plan on returning to work, she says.
For those who have $1 million or more in investable assets, virtually none of them are taking out more than 6 percent a year, Varas says. Much if it is focused on lower income groups of less than $500,000m she says.
Many people call retirement the last phase of their life, the last chapter that they're trying to optimize with a sound retirement strategy, Varas says.
"Knowing how to spend safely in chunks is something they want," Varas says. "Taking your life savings of $500,000 and turning it into $28,000 a year isn't very joyful but maybe living off Social Security and living pretty frugally for a year and then taking your family on a cruise with all your grandchildren and nieces and nephews is joyful. They want to spend in chunks that give them joy."


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How can I get involved?
There are several ways in which you can get involved with Timebanking UK and our work.
1) Become a member
As the national umbrella organisation for timebanking across the UK, becoming a member gives you access to a wealth of knowledge, support and guidance that exists through our network of over 250 timebanks. In addition, membership gives you free and unlimited access to our national timebanking exchange software Time-ON-Line, places at training events held across the UK, a chance to meet with other local timebankers through our regional network events, and invitations to social events and gatherings.
We have a range of membership packages, suitable for both individuals and organisations. You can find out more about membership here.
2) Consultancy
We think a key part to our future success is supporting people and organisations to embed coproduction and timebanking into their everyday work. We provide a lot of help with strategic thinking and planning and regularly help to facilitate dialogues and conversations between people wishing to start on the coproduction and timebanking path. Using Timebanking UK consultancy is a great way to start to develop clear objectives, co-design a future and plan ahead, so if your organisation is thinking about doing things differently, and would like to work through some options, get in touch.
3) Training
We run a wide range of training courses suitable different audiences. If you are interested in timebanking, would like to know more or aren't sure if it is right for you, then have a look at some of our training products and see if they can help. Whether you are a commissioner of public services, a policy wonk or a community activist, our team of expert facilitators can help you consider your next steps.
4) Join a timebank
With over 250 timebanks across the UK now, there is never a timebank far away from you. You can use our 'find your nearest' function to see the timebanks that are in your area, and how you can get in touch with them.
5) Join the mailing list
We send out periodical newsletters and updates. These cover the highlights from our blog, updates on our projects, and the latest news in timebanking directly to your inbox. To join the mailing list, simply enter your email address on our home page.


text:
|By Theavatardemotivator
|and Vulmen
|Very Positive
|101 Published, 101 Planned
| You should have seen yourself! It was amazing!
This fanon series is completed, meaning all expected chapters have been released.
|A Bird Could Love a Fish
A bird could love a fish, but where would they live?
|General information
Theavatardemotivator (Executive Producer), Vulmen (Chief Adviser)
101 finished, 101 planned
|Original run
Avatar: The Last Airbender Fanon Wikia
Aang's Iceberg Adventures
But Where Would They Live?
This is a series of Kataang one-shots, based in and around the series. If you're not a Kataang fan, don't read it. I don't need Zutara hate comments. o.o'
Here it is. Do you like it?
Alphabet Laugh Needs You
Hey, hey you! Do you have a favorite Kataang moment? Do you want me to write a chapter about it? Then either email it to me or post it on my talk page or in the comments.
Penguins and Flying Fish
After I finish writing ABCLAF, I'm going to start working on a miniseries about Katara and Aang's first date. And yes, it's going to tie in to Alphabet Laugh.
It's over. I'll be cleaning up this updates section in the days to come . . . but it's done.
We've been featured on the main page! I'm doing something right for once!
I'm also planning a sequel to this entitled A Matter of Principal, set about two years after the War. Katara is almost sixteen, and in the Water Tribes, that is the age at which the girl is supposed to marry. In the meantime, Aang must struggle with his inner values - is he a monk, adhering to the Air Temple ways, or is he the Last Airbender, wielding a duty to propagate his people? In the Fire Nation, Fire Lord Zuko faces legal issues; after having been married to Mai for nearly two years, she has yet to produce him an heir, and the Fire Sages conclude she is barren. However, the Fire Lord must have an heir, no matter what, even if it means voiding a marriage, something unheard of except in legal cases. On Kyoshi Island, Suki is angry at her newlywed husband for constantly leaving off on voyages to random places, as she wants him to settle down, but he says that that just isn't "him." Toph, crushed that Sokka married Suki, renounces all men and goes into hiding. With their relationships falling apart and a dangerous foe lurking, can the separated Gaang unite their differences and save the world again? Or this time, will love forge a new descent into madness and hate?
And speaking of new fanons. To add to A Matter of Principal and Mirror Images - my next "serious" works - a sarcastic humor fanon, somewhat akin to my blog but just a tad more serious, is in the works for summer. After giving the first chapter a test drive on SchoolTimeShippingFanon.ru - not the actual URL of the site, just a translation - I may or may decide to officially put it through. If I do decide to do it, it won't be until the end of Alphabet Laugh, and its current title is Saving the World, Except for Maths Homework and is an AU fanon about Avatar . . . in school. It's still set in the same world, with all the same plotlines, but the stories are much more localized (i.e. no traveling around the world) and put into a school-like setting. Yes, everything like the bending remains, and the backstories remain intact. I'll add some basic information shortly. Okay, adding the information now . . .
Yes, the fanon is a parody of the actual series. Yes, it has some small ties to my school. Yes, yes, yes, stop emailing me about it. You know who you are.
Zuko's ship, the Ursa, was destroyed in a freak accident at the South Pole; while Iroh has a new one made - also known as sitting on his rear end all day playing Pai Sho and drinking ginseng tea - Zuko is sent to an international boarding school called the Mu Baila Academy. Meanwhile, Katara, rebelling against her people, joins the school in order to finally master her Waterbending, and Sokka comes along eoth to protect her and to prepare for joining Hakoda's fleet. Aang, just awoken from his hundred-year stasis, is aware of the troubles with being the Avatar and proclaims himself a novice Waterbender whose tattoos just "seemed like a good idea at the time." Being a kid, he's sent to the boarding school as well. Toph and others will be added. Also, Meng appears.
More information on Saving the World coming soon. Yes, I officially am going to do this. It will be from Katara's POV, not from Aang's, I think. The plot summary for Year 1 is entirely finished. It will be set in high school. Zuko, at 16, will be a sophomore. Sokka, at 15, would have been a sophomore but was held back. At 14, Katara is a freshman, while Aang pretends to be two years older in order to also be a freshman. I dare you to correct me.
