text:
Pennsylvania has more amusement park rides than any other state, with 9,300 registered rides. And its parks are unmatched in safety, Gov. Tom Corbett said in a June press release, because of the state's rigorous ride-inspection program.
But a PublicSource investigation shows that the state agency that oversees amusement parks doesn't track the safety inspection reports that parks are required by law to file each month they are open.
State records show that more than half of Pennsylvania's permanent parks and water parks did not turn in all of their 2012 reports — affidavits in which certified inspectors attest that they've performed the inspections required by law. The agency had no reports at all for 12 of the state's 117 permanent parks and water parks PublicSource analyzed.
Among the parks in the data are large amusement parks, such as Hersheypark with 80 rides, and smaller parks like The Fun Station in Gouldsboro, Pa., with just three, according to 2012 state registrations. Records show Hersheypark filed all its required reports last year. The Fun Station, in the Poconos, did not file any, according to records provided in response to a Right-To-Know request.
The Department of Agriculture's Bureau of Ride and Measurement Standards oversees the parks. Walter Remmert, who has been director of the bureau since 2011, was given a list of parks for which the bureau had no inspection reports in 2012. He said he didn't know about the missing reports until PublicSource informed him.
The agency's enforcement actions are scant. Even parks that have repeatedly failed to turn in safety inspection reports seldom pay fines, and rides are rarely shut down.
In 2011, a bureau official wrote that Scranton's Sno Cove water park in Sno Mountain ski resort had "operated all of last year with NO INSPECTIONS."
Joe Filoromo, supervisor of the bureau's Amusement Ride Safety Division, wrote in an internal email that Sno Cove's failure to inspect was "among the most blatant of violations" and should receive a "serious fine immediately."
No fine was issued.
Laura Woodburn, a spokeswoman with the nonprofit National Association of Amusement Ride Safety Officials, said it's the job of the regulators to enforce the laws. (Woodburn is also director of ride operations for Hersheypark, but does not speak on behalf of the park.)
"It's up to the police officers to make sure we're following the rules," she said. "There has to be a body that provides accountability."
Several former state inspectors said the Pennsylvania inspection program and enforcement of the law isn't what it once was.
"It was a model program. It is a laughingstock now," said Thomas Abod, a former state inspector who worked for the bureau and was furloughed in 2009. It could be great once again, he said, if properly run.
State Rep. John Maher, R-Allegheny/Washington, chairman of the House Committee on Agriculture and Rural Affairs, said that if even a few parks can get through a season without filing a single safety report, the bureau needs a better system.
"Someone ought to be investigating," Maher said. "I intend to make inquiries promptly."
Death in Texas
While amusement rides thrill many fans and bring tourism dollars to the state, they can be dangerous — and sometimes deadly.
The public was reminded of that in July, when Rosy Esparza, 52, plunged to her death in front of family members after falling out of a 14-story roller coaster at Six Flags Over Texas. Six Flags, along with local police, is conducting an investigation into the death. The Texas Department of Insurance, which regulates the industry in Texas, requires a safety inspection by parks just once a year.
That death has renewed calls for federal regulation of amusement park rides. U.S. Sen. Edward J. Markey, D-Mass, tried but failed as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives to get a bill passed for a federal agency, such as the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, to oversee amusement parks.
"A baby stroller is subject to tougher federal regulation than a roller coaster carrying a child in excess of 100 miles per hour," Markey said in a statement. "This is a mistake."
However, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Agriculture, wrote: "Pennsylvania's amusement ride safety program has a longstanding reputation for being one of the best and safest in the nation."
The department "takes seriously its charge to protect the public," the spokeswoman, Nicole Bucher, wrote in an email.
The bureau declined to answer many of PublicSource's questions, saying that the bureau's method of keeping track of inspections and accidents was complicated. When PublicSource reporters offered to travel from Pittsburgh to Harrisburg to talk with bureau officials, they did not respond.
Gov. Corbett, through a spokeswoman, declined to comment for this story, saying the Department of Agriculture speaks for him on the issue.
The last death on a Pennsylvania amusement ride, according to the bureau, occurred in September 2001. Seven-year-old Matthew Allen Potter of York Township, Pa., was on a roller coaster at the York Fair when the ride stopped suddenly and Potter was thrown forward. He died of his injuries later that night.
By law, carnivals and fairs must file inspection reports every time rides are set up, instead of every 30 days, as required for permanent and water parks.
More than 1,000 accidents were reported to the state in the last five years. The severity of the accidents is difficult to determine from the reports. Pennsylvania law requires amusement park owners to file reports of serious injuries — those that require medical attention or result in hospitalization or death.
Those injuries included concussions, a broken pelvis, two electric shocks, a broken vertebra and broken ribs.
A repeat offender
Scranton's troubled Sno Cove is one example of a park that has not regularly reported its inspections or serious accidents to the state. (Sno Cove went bankrupt in 2012 and was purchased by Montage Mountain in 2013.)
Anthony Griffith and his mother are suing Sno Cove's owner for damages for multiple injuries after the then 12-year-old was injured in a water slide accident in 2011, according to Lackawanna County court records. The Griffith family did not respond to requests for an interview.
Regina Prussack said that she, too, was injured at Sno Cove.
Prussack, who is unemployed and on Social Security disability, took her two kids to Sno Cove in July 2011. With tickets at about $20 each, her pocketbook took a hit. She expected to watch her kids splash in the water, washing away their hard lives for a few hours.
As she was getting onto the chair lift with her children, she asked the ride attendant not to start the ride until she was ready.
But the ride attendant started the ride anyway, and Prussack fell 15 feet, she said.
"People screamed and told them to stop the ride," Prussack said. "I didn't have enough time to get the bar down."
She and a friend went to the park twice and called multiple times asking for an accident report, but the park did not respond.
There was no record of the accident in the documents the bureau released to PublicSource. Nor did the bureau know the chair lift was being used as a ride and wasn't registered until PublicSource asked about it.
The chair lift was not shut down, according to bureau officials.
Montage Mountain employees did not respond to PublicSource's email messages or phone calls requesting comment for this story. Attempts to reach Sno Cove's previous president, Denis Carlson, were unsuccessful.
Today, Prussack said she suffers from a painful neck condition caused by the accident. She has popped as many as five oxycodone pills, a powerful painkiller, a day. She walks with a claw-like, four-pronged cane. She's 41.
"I can't do anything with my kids anymore," Prussack said.
The bureau responds
Earlier this month:
State has no record of safety inspections for Conneaut Lake amusement park
The agency that oversees Pennsylvania's amusement parks had no 2012 safety inspection records on file for the Conneaut Lake Park Amusement Park, which is adjacent to the banquet hall and Beach Club destroyed in a fire on Thursday.
After PublicSource asked the bureau about a number of parks that turned in no inspection reports last year, Remmert and his staff contacted the parks. Some of the parks then sent reports dated 2012 to the bureau. The bureau time-stamped the reports July 2013 and emailed them to PublicSource.
Bucher, an agriculture department spokeswoman, said the inspection reports could have initially been lost in the mail, faxed to the wrong number or misplaced. It would be unfair to penalize the parks, she said, because they had done the inspection reports during 2012.
There is no way for PublicSource to tell whether the inspection reports were completed last year or on the day they were sent to the bureau in July.
Remmert did not respond directly to whether filing inspection reports more than a year later is legal. By law, the reports are to be filed with the state within 48 hours of the inspection.
The parks that did not submit inspection reports when officials called them in July were given warnings, Bucher wrote in an email.
Reporters called all 12 parks that had no inspection reports. Most said they had filed them in 2012 with the state, though the bureau had no record of them.
Leonard Adams, owner of Adams Amusements at Conneaut Lake's amusement park, said he completed all inspection reports for 2012 and mailed them in. However, he believes the state never received them because of a mailing error.
"It makes me look bad, but I did everything the law said to do," he said, adding that he never received notification from the bureau last year about his missing inspection reports.
Others said they, too, received no notification of missing reports for 2012.
Abod, a former state inspector, said it's the job of the state inspectors to make sure owners are properly filing inspection reports with the bureau.
"It's not right. The places should be shut down" when they don't file, Abod said. "They know it."
Four inspectors for the state
It's the job of private safety inspectors to check things like a ride's brakes, latches, seat covers and seat belts every 30 days. They must then sign an affidavit, sent to the bureau, that attests to that inspection.
The private inspectors must be certified by the state and can be a park's owner, an employee or an outsider hired by the owner.
In addition, ride operators must perform daily inspections and keep a log on site that can be accessed by state officials.
