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Sharing is a good thing
"We aren't doing a very good job of sharing the ball."
No, it wasn't Pau Gasol, whose irritation of not getting the ball inside has been bubbling at the surface the past few games.
No, not Jordan Farmar, who loves to get his hands on the ball.
Not Sasha Vujacic, who hasn't met a ball he doesn't like to shoot.
If you guessed Kobe Bryant, you are correct.
Seriously, though, does the man listen to himself?
Heading into Tuesday's loss to Charlotte, Bryant hit 52 of 139 shots -- 37.4 percent -- from the floor. Against the Bobcats, he took 28 shots -- 11 more than anyone else.
In fact, in seven of his past eight games, Bryant has taken the most shots of any player on the team, 10 more than anyone against Golden State. He and Gasol each took 19 shots againsts New Jersey.
So if the key is sharing the ball, then pass the word.
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Dialysis is central to survival for 450,000 Americans with end-stage renal disease (ESRD). Yet patients on dialysis have significant comorbidities and high mortality rates (24% annually). One out of four ESRD patient deaths occurs after a decision to stop dialysis. However, when persons have lost their decision capacity if there has been no prior discussion between the patient and surrogate regarding goals of care, the issue of whether to continue dialysis can pose an ethical impasse and cause profound psychological distress for surrogate decision makers. Using the representational approach to patient education, we developed and pilot tested the SPIRIT intervention (Sharing the Patient's Illness Representation to Increase Trust) to improve discussions about end-of-life care between patients and their surrogate decision makers. SPIRIT is a 6-step, 2- session, face-to-face intervention presented to both patient and surrogate by a trained interventionist in an interview format. The proposed randomized controlled trial will test the effects of the SPIRIT intervention in improving preparedness for end-of-life decision making among ESRD patients and their surrogates and reducing surrogates'conflict during decision making and psychosocial morbidities. Subjects will be 200 Caucasian and African-American patients with ESRD recruited from outpatient dialysis clinics and their chosen surrogate decision makers. Preparedness outcomes (dyad congruence, patient decisional conflict, and surrogate decision making confidence) will be measured at 2, 6, and 12 months post-intervention. Surrogate decisional conflict and psychosocial morbidities (anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic distress symptoms) will be measured 2 weeks after the patient's hospitalization that required surrogate decision making. To compare the effects of SPIRIT to those of standard care on surrogates after the patient's death, psychosocial morbidities will be measured at 3 and 6 months after the patient's death. We will also explore the potential impact of race on intervention effects and examine mediators and moderators of the intervention effects.
The proposed randomized controlled trial will test the SPIRIT intervention designed to improve discussions about end-of-life care between patients and their surrogate decision makers. Subjects will be 200 Caucasian and African-American patients with ESRD recruited from outpatient dialysis clinics and their chosen surrogate decision makers. The SPIRIT intervention to be tested with ESRD patients has the potential to have a broad impact in improving care for the seriously ill and their families who face end-of-life decision making.
|Lutz, Erin R; Costello, Kaitlin L; Jo, Minjeong et al. (2014) A systematic evaluation of websites offering information on chronic kidney disease. Nephrol Nurs J 41:355-63; 364
|Song, Mi-Kyung; Ward, Sandra E (2014) Decisions about dialysis and other life-sustaining treatments should not be made separately. Am J Kidney Dis 64:817
|Song, Mi-Kyung; Ward, Sandra E (2014) The extent of informed decision-making about starting dialysis: does patients' age matter? J Nephrol 27:571-6
|Song, Mi-Kyung; Lin, Feng-Chang; Ward, Sandra E et al. (2013) Composite variables: when and how. Nurs Res 62:45-9
|Song, Mi-Kyung; Ward, Sandra E (2013) Disconnect between emergency contacts and surrogate decision-makers in the absence of advance directives. Palliat Med 27:789-92
|Song, Mi-Kyung; Lin, Feng-Chang; Gilet, Constance A et al. (2013) Patient perspectives on informed decision-making surrounding dialysis initiation. Nephrol Dial Transplant 28:2815-23
|Song, Mi-Kyung; Ward, Sandra E; Lin, Feng-Chang (2012) End-of-life decision-making confidence in surrogates of African-American dialysis patients is overly optimistic. J Palliat Med 15:412-7
|Song, Mi-Kyung; Happ, Mary Beth; Sandelowski, Margarete (2010) Development of a tool to assess fidelity to a psycho-educational intervention. J Adv Nurs 66:673-82
|Shields, Anne-Marie; Park, Mihyun; Ward, Sandra E et al. (2010) Subject Recruitment and Retention against Quadruple Challenges in an Intervention Trial of End-of-Life Communication. J Hosp Palliat Nurs 12:312-318

subset: commoncrawl


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Dear Girls,
You must be skiny as a rail, just like all the movie stars or else, no one will love you, but buy all the food products we advertise
Love, The Media
© Copyright 2017 Ayla Daniels. All rights reserved.
Status: Finished
Genre: Other
wow. that my friend, is a perfect example of situational irony!
Boom! So short but the whole message is there--the big lies that most of us are buying into as truth because of how it's being repeatedly bombarded to us by media.
Nice one Ayla! Keep on writing.
Thank you :) So true. I've been researching media and how it controls us/affects/promotes things to us. I've found so many interesting things, and I think my favourite thing I've found is probably this "An average American will spend 3 years of there life watching just commercials" "And still, every one in America still feels personally exempt from the influence of advertising" Though I'm not from America, I wouldn't be surprised if the same is true for me. Sorry for the rant, heh. I'm just.. er.. passionate about this subject :3
Do you think you could do one called Dear Guys? It'd be interesting to read from you I think.
Book / Fan Fiction
Short Story / Science Fiction
Short Story / Religion and Spirituality
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More Videos...
Episode 01 - Vette Garage: The Series
Episode 01 of Vette Garage: The Series! Featured company: Pfadt Race Engineering. Part 1 of 3. Learn more at http://www.VetteGarage.TV ... talk about the show at http://www.DigitalCorvettes.com - Produced by Patrick Gramm of Gramm Productions (Gramm Films)
Charlie's Angels em. version pinball machine.
This Charlie's Angels em. version pinball machine I searched all over for and had many people helping me for 12 years to try and add it to my ever growing pinball machine collection. It sorta became my holy grail if you will of games to find. This one just happened to be the first game off the assembly line according to its serial number of 01001S. I want to thank once again everyone that helped along the way.
1972 Seeburg " Matador " jukebox for sale
Can be seen and heard in Battle Creek Michigan. Asking $400 and plays 45's Thanks,John
The Ultimate Corvette Garage
In the fall of 1962 when Chevrolet introduced the 10th anniversary Corvette that became known as the 'Split Window Coupe', Oklahoma high schooler Michael Brown knew he had to have one. He also knew it probably wouldn't happen fast. He was right about that. It took 22 years, but he finally acquired one. And though he never planned it that way, it became the cornerstone of a collection of Vettes and classic Chevys in Texas. Housed in a custom 'Corvette Garage', the collection even has its own website at hookedonvettes.com. But you can watch an overview here....


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Add these shoulder exercises into your regular workout routine and increase your upper body strength, while strengthening and stabilizing your shoulders. From the stability ball dumbbell press to the medicine ball push-up, these exercises are a great way to strengthen your deltoids, rotator cuff and trapezius muscles. Browse through our large collection of detailed tutorials and step-by-step demonstrations from today's leaders in the health fitness industry. For full workout routines featuring these shoulder exercises, visit our Workouts section.
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It's the middle of winter and all you can think about is golf, but your home course is covered snow. Here are five steps you can take this winter to improve your summer golf game, even if freezing temps and inclement weather keep you from hitting the links.
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Enzyme developer Novozymes could get up to 90% of its revenue from sales to the biofuel market by 2030 if more countries embrace renewable energy, said incoming CEO Peder Holk Nielsen. The firm gets about 16% of its revenue from biofuel producers and less than 1% from cellulosic ethanol producers, Nielsen said. "If the world really wants to secure a significant part of its liquid-fuel consumption based on biomass, this would totally transform the enzyme business," he said.
Full Story:Bloomberg Businessweek


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"God's Warriors": Raging Fires | 20 Aug 2007 // 4:59 PM
Christiane Amanpour does not back down from difficult questions. She opens her six-hour report, airing over three nights on CNN, by noting that Jerusalem, the "so-called city of peace, has been torn by centuries of war."
'God's Warriors': CNN's Amanpour looks at 'zealots' | 19 Aug 2007 // 11:52 PM
They've been called radicals, militants or zealots. Christiane Amanpour calls them "God's Warriors." The CNN reporter's three-part series on the subject, scheduled to air next