No, there will not
you're joking right be no ATLAR references. AKA, yes, yes there will be.
See more
For the collective works of the author, go here.
| v - e
Fanon Award for Outstanding Romance Series
|WinnersNominee List
|A Bird Could Love a Fish (2011) - Silent Hero in Emerald (2013) - A Minute (2015)


text:
IVF Treatment Hospital In Abu Dhabi
Indo American Health is a reputed organization for medical tourism in India. We have a strong network of hospitals across the Abu Dhabi and we promise the best treatment from the best doctors. Whenever you are looking for a IVF Treatment Hospital In Abu Dhabi, get in touch with us and we will suggest the ideal hospital for it. Our experts have several years of experience in this industry and our tie-up with some of the highly esteemed doctors will only facilitate your treatment.
Coming to a new Abu Dhabi for getting treatment can be scary as well as a confusing experience. We step-in here to ensure all the document, accommodation and hospital related hassles are resolved. This way you stay comfortable and mentally prepared for the treatment. Give us a chance to find the Best Hospital For IVF Treatment In Abu Dhabi for you.
Deep knowledge of the hospitals all over the Abu Dhabi and understanding of your requirements allows us to find the most suitable Hospital, Surgeon for your treatment. Familiarity with the costing structures enables us to reduce the overall Cost of IVF Treatment Hospital In Abu Dhabi. Get in touch with us for getting treatment in the Top IVF Treatment Hospitals In Abu Dhabi.


text:
Whilst in Montreal recently, Deb and I made a pilgrimage to the Circuit Giles Villeneuve, home of the Canadian Grand Prix. When not in use, the track is open to the public. It's divided into two lanes – one for people to walk and cycle down down, and a one for people to drive down.
You can just imagine flying round in an F1 car. You come out of the excruciatingly slow L'epingle hairpin and build up to top speed as you tear down the Casino Straight. Ahead lies the final chicane before the start/finish line. A tricky right left combination with the treacherous curb on the inside of the last turn ready to spit the unwary into the Wall of Champions on the opposite side of the track.
At over 300 kph you start to think about spotting your braking point. Suddenly, this comes into view….
… and now you know what it's like to be a programmer, who has channeled raw inspiration through his or her dancing fingers to produce a thing of beauty and elegance…only to run into the QA person pointing out that the commas are in the wrong place according to page 823, paragraph 2 sub-section e of The Coding Standards.
Often measured in weight rather than the number of pages, Coding Standards documents are often outdated, arbitrary and just plain wrong.
On the other hand, their absence can cause much heartache, not least to those poor souls in support who are trying to maintain code where the Agilista philosophy of Code over Documentation has been taken to the ultimate extreme.
What follows is an attempt to make sense of the Coding Standards conundrum.
I'll look at what I think a Coding Standards document should contain, and what it shouldn't.
Then I'll give some suggestions as to standards for Oracle SQL and PL/SQL which you can either embrace or throw rocks at, depending on your preference.
Before all of that however, I feel the need for some serious catharsis…
Wacky Coding Standards
What follows is a select list of standards that I've been required to work with at various places. Some of them are out of date, some just plain arbitrary. Others are what happens when you take the word of "experts" without checking it out for yourself. As you can imagine, this particular section has required quite a bit of restraint on my part.
The ever-changing alias
"When joining two or more tables in a SQL query, the first table must have an alias of 'a', the second 'b', and so forth."
So, if we use the HR schema as an example, the following would fall foul of the standards…
SELECT emp.first_name, emp.last_name FROM employees emp, departments dept WHERE emp.department_id = dept.department_id AND dept.department_id = 60 /
What we must do to conform to this stricture is :
SELECT a.first_name, a.last_name FROM employees a, departments b WHERE a.department_id = b.department_id AND b.department_id = 60 /
You can just imagine how exciting it is when a table alias can be any arbitrary letter from a to z and it's different in every query.
Implicit Cursors are bad, mkay?
"Thou shalt not use an implicit cursor!"
This one was quite popular for quite a long time. This was almost entirely based on the opinion of the great and the good of PL/SQL programming ( you know who you are).
It's surprising how few people actually thought about this in any depth.
The premise behind this prohibition was that an implicit cursor always executes an extra fetch after retrieving the first row. This extra fetch, the argument went, was inefficient. Using an explicit cursor would result in only one fetch.
What happens when an implicit cursor finds a row when performing that second fetch ? You get a TOO_MANY_ROWS error. If you're using an implicit cursor, it can be reasonably assumed that you want to fetch one, and only one, row. If there's more than one row being returned, you probably want to know about it.
To be fair to the experts in question, one of the main health-warnings they issue is "don't take my word for it".
Look Mum, less typing
This standard was born out of the ban on implicit cursors.
"When fetching a single row from an explicit cursor, use a FOR LOOP to reduce the amount of code written…"
CURSOR c_deptno IS SELECT department_id FROM departments WHERE department_name = 'IT'; BEGIN ... FOR r_deptno IN c_deptno LOOP l_deptno := r_deptno.department_id; EXIT; END LOOP; ...
None of that OPEN FETCH CLOSE malarkey, oh no. For us it was the simple and oh so easy to read construct you see above.
Of course, those unfamiliar with our coding standards often did a double-take when they saw this sort of thing, but they soon got used to it. After all, less typing = less work, right ? I mean, what could possibly go wrong ? Um…
It's C Jim, but not as we know it
This last one isn't an Oracle example, it comes from a C coding standards document.
"When incrementing a variable by 1, don't use the ++ operator. Instead use var = var + 1 as this is more readable".
The author of this particular gem was later cornered by the entire Development Team and forced to read aloud, extracts from "The C Programming Language" by Kernighan and Ritchie.
I'm sure that anyone who has been programming professionally for any length of time will have their own list of favourites. But how does this help move the discussion on ?
Sure, it gives us some insight into the problems with Standards, but how are we going to solve them ?
This brings us on to the "ideal" Coding Standards document, or at least, my ideal Coding Standards document.
At this point, you may well wonder what right I have to lay down the Coding Standards ? The only answer I can think of is that I'm the egomaniac at the keyboard right now. So there.
To my mind, Coding Standards need to be :-
- concise
- concerned exclusively with Standards, not Best Practice
- concerned with a single language or language family (e.g. SQL and PL/SQL)
The Secret is in the Scope
The first thing to do is to put the Standards Document on a diet.
Best Practices change between releases. They are not standards, to my mind.
Do you remember when you used SELECT COUNT(rowid) instead of SELECT COUNT(*) ?
