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In one week I am doing a reading and book signing at a local Café (Café MOXO- 411 E Adams St. Springfield, IL) from 4:00-6:00pm…Come see me with a couple friends! I have done a book signing before, but never a "reading". I am not really sure what that part is going to look like, to be honest. I am certain, however, that this will require me to "read" my own work. And I am terrified and sort of nauseous just thinking about it.
I have a couple fears that I am sure you will find perfectly understandable. One, that I will find typos and that will make me crazy. I proof-read everything dozens of times, but I am only human. And Microsoft Word doesn't seem to be any smarter or more observant than I am! And two, that my writing actually stinks. That I was given the ultimate cancer pass and people were just being polite because "bless her heart, she has cancer and has convinced herself that she can write."
So I keep putting it off because not only do I have to read what I have written, I also have to talk about it. Oh dear, I just realized a new fear—I have to speak in front of people! If you know me, you I know I have done this many times before, but now I can't ramble or joke or muddle my way through it like a ditzy blonde (I think I feel a fever coming on…🤒).
Let me run a few things by you, and maybe I will be a bit more confident and ready to put myself out there by next Wednesday. If I give you the inside scoop on what I plan to say, do you promise you will still come to hear me? (I need to see your familiar, smiling faces….)
- This is not my cancer story. This is a book I wrote about me that is ultimately about you. It started off as an informative blog about my Leukemia status, and quickly moved to our shared diseases of worry, fear, control, etc. I don't think any of us saw that coming. I was shocked, and maybe you were too, that what I wrote from a hospital bed could touch, challenge ,or inspire someone in their everyday life.
Cancer, addiction, and the disease of the soul level the playing field. We all battle these deadly diseases at some level. If we keep this at the forefront of our mind and spirit, we can stop walking around like we are better-than or worse-than the people around us.
- Cancer, addiction, and the disease of the soul level the playing field. We all battle these deadly diseases at some level. If we keep this at the forefront of our mind and spirit, we can stop walking around like we are better-than or worse-than the people around us. We all struggle with something that is trying to get the best of us, perhaps even kill us. We are not unique in our "condition". We are most definitely not the only one fighting our particular battle. We can embrace the comradery that comes from knowing and believing that we are "not the only one".
- You are worthy now. Just typing that truth makes my eyes well up with tears. Maybe it's because I forget it so often or that I suspect that you do too. We are all working so blasted hard to be ok. To be enough. To be accepted and loved. To be "in". But as a friend of mine says pretty regularly, "we are never gonna be anything more than human." Life is a series of trials and errors and lessons. And class is never over. But, we can rest in the assurance that even though we will most definitely never arrive at perfection, we are exactly who we are supposed to be at this very moment. We are, as vulnerability researcher Brené Brown puts it, "Worthy now. Not if. Not when. We are worthy of love and belonging now. Right this minute. As is."
- I love you. You heard me. I truly do. One of my core values can be summed up in a reading from Recovery literature: "Though you may not like all of us, you will love us in a very special way, the same way we already love you." Isn't that the truth? We aren't going to like everyone, but if we keep in mind that every person on this planet is battling to recover from the effects of horrific diseases such as cancer, addiction and a plethora of plagues that are trying to destroy our souls, we can maintain a love that surpasses like.
- God's got this. Whatever your understanding of God is, it is imperative that you invite him to do life with you. Or I guess, that you join him in doing your life. He knows and sees, and that's not a threat. It's a promise. As important as it is for us to rely on each other, it is vital that we "get God in there". Turn your will and your circumstances over to him every moment of every day. Remember the mantra I wrote about a few months back: "I can't. God can. I think I'll let Him."
So…That should get us started, don't ya think? I hope I see you there. Who do you know whose heart could use a message like this?


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This column is my opinion and expresses my views. Those views can change at a moments notice when the market changes. I am not right all the time and I do not expect to be. I disclose all my positions clearly listed on the page, and I do not trade my account on the stocks spoken of in this column unless fully disclosed. If that does not work for you stop reading and close the page. Do not bother me or harass me.
Otherwise, enjoy the column!
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6 Key Indicators To Watch In The Stock Market For Monday, April 9
Trading in the stock market on Monday, April 9 will be extremely important, and I'm going to be watching a few things before the stock market even opens Monday morning.
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First I'm watching how Asia trades, most notably Shanghai. The market in China will reopen again on Monday for the first time since April 4, and it should be interesting to see if the markets in China respond the same way our markets have reacted to the increasing trade tensions.
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I'm also going to be watching the yen and euro, and see which way the dollar goes. One would think the dollar would weaken if the FX market is foretelling of US economic slowdown or a potential trade war.. To this point, we have not seen anything new develop in the dollar trade.
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Mystery Buyer
In the morning, starting around 6 am, I'm going to be watching the S&P 500 futures, but not for the price, but for the mystery buyer that likes to come and buy the S&P futures in a big way around 5 to 7 am. These volume spikes have predicted the lows in the stock well in the past; my hunch is that this trader returns if the price is right.
Subscribe to the MCM Stock Market Commentary to get it Daily and join the 2,950 subscribers getting it for FREE!
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The VIX will also be important to watch, 25.5 has been a clear top, and a rise above 25.5 is a bad indicator for the direction of the S&P 500.
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Market Leaders
The banks report results this week, and investors will be looking to the banks for a sense of direction going into those results.
Apple, Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft, and Facebook are the most important stocks in the S&P 500, and let's face where they go is going to primarily determine where the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq 100 go. On Friday and Saturday's write-up, I gave the levels to watch.
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Finally, 2,550 on the S&P 500 will be very important, a retest in the early morning would be ideal, followed by a rebound and buying frenzy in the late afternoon would give more confidence that we aren't heading lower. But should 2,550 break a retest of the February lows is likely, and a break below the February lows may open the floodgates.
Good Luck this week, we are all going to need.
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subset: commoncrawl