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It's truly not that extreme to make sense of why an ever increasing number of jocks are going for prohormones nowadays. Aside from having the capacity to fortify an indistinguishable advantages from anabolic steroids, they're additionally exceptionally conservative. What's more, given their exceptionally strict direction these days, we exceedingly prescribe …Read More »
Ar1macare Pro
If you have liver problems or you have just lost those gains which you have worked hard for, then you should consider investing on an OCT, an on cycle therapy supplements. One of the best on cycle therapy supplement available in the market today is the Ar1macare Pro by the …Read More »
The Guide to PCT for Prohormones
We are almost all hitting the gym at a much higher rate than we did only a few years ago, we are looking to build muscles, get shaped and live healthier, but we can only go so far with training, we can spend thousands of hours in the gym and …Read More »
Night T- testosterone booster
Do not be surprised if you have never heard about this testosterone booster because even though it is highly appreciated among those who are using it, you can not find much information about it. That is why you should read this article if you want to learn something new , …Read More »
Bliss Go Pack
Bliss Go Pack Almost every woman dream to have a perfect and healthy body. They tend to go to extreme measures just to loss amounts of weight. There a lot of kinds of diet and different types of weight loss supplements that are available in the market. But the thing …Read More »
Conor McGregor's Biggest Fight
There is no denial about how Conor McGregor becomes one of the fastest rising stars in the world of MMA. His unique of blend of talking trash to his opponents during the press conferences and backing it up come fight night, McGregor is safe to say one of the most polarizing figures in …Read More »
Conor McGregor Tells UFC Champ Jose Aldo: "I am your daddy. Call me Jose, Sr."
UFC Featherweight Champion Jose Aldo and upcoming star Irish MMA (mixed martial arts) fighter Conor McGregor a.k.a. Notorious are set to face each other in July at UFC 189. To keep things thrilling, the pair have been on a world tour, doing multiple press appearances.Read More »


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Steven Avery filed several motions Monday before the Wisconsin Court of Appeals seeking to be released on bond and making a variety of due process allegations.
Avery claims that since his property was searched illegally, the evidence collected against him should not be part of his case.
Avery also claims a juror influenced and intimidated other jurors into voting guilty.
Click here to view court documents obtained by Action 2 News.
He's serving life in prison for murdering Teresa Halbach in Manitowoc County — two years after he was released from prison after serving 18 years for a rape he didn't commit.
Netflix recently released a controversial series ('Making a Murderer') about Avery and has said more than a million subscribers have watched the series. Law enforcement as well as prosecutors have pointed out that the Netflix series has failed to show both sides to the Avery trial and excludes key evidence that the prosecution presented.
"I think we need to look at the full picture rather than just 10 hours of a thriller," says Manitowoc Mayor Justin Nickels.
Manitowoc County Executive Bob Ziegelbauer says he is concerned how all of this attention from from Hollywood and the media will impact the victim's family.
"We have to have a little respect for the Halbach family, too, and that's my first concern," says Ziegelbauer.
Robert Hermann the current Sheriff of Manitowoc County tells Action 2 News that lies, rumors and misconceptions about the case have left his department with a huge mess to clean up.
Hermann says after watching the Netflix series he believes his department had been framed by the filmmakers. Click here for the Manitowoc County Sheriff's message for 'Making a Murderer' filmmakers.
Meanwhile in Avery's January 11, 2016 motions, he further claims that Thomas Aquino, a Wisconsin attorney, made untruthful statements and never thoroughly investigated his allegations.
That complaint is before the Wisconsin Supreme Court's Office of Lawyer Regulations, according to court documents.
Action 2 News spoke to The Office of Lawyer Regulation's director Keith Sellen on Tuesday. Sellen said that pursuant to Wis. Supreme Court Rule 22.40, he could not confirm, nor deny whether or not Aquino was under investigation.
Action 2 News reached out to Aquino on Monday, who now works in the Appellate Division of the State Public Defender's office. He could not be reached for comment.
Avery has also recently secured new legal representation.
Kathleen T. Zellner and Associates in Downers Grove (a Chicago Suburb) says it's taking "full and complete representation of Steven Avery in all of his pending criminal matters."
A representative from attorney Kathleen Zellner's office in Downers Grove, Illinois says Zellner met with Avery on Monday. However, Zellner's office did not file the Jan. 11 motions, which appear to have been made without the assistance of counsel.
However, moving forward, Zellner says, "We are continuing to examine every aspect of Mr. Avery's case and all of his legal options. We are confident Mr. Avery's conviction will be vacated when we present the new evidence and results of our work to the appropriate court."
Zellner tweeted about her visit with Avery yesterday.
Tricia Bushnell with the Midwest Innocence Project will be assisting with Avery's defense and issued this statement on Monday.
"The Midwest Innocence Project (MIP), a not-for-profit corporation dedicated to the investigation, litigation and exoneration of wrongfully convicted men and women, is pleased to confirm that MIP Legal Director Tricia Bushnell will be assisting as local Wisconsin counsel for Steven Avery, whose case is currently the basis for a popular Netflix documentary series titled Making A Murderer."
"The law firm of Kathleen T. Zellner and Associates, P.C. in Chicago will be assuming the full and complete representation of Avery in all of his pending criminal matters. Bushnell will not be conducting any interviews about the Avery case at this time, as she and Zellner are continuing to examine every aspect of Avery's case and all of his legal options."
The court is expected to hear Avery's motions Feb. 11, 2016.
In August of 2015, Avery filed an appeal claiming many of the same things — that he was not fully represented, and alleged illegal evidence was used in the case against him.
That appeal was denied this past November.
Avery then sent Action 2 News copies of another motion back in November. Click here to view that motion.
Action 2 News reached out to the original special prosecutor Ken Kratz, who also served as Calumet County District Attorney at the time. During an exclusive phone interview with Action 2 News, Kratz said that most of what's contained in the Jan. 11 appeal has already been rejected by the appellate courts. According to Kratz, the only new issue raised pertains to the jury.
"The issue regarding the jury is new information, but it doesn't rise to the level of jury tampering or setting aside a verdict," Kratz said.
Additionally, Kratz said "I'm disappointed that Mr. Avery's appellate lawyers are allowing him to continue to file pleadings with the court on his own. That's what lawyers are hired to do."
Kratz said future questions about this should be directed to the Wisconsin Department of Justice (DOJ).
Action 2 News also reached out to the Wisconsin DOJ. Wis. DOJ confirmed that "we are representing the State of Wisconsin in this case," but said there is no new information to report at this time.
While visiting Menomonie, Wis., Governor Walker recently announced he would not pardon Avery.
"Just because a documentary on TV says something doesn't mean that's actually what the evidence shows," Walker said. "The bottom line is that there was a crime that was committed a decade ago, there is a system in the judicial system by which individuals can petition the courts to get relief like others have done in the past that shows that someone might actually be innocent. But I am not going to override a system that is already put in place."
Action 2 News was here from the very beginning. Click here for a look back at some of our previous Avery coverage.
Emily Matesic, Clare Kaley, Sarah Thomsen, Jorge Rodas, Andrea Hay, Rhonda Roberts, and Ted Miller contributed to this report.


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FCC Gives Nod to Cisco SDRs
Cisco announced that the FCC has approved its 802.11a radios as software-defined radios.Under a new rule designed to increase the capabilities of wireless hardware, the Federal Communications Commission has begun certifying the use of software-defined radios for Wi-Fi access points. Cisco Systems Inc. last week announced that the FCC has approved its 802.11a radios as SDRs.
With an SDR, "you can completely change the nature of the radio," said Steve Durst, a research engineer at security consultancy Skaion Corp., in North Chelmsford, Mass., whose past experience includes reprogramming radios for military applications.
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MUST SEE: Elderly Dog Walks 30 Miles Back to Family Who Gave Him Away Only to be Rejected Again!!!! What Happens Next Will Make You Happy as Dog Hits the Lottery of Lavish Love
What a wonderful story! It brought me to tears initially in a sad way....then I had tears of joy! So happy this has such a great ending! Click link for story and pics:
You'll love it! xo Lea
Weekdays 2pm-7pm
Not your Father's talk show, sums up the show in one phrase. Show topics range from the serious to the bizarre. . .where one caller will ask a pointed question about Bosnia, the next will belch into the phone and hang up!
It depends on your perspective, but the Love Doctors could be either the best and most humorous thing you've ever heard, or the absolute worst - but... YOU ARE STILL LISTENING, AREN'T YOU?
Some of the appeal of the show are callers to the show. Unlike most radio talk shows there are no call screeners on this show, allowing any and all to participate. With NO time limit to the calls, Dr. Rich uses his AUTHORITY as host to handle the callers any way he chooses.
During certain Special Events, the Love Doctors will have guests on the show, although this is the exception and not the rule. Dr. Rich's interviewing ability manages to keep the audience entertained and well-informed.


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New York Mixtapes You Need To Download Before the Ball Drops
Check out some of these hidden gems from 2013. It's not to late to hop on the wave y'all.
ABGOHARD "Open" Video
ABGOHARD takes to the woods to send a special message to all the lovely ladies out there.
Aaron Cohen "Potential Fans" Release Party At Pianos NYC
Aaron Cohen's dropping his latest project and he's got a wavy release party to match.


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A L Torres'de Domínguez's Event Journal
Tuesday September 1, 2009 / 7:30pmJohn Legend
2 tickets
Section C Front
How was your experience?
the entire show was awesome, i wish i'd heard more of his older music, but even the new stuff that i was not too familiar with was great. i would definately see again.