Back in Oracle 7, the former was more efficient. However, since Oracle 8, the latter statement now works in exactly the same way.
Best Practices belong in a version-specific Best Practices document. Standards should be rather more immutable.
Rather than being buried in a comprehensive Coding Standards document for all of the technologies being used on site, each language or language-family, should have it's own document.
I have a feeling that my final point on our Standards Diet may be a touch controversial… Standards do not have to specify code layout in any detail…
Code Layout Standards
There always seems to be reams written about how to indent and align code, not to mention the old favourite of where to put your commas.
There are historical reasons for this.
Once upon a time, Oracle would determine whether a statement was cached by doing a straight character-by-character comparison. Consistent use of whitespace was therefore important.
Since around 9i, it takes a slightly different approach.
All non-literals in the statement are converted to lowercase and whitespace is stripped prior to the comparison.
Therefore, I'd contend that all you need to say in the Standards is that code should be indented consistently and be readable.
Provided peer reviews are a feature of your development process, this should be more than enough to ensure that the code that goes forward to production is fit for purpose in terms of maintainability. This is, after all, the primary purpose of Coding Standards.
If you really are an obsessive/compulsive, you can always make use of whichever IDE happens to be in favour and stipulate that code should be run through it's formatter prior to check in. Yes, all of them can be configured so you can get your commas wherever you want them.
SQL and PL/SQL Coding Standards
If you've read this blog for any length of time, you'll have noticed that my coding standards have evolved over time. One of the advantages of being my own QA department is that I can adopt/change/drop standards as I come across better ways of doing stuff.
PL/SQL is essentially, ADA with SQL extensions. As so much of PL/SQL relies on SQL, it makes sense to combine the standards for both in one place, at least, if you're exclusively an Oracle shop.
The standards themselves should begin with a disclaimer along the lines of :
"These standards should be adhered to, unless there is a sensible reason to deviate from them."
This get-out clause should mean that we won't get lumbered with following a rule which is no longer sensible/ was wrong to start with.
One example that springs to mind…it would seem sensible to have a standard stipulating that all calls to stored program units from within PL/SQL should be by reference, right ?
Sounds like a great idea…until you get to DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE, for example.
Do you really want to be lumbered with …
DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE( a => 'Some line to output');
What now follows are the standards I use because I'm comfortable with them and it's what I'm used to. There's no reason to believe that you'll be struck by lightning if, for example, you put your SQL keywords in lowercase.
Anyway, rocks at the ready…
Object naming
In general terms, I prefer the use of suffixes rather than prefixes. This is mainly because my heart sinks every time I look at a list of, say triggers, in an IDE and find that they all start with TRG_.
By using a suffix, you'll still be able to easily identify the different object types and have a nice usable alphabetical listing.
Another point to note – object names are stored in uppercase in the data dictionary. Therefore, separating words in object names is best done with underscores ( e.g. order_items).
Using Camel Case is problematic in this context as the word boundaries will be lost in the data dictionary ( e.g. OrderItems will be stored as ORDERITEMS).
Table names should be meaningful. They should also be plural, unless you're creating a table to hold only a single row.
EMPLOYEES ( because we've got rows for more than one) rather than EMPLOYEE or EMP.
Generally speaking, we don't need a suffix for tables. The exceptions are :
Global Temporary Tables should have a suffix of GTT
Permanent segments used to hold temporary data should have a suffix of TMP.
Comments should be added for all columns in a table.
The comment should specify :
- Whether the column is part of a Primary or Foreign Key.
- If it is part of a Foreign Key, what the parent table/column is.
- If it is a Synthetic Key generated from a sequence, the name of the sequence.
- If there is a check constraint a description of the allowable values rather than just the values themselves.
Primary Key, Foreign Key and Check constraints should be named with appropriate table aliases :
- Primary Key – alias_pk
- Foreign Key – child alias_parent alias_fk
- Check constraint alias_column_name_ck
Where an index is created to support a Foreign Key relationship, it's named after the Foreign Key constraint with a _IDX suffix. Otherwise, it should start with the alias of the table and end with _IDX. What you put in the middle is more or less up to you.
As an example :
CREATE TABLE contracts ( contract_id NUMBER CONSTRAINT con_pk PRIMARY KEY, client_id NUMBER CONSTRAINT con_cli_fk REFERENCES clients(id), status_ind VARCHAR2(1) CONSTRAINT con_status_ck CHECK (status_ind IN ('L', 'D', 'F')) ) / CREATE INDEX con_cli_fk_idx ON contracts( client_id) / COMMENT ON COLUMN contracts.contract_id IS 'Synthetic Key, populated from sequence CON_ID_SEQ' / COMMENT ON COLUMN contracts.client_id IS 'FK to clients.id' / COMMENT ON COLUMN contracts.status_ind IS 'Valid values are L(ive), D(ead) and F(rozen)' /
Stored Program Units
As Oracle supplied packages are essentially extensions to the PL/SQL language, it makes sense to treat them in the same way as the core language keywords. In my case, I put SQL and PL/SQL keywords in uppercase.
I use the following suffixes :
- function – _fn
- materialized_view _mv
- package – _pkg
- procedure _pr
- sequence – seq
- trigger _trg
- view _vw
For SQL statements, each clause begins on a new line unless the entire statement can fit comfortably onto one line ( I use a limit of 80 characters as a rule of thumb on this one).
For PL/SQL, indentation must be consistent throughout the program.
The naming convention I use for DML Triggers is :
table alias_firing timing_DML action(s)_level ( if statement)_trg.
The firing timing is either B(efore) or A(fter).
The DML actions are I(nsert), U(pdate) or D(elete)
Most DML triggers tend to be row-level. If I have a statement Level then I'll use S.
Lets say we have a table to contain the names and teams of F1 drivers. For reasons best known to the Application Designer, the synthetic key on this table needs to increment by 1 each time a record is added, with no gaps. Yes, I know that without using a sequence we could get the same id being used twice if the latest record in the table is deleted and then another record inserted. Look, this is just something I knocked together to illustrate the trigger naming thing. I'm not really trying to hammer home the point that standards and best practice don't mix.
