text:
Category: Insight
A Couple of Recent Quotes from Downes…
…that made me smile:
"Could it be that the hacker spirit is really want is responsible for our progress?" asks Daniel Lemire. "My theory is that if you want to cure cancer or Alzheimer's, or if you want nuclear fusion, or bases on Mars… you need the hackers." Once this is accomplished, he suggests, "academics will take the credit." I've seen enough of this first-hand. But of course there are the academics who are also hackers, who I think play a pretty important role (and I like to think I am one). And there is – to my mind – a concern that while hackers are skilled at making things, they may not be skilled at things like social policy, governance and media (though they do not have the humility to realize this).
I suck at meetings…
As is always the case, the stuff that can be done by technical people today will be provided by some application for everyone tomorrow.
Yep. The latter is the reason I play with code and services as they are made available. If I can get them to work and do something halfway useful or interesting with them in an hour or too, maybe someone else may will come along and build a proper app or utility around a similar idea that becomes far more widely used…
"Drug Deal" Network Analysis with Gephi (Tutorial)
Via a trackback from Check Yo Self: 5 Things You Should Know About Data Science (Author Note) criticising tweet-mapping without further analysis ("If you're making Gephi graphs out of tweets, you're probably doing more data science marketing than data science analytics. And stop it. Please. I can't take any more. … what does it gain a man to have graphs of tweets and do jack for analysis with them?"), I came across John Foreman's Analytics Made Skeezy [uncourse] blog:
Analytics Made Skeezy is a fake blog. Each post is part of a larger narrative designed to teach a variety of analytics topics while keeping it interesting. Using a single narrative allows me to contrast various approaches within the same fake world. And ultimately that's what this blog is about: teaching the reader when to use certain analytic tools.
Skimming through the examples described in some of the posts to date, Even Wholesale Drug Dealers Can Use a Little Retargeting: Graphing, Clustering & Community Detection in Excel and Gephi not surprisingly caught my attention. That post describes, in narrative form, how to use Excel to prepare and shape a dataset so that it can be imported into Gephi as a faux CSV file and then run through Gephi's modularity statistic; the modularity class augmented dataset can then be exported from the Gephi Data Lab and re-presented in Excel, whereupon the judicious use of column sorting and conditional formatting is used to try to generate some sort of insight about the clusters/groups discovered in the data – apparently, "Gephi can kinda suck for giving us that kind of insight sometimes. Depends on the graph and what you're trying to do". And furthermore:
If you had a big dataset that you prepped into a trimmed nearest neighbors graph, keep in mind that visualizing it in Gephi is just for fun. It's not necessary for actual insight regardless of what the scads of presentations of tweets-spreading-as-visualized-in-Gephi might tell you (gag me). You just need to do the community detection piece. You can use Gephi for that or the libraries it uses. R and python both have a package called igraph that does this stuff too. Whatever you use, you just need to get community assignments out of your large dataset so that you can run things like the aggregate analysis over them to bubble up intelligence about each group.
I don't necessarily disagree with the implication that we often need to do more than just look at pretty pictures in Gephi to make sense of a dataset; but I do also believe that we can use Gephi in an active way to have a conversation with the data, generating some sort of preliminary insights out about the data set that we can then explore further using other analytical techniques. So what I'll try to do in the rest of this post is offer some suggestions about one or two ways in which we might use Gephi to start conversing with the same dataset described in the Drug Dealer Retargeting post. Before I do so, however, I suggest you read through the original post and try to come to some of your own conclusions about what the data might be telling us…
Done that? To recap, the original dataset ("Inventory") is a list of "deals", with columns relating to two sorts of thing: 1) attribute of a deal; 2) one column per dealer showing whether they took up that deal. A customer/customer matrix is then generated and the cosine similarity between each customer calculated (note: other distance metrics are available…) showing the extent to which they participated in similar deals. Selecting the three most similar neighbours of each customer creates a "trimmed nearest neighbors graph", which is munged into a CSV-resembling data format that Gephi can import. Gephi is then used to do a very quick/cursory (and discounted) visual analysis, and run the modularity/clustering detection algorithm.
So how would I have attacked this dataset (note: IANADS (I am not a data scientist;-)
One way would be to treat it from the start as defining a graph in which dealers are connected to trades. Using a slightly tidied version of the 'inventory tab from the original dataset in which I removed the first (metadata) and last (totals) rows, and tweaked one of the column names to remove the brackets (I don't think Gephi likes brackets in attribute names?), I used the following script to generate a GraphML formatted version of just such a graph.
#Python script to generate GraphML file import csv #We're going to use the really handy networkx graph library: easy_install networkx import networkx as nx import urllib #Create a directed graph object DG=nx.DiGraph() #Open data file in universal newline mode reader=csv.DictReader(open("inventory.csv","rU")) #Define a variable to act as a deal node ID counter dcid=0 #The graph is a bimodal/bipartite graph containing two sorts of node - deals and customers #An identifier is minted for each row, identifying the deal #Deal attributes are used to annotate deal nodes #Identify columns used to annotate nodes taking string values nodeColsStr=['Offer date', 'Product', 'Origin', 'Ready for use'] #Identify columns used to annotate nodes taking numeric values nodeColsInt=['Minimum Qty kg', 'Discount'] #The customers are treated as nodes in their own right, rather than as deal attributes #Identify columns used to identify customers - each of these will define a customer node customerCols=['Smith', 'Johnson', 'Williams', 'Brown', 'Jones', 'Miller', 'Davis', 'Garcia', 'Rodriguez', 'Wilson', 'Martinez', 'Anderson', 'Taylor', 'Thomas', 'Hernandez', 'Moore', 'Martin', 'Jackson', 'Thompson', 'White' ,'Lopez', 'Lee', 'Gonzalez','Harris', 'Clark', 'Lewis', 'Robinson', 'Walker', 'Perez', 'Hall', 'Young', 'Allen', 'Sanchez', 'Wright', 'King', 'Scott','Green','Baker', 'Adams', 'Nelson','Hill', 'Ramirez', 'Campbell', 'Mitchell', 'Roberts', 'Carter', 'Phillips', 'Evans', 'Turner', 'Torres', 'Parker', 'Collins', 'Edwards', 'Stewart', 'Flores', 'Morris', 'Nguyen', 'Murphy', 'Rivera', 'Cook', 'Rogers', 'Morgan', 'Peterson', 'Cooper', 'Reed', 'Bailey', 'Bell', 'Gomez', 'Kelly', 'Howard', 'Ward', 'Cox', 'Diaz', 'Richardson', 'Wood', 'Watson', 'Brooks', 'Bennett', 'Gray', 'James', 'Reyes', 'Cruz', 'Hughes', 'Price', 'Myers', 'Long', 'Foster', 'Sanders', 'Ross', 'Morales', 'Powell', 'Sullivan', 'Russell', 'Ortiz', 'Jenkins', 'Gutierrez', 'Perry', 'Butler', 'Barnes', 'Fisher'] #Create a node for each customer, and classify it as a 'customer' node type for customer in customerCols: DG.add_node(customer,typ="customer") #Each row defines a deal for row in reader: #Mint an ID for the deal dealID='deal'+str(dcid) #Add a node for the deal, and classify it as a 'deal' node type DG.add_node(dealID,typ='deal') #Annotate the deal node with string based deal attributes for deal in nodeColsStr: DG.node[dealID][deal]=row[deal] #Annotate the deal node with numeric based deal attributes for deal in nodeColsInt: DG.node[dealID][deal]=int(row[deal]) #If the cell in a customer column is set to 1, ## draw an edge between that customer and the corresponding deal for customer in customerCols: if str(row[customer])=='1': DG.add_edge(dealID,customer) #Increment the node ID counter dcid=dcid+1 #write graph nx.write_graphml(DG,"inventory.graphml")
The graph we're generating (download .graphml) has a basic structure that looks something like the following:
Which is to say, in this example customer C1 engaged in a single deal, D1; customer C2 participated in every deal, D1, D2 and D3; and customer C3 partook of deals D2 and D3.
Opening the graph file into Gephi as a directed graph, we get a count of the number of actual trades there were from the edge count:
If we run the Average degree statistic, we can see that there are some nodes that are not connected to any other nodes (that is, they are either deals with no takers, or customers who never took part in a deal):
We can view these nodes using a filter:
We can also use the filter the other way, to exclude the unaccepted deals, and then create a new workspace containing just the deals that were taken up, and the customers that bought into them:
The workspace selector is at the bottom of the window, on the right hand side:
(Hmmm… for some reason, the filtered graph wasn't exported for me… the whole graph was. Bug? Fiddling with with Giant Component filter, then exporting, then running the Giant Component filter on the exported graph and cancelling it seemed to fix things… but something is not working right?)
We can now start to try out some interactive visual analysis. Firstly, let's lay out the nodes using a force-directed layout algorithm (ForceAtlas2) that tries to position nodes so that nodes that are connected are positioned close to each other, and nodes that aren't connected are kept apart (imagine each node as trying to repel the other nodes, with edges trying to pull them together).
Our visual perception is great at identifying spatial groupings (see, for example, the Gestalt principles, which lead to many a design trick and a bucketful of clues about how to tease data apart in a visually meaningful way…), but are they really meaningful?
At this point in the conversation we're having with the data, I'd probably call on a statistic that tries to place connected groups of nodes into separate groups so that I could colour the nodes according to their group membership: the modularity statistic:
The modularity statistic is a random algorithm, so you may get different (though broadly similar) results each time you run it. In this case, it discovered six possible groupings or clusters of interconnected nodes (often, one group is a miscellany…). We can see which group each node was place in by applying a Partition colouring:
We see how the modularity groupings broadly map on to the visual clusters revealed by the ForceAtlas2 layout algorithm. But do the clusters relate to anything meaningful? What happens if we turn the labels on?
The green group appear to relate to Weed transactions, reds are X, Meth and Ketamine deals, and yellow for the coke heads. So the deals do appear to cluster around different types of deal.
So what else might we be able to learn? Does the Ready for Use dimension on a deal separate out at all (null nodes on this dimension relate to customers)?
We'd need to know a little bit more about what the implications of "Ready for Use" might be, but at a glance we get a feeling the the cluster on the far left is dominated by trades with large numbers of customers (there are lots of white/customer nodes), and the Coke related cluster on the right has quite a few trades (the green nodes) that aren't ready for use. (A question that comes to mind looking at that area is: are there any customers who seem to just go for not Ready for Use trades, and what might this tell us about them if so?)
Something else we might look to is the size of the trades, and any associated discounts. Let's colour the nodes using the Partition tool to according to node type (attribute name is "typ" – nodes are deals (red) or customers (aqua)) and then size the nodes according to deal size using the Ranking display:
Small fry deals in the left hand group. Looking again at the Coke grouping, where there is a mix of small and large deals, another question we might file away is "are there customers who opt either for large or small trades?"
Let's go back to the original colouring (via the Modularity coloured Partition; note that the random assignment of colours might change from the original colour set; right click allows you to re-randomise colours; clicking on a colour square allows you to colour select by hand) and size the nodes by OutDegree (that is, the sum total of edges outgoing from a node – remember, the graph was described as a directed graph, with edges going from deals to customers):
I have then sized the labels so that they are proportional to node size:
The node/label sizing shows which deals had plenty of takers. Sizing by OutDegree shows how many deals each customer took part in:
This is quite a cluttered view… returning to the Layout panel, we can use the Expansion layout to stretch out the whole layout, as well as the Label Adjust tool to jiggle nodes so that the labels don't overlap. Note that you can also click on a node to drag it around, or a group of nodes by increasing the "field of view" of the mouse cursor:
Here's how I tweaked the layout by expanding the layout then adjusting the labels…:
(One of the things we might be tempted to do is filter out the users who only engaged in one or two or deals, perhaps as a wau of identifying regular customers; of course, a user may only engage in a single, but very large deal, so we'd need to think carefully about what question we were actually asking when making such a choice. For example, we might also be interested in looking for customers engaging in infrequent large trades, which would require a different analysis strategy.)
Insofar as it goes, this isn't really very interesting – what might be more compelling would be data relating to who was dealing with whom, but that isn't immediately available. What we should be able to do, though, is see which customers are related by virtue of partaking of the same deals, and see which deals are related by virtue of being dealt to the same customers. We can maybe kid ourselves into thinking we can see this in the customer-deal graph, but we can be a little bit more rigorous two by constructing two new graphs: one that shows edges between deals that share one or more common customers; and one that shows edges between customers who shared one or more of the same deals.
Recalling the "bimodal"/bipartite graph above:
that means we should be able to generate unimodal graphs along the following lines:
D1 is connected to D2 and D3 through customer C2 (that is, an edge exists between D1 and D2, and another edge between D1 and D3). D2 and D3 are joined together through two routes, C2 and C3. We might thus weight the edge between D2 and D3 as being heavier, or more significant, than the edge between either D1 and D2, or D1 and D3.
And for the customers?
C1 is connected to C2 through deal D1. C2 and C3 are connected by a heavier weighted edge reflecting the fact that they both took part in deals D2 and D3.
You will hopefully be able to imagine how more complex customer-deal graphs might collapse into customer-customer or deal-deal graphs where there are multiple, disconnected (or only very weakly connected) groups of customers (or deals) based on the fact that there are sets of deals that do not share any common customers at all, for example. (As an exercise, try coming up with some customer-deal graphs and then "collapsing" them to customer-customer or deal-deal graphs that have disconnected components.)
So can we generate graphs of this sort using Gephi? Well, it just so happens we can, using the Multimode Networks Projection tool. To start with let's generate another couple of workspaces containing the original graph, minus the deals that had no customers. Selecting one of these workspaces, we can now generate the deal-deal (via common customer) graph:
When we run the projection, the graph is mapped onto a deal-deal graph:
The thickness of the edges describes the number of customers any two deals shared.
If we run the modularity statistic over the deal-deal graph and colour the graph by the modularity partition, we can see how the deals are grouped by virtue of having shared customers:
If we then filter the graph on edge thickness so that we only show edges with a thickness of three or more (three shared customers) we can see some how some of the deal types look as if they are grouped around particular social communities (i.e they are supplied to the same set of people):
If we now go to the other workspace we created containing the original (less unsatisfied deals) graph, we can generate the customer-customer projection:
Run the modularity statistic and recolour:
Whilst there is a lot to be said for maintaining the spatial layout so that we can compare different plots, we might be tempted to rerun the layout algorithm to the see if it highlights the structural associations any more clearly? In this case, there isn't much difference:
If we run the Network diameter tool, we can generate some network statistics over this customer-customer network:
If we now size the nodes by betweenness centrality, size labels proportional nodes, and use the expand/label overlap layout tools to tweak the display, here's what we get:
Thompson looks to be an interesting character, spanning the various clusters… but what deals is he actually engaging in? If we go back to the orignal customer-deal graph, we can use an ego filter to see:
To look for actual social groupings, we might filter the network based on edge weight, for example to show only edges above a particular weight (that is, number of shared deals), and then drop this set into a new workspace. If we then run the Average Degree statistic, we can calculate the degree of nodes in this graph, and size nodes accordingly. Relaying out the graph shows us some corse social netwroks based on significant numbers of shared trades:
Hopefully by now you are starting to "see" how we can start to have a visual conversation with the data, asking different questions of it based on things we are learning about it. Whilst we may need to actually look at the numbers (and Gephi's Data Laboratory tab allows us to do that), I find that visual exploration can provide a quick way of orienting (orientating?) yourself with respect to a particular dataset, and getting a feel for the sorts of questions you might ask of it, questions that might well involve a detailed consideration of the actual numbers themselves. But for starters, the visual route often works for me…
PS There is a link to the graph file here, so if you want to try exploring it for yourself, you can do so:-)
Visualising New York Times Article API Tag Graphs Using d3.js
Picking up on Tinkering with the Guardian Platform API – Tag Signals, here's a variant of the same thing using the New York Times Article Search API.
As with the Guardian OpenPlatform demo, the idea is to look up recent articles containing a particular search term, find the tag(s) used to describe the articles, and then graph them. The idea behind this approach is to get a quick snapshot of how the search target is represented, or positioned, in this case, by the New York Times.
Here is the code. The main differences compared to the Guardian API gist are as follows:
– a hacked recipe for getting several paged results back; I really need to sort this out properly, just as I need to generalise the code so it will work with either the Guardian or the NYT API, but that's for another day now…
– the use of NetworkX as a way of representing the undirected tag-tag graph;
– the use of the NetworkX D3 helper library (networkx-d3) to generate a JSON output file that works with the d3.js force directed layout library.
Note that the D3 Python library generates a vanilla force directed layout diagram. In the end, I just grabbed the tiny bit of code that loads the JSON data into a D3 network, and then used it along with the code behind the rather more beautiful network layout used for this Mobile Patent Suits visualisation.
Here's a snapshot of the result of a search for recent articles on the phrase Gates Foundation:
At this point, it's probably worth pointing out that the Python script generates the graph file, and then the d3.js library generates the graph visualisation within a web browser. There is no human hand (other than force layout parameter setting) involved in the layout. I guess with the tweaking of a few parameters, maybe juggling the force layout parameters a little more, I could get an even clearer layout. It might also be worth trying to find a way of sizing, or at least colouring, the nodes according to degree (or even better, weighted degree?) I also need to find a way, of possible, of representing the weight of edges if the D3 Python library actually exports this (or if it exports multiple edges between the same two nodes).
Anyway, for an hour or so's tinkering, it's quite a neat little recipe to be able to add to my toolkit. Here's how it works again: Python script calls NYT Article Search API and grabs articles based on a search term. Grab the tags used to describe each article and build up a graph using NetworkX that connects any and all tags that are mentioned on the same article. Dump the graph from its NetworkX representation as a JSON file using the D3 library, then use the D3 Patent Suits layout recipe to render it in the browser :-)
Now all I have to do is find out how I can grab an SVG dump of the network from a browser into a shareable file…
Tinkering with the Guardian Platform API – Tag Signals
Given a company or personal name, what's a quick way of generating meaningful tags around what it's publicly known for, or associated with?
Over the last couple of weeks or so, I've been doodling around a few ideas with Miguel Andres-Clavera from the JWT (London) Innovation Lab looking for novel ways of working out how brands and companies seem to be positioned by virtue of their social media followers, as well as their press mentions.
Here's a quick review of one of those doodles: looking up tags associated with Guardian news articles that mention a particular search term (such as a company, or personal name) as a way of getting a crude snapshot of how the Guardian 'positions' that referent in its news articles.
It's been some time since I played with the Guardian Platform API, but the API explorer makes it pretty easy to automatically generate some (the Python library for the Guardian Platform API appears to have rotted somewhat with various updates made to the API after its initial public testing period).
Here's a snapshot over recent articles mentioning "The Open University" (bipartite article-tag graph):
Here's a view of the co-occurrence tag graph:
The code is available as a Gist: Guardian Platform API Tag Grapher
As with many of my OUseful tools and techniques, this view over the data is intended to be used as a sensemaking tool as much as anything. In this case, the aim is to help folk get an idea of how, for example, "The Open University" is emergently positioned in the context of Guardian articles. As with the other 'discovering social media positioning' techniques I'm working on, I see the approach useful not so much for reporting, but more as a way of helping us understand how communities position brands/companies etc relative to each other, or relative to particular ideas/concepts.
It's maybe also worth noting that the Guardian Platform article tag positioning view described above makes use of curated metadata published by the Guardian as the basis of the map. (I also tried running full text articles through the Reuters OpenCalais service, and extracting entity data ('implicit metadata') that way, but the results were generally a bit cluttered. (I think I'd need to clean the article text a little first before passing it to the OpenCalais service.)) That is, we draw on the 'expert' tagging applied to the articles, and whatever sense is made of the article during the tagging process, to construct our own sensemaking view over a wider set of articles that all refer to the topic of interest.
PS would anyone from the Guardian care to comment on the process by which tags are applied to articles?
PPS a couple more… here's how the Guardian position JISC recently…
And here's how "student fees" has recently been positioned:
Identifying the Twitterati Using List Analysis
Given absolutely no-one picked up on List Intelligence – Finding Reliable, Trustworthy and Comprehensive Topic/Sector Based Twitter Lists, here's a example of what the technique might be good for…
Seeing the tag #edusum11 in my feed today, and not being minded to follow it it I used the list intelligence hack to see:
– which lists might be related to the topic area covered by the tag, based on looking at which Twitter lists folk recently using the tag appear on;
– which folk on twitter might be influential in the area, based on their presence on lists identified as maybe relevant to the topic associated with the tag…
Here's what I found…
Some lists that maybe relate to the topic area (username/list, number of folk who used the hashtag appearing on the list, number of list subscribers), sorted by number of people using the tag present on the list:
/joedale/ukedtech 6 6
/TWMarkChambers/edict 6 32
/stevebob79/education-and-ict 5 28
/mhawksey/purposed 5 38
/fosteronomo/chalkstars-combined 5 12
/kamyousaf/uk-ict-education 5 77
/ssat_lia/lia 5 5
/tlists/edtech-995 4 42
/ICTDani/teched 4 33
/NickSpeller/buzzingeducators 4 2
/SchoolDuggery/uk-ed-admin-consultancy 4 65
/briankotts/educatorsuk 4 38
/JordanSkole/jutechtlets 4 10
/nyzzi_ann/teacher-type-people 4 9
/Alexandragibson/education 4 3
/danielrolo/teachers 4 20
/cstatucki/educators 4 13
/helenwhd/e-learning 4 29
/TechSmithEDU/courosalets 4 2
/JordanSkole/chalkstars-14 4 25
/deerwood/edtech 4 144
Some lists that maybe relate to the topic area (username/list, number of folk who used the hashtag appearing on the list, number of list subscribers), sorted by number of people subscribing to the list (a possible ranking factor for the list):
/deerwood/edtech 4 144
/kamyousaf/uk-ict-education 5 77
/SchoolDuggery/uk-ed-admin-consultancy 4 65
/tlists/edtech-995 4 42
/mhawksey/purposed 5 38
/briankotts/educatorsuk 4 38
/ICTDani/teched 4 33
/TWMarkChambers/edict 6 32
/helenwhd/e-learning 4 29
/stevebob79/education-and-ict 5 28
/JordanSkole/chalkstars-14 4 25
/danielrolo/teachers 4 20
/cstatucki/educators 4 13
/fosteronomo/chalkstars-combined 5 12
/JordanSkole/jutechtlets 4 10
/nyzzi_ann/teacher-type-people 4 9
/joedale/ukedtech 6 6
/ssat_lia/lia 5 5
/Alexandragibson/education 4 3
/NickSpeller/buzzingeducators 4 2