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Sword of Truth 06. Faith of the Fallen
€ 8,99
Sofort lieferbar
November 2001
BeschreibungAs his beloved Kahlan lies near death, Richard Rahl is confronted by a vision that bears a terrible price. It would mean taking Kahlan away to safety while abandoning his people. As savage hordes prepare to invade their homeland, Richard and Kahlan's devotion is imperiled in the fury of war. Amid the turmoil, Nicci, a woman from Richard's past, is haunted by her memory of him, and her burning passion to destroy him commits her to the unthinkable.
Untertitel: 'Tor Books'. Sprache: Englisch.
Verlag: Macmillan USA
Erscheinungsdatum: November 2001
Seitenanzahl: 800 Seiten
Format: kartoniert
Alle Preise inkl. MwSt., ggf. zzgl. Versandkosten


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Police searching for missing ASU student
Authorities are searching for a 19-year-old Arizona State University student who went missing Friday night, the Tempe Police Department said.
Jack Culolias was last seen leaving Cadillac Ranch in Tempe Marketplace around 11 p.m. on Nov. 30.
"Apparently Jack's mother found what she believes to be a shoe of Jack's down here by [Tempe Town Lake] and right now we are currently trying to find out more information on that," said Tempe Police Sgt. Mike Pooley.
Culolias was with other students from an ASU fraternity before he disappeared.
Culolias is described as standing six feet tall with black hair and brown eyes. He was last seen wearing a black t-shirt with "You'll shoot your eye out" printed on the front with a long-sleeved white shirt with gray or black horizontal stripes and blue jeans.
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Today is Give Away A Dollar A Day's 9th birthday! And oh what a journey it's been, and what a journey it continues to be!
Blessings to you, and Happy Birthday!!! :)
Give Away A Dollar A Day
Tuesday, August 30, 2016
Sunday, May 1, 2016
The Best One Yet!
This afternoon, our daughter was heading back to college after having spent the weekend with us. It was great to see, and as always, a little teary to see her go. To help her out, I took her car to the gas station to top off the tank before her hour and a half drive. I often times slip a dollar bill in the filling handle, but this time I decided to do it a bit different. I put my dollar for the day in HER fuel door! So the next time our daughter goes to fill up her tank, she'll open the fuel door, and get an extra bonus!!!
Blessings to you!!
Blessings to you!!
Giving Is Universal
Giving is a universal opportunity. Regardless of your age, profession, religion, income bracket, and background, you have the capacity to create change.
from Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen, Author
from Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen, Author
Tuesday, March 1, 2016
Super Dollar Tuesday!
It's Super Tuesday here in the US, and I voted! But, here's the fun part... I left my dollar in the voting booth. I didn't make it too obvious, so it might not have been found until the election crew tore down the machines later on! :)
Blessings to you, in joyful prosperity!!
Blessings to you, in joyful prosperity!!
Friday, February 26, 2016
The Habit Of Giving
The habit of giving only enhances the desire to give -
From Walt Whitman, Poet and Journalist
From Walt Whitman, Poet and Journalist
Wednesday, December 23, 2015
The Gift Of Giving Food To The Hungry
Last year, I took a bunch of dollars that we had put into a jar throughout the year, and bought bags of food for the hungry here in Houston. I decided to do it again this year. Maybe I'm just feeling more of the Christmas Spirit now than ever before, but buying the bags this year felt so heart warming. And I have decided to make this a tradition from this day forward!
Blessings to you and yours this Holiday Season,
Blessings to you and yours this Holiday Season,
The Joy Of Giving
One of the most joyous things for me in gift giving during the holiday season is the love and surprise that I get to put into readying and wrapping each gift. I wrapped several gifts this morning and was just really feeling the joy of giving and the child-like anticipation of the excitement our loved ones will feel when they open them! :)
Blessings to you in you joyous giving now and always!
Blessings to you in you joyous giving now and always!
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[wptabs style="wpui-light" mode="horizontal"]
[wptabtitle] Details[/wptabtitle] [wptabcontent]Date: April 14, 2011
Location: Headquarters of Radio Free Asia in Washington, D.C.
Agenda: The Board heard reports from the Board's Strategy and Budget Committee on the status of the current regional reviews, the Board's Governance Committee on matters pertaining to future Agency organizational structures, as well as a report from the International Broadcasting Bureau Director and programming coverage updates by the Voice of America, Radio Free Asia and the Middle East Broadcasting Networks.[/wptabcontent]
[wptabtitle] Documents[/wptabtitle] [wptabcontent]Minutes of April 14, 2011 meeting
Record of Decisions
Resolution on Consolidation of BBG Offices and Bureaus
Minutes of March 11, 2011 meeting[/wptabcontent]
[wptabtitle] Video[/wptabtitle] [wptabcontent]
Windows Media On Demand Link[/wptabcontent]
[wptabtitle] More Info[/wptabtitle] [wptabcontent]For more information, please contact BBG Public Affairs at (202) 203-4400 or by e-mail at email@example.com. [/wptabcontent][/wptabs]


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text: Il Gambero Rosso has been a classic along the harbour of Porto Ercole fir come here for a number of years now. And its quality has remained high since then. Try porchetta di tonno, a strong flavoured tuna appetizer. And then indulge yourself into the classics of tuscan seafood cuisine by hearing what the fresh fish of the day is.... More


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More Videos...
WON Pro Series Drag Testing
Wizards of Nitrous Pro Series Drag strip testing. 1rst Gear: + 65 hp 2nd Gear: + 110 hp 3rd Gear: + 140 hp 4th Gear: + 165 hp 5th Gear: + 165 hp
BMW 330Ci E46 Tuning Before and After
This is my project! I have installed new camshafts, racing headers, K&N high performance filter, new valve lifters, high flow racing catalysts, re-mapped the ECU, made the Exhaust evacuating canals wider, ported and polished the head gasket, new VAC motorsports racing drive pulley kit, steel reinfroced brake hoses, racing brake pads, millway all aluminium racing bushings and sparco front strut brace and raised the rev limit. This is how it sounds and how it has improved the acceleration time. The car is equipped with a manual 5-speed gear box, M-chassis and M-package II. The color is Topasblau.
Sean Rho's BMW e92 335i
Follow Sean on instagram @mashimarho His sponsors are - Evil Grafix, Sharpe BMW, jmeas, ModBargains.com, Great Lakes Headlight Restoration LLC, and European Auto Source. filmed and edited by Frankie LaPenna - follow me on instagram @frankielap


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The Gathering Storm
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Add deadly alien plants to your games of Warhammer 40,000.
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The global macro strategy saw a rare rise in November, as their favorite trade rose once again. With the weakening of the Japanese yen, which fell 4% against the USD, the Nikkei ended the month up 9.3%. Long in Japanese equities and short in JPY has been the hot theme for macro strategy, which spent the last three months nearly flat against the dollar. Another position that took an upswing was the short Australian dollar trade; the Aussie fell 3.7% against the USD in last month.
Japan's bumpy inflation ride
According to data from UBS Hedge Fund Monthly Update, global macro strategy netted a gain of 0.9% in November and is now up 3.5% for the year. In comparison, the average hedge fund took a return of 1.3% last month.
Considering the recent movement, UBS FX Strategies has changed its 1-month forecast for JPY/USD to 103 and 3-month forecast to 105. Despite Shinzo Abe's no-stone-unturned quantitative easing, UBS analyst Daiju Aoki thinks that it would be harder to move inflation at the same pace as before. Hitting the 2% target will be tougher going forward, he predicts that the trajectory will move off track in April of next year. Such an event would stimulate the BoJ to accelerate their easing package and upscale the level of its bond buying program, according to the forecast of UBS.
Global macro hedge fund up on Japan and Aussie
Woodbine Capital, a global macro hedge fund, had seen a dull year till the end of October. The fund recorded a major gain of +5% in November, bringing up YTD performance to +3.5%. Two of the major themes that were profitable were the fund's short AUD/USD position and its exposure in Japan. Woodbine has heavy weighting in Japan and was up in its long equity and short JPY positions. The fund believes that the corporate sector will contribute to recovery in Japan as they increase wages in the near future. Furthermore indications of further easing from BoJ and the likelihood of Japan's largest pension fund increasing its exposure to Japanese equities and foreign markets is also a plus for Asia's second largest economy.
Woodbine has a bearish view of Australia – the fund thinks that the economy is now reversing from the peak it achieved in the last year. Investments in the country have slowed down and the central bank is pursuing an easy monetary policy to better navigate the changed environment. The fund is shorting the Australian dollar, a position which was profitable in November.
Downward pressure on AUD
UBS thinks that the Reserve Bank of Australia will be shopping in the market for approximately $5 billion in foreign reserves over the coming months, as the new Treasurer wants to enhance RBA's capacity to conduct monetary easing. The added buying up of foreign reserves will further accelerate the downward pressure on AUD and UBS thinks that the Aussie will weaken against the dollar.