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UCAmI 2016 : 10th International Conference on Ubiquitous Computing & Ambient Intelligence
|Link: http://mami.uclm.es/ucami-2016
Call For Papers
10th International Conference on Ubiquitous Computing and Ambient Intelligence (IWAAL & AmIHEALTH included)
Canary Islands (Spain), November 29th to December 2nd, 2016
Selected papers will be published in the following journals:
• Sensors Journal (IF(2014) = 2.245)
• Journal of Mobile Information Systems (IF 2014 = 0.949) • Journal of Ambient Intelligence & Humanized Computing (IF 2015 = 1.0) (More Journals to be announced)
Important dates:
*Paper submission: June 1st, 2016
Notification of acceptance: July 30, 2016 Camera-ready version: September 1st, 2016 Conference dates: November 29th to December 2nd, 2016
Conference background & goals:
(Note.- In the current Edition, IWAAL & AmIHEALTH conferences have been included as tracks into UCAmI)
The Ubiquitous Computing (UC) idea envisioned by Weiser in 1991, has recently evolved to a more general paradigm known as Ambient Intelligence (AmI) that represents a new generation of user-centred computing environments and systems. These solutions aim to find new ways to obtain a better integration of the information technology in everyday life devices and activities.
AmI environments are integrated by several autonomous computational devices of modern life ranging from consumer electronics to mobile phones. Ideally, people in an AmI environment will not notice these devices, but they will benefit from the services these solutions provide them. Such devices are aware of the people present in those environments by reacting to their gestures, actions and context. Recently the interest in AmI environments has grown considerably due to new challenges posed by society, demanding highly innovative services, such as vehicular ad hoc networks (VANET), Ambient Assisted Living (AAL), e-Health, Internet of Things and Home Automation among others.
The main focus of this edition of the UCAmI Conference will be "Ambient
Intelligence: Sensing, Processing and Using Environmental Information".
Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) proposes solutions based on Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to enhance the quality of life of elderly people. AAL promotes the provision of infrastructures and services for the independent or more autonomous living, via the seamless integration of info-communication technologies within homes and residences, thus increasing their quality of life and autonomy and reducing the need for being institutionalized or aiding it when it happens.
One natural and critical human need, where Ambient Intelligence can be used, is healthcare. In such a domain, ubiquitous systems can be used to improve quality of life of the people. While Ambient Intelligence in health applications is increasingly getting research momentum, it does not reach a level of maturity yet. Reasons for such deficiency include not only the challenges of understanding the health domain by computer scientists, but also the difficulty of dealing with a critical domain, where errors are unacceptable. In this sense, a track of Health is aimed at boosting this area of research by focusing not just on innovations on the infrastructure and technology required for achieving the ambient intelligence in health, such as smart environments and wearable medical devices, but also on the development of novel testing, verification and evaluation techniques that make possible the actual implementation of such innovations.
- Monitoring of chronic and non-chronic diseases in AAL
- Solutions for active ageing, social integration and self-care
- Entertainment and promotion of healthy life in AAL
- Stress, burden and quality of life in carers of AAL environments.
- People learning and education in AAL environments
- Security and privacy in AAL
- Behaviour analysis in AAL environments
- Context-Awareness in Assistive environments
- Experiences and study cases in AAL
- Wearables technologies and sensor networks. Smart homes for AAL.
- Middleware architectures for AAL
- Sensing, Data management and Big data in AAL
- Standards and interoperability
HEALTH (AmIHEALTH)
- Health, wellness and disease monitoring
- Communication, cloud, and network architectures for Health
- Education and e-Learning systems in Health domains.
- Knowledge management for health: context, behavior and user modeling.
- Data Analytics for Health environments.
- Health ecosystems: frameworks, models and methodologies
- Interaction, social, and user experience within Health environments.
- Mobile and ubiquitous Health
- Smart technologies and algorithms for Health
- Internet of Things and the Web of Things applied to smart cities
- Web of Data and Linked Data to assemble urban apps
- Citizen participation and data generation, controlling data provenance and trust
- Security and privacy challenges for IoT, citizen-generated data, and Linked Data
- Gaming with a purpose (GWAP) to incentivize citizen participation
- Interaction paradigms in the Smart City
- Novel context sensing mechanisms in the city
- Behaviour Change practices applicable to urban environments
- Urban analytics: determining human dynamics in the smart city
- City services publication, indexing, discovery, recommendation and consumption
- Architectures for consuming and analyzing Urban Broad Data
- Real deployments, using cases and experiments
- Urban Transports.
- IoT applications and services. Research and Innovation.
- How IoT technology will affect business and product development
- Current and future trends in IoT
- Distributed mobile applications based on IoT
- Making money with the Internet of Things. New IoT Business Models
- Security, privacy and trust in IoT
- IoT Interoperability and Integration
- Iot in the Transport system. The new VANET
- Performance evaluation metrics IoT
- Designing ultra-low power IoT nodes
- Design and Deployment of the Infrastructure for IoT-enabled systems and applications
- Brillo. Google's IoT O.S. Experiences and developments
- Applications of hybrid wireless ad hoc networks
- Self-organizing protocols for heterogeneous ad hoc networks
- Device-2-Device Communications (D2D);
- Cooperation incentive models for Ad-hoc Networks
- Vehicle-to-X communications (V2X)
- Protocols for Ad-Hoc networks
- Innovative real-world sensor network deployments and applications
- Topology control and routing protocols in sensor network deployments
- Novel communication paradigms for wireless sensor networks
- Mobility management in sensor applications and deployments
- Location techniques, routing, medium access control for sensor networks
- Energy efficiency, energy efficient protocols for sensor networks
- Authentication, access control and authorization
- Confidentiality, key management and trust establishment
- Design and analysis of cryptographic protocols
- Lightweight security solutions
- Privacy, anonymity, non-traceability and non-repudiation
- Integrity, reliability, resiliency and fault tolerance
- Secure mobile applications
- Self-organized, autonomic and distributed security
- Wireless security
- Natural User Interfaces
- Human-centric interfaces for AmI environments
- Multimodal interfaces
- Use of context and location information in user interfaces
- Novel input devices
- Robot-human interaction
- Human-ambient interaction
- Mobile interfaces
- Affective interfaces (recognition and enactment of emotions)
- User modeling
- Personalization and adaptation of user interfaces
- Ubiquitous and ambient displays
- User experience in ambient computing
- Interaction with smart objects and tangible interfaces
- Brain computer interaction
- Evaluation of interfaces in ambient and ubiquitous environments
Paper Submission:
UCAmI invites high quality contributions describing significant, original and unpublished results for submission in the following
* Long papers: Intended to allow presentation of academic research results of high quality.
Submissions must contain an original contribution and may not have already been published in another forum, nor be subject to review for other conferences or publications.
Contributions should include unpublished results of research, case studies or experiences that provide new evidence about the research or application regarding to the main topics. Articles accepted in this category will be published in the proceedings of the event. Long papers must not exceed 12 pages (including figures and appendices).
* Short papers: Intended to allow presentation of ongoing studies with partial (however, significant) results. Submissions must contain an original contribution and may not have already been published in another forum, nor be subject to review for other conferences or publications.
Articles accepted in this category will be published in the proceedings of the event. Short papers must not exceed 6 pages (including figures and appendices).
* Doctoral Consortium: PhD students are invited to present the topics and progress of their research, in order to obtain feedback from a panel of experts. Papers for doctoral consortium must not exceed 8 pages (including figures and appendices).
* Posters: Posters will be peer-reviewed by members of the Posters Committee based on originality, significance, quality, and clarity.
Posters authors are not required to transfer copyright. Accepted poster papers will be allocated 2 pages in the conference proceedings. In addition to the 3-pages submission, accepted poster authors will be asked to generate a poster and possible demonstration to be displayed in a dedicated poster area and presented during a poster session at the conference.
All papers should be written in English.
Submission Procedure:
All submissions should be made by EasyChair platform and must follow the LNCS Formatting Guidelines. Details of the paper submission process will be announced soon through the website of the conference:
You can submit your paper through the following:
General Chair:
* Jose Bravo, University of Castilla-La Mancha (Spain)
Local Organising Chair:
* Alexis Quesada, University of Las Palmas de G. Canaria (Spain)
UCAmI PC Co-Chairs:
* Carmelo R. García, University of Las Palmas de G. Canaria (Spain)
* Pino Caballero-Gil, University of La Laguna (Spain)
grupo.mami at uclm.es (firstname.lastname@example.com)


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Nathan Ark provides offshore technology consulting and development services to this US software company. We have developed an excellent long-term relationship - working together on more than 12 projects in the areas of new product development, reengineering, and ongoing support and maintenance for the US software house.
Nathan Ark provides an OSDC (Off Shore Development Center) for this client where part or all of development and support activities on a project can be handled by our teams located in India working in synch with the company's teams at multiple locations in the USA. Nathan Ark assures the client of quality work achieved through its rigorous quality processes and systems.
In addition, we have also been requested to provide our services for internal consumption of the software house including their online presence, marketing, pre-sales support, technical research, back office, productivity tools, and support services.


text:
Carbon Monoxide is a Toxic Gas
Carbon monoxide (CO) is " the silent killer". Carbon monoxide can cause immediate and serious health problems, and even death in high concentrations. This toxic gas can also cause long-term health problems in low concentrations if a person experiences …Read More
Toxic Chemical Gas Killed 4 Children of a Family in their Home in Texas this week.
Aluminum phosphide is a dangerous toxic chemical that is used to kill insects, mole and rodents. Toxic Phosphine gas is produced when aluminum phosphide is mixed with water or moisture. Although aluminum phosphide is used to kill mice, prairie dogs …Read More
Mold inspection in your gym, fitness center or indoor pool
Hey gym lovers, Have you ever thought… what if your gym, fitness, sauna or indoor pool is moldy? Think about it. These areas are in use all day long, and the windows steamed up with sweaty air – all of …Read More


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LHC detector Atlas captured a new particle, Chi b, which is not Higgs boson
Large Hadron Collider's detector Atlas captured a particle that physicists had suspected to exist for years, but had never seen "in the wild".
The Chi b (3P) particle was detected among data from the trillions of collisions at the LHC.
The CERN discovery was hailed as testimony to how effectively physicists were now scanning the collision data – and essential background to the LHC's ongoing quest for the Higgs, a theoretical particle which is thought to "explain" why the universe has mass.
Physicists scan the data from the LHC's detectors for "unusual" signals from the debris of high-energy collisions. This new particle is an important milestone for the collider – and a crucial step in its mission to fill in the gaps in our understanding of physics.
Professor Stefan Soldner-Rembold, a particle physicist at the University of Manchester said the Higgs "will always be the Nobel Prize", but that this discovery is still very exciting.
What's been discovered, Prof. Stefan Soldner-Rembold explained, is a particle comprised of a bottom quark and a bottom anti-quark – an entirely new kid on the sub-atomic block that until now was merely a theory.
He said: "It's exciting confirmation of the theory of strong interactions that keeps these particles together, the same theory that describes how a nucleus sticks together.
"What they've found is a b-quark and an anti b-quark.
"Quarks cannot be seen by themselves, they're contained in a particle and held together with the strong force. If you understand how the force works, you can predict which particles should exist.
"With all these different quarks you can play Lego and put them together in different ways and form new particles, similar to protons, that can be combined to form elements."
The results were put online on the scientific publication site ArXiv.
The find is an important step for the LHC – which is more than a machine built solely to hunt for the Higgs boson.
Finding particles such as Chi b (3P) is crucial to filling in the gaps in the Standard Model – the way we understand physics.
The LHC was designed to fill in these gaps – and help physicists "move on" to the Higgs and "new physics".