/TechSmithEDU/courosalets 4 2
Other ranking factors might include the follower count, or factors from some sort of social network analysis, of the list maintainer.
Having got a set of lists, we can then look for people who appear on lots of those lists to see who might be influential in the area. Here's the top 10 (user, number of lists they appear on, friend count, follower count, number of tweets, time of arrival on twitter):
['terryfreedman', 9, 4570, 4831, 6946, datetime.datetime(2007, 6, 21, 16, 41, 17)]
['theokk', 9, 1564, 1693, 12029, datetime.datetime(2007, 3, 16, 14, 36, 2)]
['dawnhallybone', 8, 1482, 1807, 18997, datetime.datetime(2008, 5, 19, 14, 40, 50)]
['josiefraser', 8, 1111, 7624, 17971, datetime.datetime(2007, 2, 2, 8, 58, 46)]
['tonyparkin', 8, 509, 1715, 13274, datetime.datetime(2007, 7, 18, 16, 22, 53)]
['dughall', 8, 2022, 2794, 16961, datetime.datetime(2009, 1, 7, 9, 5, 50)]
['jamesclay', 8, 453, 2552, 22243, datetime.datetime(2007, 3, 26, 8, 20)]
['timbuckteeth', 8, 1125, 7198, 26150, datetime.datetime(2007, 12, 22, 17, 17, 35)]
['tombarrett', 8, 10949, 13665, 19135, datetime.datetime(2007, 11, 3, 11, 45, 50)]
['daibarnes', 8, 1592, 2592, 7673, datetime.datetime(2008, 3, 13, 23, 20, 1)]
The algorithms I'm using have a handful of tuneable parameters, which means there's all sorts of scope for running with this idea in a "research" context…
One possible issue that occurred to me was that identified lists might actually cover different topic areas – this is something I need to ponder…
List Intelligence – Finding Reliable, Trustworthy and Comprehensive Topic/Sector Based Twitter Lists
I woke up full of good intentions to do so "proper" work today, but a a post by Brian Kelly on Numbers Matter: Let's Provide Open Access to Usage Data and Not Just Research Papers triggered the hacker ethic in me and so I immediately set off down a rabbit hole… And here's what I came back with…
Brian wrote:
The statistics for Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are easily obtained – although I am not aware of a way of automating the gathering of such statistics across all UK University presences which would be helpful if we wished to provide a national picture of how UK Universities are using these services.
Brian Kelly: Numbers Matter: Let's Provide Open Access to Usage Data and Not Just Research Papers
"I am not aware of a way of…" Arghhhhhhh… Need – a – fix …
Something else Brian had done previously was a post on Institutional Use of Twitter by the 1994 Group of UK Universities, which had got me wondering about Setting An Exercise In Social Media "Research", or "how I'd go about finding, or compiling, a comprehensive list of official Twitter accounts for UK HE institution"
I didn't actually do anything about it at the time, but today I thought I'd spend an hour or so* mulling it over (after all, it might give me something to talk about at the OU hosted and UKOLN promoted Metrics and Social Web Services: Quantitative Evidence for their Use and Impact (I wish I hadn't used the "script kiddie" title now -I'm a wannabe hacker, goddammit ;-))
(* It's actually taken me about 4 hours, including this write up…)
So here's what I came up with. The recipe is this:
– take one twitter list* that is broadly in the area you're interested in (it doesn't have to be a list, it might be a list of names of folk using a particular hashtag, or tweeting from a particular location, or even just the folk followed by a particular individual, for example); in the case of UK HEIs, I'm going to use @thirdyearabroad's uk-universities list;
– for every person on that "list", look up the lists those people are on, and sort the results by list; this gives me something like:
/blackwellbooks/he-institutes 76
/christchurchsu/universities 76
/uhu_global/uk-irish 77
/targetjobsUK/universitiesuk 77
/umnoticias/universidades-2 78
/Routledge_StRef/universities-colleges 78
/eMotivator/higher-education 81
/Universityru/the-university-round-up 81
/VJEuroRSCGHeist/institutions 82
/UKTEFL/colleges-universities 82
/SPA_Digest/universities-7 85
/_StudentvisasUK/uk-uni-s-and-colleges 85
/OMorris/uk-universities 86
/UniversitiesUK/member-institutions 87
/bellerbys/uk-universities 87
/EuropaWOL/uk-univs 89
/livuni/universities 89
/Bi5on/educational 90
/campusprabi/ukuniversities 90
/thirdyearabroad/uk-universities 100
(Note that this also gives me a list of Twitter accounts of folk who may be interested in the sector…? I notice Routledge and Blackwell's books for example? I wonder what a social network analysis of the friendship connections between the top 50 list maintainers (in the above list sorting) would look like [another rabbit hole appears…]?)
– by eye, scan those lists, and see if we can identify another list that looks promising. for example, what happens if I run the routine again using the @campusprabi/ukuniversities list?
/Universityru/the-university-round-up 88
/thirdyearabroad/uk-universities 90
/_StudentvisasUK/uk-uni-s-and-colleges 90
/UKTEFL/colleges-universities 90
/bellerbys/uk-universities 93
/SPA_Digest/universities-7 93
/livuni/universities 96
/OMorris/uk-universities 104
/UniversitiesUK/member-institutions 105
/EuropaWOL/uk-univs 106
/Bi5on/educational 109
/campusprabi/ukuniversities 140
Or how about @UniversitiesUK/member-institutions?
/targetjobsUK/universitiesuk 83
/Universityru/the-university-round-up 85
/Routledge_StRef/universities-colleges 85
/blackwellbooks/he-institutes 86
/thirdyearabroad/uk-universities 87
/UKTEFL/colleges-universities 87
/_StudentvisasUK/uk-uni-s-and-colleges 88
/SPA_Digest/universities-7 91
/bellerbys/uk-universities 95
/livuni/universities 96
/campusprabi/ukuniversities 105
/Bi5on/educational 119
/EuropaWOL/uk-univs 123
/OMorris/uk-universities 123
/UniversitiesUK/member-institutions 127
There's an algorithm waiting to be found here, somewhere, for now identifying who members of the university set are? A very crude start may be something like: using the members of top 10(?) lists, create a list f possible universities, and class as universities those that appear on at least 5(?) of the lists?
Let's try that, using the the 15 lists from the @UniversitiesUK/member-institutions run…
Here's who's listed in 14 or 15 of those lists:
UniKent 14
UniWestminster 14
UCLan 14
bournemouthuni 14
EdinburghNapier 14
RobertGordonUni 14
RoehamptonUni 14
UniversityLeeds 14
HeriotWattUni 14
LondonU 14
UniofEdinburgh 14
UniOfYork 14
uniglam 14
newportuni 14
oxford_brookes 14
Bristoluni 14
GlasgowUni 14
SussexUni 14
AbertayUni 14
ManMetUni 14
GlyndwrUni 14
aberdeenuni 14
LancasterUni 14
BradfordUni 14
uniofglos 14
GoldsmithsUoL 14
BoltonUni 14
KeeleUniversity 14
imperialcollege 14
uniwales 14
UEL_News 15
univofstandrews 15
edgehill 15
AberUni 15
Uni_of_Essex 15
SwanseaMet 15
UniOfSurrey 15
UniofBath 15
UniofPlym 15
UniofExeter 15
BangorUni 15
BathSpaUni 15
sheffhallamuni 15
TeessideUni 15
UniStrathclyde 15
AstonUniversity 15
unibirmingham 15
HuddersfieldUni 15
UniofOxford 15
KingstonUni 15
portsmouthuni 15
MiddlesexUni1 15
sheffielduni 15
UniOfHull 15
SalfordUni 15
StaffsUni 15
warwickuni 15
uniofbrighton 15
cardiffuni 15
UlsterUni 15
leedsmet 15
DundeeUniv 15
So we presumably have good confidence that those are UK university accounts… it maybe also says something about the reach of those accounts?
Here's that list of accounts with 14-15 mentions again and data corresponding to: number of lists, friends, followers, status updates, creation date:
UniWestminster 14 2420 3204 455 2007-08-29 13:53:51 UCLan 14 129 2925 1286 2008-07-23 11:30:08 bournemouthuni 14 228 3436 783 2009-07-14 16:47:34 EdinburghNapier 14 101 3589 621 2009-02-25 08:43:30 RobertGordonUni 14 129 1185 580 2010-02-04 09:17:23 RoehamptonUni 14 1345 2241 969 2009-04-19 09:25:06 UniversityLeeds 14 265 5416 974 2009-04-20 22:44:14 HeriotWattUni 14 59 2137 317 2009-03-03 09:10:37 LondonU 14 981 9078 615 2008-12-16 22:38:05 UniofEdinburgh 14 195 6150 771 2009-03-09 12:01:11 UniOfYork 14 131 4058 467 2009-03-27 16:12:05 uniglam 14 49 1769 858 2008-04-11 13:39:54 newportuni 14 271 2676 452 2008-07-17 12:52:08 oxford_brookes 14 931 3645 805 2009-06-22 12:59:32 Bristoluni 14 70 5952 1398 2009-03-16 16:51:45 GlasgowUni 14 124 8441 888 2009-01-30 09:06:35 SussexUni 14 1434 7703 2822 2009-02-16 16:35:37 AbertayUni 14 272 3173 1931 2009-02-10 13:36:00 ManMetUni 14 92 4888 703 2008-05-12 11:44:03 GlyndwrUni 14 837 1447 1637 2009-02-27 14:07:49 aberdeenuni 14 2370 5068 683 2009-02-09 10:38:18 LancasterUni 14 186 4417 445 2009-03-20 15:35:26 BradfordUni 14 369 3795 781 2009-01-05 14:06:26 uniofglos 14 282 2280 793 2009-05-20 12:55:28 GoldsmithsUoL 14 485 4008 465 2009-02-12 14:45:17 QMUL 14 1244 3692 899 2009-01-23 16:36:23 BoltonUni 14 114 1015 594 2009-03-06 09:21:28 KeeleUniversity 14 1528 5476 2890 2008-07-11 10:29:19 imperialcollege 14 2484 8014 1030 2008-07-08 14:56:33 uniwales 14 52 1507 319 2009-05-28 09:55:48 UEL_News 15 1907 2010 1780 2009-07-22 11:52:12 univofstandrews 15 118 3679 340 2009-02-02 15:12:20 edgehill 15 821 3556 1384 2008-05-26 11:53:56 AberUni 15 3986 3827 693 2009-01-07 14:07:57 Uni_of_Essex 15 258 3475 1156 2009-02-27 15:43:26 SwanseaMet 15 289 1573 856 2009-05-20 07:31:41 UniOfSurrey 15 487 5331 861 2009-01-24 13:42:48 UniofBath 15 90 6977 2093 2009-01-19 10:39:19 UniofPlym 15 599 3672 1173 2009-06-22 19:23:19 UniofExeter 15 3824 3921 1291 2009-07-27 16:35:16 BangorUni 15 96 3288 420 2009-01-23 15:12:50 BathSpaUni 15 36 1529 193 2010-01-08 10:39:07 sheffhallamuni 15 498 4565 513 2009-02-11 14:47:10 TeessideUni 15 971 5334 2261 2009-02-04 16:20:01 UniStrathclyde 15 181 3445 700 2009-03-06 11:45:17 AstonUniversity 15 384 5221 852 2008-03-26 11:14:12 unibirmingham 15 388 7665 1095 2008-12-04 11:27:39 HuddersfieldUni 15 1124 2941 989 2009-06-18 12:53:54 UniofOxford 15 53 19569 475 2009-06-18 08:28:28 KingstonUni 15 5 4215 216 2009-02-04 16:49:55 portsmouthuni 15 142 4073 1346 2009-01-26 16:04:41 MiddlesexUni1 15 115 2212 389 2009-05-13 16:15:56 sheffielduni 15 7240 8069 882 2009-01-22 15:06:17 UniOfHull 15 572 3061 587 2009-07-24 11:50:29 SalfordUni 15 441 5783 1177 2008-10-30 16:04:15 StaffsUni 15 329 2854 1326 2009-08-19 09:02:40 warwickuni 15 784 7987 1440 2008-08-20 11:12:25 uniofbrighton 15 150 3822 375 2009-05-08 14:18:14 cardiffuni 15 137 8597 1113 2008-01-11 22:48:49 UlsterUni 15 92 3671 1638 2008-07-17 22:27:15 leedsmet 15 4610 4977 4224 2009-02-10 10:28:24 DundeeUniv 15 2794 4407 4624 2009-04-24 14:14:29
For the unis at the bottom of the list, I wonder if the data identifies possible reasons why? A newly created account, maybe, not many updates, few followers? Presence lower down the list also maybe signals to the relevant marketing departments that their account maybe doesn't have the reach they thought it did?
If you want to explore the data, it's in a sortable table here (click on column header to sort by that column).
Not that many people are following lists yet… hmmm… maybe I need to add that in – numbers of people following a list when choosing lists?
Here's the top 15 lists containing at least 20 unis from the @UniversitiesUK/member-institutions list, ordered by subscriber count (the columns are twittername/list, no. of unis from original list on list, number of subscribers):
/UniversitiesUK/member-institutions 127 125
/EtiquetteWise/colleges-and-universities 24 53
/aderitus/universities 44 34
/EMGonline/universities-and-colleges 30 30
/Farmsphere/followfarmer 22 29
/ellielovell/universities 46 29
/CR4_News/engineering-education 46 28
/HowToEnjoyCoUk/biz-trade-work 23 25
/mbaexchange/schools 31 24
/blackwellbooks/academia 79 23
How about if we filter on 75 or more unis from the @UniversitiesUK/member-institutions list?
/UniversitiesUK/member-institutions 127 125
/blackwellbooks/academia 79 23
/umnoticias/universidades-2 79 16
/Routledge_StRef/universities-colleges 85 14
/uhu_global/uk-irish 81 10
/eMotivator/higher-education 81 9
/_StudentvisasUK/uk-uni-s-and-colleges 88 8
/UKTEFL/colleges-universities 87 7
/Universityru/the-university-round-up 85 6
/bellerbys/uk-universities 95 5
/e4scouk/universities 77 5
/campusprabi/ukuniversities 105 5
/EuropaWOL/uk-univs 123 4
/OMorris/uk-universities 123 4
/studentsoftware/uk-universities-colleges 76 4
/thirdyearabroad/uk-universities 87 3
/SPA_Digest/universities-7 91 3
/targetjobsUK/universitiesuk 83 2
/VJEuroRSCGHeist/institutions 82 2
/blackwellbooks/he-institutes 86 2
/livuni/universities 96 1
/StaffsUni/other-universities 78 1
/DanteSystems/universities 77 1
/christchurchsu/universities 78 0
/Bi5on/educational 119 0
One last thing… Discovering newly created accounts is problematic with this approach – only accounts that appear on lists are included. One heuristic for finding new tweeps is to look the followers of the sorts of people they might follow (figuring that you're unlikely to be followed by anyone in the early days, but you are likely to follow certain easily discovered, "big name" accounts in your sector). Many university accounts don't follow large numbers of people, but maybe by looking at the accounts they do commonly follow (who are presumably the "big players" in the area), and then tracking back to the intersection of the people who follow those accounts (you still with me?!;-), we can get signal about new entrants to the area…?
Another Blooming Look at Gource and the Edina OpenURL Data
Having done a first demo of how to use Gource to visualise activity around the EDINA OpenURL data (Visualising OpenURL Referrals Using Gource), I thought I'd trying something a little more artistic, and use the colour features to try to pull out a bit more detail from the data [video].