But it's the bureau and its state inspectors who enforce the law. They do on-site inspections and have the power to issue warnings, require repairs and shut down rides.
Abod knows what it's like to set up and break down amusement rides in the rain, heat and snow.
He traveled the state for about five years, making sure the parks followed the law, which included checking that inspection reports were up to date in Harrisburg.
He wasn't surprised to hear the state was missing inspection reports from parks.
"Yeah, that's the state," said Abod, laughing. "Nobody is checking on them."
Ride owners try to get away with things all of the time, Abod said.
It was typical for a park to complain when a state inspector shut down a ride or issued a fine, former inspectors said. Sometimes, a fine was reduced or eliminated.
Abod once discovered an indoor inflatable ride in Philadelphia running on a gas-powered generator. The generator was emitting fumes and likely poisoning riders. If he hadn't shut it down, who knows what could have happened? he asked.
"You know what's going on. You gotta catch them," Abod said. "And it's probably worse than ever now."
That's because in 2009, there were seven state inspectors. Now there are only four to police thousands of rides.
What's the answer?
Pennsylvania's got some of the best state inspectors in the country, Abod said.
But is it possible to effectively police the industry with four state inspectors?
"There's only one guy [west] of the Susquehanna River to take care of this whole area," said Rich Yeagley, another former state inspector.
Several former state inspectors said the reputation of the bureau to follow up and enforce the law has been eroding for years. They asked that their names not be used because some of them still work in the industry.
Maher, the state legislator, said the solution is simple: The bureau needs to track who's following the law and who is not.
But others disagree. The only way to ensure safety at any amusement parks — including Pennsylvania's — is federal oversight, said Justin Reiff, who works for a Philadelphia law firm that handles many amusement-park injury cases.
"The fact that parks aren't submitting affidavits, that's a problem," he said. "Because it shows the state is not doing its job in overseeing the amusement parks."
"What's it going to take — a Texas?" he asked. "Does this state need a roller-coaster death to wake everybody up?"
Data entry was contributed by Halle Stockton, Bill Heltzel, Alexandra Kanik, Leah Samuel, Tim Israel and Meg Koleck.
Reach Emily DeMarco at 412-315-0262 or email@example.com and Natasha Khan at 412-315-0261 or firstname.lastname@example.com.
How we did it:
PublicSource analyzed thousands of safety inspection reports from the Department of Agriculture's Bureau of Ride and Measurement Standards in response to a Right-To-Know request.
The law requires a Pennsylvania amusement park to have a state-certified inspector check every operating ride and turn in inspection reports every 30 days during the months it is open. The reports must be filed within 48 hours of completion and can be mailed, faxed or filed electronically with the state.
Every park must tell the bureau the dates it is open. We matched the inspection reports with those dates, giving each park an additional seven days from the official filing date.
We analyzed 117 parks listed by the bureau as permanent parks and water parks operating in 2012. They include not only large amusement parks and and water features, but small operations such as a one-ride YMCA.
The rides the parks operate include inflatables, roller coasters, drop towers, carousels, zip lines, rock climbing walls and water slides.
Excluded from the analysis were:
- Go-kart operations, non-seasonal parks, carnivals, rentals, traveling shows, haunted attractions and unknown categories.
- The 2012 inspection reports submitted by parks to the bureau in July after PublicSource questioned officials about missing reports.
- Parks that were not operating in 2012, according to a list provided by the bureau.
- Parks that had no itineraries on record or had inspection reports with multiple or conflicting dates.
Parks that filed all of their required inspection reports with the state were considered compliant.
Parks that were missing one or more months or that filed inspection reports more than seven days after the deadline were considered non-compliant.
Only records the bureau provided to PublicSource were used to determine compliance.
The state records used included:
- Accident reports
- Inspection reports from certified private inspectors
- Inspection reports from the bureau's state inspectors
- Records related to registered rides, owners and operators
- Amusement Ride Safety Advisory Board meeting minutes
- Itineraries
- Internal emails
- Court filings
We don't have paywalls — but your support helps us bridge crucial information gaps.
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text:
We food bloggers can be a bossy group. You see a lot of "You have to try this!" and "This is the best (fill in the blank) recipe out there! Throw away any other version!". We feel strongly about food and when we find something we like, we want to share. I come by my bossiness naturally. I am an oldest child and a Leo. I have almost 40 years experience telling people what to do.
I like to think that I am not overly bossy on my site. (Please let me know if you feel otherwise.) I fully appreciate that taste is completely individual and something I love might be something you hate. We all have different opinions about what is delicious and I respect that you might hate chocolate and french fries (although I will never never understand it).
It is with restraint and respect that I tell you that I have found the last chocolate chip cookie recipe I will ever need. What I want to do is to type in all caps and tell you that you have found the last chocolate chip cookie recipe you will ever need…but I am holding my inner boss in check. I respect that you might have a much beloved recipe that you will never part with. But it is my duty as a food blogger to share my treasure.
I never really gave much thought to chocolate chip cookies until the New York Times recipe came along several years ago. Periodically I would see recipes in books and wonder why anyone would stray from the good old Tollhouse recipe. When all the hubbub died down, I made the NYT recipe and understood that a chocolate cookie is capable of subtlety and there was a difference when you used different kinds of flour, used chocolate disks instead of chips, and let the dough rest at least overnight. I made them again and again and thought I had found my until-the-end-of-time cookie recipe.
And then, just a few weeks ago, Ashley's recipe came into my life. You know Ashley, right? If you don't, you should. This very sweet very young woman is very accomplished and a very very good cook and baker. She teaches wonderful classes that happen to take place right next door to my house. I have taken a few and I look forward to taking more. I am a good cook and baker but I have learned some great things from her. Like how to make a perfect chocolate chip cookie.
What makes them so special? Three different kinds of sugar. A long creaming time. A lot of chocolate. A little trick with adding the flour and chocolate pieces to prevent over mixing. I don't know. I asked her what she thought made them so special and she answered, "It's just all those things together". All right whatever, cookie genius. What I do know is that these cookies turn out perfectly round (every single one of them!), they have loads of chocolate and no nuts (a big plus for me), and they are that perfect combination of crisp exterior and chewy interior. They also have a sprinkling of sea salt on the top of each one which makes them irresistable.
I also asked Ashley about the let-the-dough-rest theory. She said her cookies are in fact even better (is that possible?) if you refrigerate the dough for 24 hours. When I told her that I found refrigerated dough kind of a pain to scoop, she said that she turns the dough out and forms it into a log. Then she slices and bakes. Cookie genius indeed.
UPDATE 4-12-11 I have been making loads of these cookies and I think I have found the best way. Make the dough as directed below. Then split the dough into quarters. Roll each quarter into a log about 10 inches long. Wrap well in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 24 hours. Then cut the logs into ¼-inch slices and bake. I can get about 50 smaller cookies when made this way.
One Year Ago: White Chocolate Almond Chunk Cookies
Two Years Ago: Feta and Ricotta Cheese Skillet Pie
Ashley's Salted Chocolate Chip Cookies
Not Without Salt
Makes about 2 dozen
I have made no changes to the original recipe but have clarified a bit, with Ashley's blessing. I used bittersweet chocolate for my cookies but semi-sweet would be great too.
2 sticks (8 oz.) unsalted butter, softened
¼ cup granulated sugar
¼ cup Turbinado sugar
1¾ cup light brown sugar, packed
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
3½ cups all-purpose flour
1½ tsp. baking soda
¾ tsp. salt
12 oz. chocolate (use the best quality chocolate you can afford. With a serrated knife, cut chocolate into roughly ½-inch chunks.)
Sea salt
Preheat the oven to 360ºF. Set rack in the middle of the oven.
Cream the butter and the sugars on medium-high speed until light, 4-5 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl a couple of times during this process. Continue mixing while adding the eggs one at a time. Make sure each egg is incorporated before adding the next. Add the vanilla. Scrape down the bowl with a spatula. Combine the flour, soda and salt in another bowl. Mix with a whisk. With the machine on low, slowly add almost all the flour. Reserve just a bit of the mixture. Remove the bowl from the mixer and add the last bit of flour along with the chocolate. Stir with a spatula until just combined.
Using a large ice cream scoop, scoop out mounds of dough making sure there is about 2 inches between each cookie. Do not crowd them and there is no need to press the dough down. Sprinkle each mound with a bit of sea salt.
Bake sheets, one at time, until the cookies are lightly golden on the edges and a bit gooey in the center, about 12 minutes. Do not overbake! Remove sheet from oven and allow to sit undisturbed for two minutes. Then carefully transfer cookies to a cooling rack. Repeat with the remaining sheets.
(DT: I have a convection feature on my oven and was able to successfully bake three sheets at a time. If you do not have convection, I would highly recommend just doing one sheet at a time.)