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*Article archived from Al-Mawrid on September 4, 2015
Like the prayer, the fast is also an ancient ritual of worship. In the above quoted verses of Sūrah Baqarah, it is mentioned that fasting has been made obligatory for the Muslims, just as it was made so for earlier peoples. Consequently, this is a reality that as a ritual of worship that trains and disciplines the soul, it has existed in various forms in all religions.
The civilizations of Nineveh and Babylon are very ancient. Once these places were inhabited by the Assyrians. The Prophet Jonah (sws) was sent to them. Initially, these people rejected Jonah (sws) but later professed faith in him. On this occasion, their repentance and turning back has been mentioned in the Bible in the following words:
The Ninevites believed God. They declared a fast, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth. When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust. Then he issued a proclamation in Nineveh: By the decree of the king and his nobles: Do not let any man or beast, herd or flock, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink. But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence. (Jonah, 3:5-8)
In the Arabia of pre-Islamic times, the fast was a well known ritual of worship. The mere existence of the word صوم (ṣawm) in Arabic is evidence enough to show that the Arabs were fully aware of it. Dr Jawwād 'Alīwrites:
Some historical narratives mention that the Quraysh used to fast on the day of 'Ashūrah. On this day, they would gather, celebrate 'īd and enshroud the Ka'bah. According to the historians, they fasted on this day to atone for a sin they had committed in the days of jāhiliyyah – a sin whose burden laid heavily upon them. They would fast on this day to express their gratitude to God for saving them from the evil consequences of this sin. It is mentioned in certain narratives that Muhammad (sws) would also fast on this day before his prophethood … another reason that historians have cited for this fast observed by the Quraysh is that when once they were struck with famine, the Almighty rescued them from it, and in order to show their gratitude to Him they started to observe this fast.
In the sharī'ah of the People of the Book too, the fast is a common worship ritual. The Bible mentions fasts at a number of places and besides using this word it has used certain other expressions like "to sadden one's self" and "self-denial" to connote it.
It is recorded in Exodus:
Then the LORD said to Moses: 'Write down these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel'. Moses was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights without eating bread or drinking water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant – the Ten Commandments. (34:27-28)
It is recorded in Leviticus:
This is to be a lasting ordinance for you: On the tenth day of the seventh month you must sadden and not do any work – whether native born or an alien living among you – because on this day atonement will be made for you, to cleanse you. Then, before the LORD, you will be clean from all your sins. It is a sabbath of rest, and you must sadden yourselves; it is a lasting ordinance. (16: 29-31)
It is recorded in Judges:
Then the Israelites, all the people, went up to Bethel, and there they sat weeping before the LORD. They fasted that day until evening and presented burnt offerings and fellowship offerings to the LORD. (20:26)
It is recorded in Samuel:
They mourned and wept and fasted till evening for Saul and his son Jonathan, and for the army of the LORD and the house of Israel, because they had fallen by the sword. (2 Samuel 1:12)
David pleaded with God for the child. He fasted and went into his house and spent the nights lying on the ground. (2 Samuel 1:12)
It is recorded in Nehemiah:
On the twenty-fourth day of the same month, the Israelites gathered together, fasting and wearing sackcloth and having dust on their heads. Those of Israelite descent had separated themselves from all foreigners. They stood in their places and confessed their sins and the wickedness of their fathers. (9:1-2)
It is recorded in the Psalms:
Yet when they were ill, I put on sackcloth and humbled myself with fasting. When my prayers returned to me unanswered. (35:13)
It is recorded in Jeremiah:
So you go to the house of the Lord on a day of fasting and read to the people from the scroll the words of the Lord that you wrote as I dictated. (36:6)
It is recorded in Joel:
The day of the LORD is great; it is dreadful. Who can endure it? 'Even now,' declares the LORD, 'return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.' Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity. (2:11-13)
It is recorded in Zechariah:
Again the word of the LORD Almighty came to me. This is what the LORD Almighty says: 'The fasts of the fourth, fifth, seventh and tenth months will become joyful and glad occasions and happy festivals for Judah. Therefore love truth and peace.' (8:18-19)
It is recorded in Matthew:
'When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that it will not be obvious to men that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. (6:16-18)
It is recorded in Acts:
While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said: 'Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them'. So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off. (13:2-3)
This is a brief history of the ritual of the fast. It is evident from this overview that like the prayer, the fast too was well known to the Arabs. They were fully aware of its religious status and its details viz-a-viz its requisites and stipulations. Consequently, when the Qur'ān directed them to fast, these requisites and stipulations were not unknown to them: in fact, the words in which this directive was given, shows that they should observe it as an obligatory ritual which they knew as an age old ritual and an age old Sunnah of the prophets. Viewed thus, the source of the fast is the consensus and tawātur (practical perpetuation) of the Muslims. The only thing that the Qur'ān did was to make the fast an obligatory ritual, stipulating certain principles of lenience for the sick and for the travelers and to answer certain questions which were raised by the Muslims regarding the fast.


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The Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council (PCI SSC) has validated that the Gilbarco Veeder-Root Passport Point of Sale systems Enhanced Dispenser Hub (EDH) V01.XX, included with Passport Version 8.02, is compliant with the Payment Application Data Security Standard (PA-DSS).
Passport application software, which will be released for Chevron, Concord (Generics, Gulf, Sinclair, Sunoco, and Valero), ExxonMobil, NBS (Cenex) and Shell over the coming months, are now included on the PCI SSC's List of Validated Payment Applications.
The list identifies payment applications that have been audited by an independent assessor, found to be compliant with the industry's most stringent set of comprehensive standards designed to protect consumer card and PIN data, then approved by the PCI SSC. These applications prevent storage of sensitive data, such as full magnetic stripe, CVV2 or PIN data, use designated data encryption methods, require strong passwords, and other protections.
Passport's breakthrough architecture isolates the PCI system requirements from the value-added POS functions that help retailers compete and become more profitable, said Mikey Kindler, director of POS marketing for Gilbarco Veeder-Root. This unique design means retailers get valuable new features faster and have a competitive advantage for the long term. Any future changes to PA-DSS requirements can be handled efficiently without impacting the POS functionality roadmap.
Visa requires retailers to replace non-compliant systems with systems certified by PCI by July 2010. Many processing networks have announced they will refuse service to non-compliant systems on that date.


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DENVER — Researchers in Denver told 9NEWS talented athletes are just one of the reasons why certain countries lead in the Olympic medal count every four years.
Frederick S. Pardee Center for International Futures researchers inside the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver spend hours researching the factors that play into Olympic results.
"Our primary purpose is to look at long term futures, craft different scenarios and say, 'What if? If this happens, what can change?' Specifically related to things like Olympic medal counts which you wouldn't maybe expect to be our focus," researcher Collin Meisel said.
"The Olympics are one element of soft power and one way for a country to boost its image and its attractive power in the international system."
Meisel told 9NEWS there are three factors that go into high medal counts:
- Population
- Size of the economy
- Government interest
"Larger populations you should expect a country to do better, but training for the Olympics is not cheap and so you need sort of a level of wealth in order for people to invest money, whether its individuals or organizations or governments," Meisel explained.
"So GDP per capita or the size of the economy per person on average, as that increases, you're going to expect medal counts to increase. Population and GDP capital alone you can explain about 50% of the variation in who's going to win what medal."
Government interest explains why certain large countries still don't produce high medal counts.
"To contrast a country like China against maybe a country that underperforms during the Olympics based on wealth and population size is India. Why? There is probably less national interest and interest in the government in investing heavily in India's performance and its national image."
Meisel does stress the outcome is not so black and white. Athletes are incredible beings often capable of defying the odds.
"There will be individuals that over perform, there will be events where you will see individuals from countries where you wouldn't expect to do well," he said. "They will do well because of that drive."
Meisel said the big medal count leaders this year are the United States, China and the Russian Olympic Committee.
SUGGESTED VIDEOS: Latest from 9NEWS