Anyhow, say the table looks something like this :
SQL> desc drivers Name Null? Type ----------------------------------------- -------- ---------------------------- ID NOT NULL NUMBER FIRST_NAME NOT NULL VARCHAR2(100) LAST_NAME NOT NULL VARCHAR2(100) TEAM NOT NULL VARCHAR2(100) CREATED_BY NOT NULL VARCHAR2(30) CREATION_DATE NOT NULL DATE MODIFIED_BY VARCHAR2(30) MODIFIED_DATE DATE SQL>
Oh look, complete with old-style auditing columns. I wonder what we'd need a trigger for…
CREATE OR REPLACE TRIGGER drv_biu_trg BEFORE INSERT OR UPDATE on drivers FOR EACH ROW DECLARE l_next_id drivers.id%TYPE; BEGIN IF INSERTING THEN SELECT NVL( MAX( id), 0) + 1 INTO l_next_id FROM drivers; :new.id := l_next_id; :new.created_by := USER; :new.creation_date := SYSDATE; ELSIF UPDATING THEN :new.modified_by := USER; :new.modified_date := SYSDATE; END IF; END; /
There you go – the trigger name is the table alias followed by the timing ( BEFORE in this case), followed by the DML actions the trigger fires on (Insert, Update) and the appropriate suffix.
You'll also notice that the code is (a) beautifully formatted and (b) not worth reading.
Variables should have anchored declarations where they are :
- always assigned a value directly from a database column
- is used in a query predicate as a comparison against a database column
- is used in a DML statement to assign a value to a database column
NOTE – I've deliberately not gone into details about scalar declarations because they tend to be version specific. For example, it may be more efficient to use BINARY_INTEGER, PLS_INTEGER or NATURAL_INTEGER depending on which database version you're running.
Of course, by the time Oracle 12 comes out, it's entirely possible that they'll all be synonyms for the same thing. In 10g PLS_INTEGER and BINARY_INTEGER already are.
Variable Names
I use the following prefixes should for variable names :
- local variable – l_
- Global variable – g_
- Constant – gc_ for a global constant,
- local constant – lc_
- Type – typ_
- record – rec_
- Table of records – tbl_
- cursor – c_
- ref cursor – rc_
Parameters are prefixed as follows
- In parameter – i_
- Out parameter o_
- In/Out parameter – io_
To my mind, comments, when taken with the code, should allow you to work out what is going on.
A header comment should be included to explain the program's purpose and, if it's quite involved, to give a brief overview of the functionality it implements.
What does all this have to do with Cats ?
Yes, trying to control a bunch of computer programmers is like trying to herd cats.
My take on this is, if at first you don't succeed…don't bother.
By providing a simple concise framework for standards and then allowing code readability to be policed by means of peer review, everyone benefits from a degree of coding consistency from easy to follow rules.
The rules themselves do not get in the way of the actual process of writing code.
Of course, it may well mean that your Peer Review sessions get quite a bit more interesting but hey, we all need a bit of excitement now and then. Just stand back and let the fur fly !
In the meantime, I'm off to take cover from all those rocks that suddenly seem to be flying in my direction.


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Janet and Casey Murrow on the front step of their house at Glen Arden Farm in Pawling, New YorkMurrow, Edward R.
This date is approximate. slide (photograph).
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- Murrow, Janet Brewster
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When the Lions' offense comes up short like it did in the second half of the season, all eyes go to Matthew Stafford.
The Lions quarterback of course is not the only reason for the 7-9 record.
This is the same guy who trashed the franchise record books two seasons ago.
When it comes to finding a coach to replace Jim Schwartz, who was fired on Monday, all eyes will be on Stafford too.
A 25-year-old talented quarterback helps make Detroit a good destination for a head coach.
It won't necessarily be the head coach's responsibility to get Stafford and the offense back on track, but he will choose the offensive coordinator to replace Scott Linehan and also a quarterbacks coach.
"We'll have coaches here that can get him to where he needs to be,'' general manager Martin Mayhew said. "He's already been a great quarterback in 2011. He had 41 touchdowns and 5,000 yards passing. We have to get him to that point and beyond. That hasn't happened the last two seasons, and part of that is personnel related I think, but he certainly has the ability to be that guy."
Stafford hasn't built on his 2011 season, but Mayhew said there are several factors involved.
"The quarterback, as you know, gets a lot of blame when things don't go well and gets a lot of credit when things do go well but there are a lot of things around him that take place as well,'' Mayhew said. "I think we can do a better job from a personnel standpoint by setting him up for success. Obviously, there are some things that can be done from a coaching standpoint as well, but it's not all on him I don't think."
Specifically, the Lions can boost the talent at the wide receiver position. Stafford had his problems, but the drops by the receivers certainly weren't on his shoulders. Tim Lappano, the wide receivers coach, was fired along with Schwartz and Linehan.
Stafford said he's going to miss Linehan who guided him through his first five NFL seasons.
"He and TD (quarterbacks coach Todd Downing) and really all the guys on offense, we did a lot of really good things here in five years, set a bunch of franchise records and played some of the best offensive football this franchise has ever seen,'' Stafford said. "We're going to look to continue it. I owe a lot to those guys for sticking with me through two years of injuries, coming out on the other side of it and playing some really good football.''
It's not like Stafford had a bad year, at least statistically. His 4,650 passing yards ranks third in the NFL. He's also ranked third with 62 passes of 20 yards or more.
Stafford, who hasn't missed a game in the last three seasons, finished with 29 touchdowns (sixth in NFL) and 19 interceptions (sixth most in NFL). His percentage of completions was 58.5.
Of course, the numbers that really matter are 7-9.
The new coach will be expected to step in and win immediately. Team president Tom Lewand emphasized that on Monday.
"I think that's everybody's expectation every year, no matter if you have a first-year coach or not,'' Stafford said. "But to tell you the truth I've never been through (a coaching change) so I don't really know what to tell you, I don't have any history to draw back on.''
Stafford has a reputation as one of the hardest workers on the team. He stayed in the Detroit area last year during the offseason working out at the practice facility and watching film regularly.
In the offseason he doesn't work with a quarterback specialist and said he has no plans to do so now. He readily admits he needs to improve — always has — but seems to think a quarterback guru is not the right avenue for him.
He has depended on Downing, the Lions quarterbacks coach who is still on staff at least until the new coach is hired.
"I think all 32 teams want to have a detailed quarterback coach, someone who is good at coaching quarterbacks and that is certainly part of the equation, whether that is the head coach who has that experience or somebody on the staff,'' Mayhew said.
(Follow @PaulaPasche on Twitter.com and Tout.com. Read her Lions Lowdown blog at oplions.blogspot.com. Join her weekly live chat at 3 p.m. Thursdays at TheOaklandPress.com.)