subset: commoncrawl


text:
|Development Projects in the Sudan: An Analysis of their Reports with Implications for Research and Training in Arid Land Management (UNU, 1979, 58 pages)
|5. Project improvement
5.1 Research priorities
5.2 Training
To improve project performance in arid lands, a number of major research and training components can be identified from the foregoing analysis. For the sake of clarity. it may be convenient to discuss first the problems of research interest and leave the consequences for training for a following chapter. Both aspects need specific approaches and instruments for implementation. The research requirements are directed mainly towards local research institutions to increase efforts, and towards international research bodies, such as the United Nations University, to support such activities with all means possible. This will assure that internationally available knowledge and problem solving techniques can be transferred as quickly as possible, allowing efficient adjustment to the local circumstances.
In the field of training. advice will be given for the establishment of post-graduate programmes in arid land management. It is felt that major efforts for improving project performance must concentrate at first on those experts who are planning and implementing projects. Such people are mainly graduates in the field of agricultural, social, economic and other basic sciences with a broad background for the total subject matter. The specific problems of arid land management are usually not included and people learn about it by trial and error during their service at the project. To improve this situation. it is recommended that the graduate, after having accumulated some professional experience in arid land projects. pursue a period of post-graduate studies at an African university.
From the project analysis. three major questions of socio-economic concern have arisen:
1) What is the long-term yield potential of arid land under permanent
cropping patterns or grazing schemes ?
2) What is the optimum land use organization under the given natural. economic, and human restrictions ?
3) What are the determining factors for better social acceptance and economic viability of projects in arid lands?
All three questions mark particular research priorities. They have to be answered in this sequence despite the fact that scientific experiments about permanent cultivation of arid land would require time periods too long for planners to wait for. Understandable as this position may be, a solution may be found in two directions: first, experiments should be established in all key areas as quickly as possible; second, if projects must start earlier. all efforts must be directed towards using the previous evaluation data of similar projects. This consideration assumes that there is a general understanding among planners and the relevant project population that permanent cultivation is the major goal and, therefore, restrictions are accepted. If, in contrast, windfall gains are looked for, as some mechanized farming schemes have shown, then maximization of profits in the short run is of course the only interest. The author of this study takes the position that short-run considerations will not be for the country's best, and most public statements from politicians, administrators, and scientists in the Sudan support such an opinion. If this is really true. future project policies have to follow scientifically established indicators for optimal long-term land use on the one hand, and for improved social acceptance of projects on the other.
5.1.1 Long-Term Yield Potential
On the basis of the foregoing assumption, the long-term yield potential of an area is determined by natural, economic. and human factors. Previous planning of projects has usually tried to collect the available data with more emphasis on the natural than on the socioeconomic conditions. Future efforts therefore need a better balance of research activities among these three factors.
Information about natural factors, in this context, relies not only on data
of climate, rainfall, transpiration. soil structure, water levels, vegetation
cover, etc., but also calls for insights into additional aspects, such as
-the salinity risk of different irrigation systems,
-soil fertility reduction through cultivation practices,
-the surface loss following erosion problems.
-vegetation changes due to permanent cultivation, and
-weed infestation from various irrigation methods.
Such extended research on natural factors must then be combined with research
efforts to establish more details of
-relevant land use systems,
-suitable local plant breeds,
-improved native livestock herds,
-necessary plant and animal disease control,
-possibilities of increases in yield stability. and
-variability and availability of soil moisture under varying conditions.
The decisive role of water in arid land management is underlined with the
demand for particular research information, such as
-the possibilities of water conservation through methods of reducing evaporation and transpiration;
-the chances of adjusting the water supply to the specific needs of plants by varying the irrigation system, including the use of trickle irrigation, night watering, etc.;
-the risks involved in using saline water for particular soils and crops;
-the potentials of some water-collecting methods such as the catchment approach and runoff water storage; and
-the use of water sources such as dew and fog underground reservoirs, and horizontal wells.
The viability of livestock projects depends partly upon better plant
research. But besides the very complex issue of fixing the carrying capacity of
grazing areas, which apparently has not been solved satisfactorily in any
project (it therefore needs more very substantive research), some additional
aspects may find solutions through answering the following questions through
local research efforts.
a) What are the chances for improving local breeds under given natural feed conditions ?
b) What are the long-term consequences of the eradication of animal diseases for the total balance of the natural forces operating in an area ?
c) What are the necessary veterinary services and infrastructural requirements for supporting changed numbers and better quality of the animals kept in arid areas ?
d) What is the optimum combination of livestock numbers and volume of feed production. as well as of food and cash crop cultivation in irrigation projects ?
5.1.2 Human and Economic Factors
Data on human factors for most observed projects are rare for two reasons: (1
) the number of social scientists doing this type of research work is quite
limited, and (2) the data collected at the local and micro level have severe
limitations for general application. Both restrictions have to be overcome to
improve project performance. Most reports mentioned that the shortcomings of
interaction of human and natural forces have led to a high degree of
vulnerability of the resources. To illustrate this point the following research
aspects are mentioned.
a) What are the relevant agricultural production techniques which reduce soil fertility risks ?
b) What is the adaptive capacity of people for innovations at a given level of motivation and training ?
c) What are the relevant advisory services and incentives that allow a self-supporting development process ?
d) What are the goals of the local population in the development programme for their area ?
e) What are the vested interests against reducing the environmental threats in a particular project area ?
f) What are the socio-cultural factors standing in the way of modernization ?
Whether individuals or the society as a whole will gain from project
activities is expressed in terms of costs and benefits. These can be of material
and immaterial value. Their estimation has to be based upon the available
project figures as well as upon additional data about social costs and benefits,
investment sources and conditions. foreign exchange contributions or losses,
etc. Whenever possible, alternative choices for public expenditures should be
discussed before final decisions are made. To increase the chance that projects
will contribute positively, there is also the need to undertake research on all
relevant economic factors which influence the regional development as a whole,
such as
-national price and marketing policies,
-the regional availability of production factors,
-the local potential for productive employment,
-nutrition and health conditions,
-the state of education and institution building,
-the organization of marketing and credit,
-planned improvement of the infrastructure,
-the production targets of the national economy, and
-the export chances in the world markets.
5.1.3 Project Requirements
The most suitable form of organization has to be agreed upon for each type of project. Particular information needs therefore arise. Data to support such processes have to be collected from other projects in the country and must be supplemented by information from other arid regions across the national borders. In many cases. it would have been advisable for planners to tour other projects before starting their own, as this could help avoid the expensive. timeconsuming trial-and-error process which usually takes place in development projects. The information gained would be very valuable in the initial planning. Special local considerations would then be dealt with in a second, more detailed planning stage. Project size, volume. layout, and duration. as well as project administration, financing. and reporting systems. etc., can certainly be better based upon international experience than upon the planner's intuition only. Necessary in each case is a proper statement of the aims for each project in very clear terms to make it understandable for everybody involved.
Clearly, particular care must be given to the selection of the most suitable carrying institution. Projects have been implemented in the Sudan by national and international institutions in a variety of organizational setups. such as public corporations, semi-public authorities. subsidized private schemes, publicly supported collective farming programmes, etc. Future research efforts should include studies which give a ministry of planning enough basis for judgement of which project type will fit the targets best and for what reasons. They should also establish a basis for selection of the most suitable mixture of governmental and private participation, the role of co-operatives, etc.
To summarize the additional local research needs for the Sudan from the
projects' analysis, it may be helpful to differentiate according to the land
use- rainfed or irrigation, settlement or nomadic grazing schemes. For each
type, three major questions should demonstrate the needs: a) Rainfed areas What
are the most suitable crops adjusted to changing rainfall patterns ? What is the
optimal seasonal organization of labour and equipment input? Will minimum
tillage operations improve yields and restore soil fertility ?
b) Irrigation projects What organization is needed to distribute land and water rights equally ? What health aspects have to be observed in irrigation systems ? Are optimal water use models available to economize water consumption ?
c) Settlement programmes How can land ownership problems be solved before a project starts? What type of supporting services are needed to help the settlers to produce and live in the area ? What social links have to be observed to keep the danger of conflict at a low level ?
d) Nomadic grazing schemes What is the local solution to the problem of common ownership of land vs. individual ownership of herds ? What is the role of tribal land rights for the allocation of capital investment to improve pasture use ? What minimum standards of social facilities and services are needed to keep people at the schemes ?
Training needs for the project staff are apparent. They arise directly from the common problems discussed as relevant for all selected projects. Training programmes in arid land management should raise standards on ail levels of project implementation But because most decision-makers in this field are university-trained people. a programme at the post-graduate level is most essential. It must be designed in such a way that it provides advanced courses in specific management fields which will enable project officers to solve problems of permanent agricultural production. optimal organization and social acceptance, as well as economic viability of projects implemented in arid land areas.
A training programme of this type would best be located at a university of a developing country where biological. environmental, technical, and socio-economic disciplines are already established and can contribute jointly to an "integrated" arid land management approach. Looking at the African scene. no faculty seems fully equipped for such a programme, but faculties of agriculture may at least come close because by their nature they combine science and social disciplines more than any other. Such courses would benefit from a thorough mixture of theoretical and practical training, together with the provision that each participant presents his knowledge and thoughts about a particular subject in the form of a written thesis.
All these considerations lead the author to propose this training as an M.Sc. programme of 18 months' duration. A formal degree programme seems absolutely necessary for a number of reasons connected with the academic and administrative structures of a university on the one hand. and with the motivation and career aspects of the participants on the other. Additional points can be added such as the attraction of highly qualified teaching staff, the need for international funding, recognition of examinations for national and multi-national service, etc.
5.2.1 Programme Structure
Going back to the common problems of the analyzed projects, the following
points emerge for the programme:
a) The project staff and the majority of the project planners need more understanding of the specific natural and socio-economic forces operating in an arid land project area. They are apparently not always in a position to develop the area's production potential without endangering the long-term viability of the natural resources. Consequence for training: to provide the necessary course work in the natural and social sciences and in the production techniques that are most suitable for arid land areas. The time for course work should not exceed a period of ten months (including a one-month vacation).
b) The project staff needs training to organize a project in such a way that the expected targets can be reached. that flexible responses to changing conditions are possible. and that projects integrate into the overall development stream and do not remain an exclusive "government project." Consequence for training: to provide a practical experience period by doing administrative. advisory, and evaluation tasks at particular projects. The time for this practical experience should not exceed four months.
c) The project staff needs training in writing documentations from observation and data collection on the projects. Such reports, in addition to their training aspect, may interest and should motivate the responsible administrators and politicians, as well as scientists, to look into the particular needs of arid land management. Consequence for training: to present a thesis on a theme connected with the practical experience in a project. The time for this work should not exceed four months.
The selection of themes for the thesis work and the organization of a practical project period for students will depend upon a number of administrative and personal factors. They must be covered in more detail by the relevant academic regulations for an M.Sc. degree to be approved by the university in charge of the programme. But it is hoped that these aspects will be taken care of in close collaboration with the institutions responsible for project implementation.
Course content, on the other hand, can be developed by matching existing syllabuses of relevant degree courses with the experience of projects described in this analysis. The following section tries to present a proposal which should be acceptable for at least the Sudanese situation. but it is hoped that it will also have further application,
5.2.2 Course Work
From all the reports, it is evident that permanence of cultivation must have priority in all teaching activities. Project organization, social acceptance, and economic viability will come next. If ten months are available for course work, this period should be divided into three terms of three months each (plus one-month vacation), allowing half the time for the permanence of cultivation and half for the remaining three fields.
This proposal may differ from conventional approaches to develop training programmes and syllabuses. The understanding is that a post-graduate course for arid land management does not need all thinkable components from relevant science disciplines but should concentrate on the major common problem areas which have been observed over the past decades. In this sense. the proposed programme is a bottleneck approach. assuming that the participants have enough insight from their previous training and experience in all the general fields necessary to concentrate now upon the specific issues of project performance in arid land regions. In reading through the following course descriptions, the reader may ask himself whether or not the traditional lecture and seminar approach would be most appropriate for adult and experienced learners. The author believes that the introduction of participatory techniques through team and project work would improve the motivation of students and the quality of studies, as well as the ability of lecturers to guide and to co-ordinate such an interdisciplinary programme. If the following course outline does not look like an interdisciplinary approach, it must be remembered that university teachers represent disciplines and only exceptional personalities are able to combine all related subjects from other fields into their own teaching. The main point, therefore, must be to make sure that the total programme becomes interdisciplinary in such a way that the recipient student receives all relevant information and gets guidance to put it together in whatever combination needed for an interdisciplinary approach to arid land management.
A. PERMANENCE OF CULTIVATION 41/2 months
Course 1. Environment (90 hours) Climatic conditions and influence of
Climatology and hydrology. Soils and soil fertility. Soil surveys and practical assessment of soils for permanent cultivation. Resource development and conservation of suitable land areas. Principles of protection of the environment. Desert encroachment and erosion threats. Reforestation. Wildlife.
Course 2. Water (90 hours) Water sources for arid land use. Rain-fed cultivation; methods of rainwater harvesting. Irrigation from streams and wells. Reducing evaporation and seepage losses. Selecting and managing efficient water use systems. Engineering aspects. Tapping additional water supplies. Problems of salinity.
Course 3. Crops (90 hours) Natural vegetation of arid land. Introduction to subsistence and commercial crops. Optimal land use systems. Shifting cultivation. Mechanized farming practices. Plant breeding. Crop protection. Crop rotation and fertilization. Improved grassland use. Feed crops. Harvesting and post-harvest storage aspects. Fodder crops.
Course 4. Livestock (90 hours) Animals in arid lands. Livestock systems. Carrying capacities of natural and reseeded grassland. Integration of nomadic livestock in other land-use systems. Range development planning. Livestock breeding programmes. Health aspects. Livestock takeoff rates. Marketing aspects. Problems of livestock around large irrigated crop production schemes. Overstocking problems. Improved husbandry methods.
3. PROJECT ORGANIZATION 11/2 months
Course 5. Planning and Evaluation (60 hours) Public policy analysis and decision-making process. Development strategies and land-use policies. Integrated rural development. Planning methods. Project targets and instruments. Project institutions. Project finding; feasibility studies; data collection. Accompanying evaluation. Criteria for evaluation. Cost-benefit analysis. Private and social profitability. Employment generation. Settlement schemes.
Course 6. Implementation (60 hours) Management and administrative principles.
Personnel and labour management. Budgeting and financial management. Time and
risk factors involved. Central or decentralized management. Participation of the
local population. Additional services and infrastructure. Implementation of
specific projects, such as irrigation schemes. block grazing, etc. Self-interest
of the participants.
C. SOCIAL ACCEPTANCE 1 1/2 months
Course 7. Social Impact (60 hours) Language, race, ethnic and stratification of social groups in arid areas. Demography. Political and religious geography. Methods of social investigation. Interlinks of economic and social, of urban and rural change. Impact of development projects on the population. Reaction of local people to control development programmes.
Course 8. Local Participation (60 hours) Theory and methods of political inquiry. Public and development administration. Public decision-making process. Conflicts and vested interests. Social actions. Institutions for self-help. Extension and community development. Methods to organize the local population for development programmes. Motivation incentives. Responsibilities and risks involved.
D. ECONOMIC VIABILITY 1 1/2 months
Course 9. Macro Economics (60 hours) International and national demand for products supplied by projects in arid land areas. Prices and price policies. Marketing structure. National and regional development plans. Statistical methods to collect additional data. GNP and balance of payments aspects in designing projects. Selection of appropriate technologies. Employment aspects. Multi- and bilateral aid programmes. Conditions of international funding.
Course 10. Micro Economics (60 hours) Principles of cost-benefit analysis. Costeffectiveness approach. Budgeting and financing. Investment decisions. Accounting and cash flow. Finance control and financial planning. Profit and loss account. Credit and securities. Income and cost distribution among project administration and local participants. Farm data collection.