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Meet Polaris 10
Six months ago, AMD started teasing features its next-gen GPUs would offer, beginning with a display controller revamped to support HDMI 2.0b and DisplayPort 1.3 HBR3, FreeSync over HDMI and an HDR-capable pipeline. Other bits and pieces emerged in the weeks that followed, pointing to a launch that'd include two distinct GPUs deliberately constructed to reclaim market share in the mainstream desktop market and present a mobile solution offering console-class performance in thin and light form factors.
That latter design includes 16 of AMD's Compute Units matched to a 128-bit memory bus and 4K video encode/decode acceleration. It's still forthcoming. The Radeon RX 480 we have today is based on the larger Polaris 10 design. But it's not large in the sense that Nvidia's 15.3 billion-transistor GP100 processor is large. Rather, the GPU is just complex enough to drive today's highest-end virtual reality headsets, putting it at least in the league of AMD's Radeon R9 290 and Nvidia's GeForce GTX 970.
Mid-range performance isn't going to knock anyone's socks off on its own, especially a month after GP104 redefined the high-end. But by pricing Radeon RX 480 well below similarly quick boards and limiting power consumption to 150W, AMD hopes to make VR accessible to more gamers (if only the companies selling $600 and $800 HMDs would play along).
We're expecting two versions of the Radeon RX 480: a $200 model with 4GB of on-board GDDR5 operating at 7 Gb/s and a $240 version with 8GB of 8 Gb/s GDDR5. Naturally, we have the 8GB one on-hand.
Inside of Polaris 10
Polaris 10 is composed of 5.7 billion transistors on a 230mm² die. Compare that to Hawaii's 6.2 billion transistors on a 438mm² die. As you'll see across our benchmark pages, RX 480 typically lands somewhere between R9 290 and 390…with fewer transistors and about 55% of the power budget. Much of that is naturally attributable to GlobalFoundries' 14nm FinFET process, which AMD credits for delivering fundamental performance and power benefits over the 28nm node's planar transistors. At any given power level, FinFET enables higher clocks. At a chosen frequency, a 14nm device uses less power. For Polaris, AMD is grabbing from both bins to bump clock rates up and cut consumption. That's how it's able to outperform more resource-rich GPUs like Hawaii at a 150W ceiling (though our measurements show RX 480 fudges a bit on its TDP).
Despite the new code-name, Polaris 10 is based on a fourth-gen implementation of AMD's Graphics Core Next architecture. With this in mind, most enthusiasts already familiar with GCN are going to recognize the Polaris design's building blocks, making our step-through of the design fairly straightforward.
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A single Graphics Command Processor up front is still responsible for dispatching graphics queues to the Shader Engines. So too are the Asynchronous Compute Engines tasked with handling compute queues. Only now AMD says its command processing logic consists of four ACEs instead of eight, with two Hardware Scheduler units in place for prioritized queues, temporal/spatial resource management and offloading CPU kernel mode driver scheduling tasks. These aren't separate or new blocks per se, but rather an optional mode the existing pipelines can run in. Dave Nalasco, senior technology manager for graphics at AMD, helps clarify their purpose:
"The HWS (Hardware Workgroup/Wavefront Schedulers) are essentially ACE pipelines that are configured without dispatch controllers. Their job is to offload the CPU by handling the scheduling of user/driver queues on the available hardware queue slots. They are microcode-programmable processors that can implement a variety of scheduling policies. We used them to implement the Quick Response Queue and CU Reservation features in Polaris, and we were able to port those changes to third-generation GCN products with driver updates."
Quick Response Queues allow developers to prioritize certain tasks running asynchronously without preempting other processes entirely. In case you missed Dave's blog post on this feature, you can check it out here. In short, though, flexibility is the point AMD wants to drive home. Its architecture allows multiple approaches to improving utilization and minimizing latency, both of which are immensely important in applications like VR.
The Compute Units we know so well consist of 64 IEEE 754-2008-compliant shaders split between four vector units, a scalar unit and 16 texture fetch load/store units. Each CU also hosts four texture units, 16KB of L1 cache, a 64KB local data share, and register space for the vector and scalar units. AMD says it made a number of tweaks to improve the CU's efficiency, including the addition of native FP16 (and Int16) support, tuned cache access and better instruction prefetching. Altogether, the changes purportedly yield up to 15% more performance per CU than the Radeon R9 290's Hawaii GPU, which is based on a second-gen GCN architecture.
Nine CUs are organized into a Shader Engine, and Polaris 10 boasts four such SEs, consistent with what we know to be the architecture's maximum. The math (64 shaders * nine CUs * four SEs) adds up to 2304 Stream processors and 144 texture units.
Each Shader Engine is associated with a Geometry Engine, which AMD says it improves by adding a primitive discard accelerator for tossing any primitive that won't rasterize to a pixel prior to scan conversion, thus increasing throughput. This is an automatic function of the graphics pipeline's pre-rasterization stage, and is entirely new to Polaris. There's also an index cache for instanced geometry, though we're not sure how large this is, or how significant its impact is when instancing is used.
Similar to Hawaii, Polaris 10 is capable of up to four primitives per clock cycle. But whereas the quickest Hawaii/Grenada-based GPUs run at up to 1050MHz (in the case of R9 390X), AMD pushes Radeon RX 480 to a base clock rate of 1120MHz and a "boost" rating of 1266MHz, compensating for some of what it loses in on-die resources using higher frequencies. Whereas Radeon R9 290X offered 5.6 TFLOPS of single-precision floating-point performance, RX 480 reaches up to 5.8 TFLOPS using that "boost" specification.
Just how realistic is the 1266MHz number? Hawaii had a real big issue maintaining AMD's clock rate spec as it got hot, and we wanted to make sure the same behavior doesn't affect Polaris. Using Metro: Last Light Redux's built-in benchmark looped 10 times, we recorded frequencies using GPU-Z and got the following graph:
There's exactly 148MHz between the lowest and highest points on this line chart. The floor is 1118MHz and the ceiling is 1265MHz. We'd say AMD nails its base and boost ratings almost exactly, even if what happens in between is subject to constant adjustment. At least an average of 1208MHz is closer to the top than the bottom.
The Hawaii and Fiji SEs have four render back-ends each, capable of 16 pixels per clock (or 64 across the GPU). Polaris 10 cuts that figure in half. Two render back-ends per SE, each with four ROPs, total 32 pixels per clock. This is a significant reduction compared to the Hawaii-based Radeon R9 290 AMD needs to beat with its RX 480. To compound matters, Polaris 10 employs a 256-bit memory bus—much narrower than Hawaii's aggregate 512-bit path. A 4GB version of Radeon RX 480 will include 7 Gb/s GDDR5, enabling 224 GB/s of bandwidth, while the 8GB model we're testing today utilizes 8 Gb/s memory, boosting throughput to 256 GB/s. Still, that's a lot less than R9 290's 320 GB/s.
Some of the deficit is offset with improved delta color compression, which reduces the amount of information transferred across the bus. AMD now supports 2/4/8:1 lossless ratios, similar to Nvidia's Pascal architecture. Polaris 10 also benefits from the larger 2MB L2 cache first seen on Fiji. This can help dial back on trips to GDDR5, further reducing the GPU's reliance on a wide bus and high data rates.
Still, leaning out the GPU's back end must have an impact on performance as resolution and anti-aliasing utilization increases. Curious about how Polaris compares to Hawaii as the workload intensifies, we fired up Grand Theft Auto V at a modest 1920x1080 with Very High detail settings, then started scaling up anti-aliasing.
Sure enough, you can see the Radeon RX 480 bleeding off average frame rate much faster than the R9 390 as MSAA is toggled from Off to 2x to 4x. With AA disabled, the 480 achieves 97.3 FPS to the 390's 90.4. But by the end, AMD's Radeon RX 480 is down to 57.5 frames per second while the 390 averages 62.9.
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The spot for the good news, the good word, the quick reports of the many, many wonderful news items I hear all the time and want to share with the rest of you. Expect to find the good news when you come to check out "what's the good word?"
Monday, August 16, 2010
You're likely familiar with the image of Jesus as the good shepherd. It comes from the tenth chapter of John's gospel. Christians generally like that image of the gentle shepherd leading his sheep safely into the fold, knowing their names, cradling the little lambs in his arms. I remember pictures from my earliest days in Sunday school. And I guess I grew up with that image tucked in my mind somewhere of Jesus keeping me safe.
Then I read this Greek lesson. I go back to the chapter and there it is, clear as day. It says that Jesus leads the sheep out of the fold. Already I'm noticing something. The shepherd is not putting the sheep safely inside, but is leading them out into the world where there are wolves and bandits. Then my Greek teacher shares with me the word "ekballo" that in this chapter is translated as "to lead out."
But everywhere else—and it's there in the gospels a whole lot!—it is translated as "cast out, throw out, eject violently." Jesus "casts out demons"—ekballo. He drives the money changers from the temple—ekballo. In John 9, the blind man has been kicked out of the synagogue—ekballo is the word that's used.
Now here, in the story of the good shepherd, Jesus ekballos the sheep from the fold!
Is the message what we've always wanted it to be? Our Savior knows our names and wants to keep us safe from harm, here in the sanctuary of the church, the congregation, the beloved faith community? Or is it that Jesus, who cares for all his sheep is ready for us, his beloved, to get out there and help with his mission in the world. Admittedly there will be wolves and bandits, but Jesus knows us by name and goes before us. Enough of this lolly-gagging around the fold. It's time for us to be tossed out on our little wooly behinds. It's time to be ekballoed out where there is work to be done.
Some folks ask the question: what is this "mission" that you're always talking about? I'm not sure what it is in your community, but I'm pretty sure it's not inside the fold but out there beyond the security of the fold. It's in the world outside. And you are being ekballoed out there for some good reason. Go figure it out.
Posted by Marion
3 comments:
Ewe is very brave.ReplyDelete
I am on a bit of a "sheep theme" aren't I?ReplyDelete
- Kris JuddAugust 17, 2010 at 8:23 PM
Great insight into this word and what Christ is calling us to in mission. So much of our energy and time is about bringing people 'into the fold' rather than moving outside of the safety and security to those who have not been invited to the fold, or who don't want to be a part of a fold but deserve to be loved regardless. Since "mission" means "sent" then leaving the fold on God's mission is all about moving out, not sitting comfortably. Thanks for the new insight!!ReplyDelete


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Pinpointing your future risk of heart attack or stroke with a simple bone scan may soon be a reality, as researchers broach a new frontier for medical research.
The National Health and Medical Research Council will provide $ 467,980 to fund a three-year collaborative project led by a team of Edith Cowan University (ECU) researchers.
The team will investigate how machine learning can automate the task of identifying and quantifying an individual's blood vessel disease from a routine scan, years before symptoms arise.
This project builds on the recent work led by ECU researcher Associate Professor Joshua Lewis that machines used for routine bone density scans can also be used to identify the presence of calcium in a major artery in the abdomen, known as abdominal aortic calcification (AAC). AAC is a strong predictor of cardiovascular disease.
Professor Lewis said the NHMRC project would provide a window to identify high-risk people and intervene years before they suffer the devastating consequences of heart attack or stroke.
"Given each year more than 350,000 older Australian women undertake bone density testing, adding this scan at the time of bone density testing may lead to a paradigm shift in the way we monitor and prevent clinical cardiovascular disease," Professor Lewis said.
"Using machine learning to scale up our AAC test will be a game changer, moving us from a reliance on trained experts to manually process each scan to getting results at the touch of a button."
Cheap, safe, quick and reproducible test
Professor David Suter from ECU's School of Science will lead the development of the deep learning architectures needed to automate the image analysis.
"This will be the first fully automated tool to routinely image and identify this disease," Professor Suter said.
"We are well positioned to develop an accurate visual recognition of AAC in the scans, with access to over 11,000 scans that have already been assessed and accurately labelled by world experts."
Professor Suter said the visual processing of the scans was incredibly complex.
"Each scan is different and so the program will need to find visual cues to understand where to look for the required signs of vascular disease," Professor Suter said.
"We hope to ultimately develop a cheap, safe, quick and reproducible test for visualising vascular calcification that will save lives."
Edith Cowan University will collaborate with the Universities of Manchester, Western Australia, Southhampton, and Minnesota, INSERM and the Hinda and Arthur Marcus Institute for Aging Research, a research affiliate of Harvard Medical School on the project.