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Group Forums >> K9 Police >> Best K9 Vehicle to have??
Best K9 Vehicle to have??
9 postsback to top
Posted about 8 years ago
What does everyone think is the best K9 vehicle to have. I have a Chevy Impala and it sucks..
9 postsback to top
| Posted about 8 years ago
WOW! It's amazing that you also think the Impala sucks. I think it sucks as a patrol car all together. Every K9 handler should have an SUV. We have too much stuff to haul around and my partner is tired of begin thrown around in the back of that tin box. We first got them in 2003. I jokingly stated to command that I had to continually stop to feed the mouse in the trunk. They didn't think it was funny and continue to order them today. Their reasoning was that the Impala is more fuel efficient. I know for a fact that I got better mileage in my Crown Vic. We all know the real reason, "Its politics man, politics!"
5439 postsback to top
| Posted about 8 years ago
Some of our county K9s have Chev Tahoes. They removed half the second seat, and there is a crate for the K9 that runs that half of the SUV all the way back. Makes for a bit more room for the dogs. There is also the added bonus of transporting suspects in the other half (not an enviable position for a bad guy), and all the added room for equipment.
Heroes Live Forever!
58 postsback to top
| Posted about 8 years ago
I have an 06 crown vic. I am 6'3 and have plenty of room and my dog has plenty of room with the american aluminum accessories insert. my trunk is a little cramped but it beats being in an impala. im gonna try to hit em up for a tahoe when im due a new one
-1 postsback to top
| Posted about 8 years ago
I definetly agree a SUV is the way to go, but next choice would be CVPI. American Aluminum is probably the best and easiest K9 insert for performance and installation. I've installed Ray Allen and cussed several times. Didn't like their customer service either. The climate control and door popper system is very good from American Aluminum as well. We've used American Aluminum products for around 8 years and never had any problems. The officers have not complained about space in the CV and yes the trunk does get crowded. But overall it's not bad. The Tahoe would be the top choice if budget allows.
16 postsback to top
| Posted about 8 years ago
Sorry guy's I can't agree with the SUV. I like the Crown Vic. it has plenty of room for both me and my partner. The problem with the SUV is wear and tear on my dog's shoulders and hips from jumping in and out of an SUV. I figure that I can squeeze an extra year or two out of him by keeping him in a car. It is essential that a proper K9 compartment is installed in the Crown Vic. with the "Hot & Pop" system.
0 postsback to top
| Posted about 8 years ago
Over here in the UK we tend to use station wagon's, in London we are changing from VW Passats to a Europeon bulit ford.,the Mondeo, this model is used by a lot of Europeon K9 units. We take out the rear seats and replace them with a kit box, then a fibreglass dog cage is put in with a divider is installed so two dogs can be carried, the system is easily removed for cleaning etc..A quick release system is added so the dog can be deployed by the handler through the front of the vehicle if needed.
92 postsback to top
| Posted about 8 years ago
I like the SUVs. I've had em all. The crown Vics and other cruisers are faster, but the SUVs are more practical for hauling the most equipment plus dog. The argument "SUVs are harder on the dogs joints", is bull shit. When the time comes your dog can't jump in or out of an SUV; guess what? Its time to retire. If the most strenuous thing your dog does, is get in and out of the vehicle, then, clearly, the SUV restriction applies to you and you should stick to the cars (crown vic).
1 postback to top
| Posted about 8 years ago
My hometown department uses the Dodge Magnum for a K9 vehicle. It sits lower to the ground and results in less stress on the dog's shoulders when it exits the vehicle.
6 postsback to top
| Posted about 8 years ago
I would have to say that an SUV has its advantages and disadvantages. Same goes for Crown vic or impala.. most departments that i know of will not let you engage in a pursuit in an SUV..But an SUV has so much more room..I currently have a Crown Vic and i have hardly no space..If i had my pick i would like to try a dodge magnum..
4 postsback to top
| Posted about 8 years ago
I am a Border Patrol canine handler and was issued an unmarked Ford F-150 4door 4x4 as a take home ride. The rear cab is set up as a kennel. Generally, it is a good setup. The only problems are a lack of legroom due to the kennel and the horrible folding bedcover we use. The bedcover allows water and dust to enter. My gear in the back required constant cleaning. The rumor is that we are going to upgrade to F250's, so we can have more legroom/gear storage.
I also have marked crown vics available for patrol duty/highway interdiction.
We also have some Durangos in service. They don't hold up as well to the off road use as the trucks.
"There is no hunting like the hunting of man, and those who have hunted armed men long enough and liked it, never care for anything else thereafter."
Ernest Hemingway
22 postsback to top
| Posted about 8 years ago
We run Ford Explorers (Gov't Agency). I run 5 10" at 195 and at times find it too confining. Kennel seems big enough for a 70lb Mally. Have enough room for all my stuff. In the winter it's a plus, as all my gear is warm.
Fellow handlers have the F150 crews. Like the previous poster, toneau tops do leak. Gear is cold. But the leg room!
41 postsback to top
| Posted about 8 years ago
I am in a Crown Vic---and the room is okay as is the storage in the trunk and my partner (Brandy) seems to like it---but the perfect K9 vehicle comes with a self cleaning button like an oven---clean the interior and dog at the same time! Seriously though I am the only officer on duty some times and that forces me to call another agency for transports or to do front seat transports---does any on make a 1/3-2/3 cage for the Crown Vic?
The young man knows the rules, but the old man knows the exceptions.
6561 postsback to top
| Posted about 8 years ago
I like the 4x4 Jeeps equipped with cage and feeders.
It is what it is.............and.........these things too shall pass.
6 postsback to top
| Posted about 8 years ago
We have Ford F-150 trucks with the cages in the rear by the tailgate. My department consists of seven handlers (two are trainers) and we have forwarded our requests for Chevy Tahoes. However, our Deputy Chief refused the transition because "only chiefs drive suv's". So, we're stuck with non-pursuit rated vehicles that guzzle a large amount of fuel which exposes our K-9's to the public at all times when they're on duty instead of a better all round vehicle for the same price. Makes sense to me
53 postsback to top
| Posted about 8 years ago
I've got a Tahoe PPV (2 wheel drive pursuit) with a Ray Allen insert. I love this truck. It gives me all the storage space I need with room to spare, and the performance rocks. Even in the very high winds we get out here, the truck doesn't even wobble.
Climbing a mountain is tough, but it beats growing up...
8 postsback to top
| Posted almost 8 years ago
We had a Ford Explorer and that was great. It was fairly low, still had good control and such. The Explorer also has plenty of storage room in the back for training gear, duty gear, or even an extra kennel with a dog. The cage we had in the back doors was huge.
2 postsback to top
| Posted almost 8 years ago
I have a 2003 Crown Vic with American Aluminum insert and have decent room. I just wished the back of my seat would lean back a little better because I sit straight up. I'm a 5'9 female, so I need the leg room. I've seen a bigger City department around where I live go to the Chevy Trailblazers and they love them. They have told me they are lower to the ground and hold the road better when driving faster and still have plenty of room for them and the dog plus equipment. I've been begging my department for SUV's and finally have they talking about it. I would LOVE to have a tahoe but I doubt that will happen. :-)
9 postsback to top
| Posted almost 8 years ago
I love my Tahoe... Its got the Ray Allen cage where the backseat was with a remote door popper, plenty of leg room for my long legs, and it lights up like a christmas tree!! Not a bad engine either, its actually faster than out Impalas (I too, think they are garbage!). I love the Code 3 Super Visor light too, it makes me delightfully unnoticable!
1876 postsback to top
| Posted almost 8 years ago
I have a 2007 Crown Vic. I like the car as a patrol car, but the driver's room is cramped as a K9 car. Due to Ford's "heavy duty" seats and the foward leaning headrest, it makes sitting in the car for extended time periods tough. This is with the American Aluminum insert. Trunk room is OK, even with my SWAT gear. Like Stephanie said, I wish there was a way to lean the seat back.
Will there ever be a perfect K9 vehicle? Maybe Carbon Motors will make a K9 squad.
"People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf."
"The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting."
PL Mentoring Team Member
-1 postsback to top
| Posted almost 8 years ago
I guess I am the only one here running a Charger for a K9 vehicle. I love it. Of course, in all fairness, I am not a large guy nor is my dog. My Lt. is 6'7" and has plenty of room in his Charger. THe majority of our K9 units are in Chargers, some full cages and some split. Mine is a split cage. I work on an interdiction team on the interstate and love the performance the Charger provides. We have some in the Tahoes as well. They would be my second choice.
5 postsback to top
| Posted almost 8 years ago
Chevy's new police rated pursuit Tahoes are great for K9 vehicles. The newer 2007, 2008 body styles are lower than the older Tahoe's so less wear and tear on the dog getting in and out. Not to mention the handling characteristics are very similar to and in some aspects better than the Crown Vic. One very notiecable difference is that the Tahoe has a much more stable platform when turning this provides less moving around for the dog. In the old Crown Vic you have to really watch the cornering and turning as the dog would get bounced back and fourth in the cage. We get our PPV Tahoe's for about 4 grand more than a Crown Vic and it is well worth the money. Plenty of room for equipment and still maintain the ability to pursue. We have American Aluminum cages that run the full length across where the back seat would have been. All but 3 of our 14 canine teams are in the Tahoe's now and so far they are performing exceptionally well. I have been in the impala, that sucked. Crown Vic is okay and works well, not alot of trunk room especially if you carry extra equipment for SWAT. I would love to try the charger but not sure I would want to sacrifice the room. The Charger is the only vehicle that has out run my Tahoe........