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Leonard Rejected, Lingle Fumes
The strange saga of Judge Katherine Leonard came to a close last week, as the state Senate rejected Gov. Lingle's Chief Justice nominee. The vote came after the Hawaii State Bar Association's board of directors deemed Leonard unqualified, an assessment Lingle blasted as "outrageous." The fact that Leonard would have been Hawaii's first female Chief Justice only fanned the flames, and the whole thing quickly devolved into another "Lingle versus the legislature" pissing contest.
"The 14 senators who voted down Judge Leonard's confirmation represent the height of hypocrisy, given that earlier this year they all voted for a resolution calling on me to appoint more women to the bench," Lingle sniffed. She was referring to SR26, which "urges the Governor to use and consider gender equality when appointing judges." Republican Sen. Fred Hemmings, who voted to approve Leonard, also referenced SR26, reportedly telling his female colleagues who voted for the resolution, "You have a chance today to achieve your goals." (Speaking of hypocrisy, Hemmings voted against SR26.)
Lost amid the squabbling and veiled accusations of sexism was any cogent analysis of Leonard's qualifications and judicial style. Did all 14 of the Senators who voted against her really do so because of gender bias and/or a vendetta against Lingle? Let's turn to Maui's own Sen. Roz Baker, who spoke on the Senate floor before the Leonard vote: "It is with regret and sadness that I find I must [oppose] the nomination of Katherine Leonard as Chief Justice of the Hawaii Supreme Court…. By all accounts [Leonard] has been an able jurist during her short tenure on the Intermediate Court of Appeals. She is deemed very bright, writes well and is considered a very capable legal analyst. But the duties and responsibilities of the Chief Justice require more than just having a good legal mind. It requires the ability to manage and effectively administer the third branch of government…. I believe the Judiciary is at a crossroads. It needs an insightful, well-rounded, capable and proven leader. I know this is not an easy vote. However, after weighing the testimony from the hearing, speaking with others who called my office, came by or communicated with identification by e-mail, and more importantly after spending time reviewing Judge Leonard's CV, work experiences and after having an in-depth discussion with her, I have concluded that she is indeed a fine ICA judge and we were correct to confirm her to that position. However, for the position of Chief Justice, she does not, at this time, have the requisite skills, experiences, abilities and knowledge of the admin side of the equation to lead the Judiciary at this critical juncture." Sexist!
Council Punts On Election Reform
Asking an elected official to change the system under which he or she was elected is a tall order. Too tall, apparently, for the Maui County Council, which voted 6-3 to send a redistricting proposal to the Charter Commission next year rather than putting the question to voters in November.
Currently, Councilmembers from nine "residency areas" of vastly different size and population are elected by all county voters. Under a plan formulated by the West Maui Charter Working Group and introduced as a potential ballot question by Councilmember Jo Anne Johnson, the map would be redrawn with nine single-member districts of roughly equal population, and voters within the districts would vote only for their respective Council reps. Proponents say the system will benefit voters, who often don't know enough about candidates from other parts of the county to make an informed decision, as well as candidates, who can save resources by running localized campaigns. Opponents, including some current Councilmembers, say it'll disenfranchise rural outliers like Lanai and Molokai, which may end up with no representation on the Council. Of course, as attorney Lance Collins, who works with the West Maui Charter Working Group, pointed out during testimony, residents in those areas would actually make up a much larger percentage of the total votes in a single-member district than they currently do in a countywide election. Put simply: the current system guarantees Lanai and Molokai residents will sit on the Council, but it doesn't guarantee they'll be the candidates Lanai and Molokai residents support.
In the end, Councilmembers Gladys Baisa and Joe Pontanilla joined Johnson, but it wasn't enough. The only other way to get a charter amendment on the ballot is to collect the signatures of 20 percent of registered voters, a huge task, especially this late in the game. Unless that happens, the soonest voters could have a say is 2012, and that's only if the Charter Commission takes action, which is far from certain. Testifier Norm Bezane may have summed it up best: "Sometimes in our county, we have a tendency to study things to death."
Recycling Rate Down, Fee Unchanged
After climbing steadily since 2006, Hawaii's recycling rate fell slightly last fiscal year according to figures released by the Department of Health (DOH). In 2009, the return rate for the state's HI-5 program was 79 percent; in 2010, that number dropped to 76 percent. That's still more than enough to trigger an automatic increase of the 1 cent "container fee," a non-refundable tax charged on top of the 5 cent deposit. By law, if the return rate is above 70 percent, the container fee goes up half a cent. Basically, if a lot of people recycle their cans and bottles—the ostensible aim of the program—they're taxed more heavily.
OK, here's the good news: per a DOH release, after "evaluation of the current deposit beverage special fund balance, and consultation with the legislative auditor, the director of health has determined that the container fee will remain at one cent per container." Just don't let that rate go above 80 percent and we should be fine.


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Living Permaculture
- Hosted by Stephanie Syson & Jerome Osentowski
Join us every fourth Wednesday of the month for Living Permaculture, KDNK's source for information on how to live a more sustainable life. Permaculture is a design system for ecological and sustainable living, integrating plants, animals, buildings, people and communities. Each month we feature a special guest and topic that is pertinent to the self sufficiency of this valley and the world. Hosts Jerome Osentowski and Stephanie Syson run the Central Rocky Mountain Permaculture Institute a non-profit in Basalt, Colorado.


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This is a self-initiated project that I created for my wife´s birthday. One of her all-time favorite movies is Dirty Dancing. So I decided to create a lettering of the famous quote "Nobody puts baby in a corner" from that movie. This time I decide to go for Spencerian style. I am happy with how it turned out!
I have a streamlined design process. You will know what to expect during the process and I keep everything efficient and effective, in terms of time and money. Do you want to know more? Visit my page that describes my logo design process. (the same process applies for hand-lettering artworks). Or, if you are ready to go – send me an email and we will get things started.


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I was camping not too long ago when my oldest son and I were lucky enough to see the most amazing shooting star I have ever seen in my life. Not the one pictured above -- I didn't have a camera handy -- but it looked about the same. (See the Bad Astronomer for the awesome backstory on the above picture.) It was the coolest thing I have ever personally seen. It lit up half the sky as it streaked across with the most incredible speed; it was brighter than any firework I have ever seen. And in an instant, it was gone. We continued to hang out by the campfire for a while, every so often reflexively looking back at the sector of the sky where the fireball had been, as if it might be there again. It was certainly the most remarkable event of an eventful day. As we walked back to the cabin, my son asked me a question that kids must have been asking their parents for millennia: "Dad, that shooting star was cool, but what did it mean?"