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Best Of
Michael DiSanto, UFC - Few fighters arrived in the UFC amidst more hype and expectation than Mauricio "Shogun" Rua.
The Brazilian superstar was fresh off a 13-fight run in PRIDE Fighting Championships that saw him skyrocket to the top of virtually every 205-lb ranking by buzzsawing through some of the world's best 205-lb'ers en route to winning the 2005 Grand Prix.
Few fighters arrived in the UFC amidst more hype and expectation than Mauricio "Shogun" Rua.
The Brazilian superstar was fresh off a 13-fight run in PRIDE Fighting Championships that saw him skyrocket to the top of virtually every 205-lb ranking by buzzsawing through some of the world's best 205-lb'ers en route to winning the 2005 Grand Prix.
Shogun's sole loss in PRIDE occurred during a heavyweight matchup one fight removed from the Grand Prix, though it was anything but a pecking order altering occurrence. Mark Coleman, Shogun's opponent on that fateful night, executed a beautiful takedown in the opening minute of the bout. When Shogun put his arm down to brace himself against the fall, he suffered a broken elbow, instantly halting the action.
Not to be deterred, Shogun returned to his more natural 205-lb home six months later and ran off a series of four one-sided wins to reaffirm his place atop the division. Shogun was then 12-1 in PRIDE and undefeated in the Land of the Sun in the 205-lb division. He was the future of the sport in the eyes of many and its present ruler in the eyes of more.
Unfortunately, Shogun fell woefully short of those expectations when he finally arrived in the UFC.
He was thoroughly spanked by Forrest Griffin in September 2007. Many pointed to a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament as the reason for Shogun's poor performance that night. Others questioned whether he would be able to perform to the same level using North American MMA rules, which ban soccer kicks and stomps to the head of a downed opponent, two techniques Shogun used liberally in PRIDE.
Whatever the case, the hype machine hit a brick wall with the loss to Griffin. Shogun had the opportunity to right the ship in a proposed bout with Chuck Liddell at UFC 85 back in June 2008. But a second ruptured anterior cruciate ligament derailed that fight. And his lethargic effort against Mark Coleman in his January comeback fight did nothing to derail his critics. In fact, the technical knockout win over Coleman raised further questions about his ability to return to greatness following two knee surgeries.
Those questions and more will be front and center on April 18 when Shogun and Liddell finally get it on in UFC 97's co-featured bout .
For Shogun, this fight is all about proving to the world that he remains the same ultra-athletic alpha male who wreaked havoc in Japan, a man capable of dominating in the UFC the same way he dominated in PRIDE. The first step in proving that he is that same monster is to stop Liddell on April 18.
Shogun is not a home run hitter like Rashad Evans or Quinton "Rampage" Jackson. There is no doubt that he is capable of dropping Liddell with a flying knee or a crazy high kick. But he isn't going to drop him with a single punch like Liddell's two knockout losses over the last two years.
That means Shogun needs to be very careful standing in the pocket and trading shots with Liddell, who has the sort of punching power that can end a fight in an instant with a less than pinpoint blow. Instead, his game plan should be to dart in and out with crazy attacks in the style of his old team, Chute Boxe, temporarily putting Liddell on the defensive so that he can score and retreat.
Crazy attacks mean just that: throw caution to the wind and strike aggressively with flying knees, kicks, and punches in bunches, but he needs to circle out before Liddell can set his feet and counter. In other words, Shogun needs to return to his PRIDE fighting roots and fight with the same unbridled assaults that elevated him to the top of the 205-lb world just a few short years ago.
He can rely on his extreme athleticism and explosiveness to temporarily overwhelm the 39-year-old Liddell with quick, all-out frontal assaults. But the former UFC champion isn't known as a guy who covers up for long. His longtime trainer, John Hackleman, constantly preaches that guys who cover up become nothing more than punching bags, so he trains his fighters to slip punches and fire back in the face of an attack. That is why Shogun needs to get out of Dodge long before Liddell is able to set his feet to uncork fighting ending counters.
If Shogun is able to score with repeat furious attacks, particularly as the fight extends past the opening round, Liddell will grow frustrated. His mind will start to question whether this is going to be his fourth loss in his last five fights. He will start to wonder if his better fighting days are now behind him. He will ask himself if he is too long in the tooth to compete against top fighters in their prime.
Questions lead to doubt. Doubt leads to hesitation. Hesitation leads to losses.
Liddell doesn't embark down that mental slippery slope unless Shogun shows up in great shape. If he starts sucking wind in the second round like he did against Coleman, Liddell will feed off that sign of weakness and those questions will quickly be replaced with confidence and determination, and a tiring Shogun doesn't want to face a confident, determined Liddell.
Fans who are new to the sport probably don't fully appreciate how dominant Liddell was during the three year stretch that started with his technical-knockout win over Tito Ortiz at UFC 47. He didn't just beat guys during that stretch; he scored seven consecutive knockouts. That is almost unheard of in the UFC.
Think about that for a moment. Seven consecutive wins by knockout (or technical knockout, if one wants to be precise). The winning streak alone is only one shy of the UFC record, currently held by Royce Gracie, Anderson Silva and Jon Fitch. Of course, Silva will attempt to set a new record for most consecutive wins inside the Octagon on the same night as Liddell-Rua, but even if he is able to stop Thales Leites with strikes, his longest knockout streak will remain less than half the number Liddell was able to rack up.
That means Shogun doesn't want to stand in front of Liddell and let his chin answer the question of whether Liddell, who is definitely in the twilight of his amazing career, still has the same sort of punching power that he had in his prime. If George Foreman was able to maintain his instant stopping power into his 40s, it isn't difficult to assume that Liddell's punches carry the same wrecking power that they did just two short years ago.
No, the UFC is not boxing, but punching is punching, whether in a boxing ring, the Octagon, a hockey rink or the neighborhood watering hole. And punching power is the last thing to leave an aging fighter, particularly when the fighter is a natural puncher like Liddell.
"The Iceman" is well aware of Shogun's past history of unleashing crazy attacks early in a bout, and he is undoubtedly well aware that Shogun ran out of gas very early against both Griffin and Coleman. Thus, his plan will be to start out somewhat cautiously to make sure he doesn't get caught by anything silly early in the bout. Once the fight moves into the second round, Liddell knows that he will have a distinct advantage if his opponent hasn't dramatically improved his conditioning. That is when he will begin pressing for a knockout. And believe these words: if Shogun is standing on dead legs in the second and/or third round like he was against Coleman, he is going to sleep. That is a guarantee.