What this one shows is how the mendeley referrals glow brightly green, which – if I've got my code right – suggests a lot of e-issn lookups are going on (the red nodes correspond to an issn lookup, blue to an isbn lookup and yellow/orange to an unknown lookup). The regularity of activity around particular nodes also shows how a lot of the activity is actually driven by a few dominant services, at least during the time period I sampled to generate this video.
So how was this visualisation created?
Firstly, I pulled out a few more data columns, specifically the issn, eissn, isbn and genre data. I then opted to set node colour according to whether the issn (red), eissn (green) or isbn (blue) columns were populated using a default reasoning approach (if all three were blank, I coloured the node yellow). I then experimented with colouring the actors (I think?) according to whether the genre was article-like, book-like or unkown (mapping these on to add, modify or delete actions), before dropping the size of the actors altogether in favour of just highlighting referrers and asset type (i.e. issn, e-issn, book or unknown).
cut -f 1,2,3,4,27,28,29,32,40 L2_2011-04.csv > openurlgource.csv
When running the Pythin script, I got a "NULL Byte" error that stopped the script working (something obviously snuck in via one of the newly added columns), so I googled around and turned up a little command line cleanup routine for the cut data file:
tr < openurlgource.csv -d '\000' > openurlgourcenonulls.csv
Here's the new Python script too that shows the handling of the colour fields:
import csv from time import * # Command line pre-processing step to handle NULL characters #tr < openurlgource.csv -d '\000' > openurlgourcenonulls.csv #alternatively?: sed 's/\x0/ /g' openurlgource.csv > openurlgourcenonulls.csv f=open('openurlgourcenonulls.csv', 'rb') reader = csv.reader(f, delimiter='\t') writer = csv.writer(open('openurlgource.txt','wb'),delimiter='|') headerline = reader.next() for row in reader: if row[8].strip() !='': t=int(mktime(strptime(row[0]+" "+row[1], "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S"))) if row[4]!='': col='FF0000' elif row[5]!='': col='00FF00' elif row[6]!='': col='0000FF' else: col='666600' if row[7]=='article' or row[7]=='journal': typ='A' elif row[7]=='book' or row[7]=='bookitem': typ='M' else: typ='D' agent=row[8].rstrip(':').replace(':','/') writer.writerow([t,row[3],typ,agent,col])
The new gource command is:
gource -s 1 --hide usernames --start-position 0.8 --stop-position 0.82 --user-scale 0.1 openurlgource.txt
and the command to generate the video:
gource -s 1 --hide usernames --start-position 0.8 --stop-position 0.82 --user-scale 0.1 -o - openurlgource.txt | ffmpeg -y -b 3000K -r 60 -f image2pipe -vcodec ppm -i - -vcodec libx264 -vpre slow -threads 0 gource.mp4
If you've been tempted to try Gource out yourself on some of your own data, please post a link in the comments below:-) (AI wonder just how many different sorts of data we can force into the shape that Gource expects?!;-)
Google Correlate: What Search Terms Does Your Time Series Data Correlate With?
Just a few days over three years ago, I blogged about a site I'd put together to try to crowdsource observations about correlated searchtrends: TrendSpotting.
One thing that particularly interested me then, as it still does now, was the way that certain search trends they reveal rhythmic behaviour over the course of weeks, months or years.
At the start of this year, I revisited the topic with a post on Identifying Periodic Google Trends, Part 1: Autocorrelation (followd by Improving Autocorrelation Calculations on Google Trends Data).
Anyway today it seems that Google has cracked the scaling issues with discovering correlations between search trends (using North American search trend data), as well as opening up a service that will identify what search trends correlate most closely with your own uploaded time series data: Correlate (announcement: Mining patterns in search data with Google Correlate)
For the quick overview, check out the Google Correlate Comic.
So what's on offer? First, enter a search term and see what it's correlated with:
As well as the line chart, correlations can also be plotted as a scatterplot:
You can also run "spatial correlations", though at the moment this appears to be limited to US states. (I *think* this works by looking for search terms that are popular in the requested areas and not popular in the other listed areas. To generalise this, I guess you need three things: the total list of areas that work for the spatial correlation query; the areas you want the search volume for the "to be discovered correlated phrase" to be high; the areas you want to the search volume for the "to be discovered correlated phrase" to be low?)
At this point it's maybe worth remembering that correlation does not imply causation…
A couple of other interesting things to note: firstly, you can offset the data (so shift it a few weeks forwards or backwards in time, as you might do if you were looking for lead/lag behaviour); secondly, you can export/download the data.
You can also upload your own data to see what terms correlate with it:
(I wonder if they'll start offering time series analysis features on uploaded, as well as other trend data, too? For example, frequency analysis or trend analysis? This is presumably going on in the background (though I haven't read the white paper [PDF] yet…)
As if that's not enough, you can also draw a curve/trendline and then see what correlates with it (so this a weak alternative to uploading your own data, right? Just draw something that looks like it… (h/t to Mike Ellis for first point this out to me).
I'm not convinced that search trends map literally onto the well known "hype cycle" curve, but I thought I'd try out a hype cycle reminiscent curve where the hype was a couple of years ago, and we're now maybe seeing start to reach mainstream maturity, with maybe the first inklings of a plateau…
Hmmm… the pr0n industry is often identified as a predictor of certain sorts of technology adoption… maybe the 5ex searchers are too?! (Note that correlated hand-drawn charts are linkable).
So – that's Google Correlate; nifty, eh?
PS Here's another reason why I blog… my blog history helps me work out how far i the future I live;-) So currently between about three years in the future.. how about you?!;-)
PPS I can imagine Google's ThinkInsights (insight marketing) loving the thought that folk are going to check out their time series data against Google Trends so the Goog can weave that into it's offerings… A few additional thoughts leading on from that: 1) when will correlations start to appear in Google AdWords support tools to help you pick adwords based on your typical web traffic patterns or even sales patterns? 2) how far are we off seeing a Google Insights box to complement the Google Search Appliances, that will let you run correlations – as well as Google Prediction type services – onsite without feeling as if you have to upload your data to Google's servers, and instead, becoming part of Google's out-kit-in-your-racks offering; 3) when is Google going to start buying up companies like Prism and will it then maybe go after the likes of Experian and Dunnhumby to become a company that organises information about the world of people, as well as just the world's information…?!)
PPPS Seems like as well as "traditional" link sharing offerings, you can share the link via your Google Reader account…
Situated Video Advertising With Tesco Screens
In 2004, Tesco launched an in-store video service under the name Tesco TV as part of its Digital Retail Network service. The original service is described in TESCO taps into the power of satellite broadband to create a state-of-the-art "Digital Retail Network" and is well worth a read. A satellite delivery service provided "news and entertainment, as well as promotional information on both TESCO's own products and suppliers' branded products" that was displayed on video screens around the store.
In order to make content as relevant as possible (i.e. to maximise the chances of it influencing a purchase decision;-), the content was zoned:
Up to eight different channels are available on TESCO TV, each channel specifically intended for a particular zone of the store. The screens in the Counters area, for instance, display different content from the screens in the Wines and Spirits area. The latest music videos are shown in the Home Entertainment department and Health & Beauty has its own channel, too. In the Cafe, customers can relax watching the latest news, sports clips, and other entertainment programs.
I'd have loved to have seen the control room:
Remote control from a central location of which content is played on each screen, at each store, in each zone, is an absolute necessity. One reason is that advertisers are only obligated to pay for their advertisements if they are shown in the contracted zones and at the contracted times.
In parallel to the large multimedia files, smaller files with the scripts and programming information are sent to all branches simultaneously or separately, depending on what is required. These scripts are available per channel and define which content is played on which screen at which time. Of course, it is possible to make real-time changes to the schedule enabling TESCO to react within minutes, if required.
In 2006, dunnhumby, the company that runs the Tesco Clubcard service and that probably knows more about your shopping habits at Tesco than you do, won the ad sales contract for Tesco TV's "5,000 LCD and plasma screens across 100 Tesco Superstores and Extra outlets". Since then, it has "redeveloped the network to make it more targeted, so that it complements in-store marketing and ties in with above-the-line campaigns", renaming Tesco TV as Tesco Screens in 2007 as part of that effort (Dunnhumby expands Tesco TV content, dunnhumby relaunches Tesco in-store TV screens). Apparently, "[a]ll campaigns on Tesco Screens are analysed with a bespoke control group using EPOS and Clubcard data." (If you've read any of my previous posts on the topic (e.g. The Tesco Data Business (Notes on "Scoring Points") or ) you'll know that dunnhumby excels at customer profiling and targeting.)
Now I don't know about you, but dunnhumby's apparent reach and ability to influence millions of shoppers at points of weakness is starting to scare me…(as well as hugely impressing me;-)
On a related note, it's not just Tesco that use video screen advertising, of course. In Video, Video, Everywhere…, for example, I described how video advertising has now started appearing throughout the London Underground network.
So with the growth of video advertising, it's maybe not so surprising that Joel Hopwood, one of the management team behind Tesco Screens Retail Media Group should strike out with a start-up: Capture Marketing.
[Capture Marketing] may well be the first agency in the UK to specialise in planning, buying and optimising Retail Media across all retailers – independent of any retailer or media owner!!
They aim to buy from the likes of dunnhumby, JCDecaux, Sainsbury, Asda Media Centre etc in order to give clients a single, independent and authoritative buying and planning point for the whole sector. [DailyDOOH: What On Earth Is Shopper Marketing?]
So what's the PR strapline for Capture Marketing? "Turning insight into influence".
If you step back and look at our marketing mix across most of the major brands, it's clearly shifting, and it's shifting to in-store, to the internet and to trial activity.
So what's the answer? Marketing to shoppers. We'll help you get your message to the consumer when they're in that crucial zone, after they've become a shopper, but before they've made a choice. We'll help you take your campaign not just outside the home, but into the store. Using a wide range of media vehicles, from digital screens to web favourite interrupts to targeted coupons, retail media is immediate, proximate, effective and measurable.
I have no idea where any of this is going… Do you? Could it shift towards making use of VRM ("vendor relationship management") content, in which customers are able to call up content they desire to help they make a purchase decision (such as price, quality, or nutrition information comparisons?). After all, scanner apps are already starting to appear on Android phones (e.g. ShopSavvy) and the iPhone (Snappr), not to mention the ability to recognise books from their cover or music from the sound of it (The Future of Search is Already Here).
PS Just by the by, here's some thoughts about how Tesco might make use of SMS:
PPS for a quick A-Z of all you need to know to start bluffing about video based advertising, see Billboards and Beyond: The A-Z of Digital Screens.
Recession, What Recession?
Following on from my own Playing With Google Search Data Trends, and John's Google's predictive power (contd.) pick up on this post from Bill Thompson, The net reveals the ties that bind, here's one possible quick look at the impending state of the recession…
What search terms would you say are recession indicators?
PS I wonder to what extent, if any, the financial wizards factor real time "search intent" tracking into their stock trading strategies?
PPS I have to admit, I don't really understand the shape of this trend at all?
The minima around Christmas look much of a muchness, but the New Year pear – and then the yearly average, are increasing, year on year? Any ideas?