I explained that it didn't mean anything. It was just a hunk of rock becoming superheated as it slammed into our atmosphere at thousands of miles per hour. Ultra cool science-y explanation, but it clearly left him unsatisfied. He was hoping for something more. I could imagine in ages past how a father might make up a satisfying explanation regarding the anger of the gods, or an omen of good fortune, and how readily a prescientific community would accept such an explanation. It was the most amazing event -- it just had to mean something.
I've noticed that this is just the way people are. We have a deep seated need to look for patterns, to find the deeper meaning in things. It's how we make our living, evolutionarily speaking. We figure out how things work, find the causation, and exploit it to our advantage. It's natural and a highly adaptive trait.
But it also is one that drives me nuts, in my professional life. That terrible question -- "What does it mean?" -- is one that one that stops me in my tracks, raises my hackles and induces an involuntary inward cringe.
I see a lot of people who come to the ER after experiencing an unusual physiologic phenomenon. Whether it's a fainting spell, or sudden loss of vision, or an intense bout of dizziness, they are often really freaked out. I don't blame them. I've experienced vertigo -- it's a shocking thing to go through. Nothing in your experience prepares you for the feeling that the world is whipping around at 33-1/3 rpm. I do my thing -- check them out, make them feel better, and explain the cause in as much detail as seems appropriate. Generally, patients are grateful and receptive, especially once I've reassured them that what they are experiencing is not dangerous. It never seems to fail, though, that as I put my hand on the proverbial doorknob to step out, I get that awful question, "But doctor, what does it mean?" Just like the fiery streak across the sky, when it happens to you it's such a remarkable thing that it simply has to have some deeper meaning.
This question is an absolute rhetorical haymaker because, just as with my son and the technical explanation of a meteor, the technical explanation of vertigo (or syncope, a TIA, etc) is completely unsatisfactory to the patient. Unlike a seven year-old child, however, the patients are adults, infinitely more concerned, and I have something of an obligation to answer their concerns. And it just can't be done. 99% of the time the answer to "what does it mean?" boils down to either "I really have no clue what actually happened" or "it's just one of those things." You can guess how well that goes over. You offer up such weak tea to an anxious patient and you are either guaranteed an irritated and unsatisfied patient, or a thirty-minute question-and-answer session till they're finally content.
I've learned that the best response is a redirect: "You know, the ER's not really the best place for philosophy..." and then to bring it right back to the pragmatic concerns: "What it doesn't mean is that you are at increased risk for having a stroke..." or whatever seems to be the real underlying fear the patient may have been harboring. That seems to work as well as any other response I've tried.
Every time I hear that question, I swear it takes years off of my life.


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Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Why classical music needs to be sticky
There is persuasive evidence that classical music's big new ideas about how to attract new audiences are having little impact. But, despite this, the music industry remains locked in an unproductive circle which means that as one big new idea falls by the wayside – remember tweeting in concerts? – another takes its place. The whole big new ideas movement – as exemplified by Max Hole's recent 'vision' presentation – is based on the dogma that over the centuries classical music has become encumbered with a multitude of superfluous protocols that are a barrier to reaching new audiences. This dogma is misguided: just as protocols, in the form of rules and conventions, make communication between network computers possible, so classical music protocols, again in the form of rules and conventions, make communication between music, performers and listeners possible. Yes, some of the conventions need revising; but the the big new ideas gurus preach that protocols are synonymous with elitism and should be eliminated. In fact non-music cues are essential to reaching audiences old and new, and their elimination is intrinsically damaging. My thesis is that classical music needs to adopt the opposite strategy and develop new and more relevant protocols, because they are the essential glue that binds the music and audience together.
Classical music's rootstock is the notated score. However very few listeners can hear a score in their head simply by reading it. So the first communication protocols of musicians, instruments and performance style were created to play the score. But musicians need somewhere to play. So more protocols were developed in the form of acoustically acceptable buildings to perform in, and the advent of concert halls then spawned further protocols such as dress codes and audience etiquette. In parallel, the record industry developed its own protocols which reached their zenith in the vinyl LP. Here visual, tactile and knowledge cues were added to the music and twelve inch sleeves were adorned with seductive photographs of the performers and informative sleeve notes, as in the Mahler symphony LP from 1972 seen above. All of these cues gave LPs visual authority in the home and selling impact in record stores, and further protocols developed in the form of specialist record stores with knowledgeable staff and a pleasing ambience - see photo below of the Rombaux store in Bruges, Belgium - and a publishing industry grew up led by the Gramophone magazine of blessed memory. In the last decades of the 20th century sales of LPs and then CDs boomed, concert attendances were healthy, and classical music was very sticky. But then came the downloadable file, essential non-music cues disappeared and sticky classics were replaced by smooth classics.
Electronic commerce created the downloadable file, and the mantra of electronic commerce is frictionless distribution. Quite understandably the record industry has embraced frictionless commerce as it eliminates the costs of production, storage and shipping associated with physical discs, while providing the consumer with immediate availability and a robust and portable music format. But making classical music smooth by removing non-music cues – artwork, documentation, tactile appeal, collectability, retail presence etc – has generated an opportunity cost which is little understood and may explain why both recorded and live classical music are failing to reach new audiences despite huge advances in technology and intensive marketing.
The CD may well be a doomed format, but it does provide a case study that cannot be ignored. There are very few success stories in today's record industry, but one of them is Jordi Savall's Alia Vox label. Its releases are best sellers for specialist classical stores, its commercial resilience has allowed it to buy back early Savall recordings from a defunct rival label, and its recordings have won many awards including a Grammy. Central to this success is Jordi Savall's policy of swimming against the download tide and making his CD releases stickier and stickier by exploiting visual, tactile and knowledge cues. He has refined the label's lavish book/CD format over the years, and Alia Vox's latest release Erasmus: Praise of Folly is a six hundred and sixty-six page book that comes with three hybrid SACDs of the music and French spoken texts, and another three CDs of the music without texts – see photo below. But if that is not sticky enough, each book/CD comes with a unique PIN that allows the purchaser of the book/CD to download the texts in six more languages and the music in superior quality high resolution files and MP3 format.
A different approach is taken by Chandos, another independent label, which has pioneered 'Plug & Play' hybrid releases that combine CD-style packaging with music stored on a memory stick – see below. Chandos offer the choice of buying FLAC or WNA files, both versions also include files of the vital non-music cues of artwork, sleeve notes, and texts, together with MP3 versions of the music.