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Lipoic Acid Chemical Forms: the R and S Isomers
When Alpha-Lipoic Acid is synthesized in a laboratory, a 50/50 racemic mixture of the R and S enantiomers results in what we call R/S Lipoic Acid, which is the most popular form of commercially available Lipoic Acid (also named RAS Lipoic Acid or All Racemic Lipoic Acid). Our patients know it as simply Alpha Lipoic Acid.
New technological advancements have allowed for the stabilization and isolation of the RLA (R-Lipoic Acid isomer), which is believed to account for all the benefits seen from studies with R/S Lipoic Acid. Supplementing with pure RLA, thus eliminating the presence of SLA (S-Lipoic Acid isomer), creates new opportunities for intensive nutritional support because SLA is believed to interfere with the effectiveness of RLA.
How is Stabilized R-Lipoic Acid Different From Other R-Lipoic Products on the Market?
R-Lipoic Acid is a highly unstable compound that easily polymerizes into a sticky rubber or glue-like substance if it is not prepared, stored and processed correctly. This will adversely affect bioavailability. Stable RLA is a non-hygroscopic, non-polymeric potassium salt form of RLA. The capsules are heat stable, characterized by fast dissolution rates, high solubility and absorption. They are also free of residual solvents and moisture. There are wide variations in the R/S ratios and total polymer contents of raw material and finished products now on the market. Few supplement companies have experience with RLA and are unaware of the myriad of problems associated with its encapsulation and stability. Designs for Health's Stabilized RLipoic Acid is sourced from the only stable and highly bioavailable form of R-Lipoic Acid available on the market.


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Kola Boof Calls Out Wale
Kola Boof is back in headlines for something other than her love affair with Osama Bin Laden, this time for attacking rapper Wale.
As previously reported Boof is the former mistress of the late terrorist leader and has penned a book on her tumultuous relationship with her ex-lover.
Now just days after giving an interview where she expressed guilt over "being with [a modern day] Hitler", Boof took to Twitter to attack rapper Wale for his "Pretty Girl" video.
When the visual was released in 2010, Wale was criticized by a number of people who claimed that he only used women with lighter skin tones in the final cut.
Boof obviously just caught wind of the video and took to Twitter Tuesday to call out the Maybach Music rapper as a "punk Beyotch Nigerian skin bleacher" and a "loser a** mother*cker."
"There wasn't a single Black woman in "Pretty Girls"…so what in the Fawk was he saying about African women?? His own race?"
@WALE is a little Punk Beyotch Nigerian Skin Bleacher who wants to escape his own people & gets PAID 2 do s. I know enough about @WALE …and he's a LOSER a** motherFawker in my book. Don't give a Shyte who's IN DENIAL. Fawk WALE
If #WALE was my Goshdang son I'd drown that Chimp-brained Nigerian N*ggerstock mother*cker. And feed his a**to the Red Ants. Loser mofo! And Black Women….keep making excuses & supporting these mofos…..that's what IRKs me.
Dumb a** Black Women. You would think Black Women would have 2 halves of a brain to tune out these mofos..but they the #1 supporters. This man HATES US…hates our whole Fawking existence & wants to escape blackness…and we making him rich!!??
Boof continued on her rant adding that through videos like "Pretty Girls" the Nigerian rapper was promoting skin bleaching. She also made sure to add that she was "harder than any Fawking rapper" and called Wale a "Nigerian Cl*t Beyotch and "N*ggerstock trash."
"To me….a man like WALE….is no different than a Fawking Clansmen. He just gets away with his Shyte bec. he's dark black. But let WALE have to decide between saving YOU from drowning and a European. He's a skin bleacher. Might as well be Jergen. NO DUMB A**.he doesn't "REP" Nigeria. You're just too stupid to see his messages. He promotes Fawking SKIN BLEACHING!
[…] I don't support ANY of you colorstruck Rap mother*ckers. You're ALL N*ggerstock TRASH and Black Race can do better."
Obviously irritated by her rant but trying to remain respectful, Wale fired back, calling her a "disgusting human being and "absolute disgrace."
According to this lunatic @kolaboof I promote "skin bleaching" and I hate black women. And @kolaboof thinks that because she contributed to writing a few books, that she can talk down to me.
With all due respect ms @kolaboof I can sit up here and say you were porking terrorist…like a lot of your peers say.
But I'd rather not, because I'm ignorant to @kolaboof whatever relationship you had with Ol' Boy and my ignorance to THAT particular subject will keep me quiet. W/ that said u should 2. @kolaboof your pretentious. Your a disgusting human being, an absolute disgrace to the very people you pretend to endorse. "
Boof is continuing her rant on Wale and most recently added,


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The following seems like such an elementary question, but I didn't get anywhere with it.
Suppose you are considering a Markov chain in continuous time which is transient and has an invariant measure (so one which explodes in finite time almost surely.) My question is: what does an invariant measure represent?
To fix ideas, consider the Markov chain on $S=\{0,1,\ldots\},$ which moves to the right with probability $2/3$ and to the left with probability $1/3$, and has total jump rate $q_i = 3^{i}$ at state $i \ge 1$. (To make computations nice, say that for $i=0$ the chain can only go to the right with total rate $q_0 = 2/3$).
Then it is elementary to check that this chain admits an invariant measure $$ \pi_i = \pi_0 (\frac{2}{3})^i, $$ obtained by solving the detailed balance equations. Of course the chain is also transient. Elementary Markov chain theory immediately implies that the chain is explosive, meaning that it will accumulate an infinite number of jumps in finite time almost surely.
The questions that is troubling me (even in such a basic example!) is the following: what does $\pi$ represent for this chain?
The following is a natural guess. Assume that the chain starts at $X_0$ distributed according to $\pi$. Then at the first explosion time $\zeta_0$, let the chain come back at an independent position also chosen according to $\pi$. Keep going in this fashion forever: each time the chain explodes, let it come back at a position sampled from $\pi$.
Question 1. Let $t>0$ be arbitrary. Is it true that $X_t$ has the law of $\pi$?
Question 2. If we start and restart the chain after each explosion with some given measure $\nu$ (which could be distinct from $\pi$), does $X_t$ converge in distribution to a certain measure $\mu$ as $t\to \infty$ (which could for instance be some mixture of $\pi$ and $\nu$) ?