text:
Probably Questionable Podcast
About This Show
The Probably Questionable Podcast is a podcast where friends discuss a variety of topics. Every episode, we review a beer (daddy soda) and share news stories that we find. In addition, we also discuss many different topics in the vein of movies, video games, music, and current events. Our goal is to entertain others and make them laugh. Check us out at http://www.probablyquestionable.com.Read more »

subset: commoncrawl


text:
393 and it's Google PR is 7/10 which are quite niche. many of you have not heard about feedly but after the google reader have dead according to blogs like PCMag, gizmodo, verge and many more it have been the number one choice for RSS Reader. if you are a person who loves reading several blogs, like me feedly is for you. it takes all the news or blog title and shows it to one screen.Read more
XSS on Feedly.com
2 Stored XSS on Vodafone
Vulnerablity on Truecaller
Truecaller is a global phone directory application for smartphones and feature phones, and accessible via a Web site, developed by True Software Scandinavia AB. It finds contact details globally given name or telephone number, and has an integrated caller ID service using Crowdsourcing to achieve call-blocking functionality and social media integration to keep the phonebook up-to-date with pictures and birthdays.performing 120 million searches of the telephone number database every month. As of January 22, 2013 Truecaller reached 10 million users.Read more
Finding Security Bug on Shikha.com
according to wikipedia - "Shiksha.com caters to the educational requirements and queries of students. The portal is the brainchild of Info Edge India Ltd. Students can find information on educational institutes, programs, scholarships and admission notifications. More than 40,000 courses of numerous Indian and overseas institutes are listed on this site. Shiksha.com has 15 branches in 12 Indian cities. As of May 2012, the traffic share as per Comscore is 41%. In July"
Finding XSS on Asia's top tech blog
i am a very big fan of Amit Agarwal, he is runs a asia's top technology blog and which counts under top 100 tech blogs over the globe! and when i was new to XSS i keep on injecting parameters to different website's different fields and one day i was just spending my time for reading labnol's articles and looking over his blog i just injected XSS parameter and fortunately it did worked :)Read more
how sometimes reporting security flaws may result into some job offers
sometimes reporting vulnerabilities can turn some job offers to you, one day i was just surfing on internet and i came upon to a website that website was organizing a contest in which they are getting live opinions from the public about there new small movie and as always, i just injected a piece of javascript fortunately, it worked and the homepage of the website, every time it got open or refreshed it is having a alert "hacked by @n3g4tiv3eLemEnt" and after few second they restored there webpage, but i was not sure they have fixed up this vulnerability or not. so i injected another alert of saying "http://about.me/parv_jain" and it was working again.
Bypassing e-bay XSS filters to redirect to any other page
Posted in iHacked, XSS + 2 comments
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)


text:
$ 29.00
Style #LU-T13504
This top is made from a comfortable, thick material and features a low cut neckline and slightly puffy sleeves.
Model wears size small.
Sold Out
Style #OL-66-129LTJ ____________________________________________________________________________ Because who doesn't need a basic, tight black tee? Model wears size small. 95% Rayon, 5% Spandex. Machine Washable. Imported View full product details
Sold Out
Style #DO-RH14220 ____________________________________________________________________________ This velour halter crop top features a cowl neckline and ties at the top and in the back. Model wears size small. Shell: 92% Polyester, 8% Spandex.... View full product details
$ 25.00
Style #OL-47-205LTJ ___________________________________________________________________________ This comfy crop top features a V neck with lace up the front and a low scoop back. Model wears size small. 95% Rayon, 5% Spandex. Hand Wash... View full product details
$ 37.00
Style #LU-LT13238-S22 ____________________________________________________________________________ This white tee is structured, made from dress-shirt material, and features an open slit in the back and a button closure at the top. Model wears size... View full product details