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Project 3 will address the major theme of the Conte center "Identification of cell type-specific actions of antipsychotic drugs" by taking primarily biochemical approaches to characterize key signaling proteins believed to be involved in the effects of antipsychotic drugs on specific aspects of neuronal function within corticostriatal circuits.
In Aim 1, Project 3 will follow up from recent studies carried out in collaboration with Project 1 that have found that the protein DARPP-32, which is highly enriched in all striatal medium spiny neurons (MSNs), regulates chromatin function through a novel mechanism involving phosphorylation/dephosphorylation and nuclear translocation. Other studies indicate that DARPP-32 is required for the effects of haloperidol on regulation of MSN gene expression. Project 3 will elucidate the role of DARPP-32's nuclear function in the actions of antipsychotic drugs. These studies will be carried out in collaboration with Dr. Nestler, and will be integrated with Project 4's studies of chromatin remodeling.
In Aim 2, building on results obtained in collaboration with Dr. Surmeier (Project 5) that show specific effects of the typical antipsychotic haloperidol on the dendritic morphology of striatonigral and striatopallidal (MSNs), Project 3 will identify the biochemical basis for the observed effects of haloperidol. In collaboration with Projects 2 and 5, these studies will be expanded to analysis of the biochemical effects of atypical antipsychotic drugs on the structure of MSNs, as well as of both typical and atypical classes of drug on corticostriatal projection neurons. In these studies, Project 3 will make use of translational profiling data from Projects 1 and 2, as well as gene expression data from Project 4, to identify candidate genes involved in control of MSN structure.
In Aim 3, Project 3 will work together with Project 2 in the development of new methods to exploit the power of transgenic mouse models to allow for systematic biochemical and proteomic analysis of specific neuronal cell populations within corticostriatal circuits. Project 3 will also contribute biochemical expertise to ongoing studies by the other projects, as well as contribute to future studies that are carried out collectively by the Conte Center as a result of new discoveries made.
to public health: Schizophrenia is a debilitating psychiatric disorder affecting - 1 % of the population. New therapeutic treatments for schizophrenia are needed. Project 3 will contribute to a more complete understanding of the actions of antipsychotic drugs through biochemical studies in specific populations of nerve cells.
|Snyder, Gretchen L; Vanover, Kimberly E; Zhu, Hongwen et al. (2015) Functional profile of a novel modulator of serotonin, dopamine, and glutamate neurotransmission. Psychopharmacology (Berl) 232:605-21
|Nakajima, Miho; Görlich, Andreas; Heintz, Nathaniel (2014) Oxytocin modulates female sociosexual behavior through a specific class of prefrontal cortical interneurons. Cell 159:295-305
|Dietz, David M; Kennedy, Pamela J; Sun, Haosheng et al. (2014) ýýFosB induction in prefrontal cortex by antipsychotic drugs is associated with negative behavioral outcomes. Neuropsychopharmacology 39:538-44
|Svenningsson, P; Berg, L; Matthews, D et al. (2014) Preliminary evidence that early reduction in p11 levels in natural killer cells and monocytes predicts the likelihood of antidepressant response to chronic citalopram. Mol Psychiatry 19:962-4
|Meyer, Douglas A; Torres-Altoro, Melissa I; Tan, Zhenjun et al. (2014) Ischemic stroke injury is mediated by aberrant Cdk5. J Neurosci 34:8259-67
|Surmeier, D James; Graves, Steven M; Shen, Weixing (2014) Dopaminergic modulation of striatal networks in health and Parkinson's disease. Curr Opin Neurobiol 29:109-17
|Heiman, Myriam; Kulicke, Ruth; Fenster, Robert J et al. (2014) Cell type-specific mRNA purification by translating ribosome affinity purification (TRAP). Nat Protoc 9:1282-91
|Oh, Yong-Seok; Gao, Pu; Lee, Ko-Woon et al. (2013) SMARCA3, a chromatin-remodeling factor, is required for p11-dependent antidepressant action. Cell 152:831-43
|Nestler, Eric J (2013) Treating the brain deep down: Brain surgery for anorexia nervosa? Nat Med 19:678-9
|Svenningsson, Per; Kim, Yong; Warner-Schmidt, Jennifer et al. (2013) p11 and its role in depression and therapeutic responses to antidepressants. Nat Rev Neurosci 14:673-80
Showing the most recent 10 out of 20 publications


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Kacy Hill Is Kanye West's Hope for the Future
After working as a backup dancer and model, the 21-year old was discovered by Kanye, and now makes progressive R&B akin to FKA twigs.
Kanye West "Black Skinhead"
Kanye West might be taking this whole Yeezus thing a little too seriously. This dude doesn't even appear in his own music video anymore.
Kanye West – Yeezus GIF Review
We bring you a not so average review of Kanye West's new album Yeezus.


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Leonard McKee, born abt. 1773-died 1845 Franklin, PA.
Looking for relatives- surnames connected to Leonard are-Holcomb, Roof, Bull, Stilwell, Allen, Bowman, Williams, Kendall,Crofut, Bonney, Varney, Biles, Lantz, and Stone. Most familys settled in and around Bradford county. Leonard, is mentioned in , "Pioneers and Patriots" stating he came to , Franklin, PA. in 1822. Most of deceased are buried in Franklin Christian Church cemetery, Beech Flats, Riverside, and West Franklin cemeterys. Many branches lived in Monroeton , Franklindale, and Canton, PA. My gggrandfather was John McKee, born 1806, he married, Martha Holcomb. John, is son of Leonard.Any help would be greatly appreciated. Sandi


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Total =$36.98
This MasterPieces 18"" x 24"" Extreme Color Glow 300PC EZ Grip Glow-in-the-Dark Puzzle offers vibrant, exciting scenes, both day and night! Created by the talented Michael Alan Searle, this puzzle features truly mouth-watering tangles of brightly colored lollipops, gum drops, candy ropes, and more. Turn out the lights to watch this candy glow! For the past twenty five years Michael Alan Searle has enjoyed a successful career as a freelance illustrator, designer, and creative director. His career has taken him from the tropical islands of Hawaii to the European Continent. He is now based out of Florida. The EZ-Grip technology used to make this puzzle offers larger puzzle pieces that snap together perfectly, without compromising image quality. To reduce its impact on our environment, the chipboard used in this puzzle is made of recycled material.