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Wood Pallet Patio Furniture Ideas
Making the best use out of pallet wood depends entirely on your creativity, skill and innovation. Just by blending the smart approach along with the effort made in this right direction, you can always end up with some excessively astonishing creations. Especially when you are planning some furniture items for your patio, you have to be very reluctant while drawing the plans with designs and measurements because this might prove to be crucial. A single wrong decision might leave you in shambles. Just grab some workable pallet wood recycling inspirations from this article for your patio and buckle up for the right plan at the right time.
Want to make your patio more lavish and genuinely equipped with some high quality wooden furniture range? Select this one for your patio, and also add some built in lighting installations beneath the sofa frame. This would give it an intoxicating touch.
Have some plans to build some furniture for garden? Well, this must be very smartly designed and all perspectives of open space like a huge green landscape must be kept in mind while chalking out the plan. I think recycling this decent wooden pallet recycled sofa cum bench along with decent tables would be just more than enough.
And here comes an exquisite L shaped grad sofa along with a matching center table which is temporarily placed in the corner. The whole grand project was recycled with some of the freshest wooden pallet planks, and lastly covered with ultra luxury couches and cushions.
Here comes again a beautiful L shaped large wooden pallet repurposed couch. We have designed it without a proper back, just with the pure intent to give it a pretty casual touch. A place purely designed for the buddies of all time, where they can have some chit chat sitting outside.
What about this decent wood pallet recycled sitting plan? Well, this is pretty comprehensive which can accommodate a number of people at the same time. Some rough shipping pallets are employed for the job, while the centre table is left pretty rough and rustic.
How do you find the additional storage space beneath each unit of this pallet wood repurposed wooden couch? Well, this might be a an old fashioned wooden sofa, but we have equipped with the most modern feature and that is the additional built in space which is always good to have.
I am literally left with no words for the appreciation of this splendid sitting arrangement. What we did here exactly while the main timber is the same, making techniques are same. Well, we just resorted to simplicity, we recycled these simple wooden pallet benches covered with ultra luxurious mattresses, and we added a very elegant centre table in the scene.
And on the end, I would say that making a straight wooden pallet recycled coffee table is just like making a cup of tea for some skilled pallet crafters. Just grab some fresh wooden pallets, work a bit on the measurements, arrange some efficient heavy duty wheels and you are all done.


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Development and Peace – Caritas Canada is present to respond to this humanitarian crisis threatening the lives of millions of people in the region and working closely with our local partners to support the most vulnerable populations.
Since the beginning of the armed conflict in 2009, some 1.9 million people have abandoned their homes and fields for fear of brutalities by the group Boko Haram or reprisals by the Nigerian army. Some 8.5 million people are in need in this region, including 1.9 million displaced persons. The main needs are in the areas of food security, nutrition, protection for various populations, and water sanitation. An estimated 50,000 people are currently at risk of famine in these areas.
Development and Peace is currently working with Caritas Nigeria to support the population of Borno State, affected by the conflict linked to Boko Haram.
9,000 internally displaced persons, returnees, and members of host communities in Borno State will have access to nutritional aid, means of subsistence, water sanitation and healthcare including:
Somalia is in one of the most vulnerable regions on the planet in terms of food insecurity. The country has been plagued by a civil war for decades; the current government essentially only controls the capital city Mogadishu and its surroundings.
More than 6.2 million people are in need, including 1.7 million persons displaced by war and/or drought (=54% of the population). In addition, an estimated 3 million people will be in a state of acute crisis by June due to ongoing drought and insecurity. Young children are among those hardest hit: an acute rate of malnutrition has been identified among 363,000 of these children and more than 71,000 of them require nutrition life-saving treatment.
Development and Peace is providing immediate food aid to respond to the drought affecting the country.
Famine was declared on February 20, 2017 in Unity State. An estimated 7.5 million people are in need, including 5.5 million who will be food insecure during the May to July period (lean season).
South Sudan is the world's newest state and achieved independence in 2011, but has been at war since 2013. Years of ethnic and religious strife opposing rebel groups and Sudanese forces, for control over the country's oil resources, which constitute about 90% of the national economy, continue to this day. There are nearly 1.9 million displaced persons inside the country and a total of 1.74 million refugees in neighbouring countries (of which 86% are women and children, including 21,000 unaccompanied minors).
Development and Peace is currently working with Caritas South Sudan to provide humanitarian aid for people struggling with serious food security and nutrition problems related to drought and internal conflicts.
5,330 households have received food.
8,980 households have gained access to clean water and sanitation facilities and have developed better hygiene practices and subsistence level support.
1,000 households have found shelter in churches for 3 month periods, giving them a little respite and security.
Click here to learn more on our program in South
Years of conflict have pushed Yemen, already one of the world's poorest countries, to the brink of catastrophe. An estimated 18.8 million of people (70% of the population) are in need of assistance and protection to meet their basic needs, including 6.8 million people experiencing severe food insecurity.
Children are particularly vulnerable due to malnutrition and preventable diseases; since April 27, cholera outbreak has been reported and could affect 250,000 over the next six months.
Development and Peace is aiming at working with CAFOD (Catholic Agency for Overseas Development) to provide:
In February 2017, the new UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, declared 20 million people to be at risk of death in the next six months in South Sudan, Somalia, Yemen, and Nigeria.
This particular humanitarian crisis stems from a conjunction of events that include armed conflicts coupled with severe droughts brought about by climate change. Many have fled their homes and land to escape the violence of armed conflict and are continually displaced. These issues make transportation and access to food extremely difficult.
On this World Food Day, we reaffirm our commitment to the most vulnerable people of Yemen. Development and Peace — Caritas Canada is supporting...
Located in the Horn of Africa along the Gulf of Aden, Somalia has always had a harsh environment that makes it prone to drought and crippling heat. But when you add conflict and climate change to the equation...
Violent incursions by the group Boko Haram have caused the suffering of thousands of people. Although the group originated in Northeastern Nigeria, their actions have spilled over into neighbouring Chad, Niger and Cameroon.
Following its recent efforts to raise $3.8 million in funds for the ongoing food crisis in northeastern Nigeria, South Sudan, Somalia and Yemen, Development and Peace Humanitarian Assistance Coordinator, Guy Des Aulniers...
July 17, 2017, Montreal, Quebec – Development and Peace – Caritas Canada would like to express its profound gratitude to Canadians across the...
June 7th, 2017, Montreal, Quebec –
May 29, 2017, Montreal, Quebec – Development and Peace – Caritas Canada is extremely pleased that the Government of Canada has launched a Famine Relief Fund to respond to the severe food crisis in northeast Nigeria, Somalia...
Development and Peace – Caritas Canada is profoundly concerned about the famine in South Sudan, and the humanitarian crises in Somalia, Yemen, and Nigeria. The situation is also very troubling in certain neighbouring countries...


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Summer aficionados can make the most of any sudden outbreaks of sunshine thanks to an 'emergency barbecue delivery service bundle'.
The bundle can be delivered within 12 hours and includes an iQ 6 Burner Gas BBQ with side burner - but it will set you back £1,999.99.
Complete with everything required to throw a last-minute BBQ - cover, utensils and six-seater furniture set - it could make disposable packs and mismatched deck chairs a thing of the past.
The bundle - from Furniture123.co.uk - also includes a gazebo for those unexpected sun showers, a food hamper to feed a family of six, garden games and a picnic blanket.
Mark Kelly, marking manager at Furniture123.co.uk, said, "We have launched this product bundle with special delivery option to provide a last-minute solution for customers who want to make the most of the elusive UK sunshine.
"When the British weather picks up, we see huge demand for BBQs, garden furniture and accessories and now, customers can check the weather forecast, purchase the BBQ bundle then sit back and enjoy the sunshine.
"Often, supermarkets can run out of stock during a sudden heatwave, but this won't be a concern thanks to the emergency BBQ bundle as the food is included, too."
For more information visit Furniture123.co.uk.


text: I bust out laughing sometimes watching these old Bud Lindemann car reviews from the late 1960's though mid 70's. People worship the older performance muscle cars and those of you who never grew up with them will appreciate the reality of these car reviews. They were never as fast as people seem to remember. Here is a 1974 Olds Omega with a 350ci four barrel. How about a 1974 Mercury Cougar with a 460ci four barrel and a Cutlass with a 350ci four barrel. My 2010 Prius is faster through the quarter mile than all of them LMAO. And it stops much better.