text:
The annual Taste of Syracuse festival takes place this weekend, and thousands will flock to downtown Syracuse to sample the city's finest food and entertainment.
Many will drive downtown, and for them, we've created a map of places to park. But finding a spot can be tricky or costly and many revelers may plan to imbibe during the event. In either case, there are several options for reaching Taste of Syracuse without getting behind the wheel.
Buses run on their regular schedule this weekend. Most routes make stops on Salina Street or Washington Street near the festival. Buses are available from Desinty USA, Syracuse University and most Syracuse neighborhoods and suburbs.
You can try your luck hailing a cab at night, but this isn't New York City -- they don't exactly fill the streets. You can, however, call one of Syracuse's taxi companies for a lift:
- Syracuse Taxi: 516-2390
- Blue Star Taxi: 437-4000
- Dependable Taxi: 741-5127
- PM Taxi: 751-8294
- Syracuse Airport Taxi: 446-3639
If you're coming from within the city limits, biking is a good option. Just make sure you lock up your ride. There are bike racks located at:
- Franklin St. between Water St. and Erie Blvd., across from the Niagara Mohawk building
- Across from City Hall at the corner of Montgomery and Washington Streets
- In front of the M.O.S.T. at the corner of Franklin and Jefferson Streets
- Hanover Square at the corner of Water and Warren Streets
- AXA Towers adjacent to the Tech Garden near the corner of South Warren and Harrison Streets
With thousands of new apartments springing up downtown, more and more people live within walking distance of the festival. If you're one of them, strap on some comfortable shoes and saunter to Clinton Square.
Taste of Syracuse Guide
» When: The Taste of Syracuse is open 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday at Clinton Square. Stopping by for lunch or in for the long-haul? Here's a guide.
» Weather: Hourly forecast
» Getting there: Where to park | Getting downtown without driving
» Getting around: Street Guide: Find your favorite vendors | Map showing vendors, stages, restrooms
» The Food: $1 samples by vendor | Full menus by vendor | Live a little: 5 new things try
» The Music: Music schedules | Musical acts by genre
» Kids Zone: Activities schedule
» News and Reaction: All of our coverage in one place | Tell us about your experience


text:
Article Search
Hot Fiat minicar out-sizzles the opposition
- Author: Mike Stock
- Published: 28/11/2008
- Views: 1540
Fiat's brand-new 135bhp Abarth 500 is Top Gear's Best Hot Hatch of 2008
It calls the car, based on the new 500 minicar, "frisky and fun" and "an irresistible piece of Italian tailoring" and liked its retro styling, sports looks, turbo-boosted acceleration, grip and handling.
The Abarth 500 runs a 1.4-litre 16-valve turbocharged engine delivering 135bhp at 5500rpm and peak torque of 206Nm at 3000rpm, when drivers activate the Sport mode.
Fiat also makes a 160bhp esseesse version of the Abarth 500.


text:
As usual, the NBA draft had its share of surprise picks, trades and drama. The beginning of the draft started the way many mock drafts had predicted, with John Wall going 1st to the Wizards, followed by Evan Turner to the Sixers, and Derrick Favors to the Nets. First, I must say that I am glad the Sixers took my advice and drafted Evan Turner (quite possibly the only Ohio State Buckeye I will ever like). I think he has the potential to be a star in the league and gives them a player to truly build around for the future. He seems to be a stand up guy and plays well on both ends of the floor. The Sixers have struck gold with this pick. Given that his was the Sixers' only pick in the draft, they made a splash. I know that it will create some over-crowding at the wing and guard positions, but this pick was the best for the franchise. Hopefully, Ed Stefanski isn't done trading and can clear out some of that over-crowding while bringing in some new talent. As, I stated in a previous post, the gutsy move is to trade Andre Iguodala, who would likely fetch some good pieces (picks or players) in return.
Some other moves that I liked:
Oklahoma City Thunder – The Thunder were active in this draft. I liked what I saw from them. They had a total of 4 picks in the draft, but didn't keep any of them. They spun their picks into: Daequan Cook, a young shooting guard who will give them depth in the back court; Cole Aldrich, a good, young big who will add depth to the front court, Morris Peterson (who will provide veteran leadership off the bench) and a future 1st round pick (lottery protected). The Thunder made these trades both for the future and in order to win now. They had 4 picks in the draft and already are loaded with young talent. They did their best to not overload themselves with players that are too young and not ready to contribute. This team can win now, they already have a talented core and gave the Lakers a run for their money in the playoffs. With their moves, I think they can push the elite in the Western Conference.
Miami Heat – The Heat made some shrewd moves in this draft. The first, As John Hollinger of ESPN wrote about their trade of Cook to OKC, "Miami is in the process of buying out James Jones, whose deal is only partially guaranteed next year, and if in addition the Heat can find a taker for Michael Beasley they'll have enough cap space for three max contracts — allowing them to potentially unite the holy trinity of LeBron, Wade and Bosh on one roster." Can you believe that? How crazy would it be if Miami had Bosh, King James and Flash on the same team? They would be unstoppable. In addition, the Heat made 4 picks in the 2nd round and like several of them. Getting Jarvis Varnado, the all-time NCAA leader in blocked shots, in the middle of the 2nd round is great value. He will be great off the bench as a defender/rebounder. The Heat also drafted one of my favorite players from the NCAA tournament, Da'Sean Butler. He injured his knee against Duke in the national semifinal, but will provide the Heath with good value when he recovers.
Utah Jazz – The Jazz picked Gordon Hayward, the unlikely star of this past NCAA tournament. I love what Hayward can do. He can shoot, play D and has a good motor and feel for the game. I think he fits in with this team perfectly.
Washington Wizards – Obviously, John Wall was a great pick. He allows them to move Gilbert Arenas to the SG position, which makes both the PG and SG positions better. I also liked their pick of Trevor Booker from Clemson. He adds size and toughness in the paint. Include their trade with the Bulls, where they got Kirk Hinrich (who can act as a mentor to Wall and provides a solid backup in the back court), and I think the Wizards have gone a long way to getting themselves back to respectability.
One move that I did not like was Portland's firing of GM Kevin Pritchard. The way they fired him and the fact that they fired him at all is just ridiculous. Paul Allen, the Blazers' owner, fired Pritchard just hours before the draft. Pritchard conducted the draft admirably, making a trade that makes the Blazers a better team. He was able to acquire Ryan Gomes and the rights to Luke Babbitt from the Timberwolves for Martell Webster. I like this trade because I am a fan of Gomes. I like him when he played for the Celtics and I think he is a great addition to the Blazers. I also like Babbitt, who played college ball at Nevada. Pritchard also drafted Elliot Williams, who will add depth to the Portland back court. Pritchard should be able to find work elsewhere as he was responsible for rehabilitating the Blazers' image and rebuilding the franchise on the court. He did an excellent job in both departments and to see him go out like this is just pitiful. Could this be the start of the Pritchard Curse? It would serve Paul Allen right if it were, but the Blazer fans deserve better.


text:
The Sustainable Food Cities approach is a tried and tested model for driving positive change which involves what we call the 3 Ps:
Getting the Basics Right
Our Getting the Basics Right guide provides an overview of the process of setting up a food partnership and developing a food action plan as well as the process for applying for SFC membership. This should be the first point of call for newly emerging food partnerships wishing to become a member of the SFC network. It may also be useful to food partnerships that have been dormant or operating at reduced capacity for a while that are now being reinvigorated.
To drive really significant improvements, it is vital to put food at the heart of policy. From procurement and health and wellbeing to economic development and urban planning, we can help you identify the policies that matter and guide you on how to use them to make healthy and sustainable food the norm where you live.
Developing indicators
Being able to show the merits of what you are doing is fundamental to secure more support. For this reason, we have launched a project to develop a set of indicators that will help measure the positive impacts of developing sustainable food strategies and action plans at a local level.
Key issues
Based on a review of existing food strategies and action plans, much of the information in this website is structured around six key food issues:
See the key issues section for ideas for action, examples of how cities are putting them into practice and resources to help you get started.
If you would like more help on getting started please contact us - you will find our details below.
Leon Ballin
Sustainable Food Cities
07 917 230 121
Sustainable Food Cities is a partnership programme run by
Soil Association
Food Matters
Esmée Fairbairn Foundation
Sustainable Food Cities is
funded by the Esmée Fairbairn


text:
January 04, 2013 08:35 ET
TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - Jan. 4, 2013) - Dundee Energy Limited (TSX:DEN) ("Dundee Energy" or the "Corporation") announces that the Spanish authorities approved a Ministerial Order affecting the remuneration of underground natural gas storage projects. The key changes to the regulatory framework, as they apply to the Corporation's effective 24.6% interest in Escal UGS SL ("Escal"), the owner of the Castor Underground Gas Storage Project (the "Castor Project"), are outlined below.
Final inclusion of the Castor Project into the Spanish gas system remains contingent on the injection of cushion gas, which is expected to be completed in the first half of 2013, the subsequent completion of the necessary performance and control testing, and the conclusion of the audit by the Spanish authorities of the expenditures forming the remuneration basis.
Dundee Energy Limited (formerly "Eurogas Corporation") is a Canadian-based oil and natural gas company with a mandate to create long-term value for its shareholders through the exploration, development, production and marketing of oil and natural gas, and through other high impact energy projects. Dundee Energy holds interests, both directly and indirectly, in the largest accumulation of producing oil and gas assets in Ontario, in the development of an offshore underground natural gas storage facility in Spain and, through a preferred share investment, in certain exploration and evaluation programs for oil and natural gas offshore Tunisia. The Corporation's common shares trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol "DEN".
Certain information set forth in these documents, including management's assessment of each of the Corporation's future plans and operations, contains forward looking statements. Forward-looking statements are statements that are predictive in nature, depend upon or refer to future events or conditions or include words such as "expects", "anticipates", "intends", "plans", "believes", "estimates" or similar expressions. By their nature, forward-looking statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, some of which are beyond the Corporation's control, including: exploration, development and production risks; uncertainty of reserve estimates; reliance on operators, management and key personnel; cyclical nature of the business; economic dependence on a small number of customers; additional funding that may be required to execute on exploration and development work; the ability to obtain, sustain or renew licenses and permits; risks inherent to operating and investing in foreign countries; availability of drilling equipment and access; industry competition; environmental concerns; climate change regulations; volatility of commodity prices; hedging activities; potential defects in title to properties; potential conflicts of interest; changes in taxation legislation; insurance, health, safety and litigation risk; labour costs and labour relations; geo-political risks; risks relating to management of growth; aboriginal claims; volatility of the Corporation's share price; royalty rates and incentives; regulatory risks relating to oil and natural gas exploration; marketability and price of oil and natural gas; failure to realize anticipated benefits of acquisitions and dispositions; information system risk; and other risk factors discussed or referred to in the section entitled "Risk Factors" in the Corporation's Annual Information Form for the year ended December 31, 2011.
Readers are cautioned that the assumptions used in the preparation of such information, although considered reasonable at the time of preparation, may prove to be imprecise and, as such, undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking statements. The Corporation's actual results, performance or achievement could differ materially from those expressed in, or implied by, these forward-looking statements and, accordingly, no assurance can be given that any of the events anticipated by the forward-looking statements will transpire or occur, or if any of them do so, what benefits the Corporation will derive from them. The Corporation disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.
Dundee Energy Limitedc/o Dundee Corporation21st Floor, Dundee Place1 Adelaide Street EastToronto, ON M5C 2V9Dundee Energy LimitedJaffar KhanPresident & CEO(403) 264-4985(403) 262-8299 (FAX)www.dundee-energy.com
See all RSS Newsfeeds