These hybrid products from Alia Vox and Chandos combine many of the benefits of physical and virtual product. But this post is not a luddite rant, so it must be accepted that file only classical downloads will ultimately prevail. Which means that virtual stickiness will become a very important component of downloads, and this presents a particular challenge as pressure to minimise file sizes combined with the frictionless distribution mindset within the record industry is a barrier to making music downloads richer in content. However the pressure to minimise file sizes has effectively been eliminated by recent giant leaps in computer memory and broadband speeds, and there is a compelling case for adopting new audio file formats that give listeners a more rewarding experience for listeners by providing non-music cues.
MusicDNA, an independently developed file format launched in 2010 to supercede the MP3, holds much promise as it stores rich metadata – the Cinderella of classical music - and user-created content. However, despite being backwards compatible with MP3, the new file format has failed to gain any acceptance in the record industry, and the commercial hegemony of the MP3 and iTunes file formats almost certainly means that supplementary applications that link to these established formats will be the preferred way to add rich data to lightweight downloads. One leading linked solution is the MusicGPS iPhone app which was selected as "one of the top five of music 2.0 by the Guardian. MusicGPS creates rich non-music cues by adding who did what, where and when dimensions to music tracks - the where dimension is a particularly hot commodity in both the massive mobile computing market of tablets, smartphones etc and the nascent high potential market for in car web access dubbed 'infotainment' - see musicGPS screengrab below.
It is particularly concerning that frictionless distribution is being transplanted from recorded to live classical music. Max Hole may well be a first class ceo of a record company, but he has no track record of bringing new audiences into concert halls, and the 'vision' he presented to the Association of British Orchestras was based on the smooth commerce strategy that has caused so many problems for the record industry in recent years. Concert halls, dress conventions, audience etiquette and other non-music cues are all part of the stickiness that holds classical music together. Of course some protocols need revising, and dress code is one area where that is already happening. But the way forward for live classical music - like its recorded counterpart- is to add, not remove, stickiness. The Southbank Centre's The Rest is Noise festival with its sticky mix of live music, talks and all day events shows how this can really work - see visual below. And note that Alex Ross' eponymous book, which has done more to engage new audiences than all the classical music industry's big new ideas put together, uses contemporary culture and politics to create a single all-embracing non-music cue.
Pre-concert talks are a powerful but often overlooked cue for new audiences, as are innovations such as concert visuals and kinetic art – one orchestra reports a $23,000 boost in ticket sales from concert visuals. Non-stick websites like Sinfini are a sexy subject, but making printed concert programmes more engaging is not. So programmes remain no more than vehicles for stale prose and lucrative advertising; the example below for a 1938 BBC Symphony Orchestra concert conducted by Arturo Toscanini is a sad reminder of how little printed programmes have changed in 75 years. Concert programmes are important, but, as with recorded music, the future is online. Yet the use of social media by concert promoters remains facile and ignores how giving ticket purchasers access to non-music cues via a MusicDNA-style database could make concert going a much more engaging experience. And it goes without saying classical radio also needs to be sticky; yet the smooth classics approach of silky toned presenters fronting blanded-out repertoire remains the norm, and, not surprisingly, the audience trend is anything but smooth.
Well-intentioned but misguided people keep telling classical music that its conventions and protocols are the biggest barrier to reaching new audiences – or as Max Hole said "the very traditions and institutions that seek to celebrate, promote and preserve classical music are in danger of causing the genre great harm and hindering its growth". Of course change is needed, but that change must build on what currently works, not demolish it. Classical music needs to ditch its smooth strategies and start adding new non-music cues that resonate with the technological and cultural zeitgeist. This is not a quick and easy task, and it will not generate the sound-bite headlines we have seen in recent weeks. But classical music needs to be sticky, and that is why it has protocols and conventions.
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6 comments:
I'm not sure that a label's original visual presentation really enables it to survive uncompromised in the present marketplace.
The Dacapo label, for instance, puts a lot of effort into original graphic design and has gained buzz for doing it, but CD sales remain low and the label is still dependent on Danish state arts subsidies to survive.
Chandos also had to take a drastic turn in the repertoire it releases several years ago, ending its support of polarizing modernists like Schnittke and Gubaidulina for a lot of inoffensive British music. While it may have done something to win digital-age listeners over, it's winning listeners over to releases that are already something of a compromise with the mass market.
- 12:10 pm
- Pliable said...
Christopher, thanks for that comment, but I think it rather misses the point. Visual cues were cited as being important in the past, and also in the present with a label such as Alia Vox - which is a success story.
But I am not saying that visual presentation of recordings will be important in the future as "it must be accepted that file only classical downloads will ultimately prevail". In my final paragraph I say that "Classical music needs to ditch its smooth strategies and start adding new non-music cues that resonate with the technological and cultural zeitgeist", which is why the post explores technology based cues such as musicGPS.
The thrust of my argument is that classical music communication protocols, of which the visual cue is just one, are misunderstood and very important.
- 12:30 pm
Could you elaborate a little on the use of social media by concert promoters as you envision it?
- Jacob
- 6:47 pm
- Pliable said...
Jacob, the use of social media by concert promoters that I am aware of is very one dimensional and granular - like the Twitter experiments linked to in the post.
What I have in mind that ticket purchasers are given access to a micro-site for the concert. This would use a standard template that is populated for each concert with unique multi-dimensional information about who is doing what, where and when in connection with the concert. This information would come from the promoters, performers and ticket holders.
Concert series such as the BBC Proms are unique because of the sense of community in the hall. My suggestion is that a similar sense of virtual community is created using social media for every concert.
- 7:17 pm
- Bodie said...
Bjork released an app with her album Biophilia featuring interactive "games" for each song on the album. Seems like a great idea for any genre of music.
- 6:52 am
- Unknown said...