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It's every marketer's worst nightmare: you are in charge of a big project, but you simply don't have the bandwidth to get the results management is looking for without a budget increase. If only you had better tools, outsourced assistance, or more staff, it would be your chance to impress. Instead, thanks to your insufficient budget, you'll be running around like a chicken with its head cut off, trying to win a race with no prize at the finish line.
You Can Ask for a Bigger Marketing Budget
Don't set yourself and the people who are counting on you up for the disappointment that comes with lackluster results. Use the creativity and powers of persuasion you rely on as a marketing professional every day to position yourself for success. The next time you find yourself in this situation, consider the following points before you settle for less than you deserve.
Identify Why You Need a Marketing Budget Increase
Despite an overall trend toward spending more on digital commerce advertising, not having a big enough budget is still an issue many marketers struggle with. According to one HubSpot report, if you can demonstrate a return on your clients' past investments, you are 1.6 times more likely to get more funding. When identifying why you need an increase, identifying that ROI should be your first priority.
Figure Out If You Can Justify Your Marketing Budget
By doing your research and having an airtight plan of action prepared in advance, you won't be left in a situation where you are unable to justify your proposed budget. Before you go to your boss with a figure in mind, ask yourself the following questions:
- Have I taken the future trends into account?
- Have I eliminated strategies that didn't work in the past?
- Has my competitor research shown evidence that my ideas will work?
- Is my proposed budget comparable to what similar companies are spending?
- Have I proven ROI using KPIs?
Consider the Decision Maker's Position and Pain Points
Take a step back and put yourself in the decision-maker's shoes. What would your concerns be? Would there be a particular issue that was holding you back from making a larger investment in marketing? Enter your next meeting armed with the facts that will show the higher-ups why they actually risk more if they don't have an adequate budget in place. Arranging a face-to-face meeting with the chief decision-maker will go a long way.
That Budget Must Impact the Bottom Line
There is no single issue that is more important to your boss than the bottom line, so that should always be your focus. Having the newest tools and resources will save you time and money. Create a vision of the company's future and explain how it can only be achieved if the marketing budget is made a priority. The real bottom line here is that cutting corners to save pennies will ultimately cost the company opportunities.
KPIs You Must Have to Prove Marketing ROI
There's only one way to prove return on investment, and that's your Key Performance Indicators. If you are a marketing manager, putting measures in place to track this information to prove your digital marketing efforts are working should be your number-one priority because this is where you will find your proof. To demonstrate the need for your proposed budget, show how your KPIs relate to your unique business goals.
- Conversion rate
- Cost per lead (by source)
- Revenue per lead (by source)
- Overall percentage of digital sales
Provide the Best-Case Scenario in Addition to Alternatives
In the case that your marketing budget is not approved, work with what you've got. Show that you can achieve results that go beyond your boss's expectations with limited resources. It's helpful to create spreadsheets that show projections based upon your results to make the case for how much farther you could go if your budget were increased next time.
Make the Pitch
Approach any meeting well-prepared and armed with the data you need, and don't forget to provide options at different price points whenever possible. When you make a pitch for your proposed budget, keep in mind what you are really selling is yourself and your own perceived abilities. Showing that you know your stuff is the best way to achieve this.
Sometimes the budget for the first option simply isn't there, and this is your chance to steer your boss toward a compromise. Another point you'll want to keep in mind is any limitations the decision-maker may face. For example, who do they answer to? When it comes to your marketing budget, the more you know ahead of time, the greater the chance your ideas will be well-received by those at the top. Start proving that ROI today, and your confidence will shine through at your next meeting.


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Work took me on a solo trip this weekend through a beautiful region of New York I'd never visited before – Delaware County & Cooperstown. While spring hasn't quite graced upstate New York with its presence yet, the countryside I drove through was absolutely gorgeous! I would love to someday come back and make the same drive with Orvis and Michael, perhaps spending a little time hiking in the Catskills. After checking out of the charming inn & restaurant where I stayed on Friday night (more on that this week!), I drove right through Meredith, New York on my way to Cooperstown. I couldn't help but stop and take a photo of the darling town sign!
Back in Maine, Michael spent most of his weekend working in the yard before heading up to Newcastle to visit Oxbow's tasting room for the first time with my stepfather – an activity that comes highly recommended from both of them!
I made the long drive home on Saturday night so that I could spend a relaxing Sunday with Michael and Orvis before I head back to New York later this week. After a lazy morning on the couch with breakfast from Scratch, we spent some time outside with Orvis and then made our way to Tiki Sunday at Hunt & Alpine.
I feel like the weekend passed in the blink of an eye, but when I look back, I'm so thankful for how much we both got to see and do.
All photos taken by Meredith Perdue for Map & Menu.


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Sale on canvas prints! Use code ABCXYZ at checkout for a special discount!
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The Center for Disease Control has recommended the use of cloth face masks to help fight the spread of COVID-19.
This face mask is made from 100% polyester and includes two ear loops with adjustable grommets for a comfortable fit.
The printed area of the mask is approximately 7" wide by 5" tall. This mask fits well on adult mens' faces without the grommets but, due to the adjustable grommets, can be worn snuggly by adult women, as well.
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2 - 3 Business Days
Canvas Print
Framed Print
Art Print
Metal Print
Acrylic Print
Wood Print
Greeting Card
iPhone Case
Throw Pillow
Duvet Cover
Shower Curtain
Tote Bag
Round Beach Towel
Zip Pouch
Beach Towel
Weekender Tote Bag
Portable Battery Charger
Bath Towel
Coffee Mug
Yoga Mat
Spiral Notebook
Fleece Blanket
Face Mask
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I was born and raised in the American Southwest where we often had a household of unusual pets. Now I live in Pennsylvania. I've habitually photographed friends and family for years, and only recently thought that my photos might be of interest to others. I use my iPhone, iPad, and a Sony point-and-shoot, and do very minimal touch-up. I am very happy with photographs that for whatever reason are reminiscent of painted fine art. Please contact me if you are interested in other formats not available here such as calendars and books. Note that Photographs purchased here DO NOT CONTAIN THE WATERMARK seen on this web site. I hope you enjoy my photographs! Please contact me if you have any questions. - Chris


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Hello, and welcome to Panoply's celebration of fall outdoors, on both my porch and patio. If you're new to my blog and coming over from Itsy Bits and Pieces, I hope you've enjoyed Linda's vintage style. Here at Panoply, my home and style are mostly traditional but, as antique dealer, I infuse vintage flair with many of my accessories.
Though we live in West Virginia, a state entirely within the Appalachian Mountain range, one might think the Adirondacks have come to the Appalachians with my fall porch decor.
This year, my double entry doors are decked out with Adirondack baskets filled with fall floral arrangements. Originally a Native American shouldering basket intended for carrying gear and harvested foods, the Adirondack basket has since become a great decor item to the masses. Though my baskets are newer, vintage styles can be found online in various shopping venues.
The floral arrangements in my baskets are my own creations, made with fall floral stem selections from [mostly] the Dollar Tree (no affiliations). I'll share how these were made in another post later this week.
Yellow mums are my go-to choice when it comes to fall potted flowers. I typically purchase in bud stage, and enjoy an extended bloom time that way, and later plant in my landscape garden. Just a few ghost pumpkins were added this year on one side of the porch.
With the baskets as the statement pieces on the front porch, I used a light hand for the remaining decor.
here, which starts with my most recent posts.
I'd like to thank Amber Ferguson from the blog, Follow the Yellow Brick Home, for organizing today's collection of bloggers sharing their ideas for fall porches and patios. Next on the tour is Laura, from the blog Decor to Adore. I'm sure you'll enjoy her take on fall decor, as well as all the other bloggers' whose links are conveniently provided below. Even if you're already set for fall this year (or chose not to decorate, for whatever reason), it's always fun to have such a variety of great source material all in one place, for pinning inspiration for future ideas. Enjoy!
Thanks for your visit today. I'd love for you to leave a comment, letting me know you were here today. You are most welcome to return, anytime!
(A special thanks to Richella of Imparting Grace, Grace at Home No. 318 for featuring this post!)
Rita C. at Panoply
Sharing: Pieced Pastimes, Best of the Weekend, Amaze Me, DIDI, BNOTP, Inspire Me, Make it Pretty, The Scoop, Dagmar's Home, Celebrate Your Story,SYS, SYC, Delightsome Life H&G, Grace at Home, Vintage Charm