text:
We developed BoardDocs for the specific needs of municipalities, school systems and other public governing bodies. BoardDocs services are turn-key, with no equipment to purchase, no servers to manage, and no extra IT overhead.
BoardDocs LT is for smaller organizations that want a reliable paperless agenda service at a very affordable cost, or for larger ones seeking a powerful entry-level solution.
BoardDocs Pro manages every aspect of the preparation, approval and distribution of documents associated with board meetings.
Each governing body can have separate confidential meetings, separate document managers and separate administrative access. BoardDocs Plus is available as an add-on for both BoardDocs Pro and BoardDocs LT.
Designed for associations of public governing bodies, BoardDocs' Policy Management Console makes delivering and managing policy services more efficient, effective and profitable.
Smart customers have questions, and their stakeholders usually have some too. Here are answers to some of the more common ones your stakeholders may ask you!
Detailed feature lists comparing what Pro and LT give you.
The BoardDocs products are designed to be powerful but affordable.
800-407-0141 or Contact Us Online


text:
Sweet Memories by kristin
November 29, 2012 at 1:16 pm livinglightinternational 5 comments
Yes, it's true. Co-blogger Mary Elizabeth and I have definitely begun our holiday blogs in earnest. I'm sitting here writing with my headphones on, listening to holiday music on Pandora, and it's only two days until we can add snow to the blog! Meanwhile, it is also my son Simon's birthday, a very special day to me. I was fortunate to be with him recently in the south of France, and he lives far away, up in Prince Rupert, B.C. So, I'll have to be content with sweet memories of Christmases past as I wrap his gifts to take to the post office. Mary Elizabeth's kids are younger and still live with her, so they are all together on the holidays – something to be grateful for, especially since both of her children have birthdays close to the holidays, too. Holidays are interesting times. This Thanksgiving Day it was sunny and beautiful here. I went on a four and a half mile walk wearing a bright pink scarf, and every single person I encountered along the way said hello or Happy Thanksgiving. Don't know if it was the pink scarf, the holiday, or the sunshine, but I hope everyone's holiday season is filled with such kindness and goodwill. It's something to keep in mind as we navigate through all the activities and opportunities that happen at this time of year.
Entry filed under: Celebration, Christmas, joyful, Love, Romance, Thankful. Tags: appreciation, Audrey Hepburn, cherie soria, City of Fort Bragg, gratitude, kristin suratt, love.
5 Comments Add your own
K…what a nice blog! Happy birthday to Simon! Yes, and I love the Audrey reference, too. I believe in pink, too!
[…] Sweet Memories by kristin (livinglightinternational.wordpress.com) […]
Leave a Reply
Trackback this post | Subscribe to the comments via RSS Feed


text:
Search our Knowledge base and Frequently asked questions. Start typing some text
in the box below.
Opening an Account
Do I have to open an account?
Yes. If you are a California Law Firm you have two options, either an Open Credit Account or a Credit Card Account. If you are an individual or an out of state law
firm, you only have one option, a Credit Card Account.
Is my account active at all Cal West Attorney Service, Inc. offices?
Yes. All Cal West offices will honor your account once it has been
How long does it take to process my application?
Once your application is received by us, it usually takes about 30
minutes to process your application. Once your application is processed you will
receive an email and you can start submitting orders.
Is there a fee for opening an account?
No, we do not charge a fee for opening an account.
Is there a monthly fee for service?
Yes, we charge a court fee for monthly court services for retainer
clients only.
General Questions
I have a new service and need a work order how do I get one?
There are 2 ways:
Register for online services and fill out an order online.
Or call us at 213-353-9100 ask for customer
I have a new service to file or serve. How do I get it to Cal West
Attorney Service, Inc.?
You can go to calwest.info, login and submit your work or Fax the filing or service to Cal West Attorney
Service at 213-353-9200. Overnight your filing or service for a next day filing.
I filled out a work order and no longer need it, how can I cancel it?
You can cancel a work order by contacting Cal West Attorney Services,
Inc. firstname.lastname@example.com or call 213-353-9100.
I forgot my password or user name, how can I get it?
You can call Cal West Attorney Service, Inc. customer service at 213-353-9100
to obtain your user name or password or
You can go online and click forgot password under sign in.
Can I email a filing or a service of process?
Yes, however your document and the Cal West work order must be scanned
to one file and email to firstname.lastname@example.com.
What areas do you cover?
We cover all of California and All other states.
Do I need a work order for each assignment?
Yes, we require a work order for each assignment. However you may use
one work order for more than one document. If you have papers to serve you must
have a separate work order for each party being served.
What is the difference between Do Today and Routine services?
Do Today is received by our deadline and completed by the end of the
day. Routine is received by our deadline and will be attempted within 48 hours.
Court Questions
Will all California Courts accept fax filings?
Yes. All California Courts accept fax filings as long as they conform
to their court rules, with the exception of court appeals and criminal court filings.
Will all Federal Courts accept fax filings?
Most Federal California Courts accept fax filings as long as they conform
to their court rules, except where courts require attorney direct e-filing.
Does the court require the originals?
No. According to California Rules of Court #2007(d) Notwithstanding
any provision of law to the contrary, including sections 255 and 260 of the Evidence
Code, a signature produced by facsimile transmission is an original.
What about exhibit tabs?
Cal West Attorney Service, Inc. will attach tabs where needed.
Some counties have certain forms on color paper. What do you do?
Cal West Attorney Service, Inc. will insert any items required by a
specific court.
How will I get confirmation that my documents were filed?
Cal West Attorney Service, Inc. will call, email, or fax your conformed
copy back to you depending on the court location.
How do you handle court filing fees?
Cal West Attorney Service, Inc. will advance any fees for customers
in good standing. In cases of extremely large advances (over 100.00) Cal West may
request immediate reimbursement from a firm credit card.
Does Cal West Attorney Service, Inc. offer any guarantees?
Yes. Cal West Attorney Service, Inc. guarantees an attempt to file
your documents by the court deadline, if received by Cal West Attorney Service,
Inc.'s deadline or the next filing is free. Note: All pages must be received
completely and ready to be filed by Cal West Attorney Service, Inc.'s deadline.
The court clerk makes the final decision on whether or not your document is filed
What do you do with the original summons once the court issues it?
As of January 1, 2007, California Superior Courts do not return summons.
Process Questions
Are you able to serve a faxed document?
Yes, we can serve any documents faxed for service of process. However,
some courts require the original document(s).
Do you file a proof of service after serving the documents?
Yes. Cal West will file all LA county proof of service with no extra
charge, however there will be an additional charge for all other counties depending
upon the location of the court.
Will you advance witness fees?
Yes, we will advance any witness fees for customers in good standing.
Research Questions
Can you guarantee to obtain my copies?
No, because we do not control the court file and have limited court
How do I get my copies once you have obtained them?
You have the choice of fax, mail or overnight delivery. Appropriate
fees will apply.
How long does it take to obtain my copies?
It varies on each assignment, but we begin your assignment the same
day we receive the request from your office.
How do you handle large copy assignments?
We request that you give us a page limit to order or copy. Sometimes
we may request a not to exceed check for copies, given that some case files can
have hundreds or thousands of pages.
Cal West goes far and beyond when it comes to customer service. All calls are greeted with a friendly tone and routed promptly.
The turn-around time on all jobs is quick and accurate. Staff are detailed oriented, knowledgeable, and always eager to help.
Sylvia Barajas, Ellis Law Corporation
Sylvia Barajas, Ellis Law Corporation
Calwest is my go-to attorney service for service of process, court filing, etc. They provide fast, efficient and affordable service.
Their customer service is top-notch and unmatched. They care about their clients and keeping them happy. I recommend
Calwest without hesitation.
Virginia Narian
Virginia Narian
It's our pleasure to comment on a company like yours, one that not only accommodates clients but does so with courtesy and
attention to detail. No matter the service, your company has anticipated it and figured out the mechanics with a minimum of
fuss and perfect follow up. Those times we have a question or concern, the response is well-considered and reassuring. In
short, we are very pleased.
Wendy Kramer
Wendy Kramer
I am more than pleased and impressed with the service & expertise of CalWest Attorney Service. CalWest has been reliable,
dependable and met all of our Post Judgment process serving needs. The CalWest staff is attentive and quick to respond to our
needs and owner Garo Mardigan is very hands on and great to work with.
Thanks & Best regards,
Michelle Martin , Michael & Associates, PC
Michelle Martin , Michael & Associates, PC


text:
The UPMC Advanced Practice Provider (APP) Cardiac Surgery Surgical Residency Program is working in collaboration with the APP Surgical Residency Program and is dedicated to leading certified advanced practice providers to enhance medical knowledge, critical thinking, procedural, and surgical assisting skills.
The APP Cardiac Surgery Surgical Residency Program is broken down into two parts
For more information and to learn which rotations are offered to cardiac surgery surgical residents, please view the APP Surgical Residency Program goals and curriculum.
For questions or additional information, please contact:
Christopher M. Vayansky MPAS, PA-C
APP Supervisor
Director, Cardiac Surgery Education UPMC APP Surgical Residency
Heart and Vascular Institute
Angela E. Kinnunen, BA
Project Specialist, Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery
UPMC Presbyterian Hospital
Suite C-903
200 Lothrop Street
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
Phone: 412-648-6342
Fax: 412-648-6358
Affiliated with the University of Pittsburgh Schools of the Health Sciences
| Supplemental content provided by Healthwise, Incorporated. To learn more, visit www.healthwise.org
For help in finding a doctor or health service that suits your needs, call the UPMC Referral Service at 412-647-UPMC (8762) or 1-800-533-UPMC (8762). Select option 1.
UPMC is an equal opportunity employer. UPMC policy prohibits discrimination or harassment on the basis of race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, age, sex, genetics, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, familial status, disability, veteran status, or any other legally protected group status. Further, UPMC will continue to support and promote equal employment opportunity, human dignity, and racial, ethnic, and cultural diversity. This policy applies to admissions, employment, and access to and treatment in UPMC programs and activities. This commitment is made by UPMC in accordance with federal, state, and/or local laws and regulations.
Medical information made available on UPMC.com is not intended to be used as a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. You should not rely entirely on this information for your health care needs. Ask your own doctor or health care provider any specific medical questions that you have. Further, UPMC.com is not a tool to be used in the case of an emergency. If an emergency arises, you should seek appropriate emergency medical services.
Pittsburgh, PA, USA | UPMC.com