I like the idea of re-examining the conventions, while knowing that conventions are necessary for any communication. Apart from the issues of digitization, there is also the matter of venue and location in a live performance. No doubt along with many others, I've come to believe that the struggle to free up the classical concert is helped enormously by a different kind of venue: without the rigid separation of performers from audience that one finds in the nineteenth- and twentieth-century concert halls. I thought that the Early Music revolution of the 1970s had brought those places into question -- but we seem to have gone backwards: sacred and chamber music of the Baroque and earlier periods is now played in nineteenth-century halls, without question. There's also the factor of where in the town the venue is. For some thoughts in praise of the local and the out-of-centre, see this blog post: http://www.kentishtowner.co.uk/2013/02/25/why-it-matters-classical-music-in-the-neighbourhood/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=why-it-matters-classical-music-in-the-neighbourhood
- 1:45 pm


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I've been reading a lot of contemporaries and near-contemporaries. (I say "near-contemporaries" because with the folks at AAR asking if the 20th century is now long enough ago to be historical -- so that the Edwardian era, WWI, the Roaring Twenties, the Depression, and WWII can become grist for the historical romance author's mill -- and my reading 40 year old Harlequins, I predict we're going to have a rumble in the Eisenhower Era between rival gangs: the Contempos and the Histies!) So, for today's TBR, I thought I would read a solidly 19th century romance: Jo Beverley's Dangerous Joy. That's the next in the Rogue series for me.
Well, I'd started it before -- it's the one that involves the
Janet has put me onto a lot of great books, including Jo Beverleys that I've adored, so when I said I was starting Dangerous Joy again and she agreed it was a bit of a slog, I paid attention. "It's a shame you don't have Forbidden Magic," she raved. "Such a lovely book. He seduces her with words. She's innocent but not naive, and she's got these wonderfully embroidered undergarments. I mean, she has magic but really he has the magic . . ."
With some careful questions, I was able to learn the following about Forbidden Magic: It's a stand-alone novel, so not part of the Rogue series. It's delightful and definitely one of Janet's favorites. (I learned later that she's read it more than once.)
As it happened, I had it right on top of a pile of Jo Beverleys. Yippee! I dived right in, certain I was going to have a lovely reading experience.
Here's what I'd extrapolated from Janet's glowing recommendation. I figured it was going to be one of those "experienced hero and innocent heroine come to terms in the bedroom and out" books. With embroidered undergarments. Oh, and magic, but I could have deduced that from the title. [Beverley isn't too allegorical with her titles; Dangerous Joy = Joy (Felicity's nom de guerre when she and Miles first encounter each other) + his attraction to her while still being her guardian (i.e., Dangerous).]
Here's what I actually got from Forbidden Magic (and if you've never read this book, and want all the delight of discovering this stuff on your own, then, sure There Be Some Spoilers Ahead. But really? Read this -- it will help keep the book from annoying you as much as it annoyed me):
Meg has two distinguishing features when we meet her: Desperate Straits and Magical Powers. If she doesn't use the Magical Powers before New Year's Eve, their Evil Landlord (who was the Old Family Friend but is now the Local Sexual Pervert) will claim Meg's beautiful 15 year-old sister as his sexual plaything. Now, I rather assumed that Sir Arthur was a catalyst: not really part of the action, but necessary for the next step. I assumed that also about the Dragon, the hero's maternal grandmother, the Dowager Duchess of Daingerfield (you can call her Rodney; she gets no respect). I was wrong, but you'll see in a moment why it wasn't an unreasonable assumption.
Okay, so Meg needs to use her Magic Powers to get her and her siblings out of the Desperate Straits. That power involves having an orgasm (oh, yes, it so does -- this isn't even subtle imagery; frankly the secret embroidery gets less exposition than the Magical Orgasm does) while holding a sexually explicit female form called a sheelagh-ma-gig. I finally decided that the sheelagh was a stone carving halfway between a mini-blow up doll, and an anatomically correct Barbie Doll with issues. (We're assured in the author's notes that a sheelagh is A Real Thing.)
Now, Meg knows that the powers of the sheelagh always come with a "yes, but" clause; a sting in the tail, as she calls it. So she wishes very carefully: "I wish, that within the week, we shall all be provided for as befits our station, with honor and happiness." Frankly, that's the last smart thing this woman thinks of. After that, she's pretty close to Too Stupid to Live.
Meanwhile, our hero, the Earl of Saxonhurst, has to marry someone by the end of the week or the Dragon will pick someone for him. He knows who, too -- Daphne, a second cousin who wears the ancestral betrothal ring from his family even though they are related on the distaff side; according to the Dragon, Sax has to marry Daphne because he stole her virtue when they were in their respective prams. (Don't ask; thankfully this accusation isn't explained further.) Not unreasonably with the Dragon as his only remaining family, Sax has anger issues. He likes to break things to relieve stress and tension, so his servants ensure a ready supply of ugly stuff close to hand for the purpose. Hey, presto, one of the maids knows of this genteel/shabby family in Desperate Straits, so she's sent off to propose marriage to Meg on Sax's behalf.
I won't even attempt to explain why she's that bone-headed. But it's a mistake that leads to the whole rest of the book, including Meg's being accused of murder, the real murderer revealed (and receiving his just desserts), more sexual perversion, more insanity, more misunderstandings, and a screwdriver. The screwdriver is a nice touch, but the rest is Throw This Book At The Wall-worthy.
Yes, they finally have sex, but even that is obscured by covers and is more distracting than pleasant because it occurs a) in a cold house, and b) while Meg is Suspect Number One for a murder. After that, the rest of the book was a teeter-totter of Danger! Meg!! signs and Sax is Sexy moments. It was a relief to finish it.
Janet seemed shocked that all that gross stuff was in the book, despite having read it several times. I accused her of having taken an X-Acto knife to her copy and making a perfectly pleasant (if incoherent) slender volume out of the nice bits. But I know what happened. She read it on a sunny day and only saw the sunny bits -- the bits where Sax is nibbling on Meg's neck or buying her a Portuguese cap or dallying with her on the bed. And sure, that book is in there.
But I read a completely different book. I read a book with a panicky heroine with deeply flawed judgment (leaving the sheelagh behind was idiotic; telling Sax she won't sleep with him unless and until he patches things up with his grandmother is wrong from every single angle: none of her business, misplaced loyalty, insufficient information, etc.). Meg also prefers to deal with monsters rather than trust any of the people disposed to help her, and is dimmer than dryer lint at many crucial points in the book. Guess what: my version of Forbidden Magic is in there too.
Anyone else read this book? If so, which one did you read?


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Glenn Dale Hospital Historic District
In 2014, a coalition was formed to focus on the future of the Glenn Dale Hospital Historic District ("Site"). Members of the coalition included Councilmembers Todd M. Turner (4th District), Dannielle M. Glaros (3rd District), Andrea C. Harrison (5th District), several members of the Prince George's County State House and Senate Delegations, staff from the Office of the County Executive and the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission (M-NCPPC), the owner of the site.
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