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Internet Future Driven by User Reputation Scores
In a recent interview with EMC's Stu Miniman about the future of the web, I predicted that in 20 years, we'll all have online reputation scores. Little badges, numbers that communicate our level of authority, this sort of thing. And these reputations will have tangible impact.
Three different trends come together at some point in the future to make this happen. These trends have been underway for a while, but come together at some tipping point in the years ahead. Here's a visualization of the trends:
It's helpful to discuss each one, in the context of online reputations.
Rate performance of businesses
eBay, which went public back in 1998, played an important role in socializing the concept of people providing online ratings for online sellers. After we receive our purchase, we rate the seller. The collective wisdom identifies top sellers. Got your eye in that Donkey Kong game? Who are you most likely to trust…?
Amazon picked up on this, once it introduced third party sellers into the mix. You can see the percentage of positive ratings for the different sellers. Personally, I have paid premiums (i.e. higher prices) for the assurance that comes from a higher rated seller.
Yelp has taken this concept of rating a seller, and applied to offline consumer experiences. Want to get a burrito in San Francisco? You're likely to go with the highest rated restaurants.
These ratings make up for our lack of information about various providers of services. One could do a lot of online research, and asking friends, before buying. But these ratings do quite well as shorthand ways of assessing quality. They've made it easy to transact, without knowing someone ahead of time.
The rating ethos is expanding. On Facebook, you can 'like' people's entries. We 'love' music on Last.fm. We 'favorite' tweets. We 'digg' and 'buzz up' stories. Implicitly, we provide ratings when we share content via different social networks. Online engagement allows for this.
Migration of transparent work and information online
I found this recent Kaiser Family Foundation study fascinating. The amount of time kids spend online – smart phone, computer, television or other electronic device – is now at an all-time high. There's no denying this: future workers are going to be more accustomed to online engagement and information-seeking than any generation before. It's their lifestyle:
More generally, an important distinction from the web of the 1990s and early 2000s is that we aren't just reading and transacting. Individuals are providing the content. More every day, in fact. We have transferred some of the engagement and contributions from the offline world online. Actually, we're probably creating more content than we ever have,
For workers, the growth of Enterprise 2.0 continues. A key outcome of that? More and more work is making its way online. When it's available there, and not just in a Word document on the hard drive or email in an inbox, it's findable and usable by everyone. Your colleagues know quite well what the quality of your work and contributions are.
Do you think all of this stops, and we go back to message-relaying marathoners, smoke signals and carrier pigeons? No. Enterprise 2.0 and social media will continue their growth apace. And increasingly, this time spent online is through social media.
More and more people will be publishing their work, their ideas, their knowledge, their conversational bits, their creativity… online. It's just going to keep increasing.
Rely on social media for information
An emerging trend is the transition of where we seek information. Remember libraries, magazines and microfiche? Then the 1.0 websites where we got information? Then the portals that aggregated information from major media sites? Then search augmented all this information consumption?
Well, the next wave is to rely on our social connections to deliver interesting, relevant information to us. As was famously said by a college student in 2008:
"If the news is important, it will find me."
A recent Nielsen study confirms this growing tendency to use social media as a first stop to find information:
Admittedly, the leading social sites of today – blogs, Facebook, Twitter – have a ways to go before they become a large percentage of the population's first choice. And it'd help if Twitter could get their search working further back than a week or two.
But this survey and anecdotal evidence points toward an increased reliance on others to provide information to us.
Putting this all together
It's that last trend, still early in its cycle, that really points toward the development of formal, online reputations. When we started transacting online with complete strangers or small businesses we never knew, we needed a basis for understanding their credibility. It turns out, crowdsourced ratings are excellent indicators of quality. It also causes small businesses to be aware of the quality of their products and services.
In the years ahead, expect increased usage of social media for getting information and sourcing people, products and services.
As an example, research firm IDC just released these survey results:
"57% of U.S. workers use social media for business purposes at least once per week. The number one reason cited by U.S. workers for using social tools for business purposes was to acquire knowledge and ask questions from a community."
As reliance on people for information increases, expect an increased need for knowing which strangers provide the top quality information. Note I said "strangers" there. One thing we will continue to do is to rely on our "friends" (social media sense of the word) for ongoing daily information. The people we connect with on the various social sites.
But that's the only way we will get information. Or make decisions. Great case in point? Google's real-time search results:
If innovation is the focus of your work, wouldn't you want to be included in those Google results? Here's the thing. Google doesn't just put any old tweet or other form of real-time content in there. As Google's Amit Singhal stated:
"You earn reputation, and then you give reputation. If lots of people follow you, and then you follow someone – then even though this [new person] does not have lots of followers, his tweet is deemed valuable because his followers are themselves followed widely," Singhal says. "It is definitely, definitely more than a popularity contest," he adds.
Note his words: "You earn reputation."
PR agency Edelman created a ranking algorithm called Tweetlevel, which analyzes people on the basis of influence, popularity, engagement and trust. Tweetlevel was recently used to create a list of the top analysts on Twitter. As the author of that post noted, one purpose for the list was to answer the question: "Should they spend their limited time interacting with analysts via twitter?" Presumably if you're an analyst in the Top 50, 'yes'.
Again, reputation being used for a defined purpose.
Ross Dawson wrote a good piece about the changes coming due to the increasing visibility of "people's actions and character." He notes the impact of reputation on seeking professionals for work:
"Many professionals will be greatly impacted by these shifts. The search for professional advice is often still highly unstructured, based on anecdotal recommendations or simple searches. As importantly, clients of large professional firms may start to be more selective on who they wish to work with at the firm, creating a more streamlined meritocracy.
The mechanisms for measuring professional reputation are still very crude, yet over the coming decade we can expect to see substantial changes in how professionals are found. This will impact many facets of the industry."
And Bertrand Dupperin sees a similar dynamic playing out internally:
"Use internal social networks to build a kind of marketplace that would put work capacity and competence on a given subject in relation with needs and allow those who can apply for an assignment instead of blind assignments to those who can't."
In a world where individuals emerge as important sources of information, products and services, people will need a way to break through the limited knowledge they'll have on any one person. Look for online reputations to emerge as a way to fill that gap.
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Hutch Carpenter is the Vice President of Product at Spigit. Spigit integrates social collaboration tools into a SaaS enterprise idea management platform used by global Fortune 2000 firms to drive innovation.
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- Home
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- Motto To LOVE-ru
- No Love
No Love
Album / Collection: Character CD 4 - Yui & Oshizu
Track # 1
Description: Yui image song
Performed by: Nazuka Kaori
Lyrics: Kumano Kiyomi
Music composition: Ono Takamitsu
Music arrangement: Ono Takamitsu
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As workers or vehicles enter a lighting zone, their presence is detected and light levels increase to 100%. Lighting is activated in front of the moving person or vehicle to ensure the best possible visibility to work efficiently.
As more colleagues arrive, luminaires in the immediate area brighten to full illumination.


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This article is more than 1 year old
AMD rolls out overclockable 'Intel beater'
Often faster, always cheaper than arch-rival's CPUs, firm claims
Claiming performance to beat or at least match equivalent chippery from Intel yet at a lower price, AMD today pitched its latest Black Edition processor at gamers and enthusiasts.
The Phenom II X4 965 is clocked at 3.4GHz, the highest speed at which any current desktop processor is set to run, AMD claimed, though historically CPUs have been clocked to greater frequencies as standard.
If that's not enough, though, the chip comes unlocked for easy overclocking.
The Socket AM3 quad-core CPU contain eight megabytes of cache, four cores and two gigahertz of HyperTransport clock speed. It's on-board memory controller can address "high speed" DDR 3 memory, though AMD reckons most folk will still be using DDR 2, which the chip can also handle.
if you want to make the most of the bundled OverDrive performance utility, you will need to upgrade to DDR 3, however.
Compared with a Core i7-920, the 965 yielded a performance advantage of up to 12 per cent, according to benchmark data supplied by AMD. The 965 is $35 (£21/€25) cheaper, it claimed.
Over here, you're looking at paying between £180 and £214 for the chip. ®
AMD CPU Reviews
AMD Phenom II Socket AM3
AMD Phenom II Socket AM2+


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You know what's really taken for granted? Common sense. It's a subtle attribute that often heads off bad situations. Usually you don't notice when it's there -- but you definitely miss it when it's absent.
In contrast, acting stupidly is definitely more obvious and can lead to being fired. When I worked as an outsourced tech contractor, I witnessed some employee-created disasters that still leave me shaking my head in disbelief.
[ Unsanctioned devices, compromised networks, downtime -- today's IT is all about embracing imperfections. | Follow InfoWorld's Off the Record on Twitter for tech's war stories, career takes, and off-the-wall news. | Subscribe to the InfoWorld Off the Record newsletter for your weekly dose of workplace shenanigans. ]
This story took place in the early 2000s when the concept of the Internet was still new for some users. However, the responsibility of adhering to workplace policies was as old as time.
I was on-site doing routine maintenance when I stumbled across a trove of pornographic pictures -- several thousand of them. I was definitely surprised, as they were located on a public mapped network drive and categorized in numerous subfolders with names that were, ahem, highly descriptive of the content.
The main folder was given the exact name of an employee who worked at the office. I figured that perhaps another employee had put the pictures there since it was stupendously foolish to use one's own name for such a thing.
Giving him the benefit of the doubt, I found the employee whose name was on the folder. I told him what I'd discovered and asked if they were his. He proudly proclaimed, "Yup! Nice collection, huh?"
While I was not there to debate the merits of his accomplishment, I did point out its general stupidity. I demanded that he remove the pictures immediately, but he refused. I again explained to him how such actions were against workplace policies and he needed to remove them.
He finally agreed, but said he wanted to make a copy of them. This was in the days long before Dropbox or USB jump drives, so copying that much data to take home was best done by burning it to CDs. His computer did not have a CD burner, so he asked me who did.
I'd had enough of the situation by that point and mentioned that the HR director had a CD burner in her office. He took me seriously and went straight to her office and asked to use it.
I didn't even have to inform management of the situation before nature took its course. He was fired the next day -- and wasn't allowed to take his pictures with him.
The one about the fire
One day I got a frantic call from a client shouting, "Help! Our building is on fire! We're being evacuated by the fire department! What should we do with the servers?"
He quickly explained that the fire department was on the scene and the fire was in two rooms on the other side of the building. He was headed to the stairwell when he thought of the servers. I told him to leave them and get out.


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FASB Publishes Revised Exposure Draft on the Rescission of Statements No. 4, 44 and 64 and Technical CorrectionsNorwalk, CT, February 15, 2002—The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) has issued an Exposure Draft to include an amendment of Statement 13, Accounting for Leases, in the Rescission of Statements No. 4, 44 and 64 and Technical Corrections.
This proposed Statement would amend paragraph 14(a) of Statement 13 to eliminate an inconsistency between the required accounting for sale-leaseback transactions and the required accounting for certain lease modifications that have economic effects that are similar to sale-leaseback transactions.
The amendment was suggested by several respondents to the Board's Exposure Draft, Rescission of FASB Statements No. 4, 44, and 64 and Technical Corrections. The Board decided to expand the scope of the technical corrections project to include the proposed amendment and issue a revised Exposure Draft because the proposed amendment is substantive in nature and must be subjected to due process.
Comments on the Exposure Draft must be received in writing by the FASB by March 18, 2002. The Exposure Draft can be accessed from the FASB website, www.fasb.org.
About the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB)
Since 1973, the Financial Accounting Standards Board has been the designated organization in the private sector for establishing standards of financial accounting and reporting. Those standards govern the preparation of financial reports and are officially recognized as authoritative by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. Such standards are essential to the efficient functioning of the economy because investors, creditors, auditors and others rely heavily on credible, transparent and comparable financial information. For more information about the FASB, visit our website at www.fasb.org.
The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB)...
Serving the investing public through transparent information resulting from high-quality financial reporting standards, developed in an independent, private sector, open due process.


text:
- Publishers
- series: Donald Duck
Comic book series : Donald Duck
Artist: Al Taliaferro
Writer: Karp, Bob
Publisher: IDW
Donald Duck Sunday Comics
artist: Al Taliaferro
Writer: Karp, Bob
series: Donald Duck
publisher: IDW
publish date: 07-04-2016
edition: 1
language: English
coloring: full color
pages: 168: Hard Cover
From the Disney Vaults—the original Donald Duck color Sunday comics collected in a book series for the very first time! After a try-out as part of the Silly Symphonies series, Donald was given his own Sunday comics page in late 1939 and it became an instant hit. This premiere volume includes more than three full years of rare Sunday comics, from the first strip on December 10, 1939 through the end of 1942. Drawn by Al Taliaferro and written by Bob Karp, the comics are reproduced from pristine original material in the Disney Vaults!