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Sony Xperia Z2: I need help with Mediaserver problems
I keep having problems with Mediaserver on my Z2, when I try to copy videos onto my Z2 (both the internal storage and the SD card) the copy seems to get stuck for a bit and then I get an error message saying that I can't copy "filename" to the device, do I want to skip it, skip all or cancel.
I also keep getting an error message when I try to charge my phone saying that the power is insufficient to charge my phone and that I need to stop some apps on my phone so it can charge. I wasn't using any apps at the time when I got this error message so I checked my power management section in the settings and Mediaserver was taking up 68% of my battery.
I've been trying to find a solution to this for a few hours and the only solution i've been able to find so far is to use the mediaserver killer app but when I tried using it my screen just flashes white and it immediately exits out of the app.
I just checked my power management section again and MediaServer is down to 41% battery useage but this still seems outrageous for something that i'm not even useing
Any help would be greatly appreciated
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Easter Egg Hunt
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Easter Egg Hunt Bernice Area at Grand Lake State Park
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Come and enjoy an old-fashioned Easter Egg Hunt for children of all ages at the Bernice Area at Grand Lake State Park. Bring your own camera to have your children's picture taken with Peter Cottontail. Over 3,000 candy and toy filled eggs will be up for grabs and the event will take place rain or shine. There will be four age groups for children up to 12 years of age.
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But what I find particularly interesting about today's news is that it's framed in terms of supporting teaching and learning and in terms of researching what it means to do so in an online (and a massively online) setting, and how that in turn can benefit the offline, on-campus experience. According to the press release, the two universities will use the platform to "research how students learn and how technologies can facilitate effective teaching both on-campus and online. The edX platform will enable the study of which teaching methods and tools are most successful. The findings of this research will be used to inform how faculty use technology in their teaching, which will enhance the experience for students on campus and for the millions expected to take advantage of these new online offerings."
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My annoyance stems from the Marshall McLuhan quote used pervasively throughout the talk:
We shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us.
The talk's content is centered around this idea with respect to computers. By the end, it is asking some grandiose questions, such as, "What if, while reading an article, you could annotate it, challenge the assumptions and share your insights with the world?" and "What if you could collaborate with a computer in a symbiosis between man and machine?"
What I got from the talk was an interpretation more akin to
We shape our computers and thereafter our computers shape us.
That is, the only thing considered in this shaping is the computer. It is more techno-utopian/deterministic than I'm comfortable with. I come away from this (and similar) talks with the impression that the speaker is imagining a scenario where a closer collaboration between computer and man opens up a wonderous as-yet-unimagined future. Unfortunately, it strikes me that the speaker is imagining only the computer.
I don't doubt that there are wonderous things to be had from expanding technology where it becomes, perhaps, part of the "self", whatever that exactly means. But it is folly to believe that technology alone is sufficient for such a future.
Oddly, the talk chides those who develop technology without contemplating the bigger question of technology as a medium, then deftly avoids any mention of how you explore that medium. At the same time, it argues that by not exploring the medium it has put us into a development rut.
This "technology alone" kind of thinking doesn't fill me with confidence. I remember the heady days of the Internet when claims that easy access to information and the ability to connect people would usher in a new era of human cooperation. To that extent, it was certainly true. But it also simplifies the creation of high-volume echo-chambers, which has led to a disturbing rise of populism.
I agree with Seigel: we should be exploring technology as a medium. But let's not be so naive as to think by simply doing so, good things will happen. Nasty stuff can happen too. The medium of technology alone is not sufficient for a prosperous future.]]>
I was shown a wonderfully devious C program today.
This will produce a huge object file and take some time to compile. It's just the kind of cleverness that appeals to me.
But it's dependent on the object file format. I've been working with the GOFF format on mainframes of late and GOFF actually has a mechanism to handle this. I decided to try this C bomb with XLC, IBM's C compiler on the mainframe.
To start, the original program has to be changed slightly so that XLC will accept it.
int main[0x10000000]={1};
There are two reasons for this. First, XLC complains about lacking a
type declaration for main, so we put in the
int. Secondly, the size
of a data object in GOFF is limited. The largest object I could get
to work was 1GB, so that already makes it less susceptible to this
Here's what happened when I ran XLC on the above program on one of the z/OS machines I use for work.
% cat t.c int main[0x10000000]={1}; % xlc -q64 -c t.c % wc -c t.o
2400 t.o
I'll note that the compilation only took a few seconds.
In GOFF terms, that's a reasonably tiny object file. If we take a look at the innards of the file, we can see that it's got the correct length of 0x40000000. (Some of the unnessary stuff has been elided for clarity. The output of the tool to view object files on z/OS is a little cryptic.)
ESD OWNER/ ITEM ITEM ESDID TYPE PARENT OFFSET LEN/ADA >000005 ED 000004 0 0 0 FILL BYTE: 0 NAME(C_WSA64) >000006 PR 000005 000000 40000000 NAME(main)
This says that the data for
main is stored with symbol number 6 in
C_WSA64 class (where "class" is roughly equivalent to a section)
and has a fill byte of 0. The fill byte is the important part. It
says that any part of the data not included in the text section will
be filled with 0s. And sure enough, if we check the text records we
only see one record, with a 1 in the first 4 bytes.
Compiling the program on my FreeBSD system at home with clang results in an ELF file that is over 1 GB.
So score one for GOFF! Your bank is safe from this code golf compiler bomb. However, if you need to store a large static array, well, you're out of luck.]]>
Martin Cracauer recently described why he appreciates the fast turnaround time of short observe-orient-direct-act (OODA) loops in software development. I agree that faster feedback makes for better (or at the very least, more enjoyable) development, but what happens when you don't have it?
I've run into this kind of thing a few times in my career. In the past I've worked on embedded systems where the development environment is separated from the execution environment and emulators are not available. On my current project, I have to deal with very slow turnaround time for various reasons that aren't worth getting into. Suffice it to say that changing the environment to facilitate faster feedback would take significantly longer than just living with the existing delays.
As Martin's post illustrates, distraction is the enemy in such situations. It takes discipline to stay focused and keep going with the task at hand. And the longer the period of inaction, the harder it is to stay focused. How can you fill this idle time with meaningful work?
The way I've been doing this recently is to subvert (read: hack) the usual build process and hypthesize a lot. It sounds weird, but it seems to be working for my team.
In my recent project I'm a little lucky in that it's a porting effort. Another way to say this is that the system itself doesn't actually work -- we're trying to make it work. So the common feedback loop of only adding working code doesn't quite apply. For the most part we make a change and see if it got things further along.
We don't do this blindly, of course. A faster feedback loop would be appreciated, but we don't have it. So we kind of make it up. The build process is such that we can inject some changes at various points to avoid some of the slower parts of the build at the expense of having those changes actually be usable by the build process. In other words, we end up altering intermediate and binary files directly.
While this is going on, we throw out hypotheses as to what will work and discuss them in a group. (One might cheekily refer to this as actual "computer science".) It helps us understand the system we're porting better since it's too big to understand and the time pressures to get it to run as soon as possible are too great. Navigating the code this way is rather enlightening. We even project it onto a screen and group debug/navigate when it seems apropos.
As I said, I'd prefer to have a faster build cycle but it's not there,
so I've had to make do with what I've got. I certainly won't claim
this kind of workflow to be "the way", but it's worked pretty well for
us so far.
Today demonstrated why I don't take security questions seriously.
I called up Presto to deal with an issue that had arisen with replacing a damaged card. I was asked the card number and the security question that was associated with my account (something to do with a pet's name, probably).
Now, I should mention that when I fill out security questions, I generate small, random passwords for the answers and save them in my password manager. I have no idea what the answers are, just like I have no idea what the password is that I use to login to the site.
So when I was asked the security question I said, without hestitation, "I have absolutely no idea. Probably gobbledygook."
After answering some questions about personal information, I "got access" and (unsuccessfully) dealt with the card problem. I was then given a mini-lecture about how security questions are necessary to help keep my account secure.
Apparently it didn't dawn on the customer service representative that I just bypassed the whole security question portion of "keeping my account secure".
This is why I don't take them seriously. If I'm online and trying to use them, I consider them to be another password since finding real answers probably isn't all that difficult. If I'm offline and encounter them, I always get by without knowing the answer.]]>
I started working at IBM last year on mainframe compilers with the goal of making mainframes feel a little more modern. Hence, a lot of my time is spent in z/OS. The interface I use to z/OS is Unix System Services (USS, a.k.a. the command line), but if I were up for bucking the whole moderm thing, I could break out the ol' 3270 terminal and work that way.
Part of the reason I took the job was the opportunity to get paid to work on compilers, but also because I have a fascination with older computer technology. Working with mainframes for the past year I've had to navigate some practices I don't care for, but I've also come away with a deep appreciation for the technology at work in machines that can still run code from 50 years ago.
I've got a lot to learn about mainframes and what I do know may not be entirely accurate, but here are some things that stand out from the past year.
USS on z/OS is POSIX compliant. That version of POSIX, however, is not exactly recent.
When you write scripts and systems programs in an environment whose standard is 20 years old, you soon realize how much you take for granted when you're used to modern Linux and BSD systems. The default interactive shell makes you pine for a 3270 terminal. If Bash is available, there's a good chance it's from 1997. Any other shells? Forget it.
It took a while but I'm content with my set up (Bash is now circa 2011) and I'm more comfortable with the primitiveness of much of the system. It's made me think in different ways about how to implement some things, which I appreciate. It's not yet at the point where it's a serious impediment, but I'll be honest in that it's walking a fine line.
As for system interfaces via C, well, that's for a future post.
As soon as you attempt to get modern software working on z/OS you will run into ASCII/EBCDIC issues. Even copying files between systems (or working, say, on remote files with TRAMP in Emacs) requires some forethought.
You find out very quickly just how little attention is paid to dealing with anything beyond ASCII in many software projects. This is understandable since few people have access to mainframes and of those that do, few attempt to run modern software on them.
EBCDIC has been railed on at length in the past and I won't rehash it here. Suffice it to say that EBCDIC lost, but it's still on mainframes so you can't ignore it. z/OS supports ASCII and UTF-8, but it's not as simple as just saying, "I'll use that instead of EBCDIC."
Probably the most maddening thing about mainframe development is that you're relegated to running everything on an actual remote system; you don't do things in a local virtual machine. (It is possible, but no one really does it, usually citing performance.)