text:
The Pastoral Care Ministries of Saint Michael and All Angels provide loving care and a pastoral presence for those in need. If you or a family member are going into the hospital or have a pastoral care need, we want to know; notify one of the clergy, the Assistant for Pastoral Care, Katherine Bowen, or the church receptionist at 214-363-5471.
Priest on Call – When a death or family emergency occurs call 214-232-7512
Prayer Needs – fill out the online form
The following Pastoral Care Ministries are just some of the ways we serve in the name of Christ.
|Daily Intercessory Prayer
|This ministry offers daily prayers made by calling the church or made online. All prayers are kept in the strictest confidence.
|Sunday Service Prayer Teams
|Teams are dedicated to providing prayer for those in need during each of our Sunday Morning worship Services.
|Prayer Shawl Ministry
|This ministry knits Prayer Shawls and Prayer Bears every week. The shawls and bears are blessed during worship services and given to people in need.
|Lay Eucharistic Visitors
|The Visitors are trained to take the blessed Sacraments to parishioners in the hospital, homebound, or in assisted living facilities
|Centering Prayer
|This groups meets weekly to learn and practice a method of being silent before God.
|Card Ministry
|This ministry sends notes and cards to provide comfort and support in times of need or to share in life's celebrations·
|Care Givers Support Group
|This twice-monthly group supports those who have the responsibility of caring for a loved one.
|Women's Cancer Support Group
|These ladies, who have suffered from cancer, offer support to those who have or who are recovering from the disease.
|Grief Ministry
|The Grief Ministry supports people on their journey through grief with workshops, an annual service of remembrance, and monthly Faith & Grief Gatherings.
|Recovery Advocates
|This ministry works to foster the spiritual, physical, and emotional well-being of those who experience substance abuse or other addictions.
|Stephen Ministry
|This is a one-on-one confidential ministry providing care to individuals facing life challenges or difficulties.
|Parish Nurse Program
|Staffed by volunteer Registered Nurses who contact parishioners who are homebound or who have been recently discharged from the hospital to check on their recovery and progress. A nurse provides blood pressure screenings on the third Sunday of the month.
|Touch Base Phone Ministry
|We use the telephone to provide comfort, share celebrations, or just touch-base with fellow parishioners.


text:
Masterseek: a Global Business Search Engine
Masterseek is the largest B2B (business to business) search engine in the world, and now it's ready to for international availability. The company has signed on with Thenberg & Kinde Fondkommission AB (based in Sweden) to finance the massive enterprise. Currently, this huge search engine offers listings for millions and millions of companies all around the world. This only leaves one last question: is the world ready for a global search engine of these proportions?
Continue reading
Continue reading


text:
January 27, 2017 18:39
Live stream Sports Present New Options For Sports FansIf you could have a high swiftness satellite internet connection, this is a great time to be a sports fan. No matter if they crave sports, hockey, snowboarding, basketball or even soccer, sports fans are no longer limited to simply watching can be on their native television channels, but rather they can pick from dozens of in real time games issues computer. A lot more amazing, many websites offer multiple games for free. What supporter wouldn't be pleased with that?
The primary website's to offer live streaming sports on their website was ESPN. junto de. Already the best on located sports on cable television (they recently anchored the rights to the university football BCS championship series, becoming the first wire network to broadcast a serious championship game), ESPN lately introduced ESPN360. com, an online site which broadcast's full, live sporting events on the internet. ESPN utilizes this technology mostly intended for college footballing and field hockey games which allows viewers available multiple game titles to watch throughout the day. Depending on your online speed the streaming is somewhere between average and great, but you won't be able to beat the use of multiple sports games that website offers you.
A couple of years back, CBS produced waves in the sports universe by offering every single game in the NCAA Hockey playoffs free of charge live streaming troubles CBS Activities website. This kind of service was offered for 2 reasons: 1) because the opening rounds highlighted multiple game titles being played at the same situations, people were just able to observe regional video games and thus overlooked around 75% of the other action; and 2) because a large number of games started during job hours, the average fan can now have a way to watch the games from their office computer. The website possibly offered an urgent situation "boss" press button which raised a spread sheet if someone were to roam into a work area during a video game.
bjvsport NFL Saturday Ticket is a popular television set package pertaining to Direct TELEVISION SET which offers consumers the chance to observe every basketball game, in or out of marketplace, from their home. Last year, On the Ticket branched out into cyber space and today offers readers the opportunity to watch live games on their laptop or cell phone. This type of portable technology has also been embraced by simply other satellite television companies that provide soccer, handbags and other live comfortably sporting events.
Never to be surpassed, Major League Baseball and the National Tennis League both recently designed a service which allows subscribers the chance to watch games from their computer. While the two leagues demand for this program, with the approach trends have already been going seek out both of these institutions to begin to supply live video games for free in the coming times.
Posted January 27, 2017 18:39


text:
My friend Michael Porat invited me to speak at ICON in Palo Alto today.
The highlight of the day for me was listening to Jeffrey Katzenberg talk about strategy and video content.
To put it mildly, Jeffrey is excited about short form video for our mobile devices. It makes sense that he thinks Netflix is a buy. He's talking his book. But, it was fun to hear him be as excited to play with an iPhone X as the rest of us thousandairres.
He's super bullish on Hollywood which makes me think that Jeff Bezos and Amazon might just make their second HQ in Los Angeles, not Denver (do read this NY Times piece though).
Jeff explained that because of Silicon Valley, content is now just the kingmaker and it is the platform that is king.
Jeff also follows China very closely and offered some staggering stats. For instance, a recent film in China grossed $850 million in just THREE weeks. The movie is playing on 130,000 movie screens. For context, there are just 40,000 screens across all of America.
The best thing about Jeffrey's chat was that he never mentioned Bitcoin. I don't think he cares how you pay for the content that he's going to fund and distribute.
Also published on Medium.
Join my Daily Newsletter
Like what you read here? Get what I write in your inbox each morning by subscribing to my daily-ish newsletter.


text:
One Night Stand Bradford
With a presence in over 30 countries world-wide, we are the best website to have a Bradford one night stand. Memberships are free and take just seconds to create a new profile.
Find a one night stand from FWB England including Bradford and nearby cities,
Shipley (4 km), Pudsey (6 km), Baildon (6 km), Queensbury (6 km), Wilsden (7 km), Bingley (7 km), Denholme (8 km), Cleckheaton (8 km), Yeadon (9 km), Horsforth (9 km), Guiseley (9 km), Cullingworth (9 km), Brighouse (10 km), Southowram (10 km), Halifax (10 km), Menston (10 km), Liversedge (10 km), Batley (11 km), Heckmondwike (11 km), Oxenhope (12 km), Otley (12 km), Keighley (12 km), Morley (12 km), Elland (13 km), Mirfield (13 km), Haworth (13 km).
Find friends with benefits in Bradford or browse FWB England for more cities. Registrations are private and absolutely free.
59A Westgate
West Yorkshire BD1 2RE
United Kingdom
FWB England
One Night Stand Shipley | One Night Stand Pudsey | One Night Stand Cleckheaton | One Night Stand Yeadon | One Night Stand Brighouse | One Night Stand Halifax | One Night Stand Batley | One Night Stand Keighley | One Night Stand Morley
There are approximately 737 registered profiles from Bradford. Including surrounding areas of Shipley, Pudsey, Baildon, Queensbury, Wilsden, Bingley, Denholme, Cleckheaton, Yeadon, Horsforth, Guiseley, Cullingworth, Brighouse, Southowram, Halifax, Menston, Liversedge, Batley, Heckmondwike, Oxenhope, Otley, Keighley, Morley, Elland, Mirfield, Haworth, there are over 2,224 members and growing every day.


text:
How to be a Member of Congress
Members of Congress have so many complicated issues to think about, it's almost too much to imagine taking on. But not anymore! Thanks to these handy-dandy Congressional decision-making flowcharts I've designed, you too could be a congressman or congresswoman! All you have to do is choose your political party and follow the corresponding flowchart to know exactly what to do on the job. It's that easy! Here, give it a try:


text:
Palos Hills Mayor Gerald Bennett made it clear last week the city will not sit idly by should Illinois legislators try to slash the funds provided to local municipalities in an effort to help patch the state's roughly $9 billion budget deficit.
"There has been some positioning down [in Springfield] about taking local government revenue and we are all over that," Bennett told the council on March 2. "We are going to protect our revenues to the last breath."
Bennett said he is "getting very, very concerned" the state is going into another year "without some type of a budget."
"It's getting more and more serious," Bennett said of the state's budget impasse. "When they don't solve the problem they look for other revenue sources and for them it seems that when in doubt to go to local government sources."
Bennett said he has heard from state Sen. Bill Cunningham (D-18th) and state Rep. Kelly Burke (D-36th) — both of whom represent Palos Hills — as well as other leaders in Springfield that it is not the state's intention to take money from the Local Government Distributive Fund to shore up the budget. However, not all feel that way.
"There are some members in the General Assembly who want to go after that [LGDF] money," Bennett said.
This is not the first time Bennett has had to take a stance against the state potentially cutting income tax revenues. In 2015, Gov. Bruce Rauner proposed reducing LGDF dollars in half, and last year there was a period of time the state briefly withheld distributing the money to local governments. Palos Hills receives about $2 million in income taxes from the state, Bennett said.
"That [$2 million] goes right into our general fund and it's out of an operating fund of $8 million so you can see how significant it truly is for us," he said. "It would be a huge disaster to not only our city but every city to lose that type of money."
Bennett said his decision to discuss the state's budget impasse at the council meeting last week was more to provide a notice to city officials than a call to action.
"It's not yet the time for residents to write or call their legislators," Bennett said. "I just wanted to put the council on notice that [the state] has not solved the budget crisis down there, and when those things are not solved they start looking at other avenues again."
The mayor noted the uncertainty surrounding the state's budget will not prevent the city from moving forward and passing its own budget by May 1.
"We are going to go ahead and continue to present the budget with that revenue," Bennett said. "Even if they were going to propose [cutting LGDF dollars] we wouldn't know how much so there is no way I can try to budget on an assumption."
In other news, Bennett said Palos Hills will recognize the 50th anniversary of Moraine Valley Community College by dedicating the fireworks show at this year's Friendship Fest to the school.
The fireworks show typically concludes the four-day festival, which is held annually during the second week of July on the Moraine Valley Triangle. This is the first time in the fest's nearly 40-year history that its fireworks show has been dedicated to anyone or an organization, Bennett said.
"Moraine Valley is a magnificent campus that we can all certainly be proud of," Bennett said. "We are proud to be the home of Moraine Valley Community College and I congratulate them on their 50th anniversary."
Bennett noted the college was founded by the Oak Lawn Rotary and enrollment was originally projected to be around 6,000 students. This school year has an enrollment of around 34,000 students, he said.
"The trickle effect of 34,000 students coming and going each day certainly adds to our economy," Bennett said.
The mayor also praised the college for its "academic excellence."
"The academic excellence provided to students is second to none [for a community college]," Bennett said. "They could write a book on stories of people who decided to go to junior college because they had no other option and went on to have great careers because of what they learned there."
Bennett said the city has also invited MVCC officials to set up a booth at the event to share information about the school to event-goers.