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Hironobu Sakaguchi doesn't worry too much about the future, he said in an interview with Eurogamer published today. He worries about the now.
The creator of Final Fantasy, whose latest game The Last Story hit European stores last week and will invade the U.S. this summer, says he doesn't have any specifically pressing goals or ambitions. He just wants to enjoy every waking moment.
I am always most excited about the now. It's always the current moment that is the most exciting in game development. Of course the techniques that are used in game creation and theory are always evolving. When I first started in the industry I could never have imagined games would look the way that they do today. So I am excited for today. But also I am excited for tomorrow.
There's nothing in particular that I want to achieve. I want to enjoy the moment, have fun as I go alone.
Check out the whole interview. It's a well-written, fascinating peek into the mind of a legend.
Hironobu Sakaguchi: Fantasy Man [Eurogamer]


text:
Black Sealing Wax
Additional sticks of sealing wax for your wax stamp. Available in 20 different colours. Copper, Gold, Olive Green, Silver and Antique Gold each have a premium metallic finish and all sticks are made from a flexible wax meaning they will not crumble or break in the post. Each stick can be used to make approximately 6-8 seals (25-30mm)
Sold in packs of 5
Note: Wicks used in traditional wax will stain black. All our wax sticks are wickless and when used correctly should not char. To avoid direct contact with a naked flame it is best to use our purpose-made Melting Kit
📦 Estimated delivery between and (via Priority shipping). Learn more


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I used the cake ball recipe from Bakerella.com. The link is here:http://www.bakerella.com/. It is a fantastic site with beautiful pictures and the cutest ideas ever! I have made the cake balls several times, and I will post about the ones I made at a later date. But, when I realized that JD needed something he could eat without using his teeth, I thought about soft cake and pudding and then the cake balls.
So this is what I came up with:
http://www.wilton.com/recipe/Buttercream-Icing Here is the recipe:
- 1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine softened
- 1 teaspoon clear vanilla extract
- 4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar (approximately 1 lb.)
- 2 tablespoons milk
Makes: About 3 cups of icing
In large bowl, cream shortening and butter with electric mixer. Add vanilla. Gradually add sugar, one cup at a time, beating well on medium speed. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl often. When all sugar has been mixed in, icing will appear dry. Add milk and beat at medium speed until light and fluffy. Keep bowl covered with a damp cloth until ready to use.
For best results, keep icing bowl in refrigerator when not in use. Refrigerated in an airtight container, this icing can be stored 2 weeks. Rewhip before using.
Next, I followed the cake balls directions. I tore the cake into little pieces and put it into a bowl, and then I mixed in some buttercream frosting. You have to do this with your hands! I'm pretty sure it is required!! It is a lot easier with plastic gloves, and faster too. You will not use all your icing from the buttercream icing recipe. You need it to be a soft consistency, but not mushy.
Next, put your chocolate/icing mix in the bottom of a bowl. I made this for one person, and I wanted him to have plenty, so I used a big bowl. This would look really nice in a sundae glass or a big round goblet so you could serve individual servings.
We are just going to layer from the bottom on up. Next, add a layer of pudding.
Just keep building your layers, taking turns using the cake ball mixture and the pudding.
Build to the top of your bowl.
I stopped building my bowl at this point, because I had to transport it all the way across town. If I hadn't been transporting it I would have added whipped cream to the top.
Also, if this hadn't been designed for JD, and his teeth problem, I would have added shaved chocolate to the top of the whipped cream. But, I could have sprinkled chocolate on top of whipped cream for him.
There are so many variations we can do with this recipe. Let's talk about them in future posts.
Have a great weekend!
Any questions? Email me. I would love to hear from you!


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Cauliflower is one of the most versatile vegetables you can get out of a Bangali rannaghor (Bengali kitchen). Whether it's a simple phulkopir tarkari (Bengali style cauliflower curry) or a cauliflower pickle – cauliflowers are everywhere, even in fish curries.
The gorging of cauliflowers starts from Durga Puja and extends till late March. I have seen mom cooking fulkopir tarkari as a part of the Prasad offered to Durga Ma on Ashtami (the 8th day of the annual Durga Puja worship). The simple cauliflower and potato preparation seasoned with cumin and ginger paste is just the right side dish for kichdi/ kichuri.
Now, these cauliflower preparations are done with the florets. Most of the time we throw away the stem that comes along with the fulkopi. But, a very traditional and authentic Bengali recipe is with these stems of the cauliflower, fulkopir data chauchori/ chachori.
Chachori is a unique style of preparing curries. Mostly, the vegetables are mostly cut longitudinally and cooked with a concoction of spices, especially panch phoron if it's a vegetarian preparation. For non-vegetarian ones like morola macher chachori onions, garlic are widely used. Any idea where the word comes from? In fulkopir data chachori the stems are cut to 1" long pieces and if they are too thick then the stems are cut longitudinally.
One of my friends once told that you Bengalis just don't leave any part of anything – you eat everything. Yeah, it's kind of true. From peels of gourd to flowers of plantain – Bengalis like to taste everything.Serves 2 Preparation time: 10min Cooking time: 15min
- Stems of one medium cauliflower
- 1 medium size potato
- 1 cup chopped pumpkin
- 1 cup chopped small brinjal, cut longitudinally in quarters
- 1 tablespoon panch phoron
- 1 teaspoon turmeric powder
- 2 tablespoon mustard oil
- Boil the cauliflower stems till half done, then blanch in cold water to stop further cooking
- Heat oil in a wok, throw in the panch phoron. As the spices starts sputtering add potatoes, brinjal and pumpkin pieces.
- Fry for sometimes, put in the spices and ginger paste and cook for 2-3mins more
- Add the half boiled stems
- Pour in water and cook covered till the vegetables are cooked
- Serve hot with warm rice.
Hot Tips – Panch phoron is a mixture of 5 different spices in equal proportion – fennel, fenugreek, mustard, nigella and wild celery.


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About Geisha - the secret garden
Follow a beautiful Geisha on her dream journey through all four seasons! Help Natsumi create a zen garden for herself using your Match 3 skills and different styles of plants and decorations. Geisha: The Secret Garden is full of addicting gameplay, gorgeous characters, and all kinds of magic at your disposal! Complete each level to discover the beauty of Natsumi's Secret garden and bask in the natural beauty!


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Because it's the first thing you consider when you go to a heavy-metal concert, we just thought you should know: Head-banging can be hazardous to your health.
That's right — depending on the tempo of the music and the range of motion of your noggin, you could be looking at a head or neck injury, Australian researchers report in today's British Medical Journal.
Andrew McIntosh, an associate professor of biomechanics at the School of Risk and Safety Sciences as the University of New South Wales, and his research assistant, Declan Patton, attended several hard rock and heavy-metal concerts, taking careful note of the most popular head-banging techniques in the audience.
While head-banging generally refers to violent, rhythmic movement of the head, it takes various forms. At the concerts McIntosh and Patton attended, the "up-down" style — which looks like you're bobbing for apples, long hair covering your face at all times — trumped the others. The "circular swing" (long locks swung around your head like a mini tornado) the "full body" (hair whipped up and down in exaggerated fashion) and the "side-to-side" (looks like you're shaking your head in disagreement) didn't get as much representation. (Thanks to our resident head-banging expert, tech editor Larry Greenemeier, for those colorful descriptions.)
After rockin' out with Ozzy Osbourne, Skid Row and Whitesnake, among others, McIntosh and Patton got down to business. Based on the popularity of the up-down style of head-banging at the concerts, and the average tempo of 11 songs deemed the best for head-banging by a minion of local musicians, the scientists developed a mathematical model of how violently you'd have to shake your noodle to hurt yourself. Their conclusion? Head-banging to a song with a tempo of 146 beats per minute can make you dazed and confused (read: give you a headache and make you dizzy) if you're rotating your head by more than 75 degrees.
For the record, popular heavy metal often has a tempo of 180 beats per minute, according to the study. So head-banging to faster tunes with even more range of motion (say, 120 degrees) could cause a neck injury — mainly pain, McIntosh and Patton conclude.
"If the tempo is increased, you have to accelerate more to keep in time," McIntosh tells us. "You've got a limit to that range of motion. The more you're going through it, the higher the risk of mild brain injury or some sort of neck injury."
The tongue-and-cheekiness of the research aside, musicians have actually hurt themselves head-banging. A 15-year-old drummer in his neighborhood band suffered an aneurysm in his cervical vertebral artery, according to a 1991 case report in the journal Pediatric Neurosurgery, and Evanescence guitarist Terry Balsamo had a stroke three years ago that his docs blamed on his head-banging tendencies.
Worried? Try to rotate your neck at no more than 45 degrees. Alternatively, consider slower tempo, easy-listening music instead — or a neck brace, McIntosh and Patton suggest.
"You could have a stylish neck brace built into a leather jacket," McIntosh quips. "We didn't take into account whether if someone had a poodle-style hairdo, that that might dampen some of the acceleration, or if dreadlocks make it worse. The next step would be to look at the effects of some of these hairstyles."
Rock on!
Image © iStockphoto/Don Bayley