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As marketers, we're accustomed to being in control—adopting intelligent targeting and tracking solutions, making data-driven decisions and leveraging data and technology to optimize media spend mix, reaching new audiences with personalized content, and more. Because of this, the global uncertainty sparked by Covid-19 has compelled retail marketers to evaluate existing strategies and optimize in real-time as they navigate the current climate. Marketers feeling the effects, whether directly or indirectly, are altering strategic course to accommodate brick and mortar shutdowns, fulfillment delays, and shifts in consumers' daily lives—changes that naturally impact marketing mix spend allocation.
In the affiliate marketing channel, virus-related changes in commission rates are triggering concerns from publisher partners whose income is directly correlated to the commissions they receive for an attributable sale or conversion when promoting a brand. That said, virus or no virus, these shifts are inevitable in an environment where marketers are aggressively evaluating the unit economics of their growth strategies. Effective marketers always keep their spend allocations fluid-- consistently adjusting marketing dollar allocations to accommodate inventory, cost of customer acquisition, customer lifetime value, product margins, shifts in seasonality and other business KPIs.
Marketers making spend adjustments as they navigate industry shakeups such as Covid-19 should strive to make strategic decisions that prioritize reconciling short term liquidity needs with mid to long term growth. The way that marketers treat their partners today is likely to dictate the health of that relationship for years to come.
Recently, a cohort of household-name brands have suspended marketing dollars for influencer marketing, a partner segment of the affiliate channel. If we pull back the headline, the data tells us that the suspension is tied specifically to paid placements, which guarantee a fixed dollar amount to and influencer in return for a promotional message on a designated platform such as Instagram or YouTube. This pullback is consistent with the spend pauses many other paid media channels are experiencing at the moment, however, this spend pullback is not indicative of the overall health of the affiliate channel amidst the Covid-19 virus. Spend pullback in primary paid channels, an undesirable 'solution' for all parties involved, may be necessary for brands that are facing Covid-19-related fulfillment issues and supply chain complexities, but the affiliate channel provides a powerful alternative to subsidize those declines. In the case of influencers, we have seen little measurable retreat in brand's willingness to compensate influencers on a performance basis. Influencers should consider embracing cost per acquisition (CPA) opportunities contingent upon understanding that the proper attribution methodologies are deployed by the marketer, thereby insuring equitable distribution of commissions based on the influencer's role in the buyer journey.
Pepperjam clients are able to ensure a strong return on marketing spend by leveraging our Pepperjam Ascend™ Affiliate Cloud spend allocation and dynamic commissioning capabilities. These innovations dramatically improve the industry's legacy last click payment model by delivering automated, equitable partner rewards based on transaction attributes or pre-set campaigns. Implementing flexible payment structures enables marketers to adjust their commission strategies without "going to zero", a critical tactic in navigating the current climate without significantly risking future recover and growth prospects.
For example, rather than a blanket program commission rate or drastic payout decrease (some brands even dropping commission rates to 0%), payout structures should be flexible and include varying commission rates by product and category. Pepperjam brands can protect their product margins and optimize relationships with all partner segments by customizing commission payouts for orders that include a coupon code, reach a targeted AOV threshold, surpass partner-specific monthly revenue goals and more. Conversely, brands can set a higher commission rate on orders that do not include a coupon code, incenting their partners to drive full-price purchases and reach their custom-curated revenue goals. As a result, brands can maintain relationships across partner categories without compromising their program results.
Maintaining those relationships is critical in a channel where research indicates that an increasing number of marketers are turning to affiliate, a comparatively low-risk, performance-based channel. In a 2019 Forrester-commissioned study, 46% of executive-level marketers indicated that affiliate offers greater control over their media spend compared to other channels and 45% indicated that affiliate delivers a better ROI vs. other marketing channels. With an average ROAS of 12:1, the channel's pay for performance model offers efficiency and insulation from risk, incurring spend only upon outcome achieved.
In a powerful data sample, the Pepperjam Affiliate Marketing Sales Index for March 2020, which tracks affiliate marketing gross merchandise sales performance YoY across 10 retail categories confirms a 16% increase in revenue year over year across major brand categories for the period March 1-28. Many of these marketers are using the strategies and technologies referenced herein.
For more information on how to lean in to affiliate marketing amidst challenges in other channels, and to see how Pepperjam is supporting your needs during Covid-19, visit: https://www.pepperjam.com/covid-19-resources


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Mucuna Pruriens by Anima Mundai Herbals
Mucuna Pruriens is a mood elevator. I have been using this powder as supplement in my homemade aMYLK lattes and elixirs 4-5 times per week for years to help calm my nervous system and ease lingering anxiety.
The primary component of Mucuna is L-Dopa, a naturally occurring amino acid that is said to convert to dopamine in the brain. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that ignites JOY! Now you're starting to see why I love it, aren't you?
Sometimes our brains need a little help. Especially in the middle of a global pandemic with loads of children underfoot challenging our historical knowledge of basic mathematical principals we never use like multiplying and dividing fractions.
Disclaimer, I am not a medical practitioner and my reviews are my own personal opinions based on my own usage of the product. Please seek out professional medical advice if you have questions about using this product.