This comes with all the disadvantages you would imagine: lack of control of resources, BOFHs, reliance on the network, differences between machines, and so forth. It just adds friction to the whole development process. Also, you don't get privileged access on these systems, which can be real pain.
Let's just say I'm not a fan and leave it at that.
One of the most important concerns in my work, if not the most important, is backward compatibility. It's also the most compelling part of my job.
The depths of compatibility in z/OS is pretty incredible. For one thing, z/OS supports three addressing modes: 24, 31, and 64 bit. 24-bit is compatible with the memory subsystem on the System/360! That said, 31-bit compatibility is more important since 24-bit isn't used much, as far as I know.
Beyond that, it's the language interoperability that is more fascinating. COBOL and PL/I are common on the mainframe, in addition to assembler. I haven't heard of much C/C++. It is vitally important to (most? all?) IBM's mainframe customers that anything new work with existing programs and libraries. (CICS and DB2 are the canonical examples.)
These things don't necessarily share data layouts and calling conventions, but you want native code to call native code, so how do you deal with that? That's an engineering aspect of my job that's keeping my interest right now. Trying to get good answers to the problem of making the new work with the old and looking at ways to transition the old to the new with low cost and no downtime is enough to make me not get too annoyed with the not-so-great aspects of mainframe development.
Working on mainframes is wildly different than anything else I've done before and while it has its frustrations, it also has its rewards. There are a lot of little things that don't match up with what I would consider to be standard development practice, but I'd like to think I'm mature enough to not assume it is wrong simply because it is different from what I know. Injecting some different approaches and learning a lot along the way is part of the enjoyment.
On top of that, I have, once again, lucked into working with some great people. I genuinely look forward to going to work.
I was lucky enough to attend ELS this year since I was able to make it coincide with a vacation. Overall, it was a wonderful experience. The talks were interesting, the conversation was invigorating, and the organization was seamless. Kudos to the organization committee for running such a great ship.
In terms of work with Lisp, I haven't done much in the past eight years since I defended my thesis. I did a lot of Lisp hacking back then, but work and other things have prevented me from doing anything with it since. I attended ILC 2014 in the hopes of getting involved again, but sadly, that didn't happen. Things are different now and, after attending this year's ELS, I'm looking forward to contributing in some way.
In general, I was quite happy with the talks. I didn't read any of the proceedings ahead of time and aside from a couple of talks, that didn't hinder my ability to follow what was going on. Most of the presentations were enjoyable and there were only a few moments where my mind wandered into "please end this person's presentation misery" territory.
One talk that stuck with me, in a good way, was Stefan Karpinski's keynote on Julia. It addresses something that has always been a pebble in my programming language shoe: numbers. Do they have to be entirely intrinsic? No. I've seen this before, but it was great to see how Julia attacks it. I really like its approach.
The talk did reaffirm my love/hate relationship with live coding during a presentation. Although mostly canned, there were still those debugging moments and other small disorienting things. It came dangerously close to being a window into someone's coding session instead of a demonstration.
Another idea that connected with me was James Anderson's somewhat confrontational idea of inferring system descriptions (pdf). I've always appreciated attacks on sacred cows and he was unafraid to ask why we are writing system descriptions at all. Build systems and dependency management has always been a fascinating bugbear for me and I'd love to try a different approach. James' idea of making the Lisp system spit out the dependencies seems like something worth trying.
The standout talk for me was Christian Schafmeister's talk about CANDO, not only due to the technical content, but the infectious enthusiasm of the presentation itself. CANDO is a system for creating and working with molecules using Clasp, which is a version of Common Lisp on LLVM – the thing I'm working on these days – that makes interoperating with C++ seamless. Dr. Schafmeister has been working for a long time on this and it shows. This is a project I'd like to work on.
Conferences are all about the chatter and, for not knowing anyone, I'm happy to say that everyone I interacted with was friendly and inviting. I was a bit nervous about just walking up to a table and joining a conversation, but no one seemed to mind and were happy to address "the new guy" without making me feel alienated. The social atmosphere is what really won me over.
Again, many praises to the conference organizers for getting good catering and creating lots of opportunity for conversation. Special mention goes to Jon Atack for organizing a social dinner on Monday night. This was my only chance for an evening social event since I ended up missing the conference banquet.
One theme that I noticed, and quite liked, was an apparent willingness to write programs that would interoperate with outside entities. I got less a sense of that in the past, although it may well have existed. It seemed like people were more willing to use Lisp as part of a heterogenous deployment rather than the "be-all and end-all". Maybe reimplementing some things isn't worth it.
The hacker ethic is alive and well in the Lisp community, but in some cases it was hopelessly childish. At this point, chiding other languages about closures has run its course. There's no need to bring this point up except in cases where communities in other languages insist on taking credit for their existence. I suspect the tolerance of the smug Lisp weenie has worn thin and it probably shouldn't be pushed any further.
Packaging and dependencies is still done poorly and no one can agree on what works. I was in on a few conversations about it and I can't say there was anything close to a consensus. ASDF is important but isn't enough. Quicklisp is great but not sustainable. I'm sure dependency management will be a pain when I start to develop again, but then, I'm not particularly happy with other language approaches either.
There was a lot of talk about better documentation. I heard "we're getting to it" a bit too much to trust that anything will come of it, however. And as much as I sympathize with the UltraSpec, but I don't think official documentation should be in a wiki (although a searchable HyperSpec would be nice).
As much as I hate to admit it, specialization and optimization are important elements of any system or library. It has to perform well in many circumstances. It can't just be possible to do something, it has to be offer a reasonable path to such performance, with documentation or clear coding idioms. I saw a lot of "look what is possible" and not "look how to do it". There was too much focus on extensibility that likely no one would use. Extensiblity should not be a goal in and of itself; it's rarely a selling point.
On a purely personal note, I'm pretty sure I got Robert Standh's cold while I was there. I won't hold that against him, though. ;)
I'm going to have a go at doing something to help Clasp. I didn't know about it until the conference and was thinking about CL and LLVM on the flight over, so it seems very apropos.
My connectivity during my vacation was pretty terrible (not the conference or the venue's fault) so I didn't actually get to do anything until I got home – which means back to work tomorrow. Still, I'm excited about Lisp development again and after a few years of work under my belt, I'm sure my views will be a little different this time around, likely for the better.
Found this in my collection of books. Almost forgot about it. This great repository reminded me of it.
After nearly 10 years of using OS X as my primary OS for personal work, I switched away in late 2014. I consider it to be the best tech decision I made last year.
I started using OS X in 2005 when 10.4 (Tiger) was released. I ditched Linux at the time because I needed to print things and Linux was awful at it; OS X wasn't. I was very productive with OS X and had no serious complaints. When 10.6 (Snow Leopard) came out, I was content.
The pangs of dislike started to show up in 10.7 (Lion). The iOS-like GUI and "features" such as Launchpad didn't resonate with me. As things progressed, I became increasingly annoyed with the environment.
By the time I upgraded to 10.10 (Yosemite), my Macbook Pro no longer felt like a personal computer. Each upgrade was spent fighting the newest bells and whistles in order to keep my environment comfortable and familiar. I spent a lot of time going through the System Preferences, figuring out what I had to turn off in order to get my sanity back.
Furthermore, I found that I had stopped using the majority of the primary apps that ship with OS X: Mail, Safari, iTunes, and Apple Creativity Apps/iLife. For the most part, I ran essentially three apps: Firefox, MailMate, and iTerm2. Most of my work was done in terminals. The culture of the operating system at this point was more about sharing than personal productivity.
In short, I was working against the grain of the environment. It was a gradual transition, but OS X went from a useful tool set to get my work done to an obnoxious ecosystem of which I no longer wanted to be a part.
More damning than the lack of personal connection, though, was the complete lack of transparency and general decline in software quality, as I perceived it.
I basically got no useful information prior to system upgrades. Descriptions like "bug fixes" or "security fixes" say nothing and the links provided weren't much more illuminating. Furthermore, I had no idea as to the size of the download, so I couldn't set any reasonable expectations as to the time I was going to spend waiting.
The 10.10 upgrade was egregious. The fact that the upgrade could take multiple hours due to an incredibly slow directory merge is, simply put, the work of amateurs. Knowing about it ahead of time saved me a lot of frustration, but that kind of thing shouldn't ship. And if it does, at least don't get my hopes up by saying "1 minute remaining" for the better part of an hour.
Messages in 10.10 is a complete shitshow. It's a stunning regression. I gave up on it shortly after Yosemite was installed. The content was frequently out-of-order, mislabeled as new, and the conversation usually unparsable.
There are lots of other little things that irk me: mds being a hog, distnoted being a hog, lack of virtualization, other system services mysteriously firing up, bogging the system down. It doesn't help that the Macbook Pro I have is one of those lemons that overheats easily, thus kicking the fans into "rocket taking off" mode. At this point, my default position on Apple software in OS X has moved from "probably good" to "probably not OK". They seem more interested in pumping out quantity by way of more upgrades. It's death by a thousand cuts, but it's death nonetheless.
After reflecting on all this, I came to the realization that I was frustrated and disappointed by OS X, and I didn't see it getting better. I simply wasn't enjoying myself.
So I quit.
Once I quit, I was met with different frustrations, but they didn't feel like hopeless frustrations. I've gone back to a desktop system running Linux (for now) and while I consider it markedly inferior to OS X in terms of usability, it feels like a personal computer again. I'm enjoying the experience and I look forward to working with it, even when it's a monumental pain in the ass.
Maybe I just needed a change of scenery, but I do know that I no longer felt welcome in the OS X world, which is ultimately why I had to leave.
I've come to the conclusion that, for me, ORMs are more detriment than benefit. In short, they can be used to nicely augment working with SQL in a program, but they should not replace it.
Some background: For the past 30 months I've been working with code that has to interface
with Postgres and to some extent, SQLite. Most of that has been with SQLAlchemy (which I quite like) and Hibernate (which I don't). I've worked with existing code and data models, as well as designing my own. Most of the data is event-based storage ("timelines") with a heavy emphasis on creating reports.
Much has been written about the Object/Relational Impedance Mismatch. It's hard to appreciate it until you live it. Neward, in his well known essay, lays out many cogent reasons why ORMs turn into quagmires. In my experience, I've had to deal directly with a fair number of them: entity identity issues, dual-schema problem, data retrieval mechanism concern, and the partial-object problem. I want to talk briefly about my experiences with these issues and add one of my own.