text:
Verion is a company that has more than 28 years of experience, was born with the aim of providing comprehensive solutions in the field of Oleohydraulics.
Since its inception has been in constant growth, gaining prestige through its hard work and commitment to its customers in the areas of Mechanics, Electronics and Hydraulics developing sales of products, services, systems and engineering solutions for manufacturers, resellers and users final.
Since the year 2000, he began the development of solutions and equipment for precision agriculture and the insertion of this technology in the Latin American market.
Seeking to satisfy the increasingly demanding needs that the agricultural sector requires, it develops solutions based on three pillars: IMPLEMENTS - CONTROL AND QUALITY OF THE APPLICATION - AGRICULTURAL MANAGEMENT, thus guaranteeing a total integration in all the activities of the agricultural cycle.
Its presence in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Guatemala, Paraguay and soon Peru guarantees its presence in agricultural countries in Latin America.
Be recognized as a leading company in the sector.
Market and develop first level solutions for our clients.
Verion was born in Argentina to offer integral solutions to the Oleohydraulic sector,
with products and services for various segments such as industry,
construction, oil, aeronautics, agriculture, mining, naval, offshore.
Developed the first equipment for crops,
where through an electrohydraulic mechanism the transmission relations
(gears and chains) of the seed drills are replaced.
The headquarters of Guarulhos - Brazil opens its doors,
today with 77 employees.
Implementation of the GPS guidance system / light bar, for various applications, cutting by sections in sprayers.
"Gerdau Melhor da Terra" Award to VRM in Brazil.
The first computer capable of executing multiple functions is launched.
"Gerdau Melhor da Terra" Prize awarded by satisfied customers
who approve the product category in Brazil.
The industrial plant starts operating with 3.000m² to produce export-type agricultural machines, developed according to each type of crop.
VCOM 7.0 is launched with new features capable of meeting the needs of our customers.
The headquarters in Bogotá - Colombia opens its doors to serve the closest customers.
The prize "Innovation in Agricultural Machinery" is awarded in Argentina.
The management control "Tractorimeter" is launched.
Develops the receiver and integrated antenna LCGPS up to 30cm of precision ideal for spraying, broadcast fertilization, harvesting and soil preparation with manual guidance.
Launches its own line of fertilizers in Argentina.
Guayanas 1921 (Esq. Capitán Bermúdez 4150) I Pque. Industrial I Malvinas Argentinas I Buenos Aires
Tel. +54 (02320) 551090
Look our last news
New GRIV Fertilizer Line
Verion in Maquinac
The importance of quality.
For more information enter https://maquinac.com/2018/09/agricultura-de-precision-la-importancia-de-la-calidad/
Electric automatic pilot for sowing
Compatible with all of our applications for planting, fertilizing, spraying and all accuracy levels according to the customer's requirements.
Vcom as steering controller. Features:
El sistema está preparado para instalarse en cualquier tipo de maquinaria y puede ser utilizado en todas las operaciones agrícolas. El actuador eléctrico se instala debajo del volante, posee un sistema de montaje rápido para poder retirarlo fácilmente cuando no se utiliza; se puede utilizar en tractores, pulverizadores autopropulsados y cosechadoras.
Durante la operación, el sistema de guiado funciona generando las líneas guía para los modos tradicionales, AB recto, AB curvo y curva libre.
Además, líneas de guiado prediseñadas en la oficina con un computador de escritorio pueden ser llevadas al Vcom para luego utilizarlas con el sistema de guiado y piloto automático.
The system is designed to easily install in a variety of vehicle types and can be used in all agricultural operations.
The electric actuator is installed under the steering wheel, and boasts a fast mounting system for quick removal when not in use; it can be used in tractors, self-propelled sprayers and harvesters.
During the operation, the assisted steering system generates guidance lines; popular guidance paths available with straight AB, ABcurve and adaptive curve. Likewise, guidance paths pre designed with the office desktop computer can be saved and loaded to the Vcom for later use as a custom guidance pattern with the guidance and automated steering system.
The main advantage of the electric control system is its fast and easy installation, with minimal intervention on the original vehicle components; that is to say, the actuator moves the steering wheel in the same way as the operator to guide the machine along the guidance line with high-end accuracy.
If you have any questions or wish to receive more information, we can advise you, write to email@example.com or call (54) 11 4724-1300
Lightbar and virtual Guidance
One of the most important aspects of precision farming is to ensure application quality, thus minimizing overlaps and flaws. That is why the guidance system becomes an essential tool. The operator is guided by means of a highly accurate GPS to ensure precise manual work.
The 7.0 Guidance toolkit- LC offers the operator straight spraying and fertilizing applications pass-to-pass. This easy-to-use practical virtual guide displays a slope in perspective view for the operator to steer in and keep the right path, thus avoiding flaws and allowing for full coverage of the applied area. The device also generates real-time mapping to give operators a clear view of the applied area and simplify return to the same working point in the field after product refilling. The sections in the implement can be established for the system to screen display which of them are over applying product and allow the operator to shut them off manually.
If you have any questions or wish to receive more information, we can advise you, write to firstname.lastname@example.com or call (54) 11 4724-1300


text:
Sole Assessor
Lynn Billings
Fax: 518-548-3625
Website: firstname.lastname@example.com
Link to New York State Office of Real Property Tax Services
This link will provide general information relating to the Real Property Tax in New York State.
Uniform Percentage of Value
The percentage of market value (full value) used by an assessing unit to establish uniform assessments. This value must appear on the tentative roll. Real Property Tax Law Section 305 specifies, "all real property in each assessing unit shall be assessed at a uniform percentage of value..."
Taxable Status Date
The ownership and physical condition of real property as of this date are assessed (valued) according to price fixed as of the valuation date. All applications for property exemptions must be filed with the assessor by this date.
Residential Assessment Ratio (RAR)
A percentage established by the State Board of Real Property Services according to law, using the ratio of assessed value to the sales price for each usable residential sale in a recent one-year period. Ratios are then listed from highest to lowest; the midpoint (median) ratio is selected as the RAR. The RAR can be used to prove that a residential property is assessed at a higher level than other homes on the assessment roll. Your locality's RAR indicates at what percent of full value residential properties are assessed. For example, a RAR of 20 indicates that residential properties are assessed at approximately 20 percent of their full value.
Equalization Rate
"State equalization rate" means the percentage of full value at which taxable real property in a county, city, town or village is assessed as determined by the state board." (RPTL Section 102) The rate is a ratio of the sum of the locally determined assessed values for all taxable parcels for a given assessment roll divided by ORPS's estimate of total full value for that same roll.


text:
The Perfect Server - Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex (Ubuntu 8.10) - Page 4
On this page
11 Install Some Software
Now we install a few packages that are needed later on. Run
apt-get install binutils cpp fetchmail flex gcc libarchive-zip-perl libc6-dev libcompress-zlib-perl libdb4.3-dev libpcre3 libpopt-dev lynx m4 make ncftp nmap openssl perl perl-modules unzip zip zlib1g-dev autoconf automake1.9 libtool bison autotools-dev g++ build-essential
(This command must go into one line!)
12 Quota
(If you have chosen a different partitioning scheme than I did, you must adjust this chapter so that quota applies to the partitions where you need it.)
To install quota, run
apt-get install quota
Edit /etc/fstab. Mine looks like this (I added ,usrquota,grpquota to the partition with the mount point /):
vi /etc/fstab
# /etc/fstab: static file system information. # # <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass> proc /proc proc defaults 0 0 # /dev/sda1 UUID=ef38977b-0f39-4201-a4c3-2eed8fce0b6c / ext3 relatime,errors=remount-ro,usrquota,grpquota 0 1 # /dev/sda5 UUID=c4ecae0e-77b7-4b3b-b16f-303bb32a761d none swap sw 0 0 /dev/scd0 /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,noauto,exec,utf8 0 0
To enable quota, run these commands:
touch /quota.user /quota.group
chmod 600 /quota.*
mount -o remount /
quotacheck -avugm
quotaon -avug
13 DNS Server
apt-get install bind9
For security reasons we want to run BIND chrooted so we have to do the following steps:
/etc/init.d/bind9 stop
Edit the file /etc/default/bind9 so that the daemon will run as the unprivileged user bind, chrooted to /var/lib/named. Modify the line: OPTIONS="-u bind" so that it reads OPTIONS="-u bind -t /var/lib/named":
vi /etc/default/bind9
# run resolvconf? RESOLVCONF=yes # startup options for the server OPTIONS="-u bind -t /var/lib/named"
Create the necessary directories under /var/lib:
mkdir -p /var/lib/named/etc
mkdir /var/lib/named/dev
mkdir -p /var/lib/named/var/cache/bind
mkdir -p /var/lib/named/var/run/bind/run
Then move the config directory from /etc to /var/lib/named/etc:
mv /etc/bind /var/lib/named/etc
Create a symlink to the new config directory from the old location (to avoid problems when bind gets updated in the future):
ln -s /var/lib/named/etc/bind /etc/bind
Make null and random devices, and fix permissions of the directories:
mknod /var/lib/named/dev/null c 1 3
mknod /var/lib/named/dev/random c 1 8
chmod 666 /var/lib/named/dev/null /var/lib/named/dev/random
chown -R bind:bind /var/lib/named/var/*
chown -R bind:bind /var/lib/named/etc/bind
We need to modify /etc/default/syslogd so that we can still get important messages logged to the system logs. Modify the line: SYSLOGD="" so that it reads: SYSLOGD="-a /var/lib/named/dev/log":
vi /etc/default/syslogd
# # Top configuration file for syslogd # # # Full documentation of possible arguments are found in the manpage # syslogd(8). # # # For remote UDP logging use SYSLOGD="-r" # SYSLOGD="-a /var/lib/named/dev/log"
Restart the logging daemon:
/etc/init.d/sysklogd restart
Start up BIND, and check /var/log/syslog for errors:
/etc/init.d/bind9 start
14 MySQL
In order to install MySQL, we run
apt-get install mysql-server mysql-client libmysqlclient15-dev
You will be asked to provide a password for the MySQL root user - this password is valid for the user root@localhost as well as [email protected], so we don't have to specify a MySQL root password manually later on (as was the case with previous Ubuntu versions):
New password for the MySQL "root" user: <-- yourrootsqlpassword
Repeat password for the MySQL "root" user: <-- yourrootsqlpassword
We want MySQL to listen on all interfaces, not just localhost, therefore we edit /etc/mysql/my.cnf and comment out the line bind-address = 127.0.0.1:
vi /etc/mysql/my.cnf
[...] # Instead of skip-networking the default is now to listen only on # localhost which is more compatible and is not less secure. #bind-address = 127.0.0.1 [...]
Then we restart MySQL:
/etc/init.d/mysql restart
Now check that networking is enabled. Run
netstat -tap | grep mysql
The output should look like this:
root@server1:~# netstat -tap | grep mysql
tcp 0 0 *:mysql *:* LISTEN 6724/mysqld