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Uranium from Africa and the Niger Forgeries: When did the CIA (in the U.S.) first receive copies of the Niger uranium forgeries? - Part 1: The Curious Incident of the CIA in the Daytime
by eriposte
[This is part of my ongoing coverage on this topic; click here to read a consolidated synopsis of my findings to-date]
This is the first part of a series (introduced here) focused on obtaining an answer to the question of when the CIA (in the U.S.) first received copies of (some or all of) the Niger uranium forgeries. Let's start by examining one of the most bizarre incidents narrated in the Senate (SSCI) Report (which has long been a dead giveaway). The section in question is the one focusing on what happened in the U.S. after a copy of the Niger forgeries was received from Rome (emphasis mine through this post):
Also on October 11, 2002, the U.S. Embassy in Rome reported to State Department headquarters that it had acquired photocopies of documents on a purported uranium deal between Iraq and Niger from an Italian journalist. The cable said that the embassy had passed the documents to the CIA's [SENTENCE DELETED]. The embassy faxed the documents to the State Department's Bureau of Nonproliferation (NP) on October 15, 2002, which passed a copy of the documents to INR. [page 58]
So what did the INR analyst do?
(U) Immediately after receiving the documents, the INR Iraq nuclear analyst e-mailed IC colleagues offering to provide the documents at a previously planned meeting of the Nuclear Interdiction Action Group (NIAG) the following day. The analyst, apparently already suspicious of the validity of the documents noted in his e-mail, "you'll note that it bears a funky Emb. of Niger stamp (to make it look official, I guess)."
(U) The INR Iraq nuclear analyst told Committee staff that the thing that stood out immediately about the documents was that a companion document - a document included with the Niger documents that did not relate to uranium - mentioned some type of military campaign against major world powers. The members of the alleged military campaign included both Iraq and Iran, and was, according to the documents, being orchestrated through the Nigerien Embassy in Rome, which all struck the analyst as "completely implausible." Because the stamp on this document matched the stamp on the uranium document, the analyst thought that all of the documents were likely suspect. The analyst was unaware at the time of any formatting problems with the documents or inconsistencies with the names or dates. [page 58]
I have previously discussed the "Global Support" document that the analyst was referring to. What I want to direct everyone's attention to in this post is what happened the next day:
(U) On October 16, 2002, INR made copies of the documents available at the NIAG meeting for attendees, including representatives from the CIA, DIA, DOE and NSA. Because the analyst who offered to provide the documents was on leave, the office's senior analyst provided the documents.
I'm going to set aside for now, the rather strange issues of why the analyst who said he would provide the documents the following day was suddenly on "leave" that very day, and why there is no mention in the SSCI Report of what was said about the forged documents during the NIAG meeting.
What is clear is that representatives from the CIA, DIA, DOE and NSA were given copies of the forgeries.
The natural question to ask then is what the CIA decided to do with the documents since they were one of the three IC agencies (other than DIA, INR) that had been analyzing the Niger uranium claims:
...Because the analyst who offered to provide the documents was on leave, the office's senior analyst provided the documents. She cannot recall how she made the documents available, but analysts from several agencies, including the DIA, NSA and DOE, did pick up copies at that meeting. None of the four CIA representatives recall picking up the documents, however, during the CIA Inspector General's investigation of this issue, copies of the documents were found in the DO's CPD vault. It appears that a CPD representative did pick up the documents at the NIAG meeting, but after returning to the office, filed them without any further distribution.
...The CIA told the Committee its analysts did not seek to obtain copies of the documents because they believed that the foreign government service reporting was verbatim text and did not think it would advance the story on the alleged uranium deal. One analyst noted that, at the time, the CIA was preparing its case [DELETED] on reconstitution and since the uranium reporting was not significant to their argument, getting the documents was not a priority.
This story not only has so many holes but it is by far the most bizarre narrative in the Niger section of the Senate (SSCI) report simply because it makes no sense whatsoever. If we set aside aside the deleted paragraph, here are the reasons why I say that.
1. First of all, the CIA claimed that, at that time, they had no idea that these documents were forgeries. If this claim is true, it would have meant that the CIA must have assumed that the documents were likely authentic. So, according to this narrative, when the CIA ostensibly received what was possibly the first "authentic" and first-hand validation for claims almost identical to what they had been hearing for almost a year from a foreign intelligence service (SISMI), they did not even think these were worth looking into or reviewing. In other words, we are led to believe that when faced with the ostensible first-hand proof for a deal that matched in most particulars the information received from SISMI over the previous 12 months, the CIA's response was that the documents weren't really important and not worth examining at all. If this was indeed their response, then this definitely classifies as a Curious Incident of the CIA in the Daytime. (NOTE added: That's another way of saying that the CIA must have been familiar with the documents and known beforehand that they were bogus. After all, as Mary points out in the comments, the INR analyst strongly suggested in his email that the documents were of dubious authenticity. Unfortunately, a critical piece of information that is left out in the Senate Report is the individual divisions that the four CIA representatives at the NIAG meeting belonged to.)
2. The CIA's explanation that - "its analysts did not seek to obtain copies of the documents because they believed that the foreign government service reporting was verbatim text and did not think it would advance the story on the alleged uranium deal" - is complete nonsense. Why?
Well, for one thing, the CIA only reported receiving the "verbatim text" of the alleged (fake) Niger-Iraq uranium "accord", not of all the documents in the dossier. As the Senate (SSCI) Report says (page 37):
Reporting on the uranium transaction did not surface again until February 5, 2002 when the CIA's DO issued a second intelligence report [DELETED] which again cited the source as a "[foreign] government service." Although not identified in the report, this source was also from the foreign service. The second report provided more details about the previously reported Iraq-Niger uranium agreement and provided what was said to be "verbatim text" of the accord.
Obviously, additional documents than the accord would have "advanced[d] the story on the alleged uranium deal". (This is also noteworthy because the CIA made it a point to deny to the SSCI that they had any "documents" with them on the Iraq-Niger uranium deal at the time they briefed Joseph Wilson in Feb 2002, which was after they had received the "verbatim text" of the accord from SISMI. If the "documents" were so unimportant, why go out of the way to deny possession of "documents" if the "verbatim text" report, among other things, could have been considered the equivalent of any documents?)
Secondly, despite having "verbatim text" of the accord in early Feb 2002, the CIA was not quite convinced of the Niger reporting - so they sent Joseph Wilson to Niger to investigate it in late Feb 2002. So, clearly, just having the "verbatim text" of the accord said nothing about the importance or usefulness of the Niger documents they had received.
Third, Panorama magazine's Elisabetta Burba never gave the CIA a copy of the uranium accord. So, it would have made no sense for the CIA to dismiss the documents they received from Burba without even looking at it to see if the accord was part of the bunch they received. If the accord was there, that would indicate that the CIA magically had in their possession a document that Burba never gave them - which would prove they had one or more of the Niger documents in their possession through other means. If the accord was missing in the bunch, then the CIA should have immediately investigated why that was the case since they received the "verbatim text" of the accord several months earlier from SISMI.
3. The CIA's second explanation that - "since the uranium reporting was not significant to their argument, getting the documents was not a priority" - doesn't make any sense either. In fact, if the uranium claim was unimportant, then the documents could have made the case more important if they were authentic (epecially considering how the CIA was being relentlessly pressured to come up with as much junk as possible to feed George Bush and Dick Cheney's intelligence fixing to support the predetermined plans to go to war with Iraq). Indeed, it would have been simply impossible for the CIA to know whether the documents were important or unimportant without reviewing/analyzing them.
To sum it up, there is only one obvious explanation, that is both reasonable and plausible, which explains the CIA's reported behavior. That explanation is that the CIA was already aware of the Niger forgeries and already had them in their possession prior to receiving copies from Elisabetta Burba. In this scenario, they would have already been aware that the papers were bogus and would have had no reason to re-analyze materials that they had previously determined to be bogus. This explanation is also particularly relevant considering what had happened in the days prior to the receipt of the forgeries from Burba. After all, in a mysterious twist to the CIA's earlier position on the "uranium from Africa" claim, between October 2, 2002 and October 6, 2002 - prior to the CIA's receiving the forgeries from Elisabetta Burba - top players in the CIA (including the Deputy DCI and the DCI) personally made efforts to try and dissuade the White House, and strongly so, from including the "uranium from Africa" claim in speeches, because they considered the claim to not be credible at all. The aggressive manner in which the CIA was walking away from the claim even before they received Burba's documents indicated that they had strong evidence in their possession (which likely included the forgeries) questioning the validity of the claim.
Finally, there are additional important questions raised by the Senate Report's narrative:
...however, during the CIA Inspector General's investigation of this issue, copies of the documents were found in the DO's CPD vault. It appears that a CPD representative did pick up the documents at the NIAG meeting, but after returning to the office, filed them without any further distribution.
Note the wording "it appears that". This is just a way of saying "we think that". The wording is important here because it is entirely possible that the copied of the forgeries got in the DO's CPD vault through some other mechanism. For instance, DO may have received the forgeries well before Burba sent the U.S. copies of the forgeries and may have locked them up in their vault after determining they were bogus. This aspect is not examined at all in the SSCI Report and the Report does not say what the "filing" date was for the documents found in the vault.
There is another major oddity in the storyline in the Senate report. After the October 15, 2002 email from the INR analyst and the October 16, 2002 NIAG meeting where the forgeries were distributed, there is *zero* mention of the forgeries for almost 3 months - until January 13, 2003 - when suddenly a passage appears almost out of the blue where the INR analyst again sends an email to IC colleagues saying almost exactly the same thing he did on October 15, 2002. Clearly, a lot must have happened in between which we don't know about yet.
In the intermediate time period, the SSCI Report also does not address what DIA, DOE or INR did with the documents they received in October 2002. Did any of them even look at it in the interim? Are we to believe that DIA, which was relentlessly peddling the fake uranium claim (even as late as June 12, 2003), also miraculously felt that the documents were not "important" and not even worth looking at? This makes no sense.
A side note is that the INR analyst was the only one who seemed interested and somewhat surprised by the bogus contents. That seemed to be a rare case of the dog that did bark.


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[Letters from Bessie Franklin and Bettie Franklin to the Moore family, January 20-22, 1901]
Description: This is a letter from the Charles B. Moore Collection. It is written by Bessie Franklin and is addressed to the Moore family. In this letter, Franklin informs the Moore family of the goings-on in Gallatin, TN during the Christmas holidays. The news includes: a confirmation on receiving the Moore's latest correspondence, updates about school, a discussion about family member's health status at present, details about the events they attended for the holidays, and a discussion about who attended t… more
Date: 1901-01-20/1901-01-22
Creator: Franklin, Bessie
Partner: UNT Libraries Special Collections


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The Great War for Civilisation
By Robert Fisk
By Robert Fisk
By Robert Fisk
By Robert Fisk
Category: Middle Eastern World History | Military History | World Politics
Category: Middle Eastern World History | Military History | World Politics
The Bin Ladens
A History of the Middle East
Cobra II
Thirteen Days in September
The Devil We Know
The Arab World
Between War and Peace
Raid on the Sun
Special Providence
Disarming Iraq
"A magisterial report from the shifting front lines of the Middle East. It deserves to be read by all those concerned with what is happening in Iraq today." —The Boston Globe"A stimulating and absorbing book, by a man who . . . has met the leading players, from bin Laden to Ahmad Chalabi. . . . A formidable production." —The New York Times Book Review"Vivid, graphic, intense. . . . A book of unquestionable importance. . . . [Fisk's] experience of war is unmatched, [as is] his capacity to convey that experience in concrete, passionate language." —The Washington Post Book World"Fisk's magnum opus. . . . Seals [his] place as a venerable, indispensable contributor to informed debate in and about the Middle East." —The Nation"Powerful . . . Mr. Fisk is a gifted writer and an accomplished storyteller . . . his love affair with the region and the glamorous profession of being a foreign correspondent finds expression on every page." —The Economist
21 Books You've Been Meaning to Read
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A high voltage clash is on the cards as Bengaluru FC lock horns with defending champions Mohun Bagan in an I - League encounter at the Kanteerava stadium here on Saturday.
Last year it was here that Mohun Bagan drew 1 - 1 in the title - deciding match against Bengaluru to win the trophy with defender Bello Rasaq heading in a late equaliser. For Bengaluru it will be a chance for a sweet revenge if they can grab all three points in the game.
Presently Bengaluru are on top of the leader board with 15 points from seven matches whereas the visitors are third with 11 but have played two games less than their rivals.
Mohun Bagan are still the only unbeaten side in the tournament and Sanjoy Sen's men would look to keep the record intact.
However, it will be the hosts who will be more confident going into the encounter having thrashed DSK Shivajians 4 - 1 in their last outing, while Mohun Bagan lost truckloads of opportunities against Mumbai FC and were held to a goalless stalemate.
Bengaluru coach Ashley Westwood will rely on his forwards like Sunil Chhetri, North Korean Sim Song Yong and C. K Vineeth to give him goals. The trio has been on song and have been providers for each other on a number of occasions.
But Westwood's biggest challenge would be to keep his defence tight so that Mohun Bagan's in form attackers, Sony Norde, Katsumi Yusa and Cornell Glen would have trouble going past it.
All three have been excellent so far this season and on their day no defence can be sturdy enough to hold them back.
If the hosts win, they will consolidate their position atop the table but if Mohun Bagan grab full points they will jump up a rung and sit second on the points table with 14 points.
Mohun Bagan were beaten 0 - 6 by Shandong Luneng in the second qualifying round of the Asian Fotball Confederation (AFC) Champions League in China and then they squandered easy chances against Mumbai.
Mohun Bagan coach Sanjoy Sen was also showcaused by the All India Football Federation (AIFF) recently for his acidic comments against the national football governing body.
He will hope his team responds to all his woes in style on Saturday.