Perhaps the most subversive issue I've had with ORMs is "attribute creep" or "wide tables", that is, tables that just keep accruing attributes. As much as I'd like to avoid it, sometimes it becomes necessary (although things like Postgres' hstore can help). For example, a client may be providing you with lots of data that they want attached to reports based on various business logic. Furthermore, you don't have much insight into this data; you're just schlepping it around.
This in and of itself isn't a terrible thing in a database. It becomes a real pain point with an ORM. Specifically, the problem starts to show up in any query that uses the entity directly to create the query. You may have a Hibernate query like so early on in the project.
query(Foo.class).add(Restriction.eq("x", value))
This may be fine when Foo has five attributes, but becomes a data fire
hose when it has a hundred. This is the equivalent of using
which is usually saying more than what is intended. ORMs, however,
encourage this use and often make writing precise projections as tedious
as they are in SQL. (I have optimized such queries by adding the
appropriate projection and reduced the run time from minutes to seconds;
all the time was spent translating the database row into a Java object.)
Which leads to another bad experience: the pernicious use of foreign keys. In the ORMs I've used, links between classes are represented in the data model as foreign keys which, if not configured carefully, result in a large number of joins when retrieving the object. (A recent count of one such table in my work resulted in over 600 attributes and 14 joins to access a single object, using the preferred query methodology.)
Attribute creep and excessive use of foreign keys shows me is that in order to use ORMs effectively, you still need to know SQL. My contention with ORMs is that, if you need to know SQL, just use SQL since it prevents the need to know how non-SQL gets translated to SQL.
Knowing how to write SQL becomes even more important when you attempt to actually write queries using an ORM. This is especially important when efficiency is a concern.
From what I've seen, unless you have a really simple data model (that is, you never do joins), you will be bending over backwards to figure out how to get an ORM to generate SQL that runs efficiently. Most of the time, it's more obfuscated than actual SQL.
And if you elect to keep the query simple, you end up doing a lot of work in the code that could be done in the database faster. Window functions are relatively advanced SQL that is painful to write with ORMs. Not writing them into the query likely means you will be transferring a lot of extra data from the database to your application.
In these cases, I've elected to write queries using a templating system and describe the tables using the ORM. I get the convenience of an application level description of the table with direct use of SQL. It's a lot less trouble than anything else I've used so far.
This one seems to be one of those unavoidable redundancies. If you try to get rid of it, you only make more problems or add excessive complexity.
The problem is that you end up having a data definition in two places: the database and your application. If you keep the definition entirely in the application, you end up having to write the SQL Data Definition Language (DDL) with the ORM code, which is the same complication as writing advanced queries in the ORM. If you keep it in the database, you will probably want a representation in the application for convenience and to prevent too much "string typing".
I much prefer to keep the data definition in the database and read it into the application. It doesn't solve the problem, but it makes it more manageable. I've found that reflection techniques to get the data definition are not worth it and I succumb to managing the redundancy of data definitons in two places.
But the damn migration issue is a real kick in the teeth: changing the model is no big deal in the application, but a real pain in the database. After all, databases are persistent whereas application data is not. ORMs simply get in the way here because they don't help manage data migration at all. I work on the principle that the database's data definitions aren't things you should manipulate in the application. Instead, manipulate the results of queries. That is, the queries are your API to the database. So instead of thinking about objects, I think about functions with return types.
Thus, one is forced to ask, should you use an ORM for anything but convenience in making queries?
Dealing with entity identities is one of those things that you have to keep in mind at all times when working with ORMs, forcing you to write for two systems while only have the expressivity of one.
When you have foreign keys, you refer to related identities with an identifier. In your application, "identifier" takes on various meanings, but usually it's the memory location (a pointer). In the database, it's the state of the object itself. These two things don't really get along because you can really only use database identifiers in the database (the ultimate destination of the data you're working with).
What this results in is having to manipulate the ORM to get a database identifier by manually flushing the cache or doing a partial commit to get the actual database identifier.
I can't even call this a leaky abstraction because the work "leak" implies small amounts of the contents escaping relative to the source.
Something that Neward alludes to is the need for developers to handle transactions. Transactions are dynamically scoped, which is a powerful but mostly neglected concept in programming languages due to the confusion they cause if overused. This leads to a lot of boilerplate code with exception handlers and a careful consideration of where transaction boundaries should occur. It also makes you pass session objects around to any function/method that might have to communicate with the database.
The concept of a transaction translates poorly to applications due to their reliance on context based on time. As mentioned, dynamic scoping is one way to use this in a program, but it is at odds with lexical scoping, the dominant paradigm. Thus, you must take great care to know about the "when" of a transaction when writing code that works with databases and can make modularity tricky ("Here's a useful function that will only work in certain contexts").
At this point, I'm starting to question the wisdom behind the outright rejection of stored procedures. It sounds heretical, but it may work for my use cases. (And hey, with the advent of "devops", the divide between the developer and the database administrator is basically non-existent.)
I've found myself thinking about the database as just another data type that has an API: the queries. The queries return values of some type, which are represented as some object in the program. By moving away from thinking of the objects in my application as something to be stored in a database (the raison d'être for ORMs) and instead thinking of the database as a (large and complex) data type, I've found working with a database from an application to be much simpler. And wondering why I didn't see it earlier.
(It should be made clear that I am not claiming this is how all applications should deal with a database. All I am saying is that this fits my use case based on the data I am working with.)
Regardless of whether I find that stored procedures aren't actually that evil or whether I keep using templated SQL, I do know one thing: I won't fall into the "ORMs make it easy" trap. They are an acceptable way to represent a data definition, but a poor way to write queries and a bad way to store object state. If you're using an RDBMS, bite the bullet and learn SQL.
Earlier I theorized that after a web service you find useful becomes "social, and a lot more fun", it becomes something that you might, occasionally, find useful.
In the case of Prismatic, this seems to have borne itself out. It went from providing interesting links to pushing clickbait. I can't be bothered to try and train it any more. Maybe I'm a curmudgeon? I may have to adjust my theory to take that into account.
My kingdom for an editor.
Let X be a reasonably new web service that you find useful, enjoyable, and would consider paying for. The following statement, with a probability of nearly 1.0, will be issued by that service.
The big change is that X is social now, and a lot more fun.
X is now a service that you might, occasionally, find useful.]]>
This past weekend, I checked my Twitter feed and I noticed I was suddenly following a bunch of accounts that I had never seen before. I immediately sensed something was up, which was confirmed when there were posts from me in Russian (note: I don't speak, nor can I write, Russian).
I immediately changed my password and revoked access to most apps that could access my Twitter feed. Changing my password ended up being a bit of a chore, but it eventually happened. Things have settled down and are back to normal.
What was particularly interesting about this was that right after I changed my password, I got an email from Adobe:
As we announced on October 3, Adobe discovered sophisticated attacks on our network involving the illegal access and removal of a backup database containing Adobe IDs and encrypted passwords. We are writing to let you know that your Adobe ID was in the database taken by the attackers -- but, importantly, your current password was not. As a result, we did not reset your password. We have no reason to believe that your Adobe ID account is at risk or that there has been unauthorized activity on your account. The database taken by the attackers came from a backup system that contained many out-of-date records and was designated to be decommissioned. Adobe's authentication system of record, which cryptographically hashes and salts customer passwords, was not the source of the database that was taken. (Emphasis mine.)
How sweet of them to tell me this in a timely fashion. It's only been two and half months.
I heard of the (egregious) Adobe breach, but to my knowledge, I didn't have an Adobe account. Apparently I did, so I changed the password on it anyway, but Adobe's wording has me wondering a few things.
I highly suspect that the Adobe breach was the source of the hack here, and it's my fault for recycling passwords. I use a password manager but I probably created that Adobe account before I started using a password manager. My fault for not changing my Twitter password sooner, but Adobe sure didn't help matters.
Lesson learned. Slowly go through the hundreds of accounts I have, audit the passwords or delete the account where applicable.
And don't trust Adobe.]]>
Although I work in the software industry, I am an academic at heart, so I keep abreast of what's going on in the world of research. I'm also interested in the cozy relationship that academic institutions and businesses are being encouraged to undertake here in Canada.
A recent article in The Economist describes some of the problem with positive results oriented science, and notes
On data, Christine Laine, the editor of the Annals of Internal Medicine, told the peer-review congress in Chicago that five years ago about 60% of researchers said they would share their raw data if asked; now just 45% do.
I wonder, if I'm a researcher being funded by a company (perhaps being viewed as labour with good tax benefits), would I be willing (or even allowed?) to share data that may be generating revenue for said company?
I have my doubts.]]>
I've often thought that if I were to do another degree (or even just take some more courses), it would probably be in economics. I think that's because from what I've read, it's similar to computer science in that there seems to be a vast gulf between theory and practice.
I listened to an interesting lecture by Ha-Joon Chang that made me even more interested: 23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism and what they mean for our economic prospects.
While the title is a little "folksy" for me, the content was worth listening to. Dr. Chang seems like a pretty reasonable person and the beliefs he claims are commonplace in economic thinking don't fit with what I've seen. Chang's approach seems like it would make sense as opposed to the dogma I hear about the topic.
It reminds me a lot of software engineering.
Eugene Wallingford wrote something that struck a chord with me with respect to taking notes:
Foremost, having no laptop affects my blogging. I can't take notes as quickly, or as voluminously. One of the upsides of this is that it's harder for me to distract myself by writing complete sentences or fact-checking vocabulary and URLs.
In my experience, electronic note-taking is more of a distraction than it is helpful. Taking notes on a laptop (or worse, a phone or tablet) reduces me to focusing on specific phrases instead of thinking about the bigger picture. This is true regardless of medium: attending a lecture, a meeting, or a reading a book.
The biggest benefit I get from lectures/meetings/books is connecting the ideas presented with my experiences. I'm working my way through Popper's The Logic of Scientific Discovery and while it's a demanding read, I don't take any notes (I can always go back and re-read it!). It's often the case that I will read five to ten pages, then dwell on it for days on end, relating it to my work in software development, specifically testing practices.
Burying myself in minutiae of a presentation causes me to get hung up on that minutiae. Getting a larger view is usually more useful. (And it is often the case that you can go back and review the little things anyway. For example, lectures aren't as ephemeral as they used to be.)]]>